Chanel Perfection Lumière Foundation

I already have a few Chanel products in my make up collection so I was really excited about trying out the Chanel Perfection Lumière foundation. I have a very oily t-zone and then dry patches on my chin and the rest of my face is pretty dehydrated. So seriously combination skin! Because of this I'm always cautious of purchasing a new foundation without testing it. I was colour matched in store and took a little sashet home to test. 

Whenever I'm about to try a new foundation I always ask to be given the foundation with the most amount of coverage. Even at 25 I still get break outs and have some scaring from past years where I've picked at my skin so I try to stick to a foundation that will attempt to hind my red patches (not because there is anything wrong with spots, but because I feel that when I can see them, other people are starring at them!)

First thoughts :

I could tell straight away that the coverage wasn't going to be enough for me which was fustrating given that I had asked for a full coverage foundation. None the less, I continued with my application in the hope that I could built up to the coverage that I required. I really didn't like the way the foundation was settling on my skin and within just a few hours I started to look patchy, my worst nightmare!! 

I applied the foundation with both a brush and a beauty blended and the application on the day when I used the beauty blended was defiantly better, but not enough that I would want to use this foundation again. 

The colour had heavy pink undertones and I felt like my make up was much more obvious on my skin, which is not good especially if the foundation is going to go patchy. 

I felt like the foundation broke down quicker on the day that I applied it using my brush and stayed intact a little longer on the day that I used the beauty blender. All in all, I was so disappointed with this foundation. I have a few other beauty and make I products from Chanel and have been really impressed with them, but this foundation is defiantly not a keeper. 

DLJ

Xoxo

Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide Product Review

Over the past week I have been trying the Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide foundation in Vanille.

I wanted to try out this foundation as I already use their primer (below) and have been really impressed with how much current foundation sits and stays in place.

I wanted a foundation that appeared matte as I have quite oily sections of my skin so hate anything that makes your skin look 'dewy' as it makes me feel like I have greasy skin. The lady at John Lewis recommended the Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide. To my surprise, I actually wasn't the lightest shade they had in their range! Normally when I buy a new foundation, I just go straight to the lightest shade and go with that. Not being the lightest shade for once was actually quite nice. 

                     (Sample bottle) 

This foundation is so light weight that it needs to be shaken very well before application or the formula with separate (which isn't pretty!). The colour match to my skin is perfect. I find that sometimes being so pale can make it quite difficult to find  good colour match as products that have too much of a yellow or pink undertone look REALLY yellow or pink on me. 

On application,  I found that when it dried it had a powder finish, which I really liked. It was also really easy to blend and can offer good coverage with build up. Even though I had to build up coverage, on days where I didn't apply so much, my foundation still lasted just as long. 

Before:

After:

I'm really in two minds about the formula. I liked the fact that it was light weight, so it does look 'caked' on when you apply and also that you can build up the layers. This is especially nice now that summer is well and truly here (for the time being) as it means for hotter days I can apply a thinner layer. It also means that when I am having a bad skin day I can build up the coverage. 

However, because the formula was so thin, I found that I needed to apply quite a lot when I as building up. The lady in the shop recommended using a pea sized amount as 'it spreads really far' but I needed more like 2 or 3 pea sized amounts. But when I come to think of it, did I really use that much more than I use of my current foundation? I don't think so. It was just significantly more than was recommended in store, which leads me to think that maybe I need a slightly thicker foundation which offers more foundation from their range?

Back onto the pros…I found that the foundation smoothed into my skin really nicely and I didn't get any spots where the make up clumped or stuck to and it didn't settle into my fine lines. With the foundation I use at the moment, I do find that by the end of the day, the foundation has set into my frown line, but I found that this foundation was far less obvious. 

I did think that fact that I was using it with their own brand primer will have also made a difference, so for blogging science, I also used this with the Benefit poreFESSIONAL primer and the results were pretty much the same. 

As I mentioned above, I think the only downfall to this foundation is the amount I had to use to build up to the coverage that I wanted. 

Price wise, this foundation is £35 for a 30ml bottle. I think that's pretty reasonable given the fact that it really does last well during the day. I don't work in an office, I am out and about visiting clients so I am constantly changing environments from hot to cold, sun to rain, and this foundation lasted well. 

All in all? I love the colour match and the holding power, but I am worried about how much I have to use and if I will go through this bottle too quickly.

I think for me, I need to head back to John Lewis and see if they have something a little thicker.

DLJ

Xoxo

Dior Skin : Nude Air Serum De Teint

This week I popped along to the Dior counter at my local John Lewis for a complimentary facial. I love being able to try out new skin care products before I buy them. My skin is really sensitive to new things and the last thing I want is to buy something new only to find out that my skin becomes a horrible mess after using it. Sometimes I have to take the risk, for example when I buy things online that I can't find in the shops in the UK. I really do try a avoid buying without trying.

But, I digress. So I had my facial done, (which was fabulous might I add) and wasn't too keen on walking through John Lewis without a drop of make up on.So I headed over to the counter and tried some of Dior's new Nude Air Serum De Teint.

I did notice when this was being applied by the lady behind the counter that she had to pour a fair bit of product out when applying this. I'll be straight with you, I don't have great skin. It's patchy and I have spots here and there, so I always go for a foundation with a good coverage.

Nude Air is therefore not for me! The colour match was spot on. I was their lightest shade 010 and found that it blended beautifully into my pale skin, but the coverage just wasn't enough for me. I could tell that it wouldn't be suitable as soon as I poured my tester onto the back of my hand when I got home.

It's so fluid and light weight, it's almost more like water than foundation in consistency. However, had I beautiful skin that just required a little something extra, I would definitely purchase this. My skin was glowly and healthy looking with Nude Air on. It wasn't dulled down by being heavy coverage and gave me a youthful, natural skin look...which I think is what they were going for given their choice in name...Nude Air.

And so, although I loved the colour match and how healthy my skin looked with this on, Nude Air isn't the product for me. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a super light coverage to even out any minor imperfections and someone who wants extra glow. It really is a beautiful product, but just doesn't suit my un-smooth and un-even textured face!

DLJ
Xoxo