foundation

TALKING POINT: Liz Earle’s reformulation of Sheer Skin Tints

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^^Reformulated product packaging

We need to talk about Liz Earle and their new tinted moisturiser. We received a PR sample of their Sheer Skin Tints a few years back and we were astonished at just how good it was. A highly pigmented tinted moisturiser with a natural finish and great coverage. It was easy to apply and easy to wear. It was lightweight and your skin felt totally natural wearing it. It was in a class of its own, somewhere between foundation and tinted moisturiser. The real miracle was for combination skin types…it continued to give good coverage throughout the day without provoking more oil production or settling into pores, which frankly is a miracle.

It immediately became our Holy Grail base product and we used it every day, extolling its virtues to everyone who would listen. Then the worst happened…we began to hear news of a reformulation. And the feedback wasn’t good. No, surely this couldn’t be! We went straight to Liz Earle to ask them about it and they confirmed this.

This is what Liz Earle had to say “The new formula visibly smooths, brightens and hydrates. It is lightweight and silicone-free,helping to reduce the appearance of fine lines and imperfections, which also visibly evens skin tone.”

We went straight to our local Liz Earle counter to try it for ourselves. And we will say this. It is a totally different product, even the shades are different (even though they have the same name). It is now a very dewy finish and light coverage. Some people may like it better, but it didn’t work at all for us. It didn’t even our skin tone and separated and collected in our pores super fast. We’ll post some photos of this soon.

We’re so disappointed by this. It definitely shouldn’t be sold under the same name as it’s nothing like the original sheer skin tints. If you’re in any doubt, don’t make a £24.50 mistake and go try it out first. If you have purchased it, Liz Earle have advised that you can return it for a refund at one of their counters.

And us? We’ve tracked down all the old product we can find and bought it all. Sniff.

REVIEW: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel foundation 30ml, £10.99

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We found this foundation when we trialled Chantecaille’s Future Skin gel foundation, but the price made us want to cry. We started looking for other oil-free gel formulas and the one that everyone was raving about was Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum. It’s almost a dupe for the Future Skin.

It was hard to work out which shade we were as there were never the right testers in store, but we’re glad we persisted. This has become our drugstore foundation of choice. It basically does everything you’d want a foundation to do – provides good medium coverage that lasts well. It didn’t produce a ‘luminous’ or ‘dewy’ finish and can’t say we noticed the ‘anti-fatigue’ claims but it did look natural and didn’t separate or go patchy as foundations often can with combination skin.

Best of all, whilst it’s not weightless (but it is fairly lightweight), it feels pretty good and lasts relatively well even in the T-Zone on combination skin (would need a touch up during a full day). Best of all, Bourjois cater relatively well for yellow-toned shades.

This went straight in as our Holy Grail drugstore foundation.

PROS: Inexpensive, breathable, lightweight, well suited to combination skin

CONS: No added radiance

4.5 out of 5