Battle of the Foundations

Hey :)

So this post is going to be a little different, I am actually going to take you through the journey of how I found my 'perfect' foundation, because it took quite a while to test all the foundations which I thought would be good for my skin type. I have always had problems with finding the right shade for my skin colour too and I know that the shades the high-street provides are not going to be the best match and that's actually what made me venture out and sample more expensive foundations to find the right one for me :)

Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Make-up SPF 10 (30ml /£28.50),   (10/10)

This is my holy grail. I was completely mesmerised for the entire day when I was sampling this product, and even now I still think it is amazing. What I like about this foundation is that it is light weight, yet it has such a high coverage! I mean it's perfect. The entire line of  'double wear' products are long-lasting and so is a dream for any oily skinned person (like mee). Honestly you could splash your face with water and the foundation would still be on, much like the Lancôme one which I will write about below. However what really won this product for me was the shade range, Estée Lauder has a chart (which they hold up to your face) that tells you exactly what shade you are and what your undertone colour is (since they have 31 shades!). I really like that they have a tool like this as it is not just one persons perception of what they think your colour is. This really did tick all the boxes for me and that's why I went out and purchased it. 

Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra 24H  (£28.50/ 30ml), (9/10)
When I first tried this in Boots I was sold, I have never tried Lancôme before but I know I will definitely be purchasing their stuff in the future. This foundation was great for my oily skin, it left my skin with a matte finish and also provided a medium to full coverage - it literally is another version of Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation, the longevity is the exact same. The only factor that made this one come second in my opinion was the range of shades. Estée Lauder has an impressive 31 whilst Lancôme  has only 18 shades, I think the range of shades in both collections are amazing, but the colour match from Estée Lauder just gave it an extra edge. I still think this one is an awesome foundation, especially for those who really need a foundation which will stay in place for longer. I would have definitely bought this if I didn't discover the Estée Lauder one.

bareMinerals Matte SPF 15 foundation (£25.00/6g),   (7/10) 

Is it just me or does the idea of just wearing powder on your face seem amazing? I have always been drawn to bareMinerals (side note: Maybelline's mineral foundation was the first foundation I ever tried) and after sampling the original version I went out and bought the matte version (since we all know my skin is oily). While I love the original, I actually don't like the matte as much, I feel like it takes a long time to actually settle into my skin so it's a bit too 'powdery'. However I do love the coverage bareMinerals provides and whilst I won't be buying the matte version again, I will be getting the original one in the future. It is just what every girl needs, something that is so lightweight that it feels as though you are wearing nothing, however provides enough coverage to give her confidence. I would recommend this to anyone who is trying out make-up for the first time or even if they wanted to move to something more natural this summer.

Clinique Superbalanced Make-up (£22.00/30ml), (7/10)
So, this was actually the first foundation that I sampled when I went on this crazy foundation spree. I am torn halfway with this foundation. I do like it because I like the idea that it controls the oil on your face, I really liked the consistency of the foundation too, seemed a bit gel-like, which is new for me. However I had a major issue with the finish it gave off; this foundation was really tacky on my skin (meaning kinda sticky), which I really didn't like because it just felt like it never fully dried in, however I did notice that my oiliness was less apparent throughout the day which was kinda awesome. In my mind though, I feel like you have to be comfortable with how it feels on your skin to fully like it and that was the issue for me with this foundation. Also the colour was another problem for me, this comes in 19 shades but they still couldn't find the right skin colour for me, I was 14/19 which shows that Clinique needs to improve their darker shades.

Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow! brightening makeup oil-free SPF 25 (£26.50/30ml), (3/10)
This is probably going to be really biased because my experience at Benefit wasn't a good one, the lady just slapped on some skincare without waiting for any of it to dry in and then put this foundation on and so the base wasn't even right for me to compare it like all the rest. I don't think this foundation is worth your money, when I just researched the price right now I was shocked that they would even charge so much for something that is comparable to a drug-store foundation. Firstly they have only 9 shades, Revlon has around 8/9 shades in their foundations but Benefit sells this foundation for more than double Revlon's price. I didn't like the feel of it anyway due to what the woman did, but I did find that the make-up looked cakey, I feel like she was more concerned with putting loads on rather than for it to look natural, it didn't help at all with the oiliness of my skin, it actually broke me out a bit and so it was a relief to take it off at the end of the day. I wouldn't recommend this foundation to anyone, because for this price you could get either a better quality foundation for £2 extra or you could buy an awesome drug-store foundation for more than half the price. I do like other Benefit products but this one was just terrible.

I hope you enjoyed this rather long description (and rant) of my journey testing out high-end foundations, and I hope that it will encourage you to sample some too, because that is the best part about buying a product - knowing that it works :) Leave a comment on what your favourite foundation is and why you like it :)
Thank you so much for reading,
Anjna x