Category Archives: beauty news

As promised, my edit of the best budget (high street/drugstore) foundations. This has been a long, long time in the making – I’ve tried some really shockingly bad face bases and some excellent ones and the four that follow are, I think, outstanding. I hope that there’s something for everyone – prices range from £7.99 to around £16 for the Effaclar BB Blur (worth every penny) but nearly all of the products I’ve featured have some sort of offer running that make them even more affordable.

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation: All Skin Types, Dewy/Fresh Finish, Medium Coverage

My absolute pick of the bunch, though Effaclar comes a very close second, the Healthy Mix Serum (£10.99 at Boots here) stands up to even the most luxurious foundations. Light, juicy, fresh, it’s non-greasy and nicely hydrating so suitable for just about every skin type. The very oily or very dry might want to prep and prime accordingly – either an oil-absorbing primer (Laura Mercier, Urban Decay) or a rich moisturiser depending on circumstances. Though I’d say that prepping the skin is important before using any base, if you have particularly oily or dry and flaky skin. (Stay tuned for a video on that very subject. I’ve been primer-testing!)

Effaclar BB Blur: Oily/Combination Skin, Flawless/Airbrushed Finish, Medium Coverage

I say “medium coverage” but that’s only because it’s the fairest way I can think of to describe the way that La Roche-Posay’s Effaclar BB Blur (on offer for £11 instead of £16 here) works. Really, in terms of pigment, coverage here is quite light, but the way that the BB magically blurs imperfections and gives this sort of miraculous airbrushed finish means that the final result is similar to one you’d get with a heavy coverage foundation. Except that the product is almost entirely weightless – a soft, fluffy mousse that just glides over the skin, smoothing over lumps and bumps and making the skin appear flawless. Watch the video to see exactly what I mean – there’s also a post with before-and-after pics here.

Max Factor Face Finity 3 in 1: All Skin Types, Velvet Finish, Full Coverage

A three-in-one wonder from Max Factor that primes and conceals as well as providing a full coverage foundation. Great for oilier skin that tends to see makeup sliding off or going patchy throughout the day, but I wouldn’t rule this out at all if you’re drier – I have always found this to be quite nourishing in feel despite the velvet finish. Find it at Boots here – it’s £9.99 at the moment, £3 off.

L’Oreal Paris Infallible Matte: Oily/Combination Skin, Matte Finish, Full Coverage

This is a great little find – just £7.99 at Boots here, a neat tube that’s easy to cart about and a radiant, full-coverage finish that reminds me a lot of Chanel’s Perfection Lumiere Velvet. I’ve said suitable for oily skin, but mainly because it is so good at keeping shine at bay – it’s perfectly OK on normal-dry skin too, so long as you’re adequately moisturised. Very dry, flaky skin perhaps not, but I have to say that I’ve had no problems with this around my nose or on my chin where I tend to get red and dry. Again, take a look at the video to see this being applied.

The post The Best Budget Foundations appeared first on A Model Recommends.

© 2016 A Model Recommends®: all opinions are my own and any sponsored or paid posts will always be very clearly marked. I accept press samples and receive product and services to review as part of my job. Outward links to retailers will usually be affiliate links. Please see here for full “about” section and disclaimer.  A Model Recommends and Ruth Crilly are registered trademarks.

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The Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer from Clinique has seen some love here on the blog before, but it’s never had its own standalone review. So here we are – if you, like me, were disappointed with the new Superbalanced Silk Makeup (full review here) then this sort of levels things out. I’d plump for the Beyond Perfecting face base over the Superbalanced any day of the week.

Reasons behind this statement? Firstly the coverage. Beyond Perfecting (the long glass bottles pictured above) has a good, high-pigment coverage that works over dark undereye circles and areas of redness as well as leaving a general, very satisfying evenness to the skintone, but it doesn’t look heavy or cakey. Compare that to the Superbalanced (short square bottle), which doesn’t do tremendously well coverage-wise but still manages to sit on my skin like some sort of evil flesh-coloured liquified ear-wax, and we have a clear winner.

Beyond Perfecting‘s texture is nicely lightweight, although nowhere near as light as something like Chanel’s Velvet or the dry-oil feel of Armani’s Maestro Glow. It’s a creamy-light. You can feel it going on and it needs proper blending (not just a slap-dash once-over with the fingertips) but it doesn’t sit heavily and I find it reasonably moisturising. Enough so that it doesn’t cause any problems with my flakey chin patch (don’t ask) or eternally parched forehead.

I think that one of the standout points with Beyond Perfecting is the packaging – or at least the applicator. There’s a sort of doe-foot sponge applicator that turns the whole thing into a giant version of a concealer. You can use the side of the applicator to spread foundation onto the skin straight from the glass bottle (though not to blend it, I’ve tried!) and then it can be used more accurately to dot extra makeup where needed. Good for quick touch-ups, undereye concealing or, if you prefer a lighter-looking base, more targeted foundation application.

Fancy some before-and-afters? Firstly, the skin from “afar” (two feet):

Note the general evenness in tone and the great cleanup job that it does on the darkness around my eyes. Everything looks a little fresher and more awake, which is always good news. Close-ups:

The makeup is virtually undetectable, but coverage is comprehensive. Precisely what so many of us are looking for in a base, really. You can see that the foundation comes up ever so slightly warm, in the pictures above – Clinique say “Due to the rich pigment level that enhances this flawless coverage makeup, shades may appear deeper when first applied. Leave the foundation to settle just for a few minutes, this will allow the high pigment in the formula to adapt to your skin tone which is why you get such a flawless perfected finish.” This is quite true, actually – I found that after five to ten minutes, the shade I used (01, Linen) was a perfect match.

Browse more foundation reviews…

In terms of finish, Clinique’s Beyond Perfecting doesn’t give me a mega-watt glow like Guerlain’s Lingerie de Peau, or a juicy sort of dewiness like the Fusion Ink from YSL, but it does make the skin look flawless (“beyond perfected”, I suppose you could say) without any hint of heavy-handedness.

And it’s not dull, by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps a little flatter than some of the super-powered glow-givers, but I’d say it does fairly decently in the luminosity department.

Thoughts? For me, this joins the likes of Dior’s Forever and Lancome’s Teint Idole Cushion in my “perfected skin” foundation arsenal. Both the Dior and Lancome have more glow (Lancome’s has more of a “juicy” finish, Dior’s is a sort of velvety-glow) but I think that Clinique’s Beyond Perfecting is an excellent choice. Loads of shades (21 at last count) and not too pricey at £25 for a 30ml bottle. Sits well on combination skin – drastically oily skin, I always think use an appropriate primer first whatever the face base.

Clinique’s Beyond Perfecting Foundation + Concealer is £25 online here.

The post Clinique Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer Review appeared first on A Model Recommends.

© 2016 A Model Recommends®: all opinions are my own and any sponsored or paid posts will always be very clearly marked. I accept press samples and receive product and services to review as part of my job. Outward links to retailers will usually be affiliate links. Please see here for full “about” section and disclaimer.  A Model Recommends and Ruth Crilly are registered trademarks.

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