Friday 12 August 2011

Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation.



I bought this foundation over a month ago, in the hope I'd be one of the first bloggers to review it. I finally got it after over a month of waiting! This is not at all Illamasquas fault, the delivery company Yodel are incompetent so they finally sent it the third time with Royal Mail (not much better) and it arrived!
Obviously, by now you will have seen a fair few of these reviews but I'll give my two cents anyway.

I bought this foundation for a few reasons, mainly due to the fact that it's designed to be undetectable in photographs. It doesn't contain an SPF and therefore doesn't give you the chalky, pale face that some foundations give off in photographs. Because of my blog, I take a lot of photographs and I'm sometimes unhappy with how my skin looks.
This is meant to give a full yet natural, glowing coverage.

I don't live near an Illamasqua counter, so I bought this using the Skin Base Shade Comparison chart which in theory, is a great idea! I'm an NW20 in MAC foundations so I selected Skin Base 4 which it recommended. When I got my product through the post, I instantly knew it was the wrong colour. It was far too light, and after seeing other reviews I now know I should have got Skin Base 8 or thereabouts.
So how did I overcome this? Well whenever I tan, I have a back-up darker foundation which I mix in to my normal "matched up by a MUA" foundation to give me a bit of a healthier look. For this, I use Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation (no. 54) which works so well.
I think on it's own, Skin Base might be a little too thick and rich for some so I would definitely recommend mixing it with Healthy Mix if you like a more natural look. I like a fuller coverage foundation so personally, Skin Base alone would probably work well for me. I have applied it alone, and I do like the way it blends in and sets but it is slightly too pale to see if it actually would be ideal used alone.

Skin Base is a little bit more expensive that the foundations I usually use - £25 for 30ml and then I have to add packaging and shipping costs on to that as I don't live near a counter (that I know of...)
I think by mixing it with a cheaper foundation such as Healthy Mix (£9.99) it makes it a bit more economical.

Overall, I do think it's a lovely foundation but I can only really comment on it mixed with Healthy Mix. I have a few scars where I've had blemishes in the past, and this covers up any imperfections completely whilst still looking healthy and not at all thick and cakey.
If you'd like to see full reviews on the foundation alone, both Lily and Caroline have done great posts.

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