You may have heard me rave about this product on both Twitter and Instagram. You see it took me a long time to take the plunge and fork out the £33 for what was effectively a tinted moisturiser. I had tried tinted moisturisers in the past and been left disappointed. They gave minimum coverage and rarely matched my skin tone so I was either left looking washed out or that I had been hit with the orange stick! Having heard such good reviews on this I went back and forth to Space NK umming and ahhing over the counter and then finally thought sod it the only way I am going to know is if I buy it. So I did, casually ignoring the price to my boyfriend, like you do haha.
And boy, I was not disappointed. If you are a full coverage type of girl then step away now as this is a far cry from double wear. This in my opinion is a medium coverage but as the formulation is lighter than a usual foundation means it has the potential to be built up without looking cakey. I opted for the oil free version. Now do not be misled by oil free versions, they won't stop you getting oily skin but they are a lot better than oil versions which are effectively adding oil to your face. What I did like was the extensive shade range, which tends to be a rarity in tinted moisturisers which usually are only available in light, medium and dark. There are 10 shades available in the range. I opted for nude which is about 1 or 2 shades off from their lightest shade 'porcelain' and I found that this was a perfect match for my skin tone despite being naughty and not getting shade matched in the shop. So I guess you could say I took a bit of a gamble there but it definitely paid off. For £33 you do get a whopping 50ml of product so its not going to run out anytime soon either.
I apply this with either my Real Techniques buffing brush or Sigma F80, both are flat top kabuki style brushes which allow you to really buff it into the skin to create an almost flawless base. After applied by skin feels nourished and slightly dewy. It does look slightly shiny after initial application but I find leaving for a couple of minutes to allow it to firmly sink into the skin and then dusting a light amount of powder down my T zone does the trick. As for staying power I think this will vary from person to person but on me personally I can get through an entire day at work 8am to 4pm without this budging. I did have to fix up some areas half way through the day such as the creases of the nose but literally just blended these in with my fingers and I was good to go.
This has definitely been my go to holy grail product in recent weeks and was definitely worth the hype in my opinion. Don't you just love it when you find a product that really does meet your expectations!
Laura Mercier oil free tinted moisturiser is available at Space NK for £33. You can click here to view.
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