Say No To Tango!

As the canvas to the picture, skin is in my opinion the most important aspect of beauty. Get the skin right and whatever else you do will look fine. Get the eyes and the lips looking incredible but leave the skin looking ruddy and dull...well lets be honest, noone's gonna die but the look just wont live up to its full potential.
There's lots that can go wrong when it comes to skin. My pet hate orange foundations or a thick laquer of fake tan on the face. It just looks plain wrong. Need I say more?

Valentino - like fine wine, he matured into a mahogony table.

Heather, 18 appeared on Snog Marry Avoid (Love it!!)
Fergie - not of the Black Eyed Peas
Frank Lampard
Really, Frank Lampard? Thought you were going for the natural look did you??Thought not. You may as well just go the whole hog. How about you take this picture to your make up artist (surely there cannot be a professional behind this!?) and beg her to lay this monstrosity upon your tangerine pus!?
But there's always one who goes out of their way to be different. Step up Paleface Johansson. Look at the difference between the colour of the back of her neck and her natural tan shoulders. Oops.

And it certainly doesn't stop there - overexposure to sunlight can leave you looking like this old pair of handbags. (Donatella Versace and Iggy Pop)

Bad times. No moral of the story here. Just a warning. Bad make up can happen to good people.

PRODUCT REVIEW - PRESCRIPTIVES CUSTOM BLEND FOUNDATION

PACKAGING - 4/5

QUALITY - 3/5

PRICE - 2/5

OVERALL - 2/5

WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN? no.

WHERE TO BUY? In store at Jenners, House of Fraser, Harvey Nicolls or John Lewis. Unfortunately there is no UK website. Boo.

ABOUT: Here's what the American website says "Only prescriptives can create a shade to perfectly compliment any skin tone from pale ivory ro deep ebony. Then add in your preferred coverage, finish and specific visable skin needs such as oil control, moisturising, brightening and firming. And thats not all: The oil free, fragrance free, non acnegenic formula contains light reflecting particles to help diminish the appearance of flaws as well as anti oxidants to help protect skin all day. Brilliant!"

COLOURS TESTED: A custom blend mixed just for me.

With an appointment booked I went to Jenners, Edinburgh to have my foundation matched exactly to my bloody akward alabaster skin tone. I was greeted by a helpful assistant who removed the make up i already had on from around my jaw line. She then swatched 4 different pigment tones in the lightest gradient on my jawline and together we picked the one that seemed the closest match. we went for the warm one with peachy undertones.

We then talk about my skin needs and i say that i want oil control, no shimmer and with a medium to full coverage because i will be wearing it while performing under bright stage lights. With all this in mind she then goes about mixing my Custom Blend Foundation.

With a pale base she then adds in a bunch of other pigments including red, blue and yellow (its all looking pretty multi coloured and looks about as likely to be the right shade for me as a baby with a beard!) and then mixes the liquid by hand...NOTE: at this point she complains to me that they are not able to do this very well by hand and that they should have a mixing machine.

She then tries the colour out on me and it does indeed look great.

PRICE: Completely sky high at £47 for a 1 oz bottle. Its important to remember that its the mixing that you are paying here.

DID IT WORK FOR ME? No is the short answer. The colour seemed fine to me but after wearing it for a few days i found that i had quite definite tide marks so had to spend ages in the morning blending it into my neck...which is obvoisly paler than my jawline. Rubbish! I then continued to use it for a month and found that it broke my skin out in spots like id never had before. Maybe this is because i went for a full M/F coverage and wouldnt have been quite so thick if it were sheerer but i have to say, at £47 i wouldnt like to take the risk again.

PROS

- Blendable to your own skin shade.

- You can personally specify HOW you want your foundation to work for you by choosing your own properties ie shimmer, coverage.

CONS

- Broke me out. Badly.

- Cost. Waaaaay expensive

- Although the packaging looks nice, without a pump i found it quite fiddly and wasteful.

- It felt really heavy and greasy on my skin despite being oil free.

- Staying power wasnt great. i had to reapply around 3 o clock.

- Wasnt quite the perfect match that i hoped it to be.

Prescriptives Custom Blend Foundation swatched on my hand. Looks like a good match.

And swatched on my pale old neck. Not so good.

PRODUCT REVIEW - LILY LOLO FOUNDATION

Ok, after a tutorial with the boyfriend i should now be equipped to place pictures properly - Huzzah!

PACKAGING : 4/5
QUALITY: 5/5
PRICE: 5/5
OVERALL: 4/5
WOULD I BUY IT? A big fat YES!

WHERE TO BUY: online at http://www.lilylolo.co.uk/. There are a few local salons that do stock the brand and these can be found also at the website.

ABOUT: The site says "Made from pure crushed minerals and containing no harsh chemicals, dyes or fillers, mineral foundation is not only gentle on the skin but also contains zinc oxides which have healing properties - perfect for those who suffer breakouts or have sensitive skin. Requiring no additional illuminating products, mineral foundation will give you the natural fresh-faced glow of beautiful healthy skin. "

COLOURS TESTED: Candy Cane and Porcelain.

The best thing about Lily Lolo is that they understand that people do not want to throw away money on some rubbish product. Lucky for them, the product is good. Beacuse of this they have introduced a sample system meaning you can purchase small, inexpensive samples to test the colours and whether you liked the product before commiting to a full size.

Candy Cane is a light pinkish shade with cool undertones for paler skins. I found this was fine when i first applied it but once it had settles in definitely looked a bit too pink for me.

Porcelain a neutral shade for the palest of the pale was perfect for me, if anything it was a tiny bit too light! And that never happens! But the great thing with mineral foundations is that you can mix them. I tapped in a tiny bit of Candy Cane into it and the colour was perfect.

PRICE: 99p for the 0.75g sample size - which lasted me over 3 weeks and a mid price range £12 for the full size 10g size in a sifter jar. This is going to last absolutely ages!Much longer than a regular liquid foundation which often retail at much more than this.

PROS
- Great Colour Range.
- Buildable Coverage. By appying thin layers you can build up from a sheer to medium/full.
- Not too shimmery.
- No Fillers and unnecessary fillers. The foundation contains only 5 ingredients:

1. Mica - reflects the light and reduces the appearance of fine lines and pores,
2. Zinc Oxide - offers SPF and calms skin complaints such as rosacea,
3. Titanium Dioxide - has SPF and is often found in sunscreens. also gives high to adhesionto the face, offering high coverage.
4. Iron Oxides - Produce beautiful earthy colours.
5. Ultramarine Blue - Used to cool down colours.

- Made my skin problems (uneven tone, prone to spots) much better in just a week!

- You get LOADS for your money.

CONS

- The lid of the pot seems quite thin and considering the mixing and tapping of the brush all goes on in the lid this may be a problem.
- This doesn't look amazing under camera flashs. It can make me look quite ghostly. However i feel that the benefits FAR outway a pale picture or two...Hell, i'm way used to that!
- Because of the loose powder, it can get messy.

Ok, so for reference, this is what i look like sans make up. It's not great. Still a bit uneven and you can see old acne marks. BLEUGH.



After applying Georgio Armani Fluid Master Primer and leaving for 10 mins, (the skin has to be TOTALLY DRY before aplication or it will go cakey) I then tipped a little of my mineral foundation into the lid and swirled my Lily Lolo Super Kabuki brush (£14) to pick up the powder. Tapped the excess off (HINT: less is more with mineral make up) and applied to my face starting at the jaw in cirular motions. This was the result -



The coverage is Med/Full and looks quite Matt in the photo...but in person it looks really natural and feels totally weightless. Clearly i need BLUSH!