I recieved my glorious little bottle of liquid gold in the mail last week in the shade of Mont Blanc and was soooo super excited i almost left work immediately to go home and try it (maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration)

Bottom to top: NARS Sheer Glow Mont Blanc, Clinique Superbalanced makeup in Ivory (HG for a healthy “tanned” look), Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow in Ivory believe in me (HG to match my skin almost exactly) and Benefit in Ivory I’m pure for sure (too yellow for me)

My first impressions of it in the bottle is that it did look a a lot paler and less orange toned than my usual foundation but i know that this doesn’t always mean that it won’t look similar on the skin.

The next thing I noticed is that the product didn’t come with a pump and if you’re a regular reader you will know that I hate sticking my fingers into product as I hate the idea of bacteria and germs invading it. A google search found that a pump is available at extra cost *sigh* at $68 a pop you would think that a little plastic pump would be included for free.. Anyway so the pump arrived and away it went!

On my first application I found that the color seemed too light for me.  When applied with just the fingers (as recommended) the colour looked all wrong however when I used the beauty blender the product “disappeared” into my skin a lot more. I’m still convinced that Mont Blanc isn’t exactly the right shade for me but once i warmed it up by applying a tiny bit of blush (Gilda) around my face and on my cheek bones the colour looked good but I did look paler than usual.

Shades: as above but blended slightly

 

I still need to play with it a lot more but I’ve found on my first couple of wears that it was light weight and doesn’t look or feel cakey at first. Skin looks and feels like skin, freckles still show through but it does give enough coverage to hide discolouration. I will need to play with building it in certain spots but I have been a little afraid that because it’s a bit light for me that it will look ghostly or chalky. This sounds all good right? However….

I was really surprised and disappointed at the lasting power of this product. By the end of the workday the foundation all but disappears. It is almost as if the oils from my skin has dissolved it. It didn’t make it through 8 hours of wear and when I checked myself in the mirror during some after work drinks I was shocked at the fact that the foundation was gone which just left my Nars concealer left looking cakey and terrible, It was a bit of a humid day but when coupled with a Smashbox primer my Clinique, Benefit and even Max Factor foundation lasts way longer than that. I really really expected more from the product after hearing soooo much about it and I really really wanted to like it.

I will keep using it and trying to make it work for me but am disappointed that I was colour matched wrong (the girls at Mecca also suggested Chantilly for me as concealer – again WAY too light) as these products are not cheap and cheerful and are way too expensive to sit around in the cupboard.