The foundation comes in a 40ml squeezy tube, like a toothpaste tube, which is made from clear plastic and bares the natural collection logo on the front. On the back there is a list of the ingredients and it states that the foundation is fragrance free. The foundation makes no claims, it doesn’t claim to give good coverage or to conceal pores, it doesn’t claim to last all day or to be kind to skin and it doesn’t claim to be great value for money, but in fact it is all of this! It is easier to apply this foundation using your fingers and for me porcelain was the perfect shade, which blended in well and provided good, but not perfect coverage. One negative I will state here is that the foundation seemed to set/dry quite quickly, which meant that I had to be pretty speedy with application. At the end of the day, a good 16 hours after application, I still looked exactly how I did when I first applied it and pretty much as much as I had put on came off again onto my face wipe! My skin felt nice and moisturised still and it didn’t have any drying effect on it.

Over all I think that this foundation, usually £1.99 is great value for money. For a cheap brand the foundation is rather good, however I still required concealer on my horrifically bad under eye circles. I will use this foundation on a day to day basis, when I am not going anywhere fancy that requires dressing up, however when I go out in the evening to parties etc I would wear a more expensive which would give a flawless coverage.

Pros: Lasts all day, provides good coverage, it’s very cheap and you get a lot of the product for your money.

Cons: Dries quickly and does not provide a totally perfect coverage, but hey for £1.99 what were you expecting!?

EDIT: It would seem that this foundation only works well if you have nothing else at all on your skin before you apply it! When used after moisturiser it peels off and goes all nasty!

Mascara: So you will probably know by now that I LOVE mascara, so this is the hardest choice for me to make, but one really stands out and that is Maybelline’s Lash Stiletto.  I am in love with this product, it doesn’t totally give me the thickness that I want and it smells a bit funky, but the amount of length that it gives is amazing! That coupled with the fact that it doesn’t clump or give you spider eyes makes this my favourite mascara of all time! (Too see full review please go to the mascara section of prettyhead).

Foundation: I didn’t know how to choose between No 7 Stay Perfect foundation and Maybelline’s Dream Satin Liquid, but after a long hard think I am going to go with the Dream Satin. This provides amazing coverage and the reason that it is my favourite is because of the price, £7.00 in the shops (and a lot cheaper on eBay), means that you are getting a great quality product for an affordable price, which in this economic climate is very important! It provides great coverage, is quite moisturising and lasts for a long time, everything that a foundation should be!

Eyeliner:  Ok so my winner in this category hasn’t been reviewed yet on prettyhead but it will be soon, I think Elizabeth Arden’s eyeliner pot (half blue half black), is amazing. It comes in a little tub, rather like lip balm, and you use the eyeliner brush provided in the set to apply. I paid £6.50 for it on eBay and it costs about £14 new, but I believe that it is worth every penny!

Lips: I would not be without Rimmel’s Shock Gloss, it hasn’t yet been reviewed on here, but it is awesome! It comes in 5 shades but clear is the best and it is super shiny, makes your lips look amazing! I love the applicator as well, instead of a little sponge on the end of the stick, it is a brush, which feels really nice against your lips as you apply. At only £3.99 in Superdrug Rimmel’s shock gloss is a bargin!

Skin: As far a skin care goes there is a clear winner, No 7 protect and perfect beauty serum! It is quite pricey but hey if it works (and scientists say it does!) then I would pay anything!

Hair care: Now this is where I have to cheat and pick 2, anyone that has read my hair care reviews will know that I swear by Pantene conditioner for dry and damaged hair, however a few months ago I discovered a little miracle. Dove’s heat defence therapy spray, designed to protect hair during heat styling, however it made my normally curly/wavy hair rather straight with just hair drying alone! This meant that I had to spend less time straightening and therefore managed to save my hair a little from the damaging effects of straightners. Also my hair held its style all day and all night and then the next day too! I am a huge fan now and have been converted from TRESemme!

So there you have it, those are the products that I love and couldn’t live without, there are loads more, including Barry M dazzle dust, but with so many colours I wouldn’t be able to pick just one! If you have a list of fav products you would like to share, feel free to email me at Faye@prettyhead.co.uk and I will do my best to put yours up here asap!

The foundation comes in a black cardboard box with gold writing which is also how the compact itself is decorated. You get a sense that this is a more expensive brand of foundation as the compact comes with a mirror and application sponge, things that the cheaper brands do not include. The foundation itself is quite hard so getting it onto the sponge can require some force, it is however easier to get it onto your finger if u want to apply it to certain places this way, I presume this is because the heat of your skin melts it a bit. As you may have gathered from reading my other foundation reviews, I have quite bad dark circles under my eyes and a few blemishes so finding a foundation which provides good coverage is very important to me. This one did just that, my dark circles and blemishes were not visible and I hadn’t even applied concealer or setting powder! Once setting powder had been applied I had a totally flawless complexion which I was very happy with! The foundation stayed put all day, even with an outfit change and lots of hugging or relatives and 12 hours later it still looked like it did when I first applied it. The only complaint I would have is that in all the pictures that were taken that day I look rather like a ghost! But this is my fault, I should have fake tanned then got a darker foundation.

I would recommend this foundation for anyone with a bit of money to spend, who wants a flawless finish and a foundation that will last all day. I have had this for 6 months now and only use it for special occasions like nights out and so far it hasn’t run out.

Pros: Lasts all day and provides a perfect match and a flawless finish.

Cons: The price, but I def think in this case you get what you pay for.

This foundation comes in five shades, none of which I would say would be suitable for people with darker skin tones (something that as I do my research for reviews is becoming more evident – there seems to be a huge gap in the market for mainstream brand foundations and concealers that cater for olive to dark complexions).  Rimmel claim that this foundation provides a flawless, fade proof, rub proof, smudge proof, smooth and healthy look that lasts for 16 hours and I have to say that this foundation lives up to all these claims. After a days worth of wear (I would say about 18hours), I took off of my skin near enough the same amount of foundation that I put on. As for the flawless finish, I for the first time ever, didn’t have to put concealer on the dark circles under my eyes as the foundation provided perfect coverage. I didn’t look cakey or shiny and I after borrowing a bit of my sister’s I went out and bought my own tube. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a cheap, long lasting foundation that provides good coverage. The only thing I would say is that finding the correct shade for your skin might be an issue as even on the back of my hand the product looked orange so I would never have tried it on my face. Just goes to show that you can’t judge a foundation by its appearance in the tube or its price tag!

Pros: Cheap, lives up to all of Rimmel’s claims, provides great coverage and is perfect for anyone wanting a natural makeup look. I would also say that this would be great for wedding makeup as its smudge proof so you won’t get it on your white dress and it wouldn’t need topping up all day.

Cons: Watery and Rimmel does not make this foundation for people with anything but white skin.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the jar was how much it reminded me of chocolate mousse, not in colour but in consistency. But I also noticed just how little there was in the pot compared to how much I normally get for pretty much the same price. It would seem that the easiest and best way of applying this foundation if with your fingers, with Maybelline suggesting that you concentrate on the centre of your face and work the product outwards. I only used a little bit of foundation on my finger tips and I ended up looking rather caked, something that Maybelline said that this foundation wouldn’t do. Also although it looked great on my friend, this foundation didn’t look too nice on me. I looked like I was wearing foundation, which might sound strange, but no girl wants it to be obvious that they are wearing makeup and I generally like to go for a natural makeup look. On dry patches of skin the foundation tended to be quite flaky, which drew attention instead of disguising it. This foundation didn’t provide very good coverage for my dark circles or blemishes, which surprised me seen as it had manage to disguise my friend’s freckles.

All I can really say is you need to try this foundation out for yourself because I thought that it looked great on my friend, but it really didn’t suit me at all.

Pros: Looks great on some people.

Cons: Really didn’t work for me, looked horrid on dry patches and it didn’t live up to its claims of no caking.

The first thing that I noticed was how little you seemed to get in the pot, 18ml compared to the 30ml that you get in most non mousse foundations. The foundation had a slight smell, which was definitely not bad and it went on well using just my fingers. I picked the shade (natural beige) that was as close to my skin tone as possible, however I did think that in some lights I looked slightly orange. I thought I had applied the foundation evenly, however in some places it sort of looked like it was caked on. One thing I did notice was just how cool the foundation felt when I applied it to my skin; this is obviously where the “cool” on the label comes from. This would be really nice on a hot summer’s day; however seen as we never really get much sun in the UK it seems a bit pointless. It also didn’t cover up my dark circles very well, so if like me you have dark rings or other skin blemishes, you would have to use a concealer as well.

To test this foundations staying power I tried it both with and without a setting powder, with there being no instructions on the pot it isn’t clear whether you should be increasing its staying power with a setting powder.  With no setting powder there was still foundation on my face 16 hours after the application, however it did come off on my top and it looked like it had worn off by the end of the day. With setting powder by the end of the day I still looked like I was wearing foundation and a lot more came off when I removed it.

Overall the look this foundation gave me wasn’t very nice, even though I applied it properly, well as properly as I could without instructions, I looked a bit caked in places and slightly orange. At the end of 16 hours there was still some foundation on my face , however not as much as I originally put on and without setting powder it did look like it had worn off a lot. This product also.  only lasted for about a month and considering that for pretty much the same amount money I could get almost double the amount of foundation from another well known and trusted brand, it seems a bit of a rip off. I would not recommend this foundation for anyone who wants a natural make up look, anyone looking for bridal make up, anyone on a budget or anyone with allergies or sensitive skin as you are not told what the ingredients are.

Pros: A cooling sensation that would be good in the summer and some foundation remains after 16 hours.

Cons: Runs out quickly, can make you look orange, can also make you look a bit caked and is not good value for money