BQ’s final TT review
I received this as part of BH’s trial team.
Bit of background to my skin – I have severely acne prone skin that tends to be oily/combination depending on the season. My acne ranges from blackheads, to the under-the-skin cystic lumps. Some areas of my face are flaky due to healing. I work in the hospitality industry, which affects my makeup’s staying power (due to heat, steam and general exertion).
Personally, I think this foundation would be suited well to someone with normal-mildly oily skin.
Firstly, the range of shades is really good – ranging from light skin (I’m using 115 ivory) through to dark colours (330 toffee), which makes it easier for everyone to find great colour matches with either yellow or pink skin tones. I find the packaging extremely convenient, rolling up like a lipstick or balm with a cap/cover that doesn’t come off easily, making it perfect to through in your handbag with no fear of leakage. It doesn’t look like a lot of product in the tube, but so far you don’t use much so at a guess will last 2-ish months. My main concern with acne and the application of stick foundations is the transfer of bacteria from broken skin/spots to the tube. I attempted to apply to my fingers before my face, but lost a lot of product. My suggestion would be to scrape product off and apply similar to a paste.
The foundation smooths over the skin extremely easily – almost to the point of gliding. It applies thickly, but works down to a light-medium coverage, which is buildable to medium to full. The easiest application is with fingers rather than a brush. I used this product on it’s own and over primer – it settled better around some of the flaky parts of my skin with primer.
Whilst this product claims to be shine free – and it is on initial application. It applies almost to the point of slightly chalky, but evens out within 15-30 minutes to a natural cover. It did protect my face from shine for a few hours, but after time (around 5-6hours) started to slide/melt away. It had the same effect as when I set it with powder and translucent setter. Although I had no success using it on it’s own, it helped improve the wear time of my liquid foundation.
Due to my acne I do prefer a full coverage foundation (merely for self esteem/self consciousness). Using primer, the stick foundation then my usual liquid foundation provided me with a great coverage solution that lasted a few hours longer than my usual liquid routine. I used this almost as a base coat for my face, and applied liquid then powder foundation.
On it’s own it’s more a natural light-med coverage, but combined with other products can be built into a flawless base. I’d recommend to anyone wanting a buildable foundation, or who is looking for a more natural, lighter foundation – as it’s specialty seems to me to be a flexible product that can work as little or as hard as you like. It’s easy application meant I could use more on areas that needed it most (chin/forehead) and still have it blend nicely.
On a side note – the price of this foundation is low – around $15-20 depending on where you shop, making it an inexpensive foundation.
