ESTEE LAUDER: DOUBLE WEAR FOUNDATION

I'll bet my right arm you've read ten thousand reviews of Estee Lauder DW foundation before, right? It's such a massive cult foundation that I'm sure any blogger worth their salt will have tried and tested, but it's TOTALLY Marmite - love or hate it, most folk feel very strongly one way or another.

I have to say, for years I was firmly entrenched in the HATE IT camp. I first bought a bottle of this stuff way back in my YOOF (like eight years ago) and happily slathered it all over my chops only to discover a serious case of CAKE FACE by lunchtime.

It would go on quite thick and gloopy, smell like paint, dry down really tacky then set powdery and begin to crack and disperse (gross) and ultimately break down after only a few hours. NOT IDEAL.

I have to admit though, I'm now a total convert. It all started in duty free...

I was killing time in Heathrow's terminal 5 before my flight back to Glasgow after a 12+ hour day in London and noticed that my Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation just wasn't cutting it. Y'all know I LOVE it for its satin/dewy finish, comfortable wear, blendability and NORMALLY its lasting power, but clearly a whole day in the big smoke was too much for it, and whilst peering into a mirror at Tom Ford eyewear I noticed it'd all but vanished. QUELLE HORROR!

My skin is normal, and sometimes a little sensitive. It used to be pretty oily, and I do still get shiny patches around my nose and forehead which I don't have a problem with powdering maybe once or twice a day, but it's really not as bad as it once was. I still have the odd cluster of breakouts here and there (moreso at the moment, THANKS, STRESS) but overall it's cleared up a fair bit and usually plays ball. However, as much as I love Rimmel's WMU (and I really do) I'm increasingly finding I'm having to ask more of it. Long days in the office coupled with often having to go straight out from work means I have a different checklist of requirements... Gonna stay perfect for more than 10 hours? Gonna not slide about or separate or cake up? Gonna not evaporate or sink into pores? Gonna not break me out? Gonna not oxidise? CHEERS.

It was with all this in mind that I tootled over (very slightly tipsy after a boozy lunch) to the Estee Lauder counter and picked up Double Wear again, the first time in almost a decade. What was I doing wrong before? Loads of people love it, why didn't it work for me? Sod it, I thought, and bought the damn thing.

The sales assistant woman matched me to 2C3 Fresco which is one of their slightly pinkier light shades. Which was WEIRD, since I've been buying yellow-toned foundations for years? Have to say though, it does match, almost perfectly as well, so go figure.

The trick to this, for me anyway, is APPLICATION. Whereas before I'd shclep hunners of it on with my fingers and rub it all in, making a massive mess and wasting loads of product, this time I approached it differently. Instead of using a mattifying primer I piled on the moisturiser and left it for a few seconds before going straight on with MINIMAL product and blending in with a flat top kabuki brush.

How it looks on my skin after an hour or so

The difference is having an emollient base to blend the foundation over. Before it was hard to smooth around and I'd have to use loads to get it to cover my whole face, but this lead to caking and drying and all that bad stuff...

This time it was a dream to blend and settled down well into my skin, without sooking up all the moisture underneath. It felt a little tacky about 10 minutes later which meant I could still give it a further blend/pat in with clean fingertips, if need be. But half an hour later it was set and felt comfortable and natural.The result was a FLAWLESS base. Seriously. It has a sort of blurring, soft-focus kind of effect, which you can totally see in this pic:

Not my face, innit.

It's powerful stuff. The freckles on my cheeks just about vanished, but so did all my redness and most of my blemishes and dark circles. It's not a miracle worker, and you'll still need a bit of concealer on top, but a LOT less, and if you're blessed with decent skin in the first place I bet you'll need none at all.

Also, bear in mind it doesn't have any light reflecting properties at all so you'll need to add back some shape with blush/contour or highlighter, if you want.

But seriously, the best thing about this is it DOES. NOT. MOVE. Think of it less of a foundation and more of a FACE STAIN. I didn't set this with a powder, just to test how long it would last before getting shiny, and honestly, it never did. If anything I found I enjoyed the slightly less PURE MATT finish as the day wore on, but never do I feel I compelled to powder it.

Yesterday I wore it for 17 hours and it held up amazingly well. It wasn't PERFECT and I could see it had faded around my nose and cheeks slightly but it was honestly minimal. It lasted through a whole day in the office, dinner at a crowded Yo!Sushi and a gig at ABC. Colour me FLABBERGASTED!

Downside is the stupid glass bottle with no pump. If you're a clumsy budgie like me you're bound to drop it all over your carpet - DON'T FIGHT IT, it's GOING to happen. You'll also find the screw top bit gets all grubby and clogged with product, and forget about travelling with it... Plus it doesn't smell all that nice - kind of like paint. And it's pricey. And footery...

But quite honestly the pros far outweigh the cons and I'm converted for life. Hurrah!

Just what you always wanted, eh? Another Estee Lauder Double Wear review to add to the hundreds of thousands already out there, except SUPER long and rambly!

YOU. ARE. WELCOME!