Product Review: L'oreal True Match Minerals Foundation

After a costly and failed attempt with Bare Escentuals Mineral Foundation, it was L'Oreal's True Match Minerals that renewed my faith in mineral foundations and started my addiction.

My skin was behaving terribly. I had been using L'Oreal True Match liquid foundation and although it looked fabulous initially, it would quickly dissolve into a greasy mess. In an effort to control my oiliness, and thereby limit the number of blemishes cropping up on my poor face, I rather desperately tried the only affordable powder foundation available in a little Danish cosmetics store. And fell in love...

The first jar I bought, was in shade W3. It was a decent enough match, just slightly too yellow and slightly too light. Unfamiliar with application techniques, I swiped it on at first using the provided brush (Eugh! Don't EVER do that). Quickly giving up, I used my blush brush, then my BB Kabuki brush - which finally gave me that coveted airbrushed-yet-natural look.

The foundation is pretty high coverage and has a just-right amount of light-reflecting particles. It isn't as crazy-shiny as the BE foundation in fairly light is, nor is it as utterly natural as Silk Naturals Mineral Foundation. It doesn't conceal blemishes 100% but it provides enough of an illusion that the blemishes aren't as noticeable. And to my delight, with daily use of this foundation, blemishes soon weren't a problem as they started to go away. By the end of my first pot of foundation I had clearer skin than I've ever had since acne started to haunt my life at age 16. Needless to say, I was hooked!

So, with all this love, why have I switched to Silk Naturals? To start with, I can customise Silk Naturals to match my skintone exactly. With L'oreal I seemed to be between shades W3 (first pot) and W4 (second pot). Neither was exactly right in either undertone or shade.

Second, L'Oreal's oil control just isn't good enough for me. Although better than the liquid foundation, I'd still get horribly greasy even with a finishing powder, and this foundation does NOT look good when I'm oily. Silk Naturals does a marginally better job in the oil-control department, and it looks better when I'm an oil slick than L'Oreal does.

Another point that is not really a factor for me but will be for some girls is the ingredients Bismuth and Talc present in L'Oreal's foundation - both of which are baddies in the world of Mineral foundation. SN contains neither.

Finally, SN is just so much more affordable - even when shipped from the US. A full SN foundation kit (which lasts as long as a pot of L'Orael foundation) costs about £5 with refills of the white foundation (which runs out sooner for me) at only about £2.50. At full price, a pot of L'Oreal True Match Minerals is £13.99. You do the math.

Nevertheless, L'Oreal True Match Minerals is a great foundation, easily the best amongst the available drugstore foundations. At the moment, Boots is offering a £4 discount, knocking the price down to a more affordable £9.99.