September 05, 2011

Loving Bourjois Bio detox organic silicone-free foundation & concealer!

Is it the perfect foundation? Hell no.

No silicone-free foundy can compete with the perfect airbrushed smooth goodness of the evil silicone (dimethicone, cyclomethicone, methicone...etc). But at GBP10 its' way WAY cheaper than Laura Mercier's Oil Free Foundation, it works well enough with a little effort and it does not break me out. Huzzah!


Now on to the review, I warn you this will be a long one:
Foundation

The foundation comes in a glass pump bottle which allows you to control the exact amount you want to use and smells of fresh green things. Nice!

The formula is thin, like a tint almost. It provides colour but not coverage in the sense of smoothing out skin to a perfect airbrushed finish. This means craters stay craters but it makes for a far more natural look. Nevertheless, only small pea-sized amounts should be used for the entire face or it will dry up, cake up and ball off. 

Methods of application that work:
  1. Blended very quickly with a damp sponge
  2. Mixed with a little light moisturiser and blended very quickly with a flat top brush
  3. Mixed with a little more light gel moisturiser and blended very quickly with fingers. It mixes very well with water-based moisturisers and you can control how sheer a tinted moisturiser you're going for. Great for summer!
Starting to get the picture? Hesitate, slow down or use too much product and things start to go horribly wrong.

In terms of wear the foundation's pretty long lasting! When set with powder it lasts through hot sweaty Hong Kong days with minimal fading. It doesn't do much to contain oily skin (but then again, what does when it comes to my skin?) but it doesn't make me oilier. I'm not sure if it detoxes the skin but it doesn't feel heavy at all. 

I got the foundation from ASOS (NEVER BUY FROM HONG KONG) in light beige (quite yellow based) which suited me when I was very tanned but soon got too dark. Nevermind! Because it mixes great with my too-light Laura Mercier foundation in Warm Ivory and the combination in varying proportions will see me through the year. 

Nevertheless I picked up a new bottle with a 20% voucher in a shade lighter (Vanilla). Wish me luck!

Ingredients

Concealer
The concealer took me longer to figure out. At first I loathed it. It was far thicker than the foundation and simply rolled off my face taking the carefully applied foundation with it. The roller ball applicator is ludicrous, I mean come ON... it definitely does not apply or blend correctly at all. Sure it feels cold going on, but I'm also unconvinced that it does anything for my eye bags. 

BUT then I tried with this brush and never looked back. It also works alright with a foundation brush, but the Everyday Minerals Eye Kabuki brush works undereyes and everywhere else on the face. And I can use it everywhere on my face because it's silicone free (whee!). 

In terms of lightening up dark spots and panda eyes, it works quite well once you've got it blended in. And it doesn't cake or crease throughout the day despite my very very oily skin. 

For GBP8, I'm seriously considering getting myself a back up. Wish I'd had the sense to use the 20% voucher on this too!

5 comments:

Paris B said...

I love the Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation and the serum one. Amazing stuff both of them! I didn't like this because it felt thick, but I'm glad it works for you :D

Kahani said...

Hahaha I would love to love Healthy Mix too. But the silicone in it scares me. *sighs*

But thank god I can make this work. Just need to mix moisturiser in or use a damp sponge.

Anonymous said...

The ingredients list Silica which is an oxide of silicone so it still might break you out.

Anonymous said...

Where/how did you purchase this in NZ? Thanks!

Kahani said...

Hi there, I bought it online at ASOS.