Ponds' Tinted Moisturizer (Other Ponds)

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Product:	Other Ponds
Date:	27/08/02 (1092 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: sheer, easy to use, moisturizes with SPF 15

Disadvantages: two shades only, have to reapply

So hands up, all of you out there, who absolutely wish either:

1) you had perfect skin (and longer legs, a flatter tummy, shinier hair, curled lashes, higher cheekbones ...), and/or

2) makeup, especially foundation, wasn't such a hassle - what with all the blending and finding the right shade, and/or

3) you had lots of money - money isn't everything, but everything is money.

Well, Ponds' Tinted Moisturizer is sort of an answer to all that. But not quite on the money bit :)

PTM is exactly what it is - a tinted moisturizer. It comes in a 50 ml tube, with non-too-fancy packaging. Choose Beige if you have fair skin, or Caramel if you have darker skin. It contains SPF 15.

(A) An answer to perfect skin?

Well, no, not really. Being a tinted moisturizer, it thus has two 'functions' - to provide/prevent loss of moisture, as well as giving you a bit of colour. So with its tint, you aren't quite bare-skinned, as PTM gives a very sheer coverage which is not heavy like foundation. That also means that because it's light, you don't get as much coverage as traditional everyday foundation.

It is great if you have minor flaws, so it does the job of covering those odd spots or little blemishes - or if you do not like wearing lots of makeup, so while you don't like the idea of heavy makeup during the day, you're still walking out that door with pretty good-looking skin. If you'd like heavier coverage (to cover more, or for evenings, for example), then stick to your daily moisturizer followed by the usual foundation.

While it contains SPF 15, sometimes I wonder if the way we use tints/foundation with SPF is enough to provide enough sun protection, especially since we don't wear layers and layers of makeup anymore. Any thoughts out there? I don't wear my sunscreen if I use PTM as I'm afraid it might distort the tint.

(B) Easy makeup?

>If you consider tinted moisturizers "makeup", then yes. "Beige" blends into my skin really well so I don't really have to worry about tide marks and rubbing in the moisturizer along my jaw lines/eyes/hairlines/eyebrows. I know that some people recommend that you do anyway, especially if the colour is a bit off from your skin's natural colour - and so to be extra careful, I continue blending anyhow, if I have the time.

After my ball, I realised that my skin looked really tired without a bit of makeup/colour, and so I started wearing light foundation to uni for about a week. I hated having to wake up early to make sure that I spent enough time with my face in front of mirror, checking every odd spot for tell-tale signs. Even after that, in uni, I would be conscious about my makeup, and would always be nervous if someone looked/stared at me ... I keep thinking that they're looking at that odd bit at my nose where it tends to get dry, and foundation tends to show.

With PTM, yay! No more of those :) My skin still looks good. In fact it looks better than having foundation on, because it's sheer and it's not so obvious that I've got something smeared across my face!

(c) Saves money?

A definite yes. If money is no object, then you might as well splurge and get a custom-made foundation that suits your skin colour exactly - this can be done at Prescriptives for about AUD$92 per bottle/tube of foundation. Prescriptive's Traceless is essentially a tinted moisturizer as well, and works fabulously, but at AUD$62 for a tube, it's a bomb.

If you don't have a money tree in your backyard, like me, then PTM is the cheapest tinted moisturizer that I can find. It cost me about AUD$7.50 for a tube of 50ml. Another is Nivea Visage's Tinted Moisturizer which comes in only one "Natural" shade - but it made me look very tanned and it did not adjust to my skin tone at all. r>
Cheap money-wise doesn't always mean cheap quality-wise! As a moisturizer, this works fine for me, although it is recommended that people with drier skins apply their usual moisturizer prior to PTM.

So how now?

The downside is probably that you ought to reapply "every 2 hours or more frequently if in contact with water or after perspiration". While that may be a hassle for some people who prefer all-day, long-lasting coverage, it wasn't such a battle for me because I thought it withstood my teary episodes pretty well :) And oh, you shouldn't apply it to the eyelids too.

The other disadvantage is that because Ponds only has two shades, I don't know if Beige and Caramel will necessarily suit every skin tone. Nivea's is supposed to match all, but you already know what I have to say about that. Apparently CoverGirl has more shades to choose from, but I wasn't able to find them in my local drugstore.

It doesn't have any sort of pungent smell, only a reasonably mild "baby powder" smell.

Weighing the good against the bad, I still think it's overall a pretty good product that suits my lifestyle - too busy to really bother with proper foundation, and I wake up too late to make sure I blend foundation properly. It'd be nice though if Ponds came up with a nicer packaging for it. Then again that might hike up the price ... :)

Hence the 4 stars. I'd give it a 5 if it had other properties like Vitamin E, antioxidants and things like that. If that's very important to you, then Nivea's the way to go, but that would be another whole long opinion altogether now, wouldn't it? ;)