I'm made-up with the make-up (L'Oreal Infallible Compact Foundation)

Member Name: bondgirlk8

Product:	L'Oreal Infallible Compact Foundation
Date:	02/12/08 (1033 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exciting packaging, portable size, stays on all day, good make-up base

Disadvantages: I honestly haven't found any - not for my face

Having not been one of those 'caked' girls at school, I came to foundation pretty late in life. I guess I was lucky in that I had a decent enough complexion that the plastering of make-up wasn't a vital necessity, so until recent years (with the exception of stage make-up) I never really bothered.

On me, I've generally found that foundations look pretty fake (that could be due to my lack of expertise in application). I've also found that they come off if you scratch your face leaving attractive white streaks in the scratch lines. The same happens to me in the winter when the cold air makes my eyes stream. Of course, there are also the situations where it melts or just plain vanishes.

I'm almost 30 now and my face just doesn't quite pull off that completely natural look without a little bit of assistance, so about a year or so ago I started experimenting. During the experimental process I generally had more success with powder than with liquid foundation in that the results produced looked a tad more natural. I did find that the powder seemed to completely vanish from my face very quickly, so although I looked ok when I left the house I'd be lucky if there was any left by lunchtime. I'm not one to re-apply. I can only make it look any good if I take the whole lot off and start again. Touch-ups just don't work for me.

I came across this particular product on an expedition to purchase eye make-up. It caught my attention in the way cosmetics do when you are skint. The £2 off promotion may have helped in this a bit. An investigative rub of the testers identified that although a powder, it felt a bit different. Like a solid liquid if that makes any sense! (Please excuse my ignorance if this is actually very common. In my limited experience this felt a bit unique.) I also established that their Vanilla colour suited at least my hand.

In to the basket it plopped (I know, I know, I'd only gone in for eye-make up and already I had a basket on the go - curse you Superdrug you temptress you). I have only tried it once, today, so we are working with a pretty small sample base here, it could no doubt differ based on factors such as time of year, temperature, activities carried out, levels of emotion, etc. Anyway, here is my experience all the same.

PRICE

The product retails at £10.99. My initial instinct was that this was a little bit on the pricey side for something that may or may not work. This does perhaps explain why I have had such poor experiences of foundations in the past! I purchased mine in Superdrug where there is currently an offer running to get £2 off products from the Infallible range. It therefore set me back a more reasonable £8.99, but having tried it, I feel it is worth every penny - of the whole £10.99 that is.

PACKAGING

Oooooh, this is good! Remember, I haven't tried many products like this so I am probably very easily pleased and even the most obvious things to you might be exciting and unique to me. But, this really, really pleased me!
The powder comes in a round compact which is metallic red in colour with a transparent window so that the powder can be seen inside. The name of the product is in red writing on the transparent section and it describes itself as Long Lasting Creamy Powder Foundation. It also says 'Resists Make-up Meltdown from Morning to Night' - quite an impressive claim to live up to.

It has a flip lid in order that you can access the powder, which is very tightly packed inside. The powder itself looks soft and as a whole looks very appealing.

Then the big surprise (for me) happened. On opening the lid and looking at the powder, I discover that the piece of case that the power is in was not, as I had expected, the actual bottom of the container. Oh no. This whole section is on a hinge, and when lifted I discovered that attached to the underneath of the powder section was a mirror and the space between that and the actual bottom of the container homed an application sponge. Wow! This pleased me so much. It was like magic - I really would have never known it was there. If this is normal, remember, I'm naïve!

SCENT

Knowing by now that I was more than likely going to review this product, I thought it sensible to have a good sniff of my product so that I could fully share the whole experience with you. To be fair some foundations, particularly the liquid ones, do have a bit of an unappealing smell about them don't they? This product did not have a smell as such, I had to really sniff to determine what it was. There is a very faint scent which to me was similar to Baby Powder talc with perhaps just a hint of Savlon. It is incredibly faint, but it is a nice smell which to me smells 'clean'.

TEXTURE

This powder has a lovely texture. It has a really soft feel about it and is somewhere between a powder and a cream. It had passed the first 'does it live up to its description' test in that it did indeed feel like creamy powder. It is incredibly smooth and is pleasing to the touch.

APPLICATION

Having located my hidden sponge, this is what I used to apply the foundation. It felt like it glided on really easily and appeared to provide good even coverage without excessive effort to get it to blend. It seemed to work well with the sponge in that the make-up wasn't all quickly absorbed by the sponge, nor did it sit on top of it. I was really happy with the process of application, the efficiency with which it could be applied and the way it felt as I applied it to my face.

IMMEDIATE RESULTS

The foundation made my face look smooth, matt and even without really looking like I was wearing make-up. It was really nice, I liked it. It worked will with my natural skin tone and stopped me looking blotchy or 'corned-beefy' giving me a much more even finish. Basically, it hid away my 'imperfections' in a way that looked natural.

I was also impressed with the way it worked with my normal make-up when this was applied on top of it. The results produced by my normal make-up were much better than with no foundation or bad foundation underneath. The make-up didn't look powdery in the way that can happen if you have no foundation underneath, sit on top of the foundation as I have found can happen with powder foundation, or look like a painted mask as can happen with the liquids. No, instead I found that this foundation and the rest of my make-up seemed to compliment each other really well to produce a lovely natural looking effect. Generally preferring to look human, I liked the naturalness of the result.

LASTING EFFECT

Today was one long day! It was a very difficult day too which left me with a killer headache. I tend to rub at my temples, face and head in general quite excessively when I get a headache. Obviously this is bad for the make-up.

I applied the make-up at about 6:45 this morning. I eventually got home from work at about 8:30pm and immediately checked out the make-up in the mirror to determine the impact of my day. Amazingly, it was still on my face. Not only that but it didn't look all that different to this morning. Yes, I looked a bit frazzled and somewhat more haggard than I had this morning, but the make up was still there.

Usually, by the time I get home, as well as no foundation or blusher remaining, I have eye-make up smudged under my eyes and gathered in the creases. This was much less noticeable today. I conclude from this that the foundation presumably creates a very good base for this make-up.

I'm really pleased with the results this product has produced and I am genuinely amazed that it did actually deliver on its 'morning to night' claim. I'm off to go and marvel at the hidden sponge and mirror again.

Thanks for reading

© BondgirlK8 - November 2008

Summary: Excellent product - give it a try.