It's definitely Maybelline! (Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse)

Member Name: xalala

Product:	Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse
Date:	12/02/06 (1077 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good choice of shades, good value, easy to apply

Disadvantages: Very drying on my skin

Foundation has to be the bane of most women's lives. It's so difficult to find a shade that you're happy with, can apply well, and doesn't look like you've lost a fight with a tangerine. Once you do, of course, that shade and type of product is immediately discontinued by the manufacturer and it's back to square one.

This has happened to me twice now, within a fairly short space of time. So I have deserted Boots No7 and turned (entirely by chance) to Maybelline's dream matte mousse product.

Packaging:

The packaging is subtle, a small glass jar with a pearlised, skin coloured lid containing a sticker - the colour of the lid changes according to the shade within though, which is a nice touch. There's not much information on the sticker, just the name, dream matte mousse, and the colour you've picked. There's another sticker on the underside of the pot, part of which peels away to reveal the ingredients that the foundation contains. However the type is so small on the list, it's really hard to read, and if you had an allergy to anything found in make-up, I'm not sure I'd have the patience to work through it all to check.

Colour:

Available in eight shades in the UK, there looks to be one suitable for most people - they range from 010 Ivory, which I use, right through to Cocoa, suitable for darker skins. People with very pale skins tend to have problems finding a suitable shade, since many can look very orange if they're a smidgen too dark, but Maybelline have provided well, with Ivory, Cameo and Nude all being on the pale end of the scale.

Sand, Fawn and Sun Beige all look a medium shade, while Caramel and Cocoa are more suitable for darker skin shades. It's worth mentioning that there are more shades available in the US (12 v 8), so if there isn't one in the UK for you, it might be worth picking some up while you're there, or getting a friend to on your behalf.

Application:

The texture of this foundation is very different to anything I've come across before. It's definitely a mousse, with the same look and feel as one that you'd eat. This means that it doesn't run down as you apply it, but it does feel rather strange on your fingers. It's easy to apply, and you only need a tiny bit to get good coverage. I use a foundation brush to apply it, which makes it really easy to blend, especially along the jaw line, notorious for showing a tide mark if you're not careful.

I have used my fingers to apply it (I went away and forgot to take the brush), which again I found fairly easy - it blended as well as with the brush, although I felt that I was wasting more as some was left on my fingertips after I was done and it needed slightly more to get the same coverage.

Although the pots are small - each contains 18ml of product, about half of what you might expect - they do seem to last a long time. Mine is barely a quarter gone after three weeks of almost daily use.

Coverage:

The coverage that you get with this foundation is excellent. In fact, up until now I'd been using a green colour-corrector fairly frequently to tone down my (very) rosy cheeks. I've stopped using it with this product, as I find it gives me almost equally good coverage of rosiness without anything else.

However, when I was using it to start with, a few people did comment that I was looking more tired than usual, and there was no reason I should have been. I've since gone back to using another product under my eyes (YSL's Touche Eclat), and those comments have stopped so I think it did have to do with the difference between this foundation and my old one.

One thing I have noticed is that unless you're fairly careful with the application, it tends to stick to dry areas of skin, and can flake off slightly with the skin. This is not a good look! However it can be avoided by good moisturiser use and a light touch. And, of course, not forgetting to remove the stuff last thing at night. My skin is, admittedly, quite dry anyway, so people with more greasy skin might not find the same problem.

Price and availabiliy:

RRP is £6.49 for this product, and I haven't (yet) found it cheaper anywhere. I bought mine in Superdrug, but Boots stock it (and it's available via their website too), as do most places you'd expect to find a reasonable range of make-up.

Conclusion:

Having found this product, I think it's good and would be useful to keep as a travelling foundation or similar, but it's not something I intend to use every day, as it's simply too dry. It's easy to apply and the small pack means it's easy to pack when travelling, which I do a fair bit of with work. It's economical because you need so little, and I'm happy with the choice of shades - although Superdrug seem to stock a wider variety of them than Boots do, for reference.

I like the coverage it gives, it feels very light on my skin but covers well. I haven't had any problems with it rubbing off during the day, although that is something I was concerned about because it is so light. The texture is OK but drying, and the price is good in comparison to similar products. A single jar lasted me between two and three months, which is longer than a normal pack of foundation would.

Other Information:

Maybelline's website is at www.maybelline.co.uk. If you go to www.maybelline.com you can choose which country's site you want to visit, to get details of local distributors and so on - if you pick the US one you can also find the other shades of this product that are available there.

Beware buying this product over the internet without first actually trying out the colours to find which one would best suit you though - the colours on the websites aren't very accurate (as judged by me holding up my actual pot to the screen to compare them).

Summary: Too drying on my skin to both with in future