I am a big fan of Make Up Academy (Superdrug's range of £1.00 cosmetics) so when they brought out a line of 'professional' products earlier this year which retail at a little more than the original line, I decided to try a few of the products.

One of the items that I decided to get was the matte foundation, which retails at just £2.00. Obviously this is extremely cheap and I was quite excited to try it and see if it was any good because if it had been I'd of saved a lot of money in the long run by buying this instead of my usual foundation. Unfortunately though, I'm not a fan and I chucked mine away after using it just one time because it started to go pacthy so quickly. It didn't look right even before it went patchy and I wasn't keen on the consistency, either.

This foundation is only available from Superdrug and it can be purchased in store or via their website. The foundation comes in a small, black squeezy tube which stands on its lid. The flip lid stays securely shut and is easy to open, however as it is a squeezy tube if any pressure is applied to the tube the lid will pop open meaning that I had to keep this stood on my dressing table rather than in my make-up bag. The packaging is okay - nice and simple and it isn't cheap looking.

It's black with white writing saying the brand and product name and there is a swatch on the front with the shade number which I like and I found this feature handy when choosing a shade in the shop. There are three shades available - soft sand (shade 1), honeycomb (shade 2) and gentle fawn (shade 3). The choice isn't great and for people who are naturally pale like me it's annoying that even the lightest shade is quite dark but I could just about pull it off without looking ridiculous and it doesn't have that horrible orange tint to it like some cheap foundations can do.. it does look quite peachy coloured, though.

The foundation itself smells a bit like paint and it is quite a weird texture - thick but very wet feeling and it looks and feels quite greasy even once it has dried. I found that I needed quite a lot to cover my face - at least 1/4 of the tube because it seemed to settle the minute it was applied so buffing it was a little awkward and if I tried to buff it once it had setttled it'd go tacky and need removing. I've got quite dry skin and found that this highlighted any dryness even when used over a primer. The coverage is good - it's light as well, which considering the thickness was suprising.

However, the finish didn't look natural at all and I felt like it looked like I was wearing a light peachy coloured face mask or someone had painted my face lol. I hated the shine that it gave my skin (even after I'd dusted a little setting powder over it I looked like I was greasy/sweaty/sparkly) - I asked my friend if it looked okay and she said it did, which I think must of been a white lie because I personally think it looked awful. It is not completely matte either. The lasting power is dire - after around an hour (yes, ONE hour!!) it had become patchy - absolutely ridiculous. I ended up removing it as soon as it started to fade and become patchy and haven't used it since.

Overall I give this foundation one out of five stars.