Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Compact Foundation

I haven't really used many cream foundations, generally going for liquid or sometimes gel. But everytime, cream foundations work so well on my skin, and I use them completely up, it's a wonder I don't use them more (although I do admit I like to rotate my face bases). Browsing through the videos on youtube by Chanel featuring Lisa Eldridge, I couldn't help but continually thinking about the Vitalumiere Aqua Compact, so I when I was in the city the other day, I felt that is was due time based on the weather rotation for a new cream foundation. 

My first Chanel foundation ever, and it just happens to be Rae's (from Raeview) favourite foundation by Chanel too! The reason why I like cream foundations is they're so smooth, easy to apply and they're hydrating too. On the downside, if you don't take care of the compact, it can get dirty easily, but that can be fixed with using disposable sponges. As far as the Chanel compact packaging itself goes, it feels relatively sturdy, the mirror inside is pretty average. I've read around that the cover inside has a tendency to pop up which might make for issues of drying out the cream, and I can see where people are coming from. But when the compact is closed, the cover seems to be snug and is helped to be kept down with the sponge included. These are also refillable, at least in certain countries (I didn't find out for sure for Australia though, but I know the UK sells the refills). 

left to right, without flash: one swipe, two swipes, blended

With Flash

Sunlight

This foundation swipes on really creamily. Really creamily. But it doesn't feel too oily or slippy! I got the shade B30 (when I went to Myer, they had run out of my shade, and then the lady tried to sell me the darker shade 40, saying "you don't need a lot and just blend it completely out anyway". .. what is the point of foundation and different shades then?!), which matches pretty damn well. Probably one of the best matches that I've had and it really blends easily into the skin which is most likely what helps it looks like your skin is naturally luminous. The coverage is about medium, but you can easily go lighter and maybe add a bit more coverage. The thing with cream foundations is that it's harder to layer it, but this is in exchange for hydration. This doesn't cling to any dry patches on my skin at all and it does help to make my dull skin look fresh.

Beauty Base Zero

With Vitalumiere Aqua Compact

Finished Makeup

I love the feel of this on my skin and can really see why it's so popular. It feels incredibly light, but evens out my skintone quite well too. It won't cover any major blemishes or anything, but it does smooth out your face and makes a fantastic base. I really think one of the best features of this cream foundation is that it really does blend so easily into the skin, it's the type of foundation that makes it look like you have naturally good, smooth skin. I mean, considering the price though, you would hope it would be. But I've heard that Chanel foundations are heavily underrated, but you put in the pennies, you're going to get a decent product, right?

For a first-ever Chanel foundation, I am really pleased with my pick. My skin is around normal, maybe a tiny bit dry, maybe a tiny bit oily depending on the season, but it's pretty much settled into normal. So I don't get many blemishes, but I have a lot of old acne scars so a bit of a problem with texture and dullness too. So this really helps to make my skin look healthy. The spf15 in this doesn't cause a white cast either, but a low spf in a product is always good. Overall, I'm liking this foundation so far, one of the best cream foundations I have tried too.

I purchased this from David Jones for AU$100.

Skincare baby haul

I just couldn't help myself. I went to pick up my contact lenses today and thought, while I'm here, might as well pop into Priceline to pick up a dye set to refresh my hair. Turns out, I was a day too early for my hair dye (20% is starting tomorrow for Solfine), but I was just in luck to browse the 40% all skincare and my eyes zoned in on a few products.

The first thing I came across was the ever-popular nanoblur by Indeed Laboratories. I have not really looked into this much, but the claim is that it's so amazing, one is sold every nine seconds in the UK. Which, fair deuce, if something gets enough hype, yeah, it's going to sell. So I thought I would give in and give it a go. I may be young, but I love smooth skin and would do an immense amount to achieve it. In the same section, I was considering the eye cream by the same company, but decided I needed to finish my current one (okay, two) first. So my eyes trailed over to hydraluron. I can't quite remember whether it was a video or a blog, but I remember someone saying that they applied this under their makeup and it worked wonderfully as a moisturizing primer. Due to it being winter, I'm getting a bit of case of the dehydrated oilies on my T-zone, so I'm hoping that this product will give it a bit of pep. And finally, as I was wondering around the aisles, wondering what else I could possibly add that I also didn't need, I saw a single shelf of La Roche-Posay products. I've heard this brand mentioned a number of times, but again, have not really looked into their products; I didn't even know that I could purchase them from Priceline. So I picked up the one that I've heard of most about: Effaclar Duo. I thought that this was a product pretty much just to help sensitive skin, which intrigued me, but as I read the packaging of the product, I had to have it, considering "corrective and unclogging anti-imperfection care" and all. 

So far, my first impression of La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo is that it smells... herbally. I have not tested this on my face as of yet, but the product is an almost-clear gel that feels very smooth when blended into your skin (at least on my hand). I've got high hopes for this product, corrective, anti-clogging AND anti-imperfection? This baby better live up to its hype. Especially considering on the back, this product is for "skin with severe imperfections". Tear. 

Okay, biggest claim out there, "look up to 10 years younger in 40 seconds" given by nanoblur by Indeed Laboratories. With that, you would assume there are some silicones in there, and, I checked, yes, there are. So who knows whether this is just superficial and won't do a whole lot in the long run. But if that's the case, it would probably at least smooth out your face a bit, maybe acting as a primer...

...Which is why I purchased hydraluron, also by Indeed Laboratories. This one is a "moisture booster with the purest hyaluronic acid" which basically translates to increasing the hydration in your skin as hyaluronic acid can hols up to 1000 times its weight in water. It seems a bit of a pain to have to do a couple layers of moisturizer in the morning, though I love the finish it usually gives me; hopefully this product will knock out a couple steps and keep my face fresh all day long. We'll see.

But for the time-being, I thought I would include a little demo of using nanoblur. I just had to test it out as soon as I got home. A little tip that I learned from a Benefit sales assistant, was when trying some product that is to smooth out your skin, apply it on the (wrinkly) skin between your thumb and forefinger. Most people are unlikely to have wrinkle around their wrist or the top of their hand, which is where swatches are generally done, so this is an effective way of actually testing out the smoothing claims of the product.
 

Before. No Product.

Little dab of nanoblur

Blended in. After.

Soooo, I am quite pleased with this texture. So smooth, so easy to absorb, and just based on the hand test, it seems to work pretty okay as you can see in the pictures. The name is very telling, it quite looks like it blurred the lines and wrinkles. Can't wait to test this out on my face, just curious as to whether this will have a long-term effect.

And that's my little skincare haul for the day! I should probably stop spending. Coming up soon.