Clarins Instant Smooth Foundation Review

This is the Clarins Instant Smooth Foundation. It contains the standard 30ml (1.04oz) and costs £21.53 on the clarins uk website, although i bought mine in boots. I also saw some on ebay when i was buying mine, but i would say only to buy it online i you know what shade you are.

The shades are 00, 01, 1.5, 02, 03, 04, 05 and 06. The shade i use is 1.5 which looks really orange in the pot, but is much lighter when it is rubbed in. This is why i would recommend getting matched instore because i was intending on buying the lightest one - 00 - which would have been too light. The only issue i have is that sometimes i feel as though it has too much of a pink undertone for my skin. (Also the MA in the store had really pale skin and said she uses 00, so i think this is better for paler skin tones.)

The packaging has a very classy feel, in my opinion, but the mirrored lid always shows fingerprints.

This foundation has the most amazing texture of any i have ever used!! It is so smooth (I can't stress this enough!) and when i first bought it i just wanted to keep putting more on. However, the MA said that if you have any flakey ptches of skin - don't use mousse foudations as they will stick to it and highlight your dry sin.

Recently i have also bought maybelline dream matte mousse to see if it was a cheap alternative - it's not. Clearly the higher price of Clarins is shown in its ingredients because it is so much better. The texture of dream matte mousse was so much drier in comparison to the creamy clarins one, and it didn't apply well. I don't think i will ever use this foundation, as i tried it with a brush, a wet sponge, a dry sponge and my fingers. The damp sponge worked the best but it still took a lot of effort for not great results.

As this is a matte finish it takes away the shine brilliantly when first applied. However, after around 6 hours of stressful work i found that my skin was quite oily. The trouble with mousse foundations i find, is that when they become oily they have a tendancy to 'slide' off if you touch them because they are much creamier than liquid. Despite this i personally would prefer to use a blotting powder throughout the day than to use a foundation which is too drying, and this foundation lets you apply setting poder, blush and bronzer on top without 'caking'.

The coverage of Instant Smooth is light to medium, but don't be put off if you like a heavier coverage. Most of my other foundations have medium to full coverage but this one works well with a concealer and looks visibly less heavy. It gives much more natural looking results which can also work in winter because off the matte finish.

Overall i really like this foundation. I use it as more of an 'in the house' foundation or for when i'm in a rush because you only need to use a tiny bit (so it lasts really long and doesn't dry up) applied with fingers and it looks great. I even managed to 'do my make-up' in my friends car in a petrol station the other day, after a long night out, which just consisted of this foundation, my eyelash curler and some maybelline colossal mascara. My dad then described my face as looking 'fresh' a couple of hours later, despite the blatent hangover plus two hour sleep - i was impressed!

Clarins lists the following as the active ingredients:
- Soft Focus pigments: light-diffusing.

- Acacia Micro-Pearls: line-plumping and smoothing.

- Acacia Micro-Pearls: behave like moisturising micro-patches.

- Vitamin E and Rose essential wax: protect and comfort.

That's all for now

xoxo anna