A lighter base

A change in the month and my thoughts at least turn to lightness and shedding of outer layers and general brightness, not the least in my base of choice.

Goodness I struggle, like I think most of the population, too oily for a hint of a tint, and too old for powder, I do tend to become a shiney sweaty mess come mid summer. However we are far from high summer in the UK, being just into April, but even so the sun is out and I need something less heavy on the face.

My bases of choice for this time of the year are Chantecaille Just Skin and Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser. What I like about both of these is their sublime texture, they really are both like moisturisers with colour, and not just a hint of colour either, both have a significant amount of pigment to even out tone a little, and make my skin look a bit less tired and a bit more alive, they seem to both be able to impart a bit of bounce and bloom.

I do struggle a bit with the shades, Just Skin's palest shade is "alabaster" which is a somewhat yellower pale and does oxidise on my skin. LM's Tinted Moisturiser cites "porcelain" as its palest shade but has always been somewhat dark and yellow on me, but thankfully they have a pale pinky shade "cameo" which is lovely.

If I had to choose it would be Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser as my favourite, it is about half the price of Chantecaille Just Skin, doesn't oxidise, is light enough in colour and lasts a good 6 hours suprisingly, I do look a bit shiney by then but is it all good. I bought both from Space NK.

Eve Lom Radiance Perfected Tinted Moisturiser Alabaster 1 and Ivory 2

Okay, so I am following on on a bit of a theme, warmer weather means a lighter base and I thought I would look at what I already have rather than lust after something new.

I swatched this tinted moisturiser in SpaceNK and was impressed that the coverage was signficant and the texture and feel was, well I hesitate to say "nice" because that is such a bland catch all sort of adjective, I suppose what I mean was that once swatched the texture was cooling and comfortable on the skin and I liked that the shades were neutral enough.

I liked the swatches so much that I went on to purchase.

I like the packaging - squeezy tube with a narrow nozzle allows for accuracy, I find pumps can fail.

So Alabaster 01 on the top and Ivory 02 on the bottom.

The shades are neutral enough to my eye. I really struggle with shade matching and have shoved my wrists under the noses of my OH and my eldest son on numerous occasions crying plaintively "blue or green?" - not without reason, my OH teaches GCSE and A-Level Art and my son has a degree in Fine Art - and both favour neutral, so these shades pull neither too warm or too cool.

The coverage for a TM is considerable, but I like that - my skin needs all the help it can get.

What I particularly like about this product is that it wears off evenly, I get shiney throughout the day, but it behaves like skin if that makes sense, I end up with shiney but evened out skin. It is still there at the end of the day.

Currently £48 for 50mls.