little white truths: How long does it take to finish: a foundation?

How long does it take to finish: a foundation?

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Have you ever wondered how long it takes to finish things? I often do, and since deciding to avoid buying any new beauty products for a whole year (see my post on that here), I thought it would make me feel better to look at how long things last - and therefore how I really REALLY don't need anything new for AT LEAST a whole year!

I'll be looking at three products this month: a lipstick (see my post here), a primer (see here) and a foundation.

I picked this particular foundation because I know exactly how long it's been in use (three weeks as of today), so we can get an accurate idea of how long a 30ml bottle lasts.

I've Googled the 'how long does a bottle of foundation last?' question before and the answers are incredibly varied: some say 2-3 months, some say 6-8 and some reckon at least a year.

The answer to the question obviously depends on a number of factors: how much you use it (every day, work days only?); how much you use each time; whether it's heavy or sheer coverage (so you might need to use more if it's sheer); and the consistency.

What I thought I'd do is test a few different types of foundations over time, picking different ones so we can get a general idea of how long different sorts last (eg powders v liquids, thick v thin).

For this test I've picked Revlon's Nearly Naked Liquid Foundation. A few things to say from the outset (so you can compare your foundation usage and adapt the results to what you'd expect for you):

For the purposes of this test, I'm using it every day.
I use this product on my whole 'face', which includes my neck and décolletage - because your face doesn't stop at your chin.
This is quite a runny, sheer foundation, so I use at least twice as much as I would other foundations (say almost enough to cover a ten cent piece). You could probably compare it to a tinted moisturiser or BB/CC cream in that respect.
I'm using it once a day only - so if I need to reapply because I'm going out at night, I'll use something else instead.

At this stage it looks as though around a quarter or so of the bottle is gone (so the 2-3 month suggestion is looking reasonably accurate for this foundation). But let's see what happens. I'll update this post with results soon : )

Verdict

Well, we have a verdict on this one too. The bottle is now empty, because a few days ago I poured it into a 15ml sample pot from MAC that used to hold a foundation with a similar consistency, then used the remainder in the Revlon bottle until it was gone.

That means I went through 15ml of product in five weeks, or half the bottle - leaving us with a 2.5 month verdict for this particular product.

If this were a thicker foundation with more coverage and not a runny/buildable product like this one, I would expect to finish it in around five or six months if I used it every day - purely because I'd be using half the amount or even less than I did with this product.

If it were a BB/CC cream like the ones I've been using that are a little thicker, I'd expect to finish it around the three month mark, but I might test that theory another time with another product.

Do those results sound about right to you? I'm always interested in hearing about how long things last : )

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