little white truths

Quite simply, it's just an excellent product. It made my yearly favourites last year (see post here) and it may well make the list again because I'm yet to find another base that I can always rely on to look good without looking like too much.

This product is well-loved in the beauty community for a reason, so if you're yet to try it, then I recommend grabbing a sample. Even some of those who prefer more coverage rave about this one, so it's absolutely worth testing.

BareMinerals claims/product details:

Now for swatches. 

As always I've given you a heavier one, a partially blended one and a blended one in a variety of different lights.

First up, indirect sunlight:

And natural light (outdoors):

Verdict

I love this stuff and it's absolutely a repurchase for me.

It's a lightweight product and I can see why they've called it a 'gel cream' because it's not as thick or heavy as a cream and it feels beautifully soothing and cooling when applied.

The shade 06 Ginger is a reasonable match in terms of depth for my light-medium to medium skin, but it's a little golden for me (I'm yellow-based) so I may well try a different shade in future. Still, because the coverage isn't too much, it's a forgiving product and I can certainly get away with Ginger year-round.

On that, worth noting is that I have a feeling Mecca now stocks more shades than it used to because I don't remember seeing the '0.5' colours when I was buying this. So it may be that eg 5.5 Bamboo is a better match because it looks more yellow in undertone: I may try that one next time.

The product melts into the skin nicely and half a pea gives me a sheer coverage that's enough to even out my skintone and add healthy, dewy finish that's not too shiny. I can and often do go in with another half-pea amount to give a light-medium coverage, and you could build this to close to a medium if you wanted to. I've certainly done that before for big events.

One thing to note about this product is that it can go on a little streaky if you apply too much in one hit. While it does absorb, if I apply too much then I have some trouble getting it to rub in properly (I use my fingers) so I have to wait a few minutes before I can iron out any streaks. This is why I prefer to work in fine layers if I want to build coverage.

The lasting power is about what you'd expect from a tinted moisturiser: I find it lasts around six hours on me before starting to fade evenly. This happens even if I set it with a powder, which I usually do - just to take the edge off the tacky finish and ensure that my powder products like blush and bronzer blend well over the top.

For me, the best thing about this product is that it evens out my skin while still looking natural. It's probably the most natural-looking base I've used. But it does enough to make my skin look its best, so it's not in that 'natural but non-existent' category. It definitely does something.

I do also love that this contains sunscreen, and because the coverage isn't too much, you could apply a good deal of this product to boost your sun protection if you wanted to.

All in all, I love this product and it's HG material for me. I've tried countless tinted moisturisers and BB/CC creams over the years because I love them (more than I do foundations) and this remains a favourite.

Love.