little white truths

I happily wound up with at least 10ml of this tinted moisturiser and have been playing with it for a couple of weeks.

It's not the first time I've used it and you may have seen me say that I love the bejesus out of it, and it's gone straight to my wishlist for when my spending ban lifts. While that's true, I've discovered that I'm smack-bang between two shades - Groenland and St Moritz - so I mightn't end up buying it because I really don't want to have to buy two tubes (the expense starts getting a bit ridiculous then, and it's already an expensive product).

See above swatches. Groenland (left) is described as 'light medium with a neutral pink/peachy undertone' and St Moritz is described as 'medium with a neutral yellow undertone'.

You can see that there's a pretty big jump in colour between these two shades, and St Moritz is indeed rather yellow. While I normally lean towards yellow undertones, this is too yellow for me and my skintone needs Groenland to balance it out.

Above I've partly blended in the two colours (Groenland left and St Moritz middle), and mixed them (right) so you can see what they look like together.

Below I've blended them in. You can see that the moisturiser is nice and sheer, just adding a slight wash of colour. For this reason (the colour being sheer) I could probably get away with Groenland in winter and St Moritz in summer, but neither would work alone when my skin is partway between its winter and summer colours.

Nars claims/product details:

And there I am with my face on. Have a look especially at my forehead and jawline (and click on the images to enlarge them if need be): you can see that the coverage is slight but still evens things out and adds a nice glow.

Verdict

Man am I bummed that I don't have a good colour match with a single shade! Then again, this may be a good thing for my wallet ; )

This really is a great little product. As you may know I generally much prefer lighter bases like tinted moisturisers and BB/CC creams. I find these work better for my skin and I prefer a more natural look. Plus bases like these are my biggest 'makeup weakness' and I tend to over-buy them and have a lot hanging around. This means I've tried heaps of them over the years and can say that this is absolutely one of the best ones I've tried for a while.

What I love about it is that it's lightweight and sheer but still buildable so you can increase your coverage if you want. It delivers a natural look and evens out skintone nicely, while having a brightening effect (so those claims are true). It leaves your skin looking dewy and healthier, and I think it's probably best suited to those who do not have oily skin (although you could always use a powder over the top if that's you).

The high sun protection is a must and I generally don't buy bases these days without a decent SPF.

While this product is pricey, you do get a lot of product and the tube should last you a while. Plus the quality is there so I think it's worth the price, particularly if you shop around for a good deal.

Love. As I said, if I wasn't between colours I would definitely be buying this come October when I'm opening my purse strings again. Between now and then, however, I would rather find a new base that has a better colour match for my skin from the existing range, so I don't need to mix colours.

Do you have an HG tinted moisturiser? I'd love to hear if so - I need to keep sampling some more so I can work out which one to buy next!