Illamasqua - Skin Base Foundation

Illamasqua's newest foundation, Skin Base, is based upon Asian BB creams. Having tried a couple of BB creams, I decided to give Skin Base a whirl. Upon looking at the Illamasqua site, SB 06 seemed like the best match, as I have fairly neutral undertones. When I went to the counter & said that I used their Rich Liquid foundation in shade 133, the lovely counter staff agreed that SB 06 was the shade I should go for.

I had some applied whilst at the counter & was a little apprehensive at first. Since I came back from Download, my skin has been a mess. I'd picked up a new sun cream & between that & the moisturiser I took along (not my usual), I've ended up breaking out in places & also developed an eczema patch near my chin, a new one on me since I rarely get eczema on my face & never on my chin.

With all this going on, it was going to take something spectacular to cover that lot up. The first thing I noticed was that Skin Base felt less like a foundation whilst being applied & more like a moisturiser. I loved the way it felt & looked. No concealer was used & yet it still managed to cover the redness from my eczema patch completely, without looking at all cakey or fake. In sunlight, the colour match was still a good one, no surprise orange tones.

The major surprise for me came later that evening when I washed my make-up off. Not only had the Skin Base covered up my eczema extremely well, but it actually looked a lot less red & raised. I'd been trying everything to calm it down & this foundation had done in just a few hours what days of applying various creams had failed to do!

I've been using SB for over a week now, in fact, my other foundations are feeling a tad neglected. It's easy to apply & blend, the coverage is immensely buildable, ranging from something light to a coverage that can rival Rich Liquid's without looking heavy or mask-like. Although I am prone to an oily t-zone, this doesn't slide off, disappear or get messy at all. Wear-time, for me, rivals that of the MAC Pro Longwear and manages to look good for the whole day but it's much less fiddly to apply than Pro Longwear with better looking results.

The colour match is good, although I do have a slight bit of colour right now from all the time in the sun at Download. It won't look fake when I do return to my normal colour but I'd feel more comfortable in a slightly paler shade. Unfortunately, this is the lightest shade with neutral tones. I may end up investing in a bottle of  SB01, the white shade, to pale it down for winter months.

Packaging-wise, the clear squeeze tube is perfect. It's compact enough to carry around for touch-ups, should you need to. 

Saying that I'm a foundation junkie is somewhat of an understatement, I'm always trying new foundations but Skin Base has seriously blown me away. It looks good no matter what kind of coverage you need, a bit of powder sorts out the shiny t-zone issue, it lasts & stays looking good & still manages to feel nice on the skin. I could actually see myself using this as both my day & night foundation, it's that good.