Max Factor Facefinity 3-in-1 Foundation

As much as I love Revlon's ColourStay foundation, I was on the lookout for something which was lighter, whilst still keeping my oily skin at bay throughout the day. I searched online and asked for people's opinions, and I found a lot of information about this offering from Max Factor:

 

 

 

 

 

"For women who want their foundation to easily deliver a long-lasting professional finish. The intelligent formula has three elements; Primer to hold, Concealer to correct, Foundation to finish."

 

This is marketed as a 3-in-1 foundation which essentially claims to be a primer, concealer and a foundation all in one. I have to say, I do tend to still use a primer and a concealer as well as this, although that is because my skin can get quite oily and blemish-prone, so if you have normal skin and a few small imperfections, you could easily get away with just wearing the foundation.

 

The consistency of this is quite runny, however this doesn't make it diffcult to work with. It is almost effortless to apply as it blends really easily into the skin. At first it gives quite a dewy finish, which I know some people like, however with my skin being quite oily I tend to favour a more matte finish, so I usually apply a setting powder over the top.

 

This lasts all day on my skin with no trouble. Granted, I use a primer and a powder with it, but I have been out just wearing the foundation, and it lasted me a good 7/8 hours on it's own, something which impressed me as not many foundations last that long on my skin.

 

The packaging of this is also lovely - it's a sturdy glass bottle with a pump (the only thing I disliked about the colourstay was that it didn't have a pump so this is an added bonus for me!). The pump feels well-made and dispenses just the right amount of product, resulting in minimal waste. I find it takes around 1 1/2 pumps for my whole face, so this bottle should last me quite a while!

 

The only slightly disappointing thing about this is the limited shade range. I have shade 40 Light Ivory, which I think is the lightest shade, and even this is not that light. There are only six shades in the range, and they don't run very dark at all, so if you're dark skinned you're really going to struggle with this one. Another thing is that everytime I go into Boots, there always seems to be only 3 shades in the stand, and there are usually only 1 or 2 bottles left on the shelf, so availability may be a slight issue.

 

I would 100% recommend this. I may even prefer it to Revlon ColourStay, which I still absolutely love, but this one is more suited to hotter weather as it delivers a medium coverage rather than a high one, although if you are having a bad skin day it can be built to a pretty full coverage.

 

This is £11.99 and available from Boots and Superdrug.

Max Factor Max Effect Mini Nail Polish in Fantasy Fire

I know, I know. You've probably seen a million posts on this, and I am rather late jumping onto the bandwagon. However, I didn't actually buy this polish because of all the hype surrounding it, I bought it because I genuinely like the colour and the duochrome effect. Needless to say, the formula left a lot to be desired. I knew this was a sheer colour before I bought it, due to reading numerous reviews and blog posts about it, so I didn't even bother trying to layer up the polish, as I hate polishes like that as they smudge so easily. I layered Fantasy Fire over Barry M's Bright Purple, though I want to try it over a lighter shade such as Barry M's Berry Ice Cream to see what that effect is like :).

Excuse the backgrounds of these pictures, this was where I could actually capture some of the colour shifts, aha.

This polish is a purple colour, which shifts to gold, pink and green in certain lights. I couldn't seem to photograh the green anywhere, so you'll have to take my word for that one! The top picture shows more of the gold shift (excuse the tipwear on there, this was the 3rd day of wearing it), and the second picture shows the pinky shift. Application was good once layered over another colour, and you could use purple (like I did), blue, lilac etc for your base coat to give different shades, making it very versatile. The polish gave an amazing glass-like smooth finish even with no top coat, which I thought was good.

Overall, I really like this. I haven't used any other Max Factor polishes before, and after this one, I may give a few others a try. This polish comes in a very small bottle (it doesn't actually say how much is in it, and I can't find it on the Boots website, so apologies) and costs £3.99 from Boots and Superdrug (though it's on special offer in Superdrug at the minute for £2.99). It's quite expensive for the amount of polish that you get, but because of the effect, I would repurchase. It's apparently the "it" shade at the minute and because of this is hard to find, but I found it in both Boots and Superdrug on the first attempt. 

What do you think? Would you purchase this shade?