New No7 Match Made Foundation Matching Service Review

(and some short reviews of the foundations)

Hi Everyone!

I'm suprised that there doesn't seem to be many reviews about this so I thought i'd just jump in and do one. I was matched about a month ago as I wanted to try some of the different foundations and be able to give my opinion on them and their wear.

I popped into my local Boots and ventured over to the No7 counter, which has recently been updated along with the products and looks fantastic. The idea is is that the MUA uses a small device that compares your skin tone to its library of shades to find your best match. Full info here for those who want to know more.

The whole process is very quick and it matched me to the shade Calico. The MUA asks me about what coverage I like, the finish I like and what I want from the foundation. I like medium coverage with a semi matte finish. I got paired with No7 Stay Perfect foundation, this is their long wear foundation. The foundation was applied onto my skin in store and the match was perfect, it disappeared completely into my skin. The coverage was medium and the finish was pretty matte. I didn't buy it on the day as I like to see my colour matches in natural light and see how it wears for the rest of the day.

Boots was running its money off No7 vouchers so I popped back a couple of days later and picked up the foundation.... and a few others *whoops*. The great thing about their range is that you don't need to be rematched for each foundation, the shades are the same for all the foundations.

I picked up:

(L-R: Stay Perfect (liquid), Instant Radiance, Beautifully Matte (liquid) and Stay Perfect (compact).)

and open... same order:

(look! the compact even has one of those protective covers on it so it doesn't dry out :) Sorry... that impressed me. And they all come with pumps so no trying to shake it out the bottle.)

I'm going to do a quick review of all of these below so you can see what I thought of them.

Stay Perfect (liquid): This reminds me a bit of the Rimmel Lasting Finish foundation. This gives a smooth even medium coverage. It will last all day on my skin and doesn't seem to develop much shinyness during the day. It does a good job of hiding my large pores and doesn't settle into them during the day. I've applied this with a foundation brush, stipple brush, flat top brush and fingers and it looks great using any of them. My prefered way of applying most foundations is with my fingers. I've worn this quite a lot and no signs of break outs.

Instant Radiance: This is my favourite of the bunch, I was afraid it might turn oily on my skin but it does in fact just remain a perfect glowy finish all day. The foundation has a slightly more peachy undertone that the others which I find brightens up my skin. This is also medium coverage. I would definately consider repurchasing this and it definately comes near the top of my all time favourite foundations.

Beautifully Matte (liquid - this also comes as a mousse): This is definately matte, a little to matte for my skin. I have combination skin with my forehead, nose, eyelids and chin being oil slicks and my cheeks being dry (sometimes to the point of being flakey). This works great on my oily bits and I would really recommend this foundation for oily skin as it did keep me matte all day and didn't fade away. The problem I did have is on the dry areas it did show up any flakey bits and became really powdery during the day on those areas. I'll continue to wear this I just have to make sure my cheeks are well moisturised before I apply. This one is high coverage.

Stay Perfect (compact): This a compact form of the Stay Perfect. It states it is medium coverage like the liquid but I would say that this is medium/high coverage. This is my only compact foundation so it was a bit of an experiment. I have to say i'm not a fan, its hard to apply and it doesn't seem to sit smoothly on my skin. Its possible its me not the foundation and i'll up date if I find a way to apply this that works.

All of these match me well colour wise which I think helps make them look good on my skin.

(Same order as before - this doesn't really show the different textures except the compact but I thought i'd throw it in anyway.)

Thanks for reading!

Bye