Primer seems to break me out

Over the years I’ve tried lots (Smashbox, Benefit, Too Faced to name but a few) and none seem to agree with my skin. I don’t know how or why but in the last year or so I gravitated towards using BB creams and tinted moisturisers instead. I definitely see a difference in how my foundation looks, feels and lasts when I have a good base down first. After my Pupa BB Cream ran out I switched to Laura Mercier tinted moistuiser. This just doesn’t work as a tinted moisturiser because it seems to be missing the tint, so it works great as a base instead. While it lasted me forever I didn’t fancy forking out £34 again for another tube so set out to find an alternative.

As I’ve been all about Korean brands over the last 9 months the first thing I did was start researching their offerings. A lot of the brands I came across didn’t really offer much in the way of shades. They tend to be quite limited, just a couple if you’re lucky. One such brand was Tosowoong. Their BB Cream has one shade. However, on looking at the pictures it looked like a shade that could work with my skin. The finish, semi matte looked ideal for my skin. It’s oily but anything too matte just goes cakey on my skin. For the princely sum of just £6 I figured it was worth a try!

I’m not sure if this is just me, but I can read all the reviews in the world but sometimes I just get a gut feel about a product. This was one of those.

The product

There’s something about the design of this box that feels so dated. It just looks so different to either the clean or cutesy packaging I’m used to from Korea. 

You get 50ml of product in here which lasts forever. I’ve been using this a good couple of months now and am only just halfway through the tube. The tube itself doesn’t have the greatest design and I have found that when travelling, I’ll open it up to find product has leaked into the lid. I now just pop it into a little plastic bag, just in case. 

As it’s in a tube it’s easy to play around with amounts of product and find your sweet spot in terms of amount used daily. It’s quite watery and I find I don’t need a lot to cover my face. I’ve been using around half the size of a small grape each day to do my full face and neck.

Swatches

When I first put this on my fingers I freaked out a little. It looked so dark compared to my hand! 

However, this works into the skin really well. It obviously doesn’t match my skin tone but I feel like it definitely adjusts to it.

The best way to describe this is it leaves my skin looking brighter and healthier. So much so that I can and do wear this on it’s own on ‘no make up’ days. It just leaves me looking a little less like washed out, and doesn’t give me a nice orange line across my neck!

The important bit

It doesn’t break me out! My skin hasn’t been perfect the past few months but there’s been nothing to suggest that it’s anything to do with this. I’ve been using this at least five times a week and found no issues with it on my skin. With any base product I can have issues particularly when I am having a break out with how it settles on my skin. However, when I have had break outs and dry patches, I don’t find this clings to the dry patches at all. Thanks to it being slightly more watery it just seems to sink nicely into the skin.

I find the extra bit of colour and coverage also improves the overall face look. I don’t like to use concealer as it cakes but with this underneath my foundation I very rarely need it. The only time I do use concealer when I’m using this as my base (excluding the under eyes) has been for a full coverage night time look. Otherwise the coverage is perfect for my acne during the day.

Throughout the day I find my skin gets a little less oily than it did with the Laura Mercier, thanks to the semi matte finish. There’s still a little oil there, but I’m not reaching for my blotting papers like I used to. Anything that doesn’t leave my skin shiny by the end of the day, gets a vote from me!

The new favourite

This is absolutely my favourite skin base now and I have no reason to try another. It’s super cheap at just £6, lasts an age and is perfect for both full face and ‘no make up’ days. I think even those with dry skin will get on well with this as it plays nicely with my dry patches. You are quite limited in terms of where to purchase it from though. I’d avoid Amazon like the plague as it’s over double the price! I bought mine from this Ebay store. It’s basically the Ebay site for the popular Jolse shop. I’ve never had any issues ordering from there and you’re always covered by Paypal anyway if anything were to get lost.

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