Hey Lovelies,
Right first things first before I launch into my review of this product I just want to clarify that with some beauty products such as foundation they can work for some people but not for others. Please keep in mind that just because something may of or may not of worked for me doesn’t mean it will be the same for you, this is just my thoughts and how I use this product. Also keep in mind that my skin type is oily/combination which suffers from breakouts and I have slight marking/scarring on my cheeks from acne so this is how I use this product to compliment my skin.
Okay boring stuff out of the way, we’ll begin with the review. This is a bit of an odd one for me as usually I know very quickly whether a foundation is going to work for me or not, I can usually tell within the first day if I’m honest, the good old test of how long it lasts, how it looks and whether it makes me look like a big shiny disco ball are all major factors for me. Usually though when I need a new foundation I tend to do my research before I buy as with foundation, they’re not cheap even drugstore ones tend to be rarely under £10.00 so you don’t want to buy something for it not to work and waste your money. However with the Estee Lauder Doublewear maximum cover foundation (phew what a mouthful) I have needed the past month to work out how to use this foundation to get the best results for me and it’s only now I feel I have enough experience with this product to give you all a worthy review.
So why did I choose this product? Well my beloved Estee Lauder doublewear is on it’s last legs and I know that soon the bottle will of run dry which is not surprising I bought it back in July and it’s been used almost every day since. Back in the beginning of December, Debenhams were holding a 15% off discount on all beauty products, this was good news to all us beautyahlolics as high end beauty products rarely have discounts or sales so it meant we could snap a couple of bargains. I decided now was the time to purchase a new foundation, I first of all thought that I would just purchase doublewear again but then after a lot of hype on some of my favourite blogs about Maximum Cover, Doublewear’s big sister I decided to look into that foundation instead. December was a bad month for my skin, with the stress of uni deadlines, Christmas shopping and lack of money my skin broke out and I knew I wanted something full coverage to cover my skin up over the Christmas period. Max cover (as we’ll now call it) seemed like the foundation for me, heavy coverage almost camouflage make up, suited for oily skin and a matte finish it seemed a definite perfect match for me. Silly old me decided to just order it and not even get colour matched, I know what a schoolboy error but I kind of guessed the colour I needed and I was worried if I dallied about going to get swatched I may miss out on the offer and I always find going to beauty counters really intimidating so I thought I’ll risk it. I got the shade Creamy Tan which isn’t the right shade for my skin, it’s almost too ashy if that makes sense but I manage to get it to work with my skin tone so all was not lost.
How I use it: So when this bad boy arrived through my letterbox I had every intention of using this as a foundation, I knew this was heavy stuff though and thought it would work mixed in with my Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation as after watching a Lisa Eldrige YouTube video, she gave a very good tip that you don’t need heavy foundation all over your face as it means all of your face looks covered in make up. This applies to me as my chin, nose and sometimes my forehead can be alright meaning I need less coverage, it also makes your make up look more natural. So with this in mind, I thought I’d be fine with it mixed in. I decided to try this on a day where I knew it would need testing, a day where I was working for nine hours and then Christmas shopping afterwards, this was a hardcore challenge for a foundation, the ultimate test. I have to admit it survived very well, the foundation stayed matte, remained in place and after being on for 12 hours+ it still looked pretty perfect. But there was something that I didn’t like, I just didn’t like the way it sat on my skin, I felt it made my skin look old which I know is a really weird thing to say, but I just didn’t like it.
I thought to myself ‘oh bugger’ I was so sure this foundation was going to work for me, so sure I forked out £20.00+ without even giving it a trial run. I decided I must be able to get it to work for me. After doing some research, I saw that other bloggers used this as a concealer. My concealer like the doublewear was on it’s way out so I thought right we’ll give this another go then. I used it as a concealer the next day and well I’ve never looked back since.
What does this foundation do then? Now don’t be under any illusions this foundation is hardcore stuff, it’s very full coverage, smells like stage make up and is advertised as camouflage make up. I do have some areas on my face that I am conscious of that other foundations and concealers fail to cover up, however with the max cover this covers everything and makes my skin look almost perfect. It covers blemishes, scars, under eye bags and well anything else that gets in it’s way. It’s not too heavy though used as a concealer so it doesn’t mean you look like you’ve been trowelled in make up, it’s just your skin but 100x better. This gives a matte finish that lasts pretty much all day and the littlest amount goes a very long way, here’s hoping this means this will last me a long time.
Application woes:So as I’m using this as a concealer I was applying as you would a concealer, I’d use my concealer brush and blend it into my skin, for a while this worked and over Christmas my skin cleared up and my skin had never looked better thanks to Max cover. I was so impressed with this that I even popped it into my 2011 favourites post, I’d only had a month and it had already made the prestigious list that all my beauty products had been fighting to be in. However as soon as I mentioned it in my faves post/video, it started to misbehave like a small child after Christmas who’d got what they wanted. I found that the foundation especially on my cheeks was just sitting there, and then when I went over with my bronzer, the brozner would stick to the foundation leaving me with dark brown areas on my face.
I thought to myself ‘oh bugger’ how else will I use this product now? Shall I just admit defeat? Then I had a brainwave, the foundation needs to be treated like foundation not concealer because it’s not concealer. It needs to be buffed in as you would foundation and I needed to use a different bronzer brush as the flat top one I was using was just not working. So the next day I buffed the foundation in which I used as concealer (are you keeping up here?) with my Real Techniques stippling brush, once buffed into the skin, I then changed my bronzer brush to a round fluffy brush and just applied bronzer to my temples, nose and cheekbones and stayed well away from any concealed areas. By doing both these things it meant that the bronzer was no longer sticking in patches because the foundation had been buffed into my skin giving me an almost airbrushed look. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this earlier to be honest.
So there we go, I finally feel a month on that I’ve finally found a way to use this product that works for me and that I’m happy with. It’s been a challenging journey but I finally feel that I know what the hype was about this product, it’s bloody brilliant at concealing everything and even though my skin is shocking again at the moment, it looks blimmin’ marvellous with my make up on, no one would ever know what lies beneath (ha how sinister)
Errr what scarring and break outs?
Would I recommend this product?Yes I would but ONLY if you have problem skin, if you have semi perfect skin- no scarring or breakouts then I’d probably stay away from this. This product is hard to work with (in my opinion) and you really only get a benefit from it if you have problem skin. If you are interested in this foundation then I urge you to go and get colour matched and request a sample to play with before you buy it! Don’t make my mistake of just thinking everything will be alright on the night. Now that I’ve got to grips with this product, I bloody love it and when I didn’t use it the other day I noticed such a difference, the only bad thing is now I’ve got myself hooked to a very expensive concealer!
Estee Lauder DoubleWear Maximum cover retails for £26.50 and can be bought from various department stores and Boots stores which stock Estee Lauder.
I’m sorry for such a lengthy review but I really had a lot to say about this product as you can tell! I hope you all have a brilliant Friday! 🙂
