No7 Beautifully Matte Makeup Base - £10.50 available here
Hey guys, I was on the hunt for a good, budget mattifying primer and found this one being mentioned a lot on blogs. Although No7 is the higher end of the high street, I find a lot of base products are around this price and Boots always have offers and vouchers for No7 so you can easily get a good deal.
The first time I used this I was surprised by the slight pearlescence of it; it's a white cream with a slight shimmer running through it. Don't be put off by that though, it doesn't really transfer onto the skin that much. You don't need much of this (although I only really use it in the centre of my face) and it sets pretty quickly which can make it a little difficult to blend in. I find myself quite liking that though because it means I can apply my foundation straight over it without having to wait for it to set to a matte finish.
Applying foundation over it is fine, it does make blending a tad more difficult but nothing dreadful (I find stippling motions better for blending foundation anyway so it's not really a problem for me). This really does mattify your face instantly, especially if you're using a matte/satin finish foundation too (I haven't actually tried it with a dewy finish yet). Actually, I found myself feeling like I didn't really need to powder and it was quite a novelty only having to use a very light application of powder (for reference I used True Match foundation and Stay Matte powder).
This base didn't keep me matte all day but it did prevent me from having to powder longer. I put my makeup on probably at about 9:30am and at around 4pm I felt like I still could have gone a little longer before powdering; I had some oil coming through but it just looked like a healthy glow - not an oil slick. Usually, I would want to touch up at about 12pm if I'd put my makeup on at that time so I think that speaks for how good this primer extends your makeup. That being said, I'm not the oiliest of the oily. I would say I'm more normal-oily depending on the day but recently I've been finding myself getting very oily, very quickly.
I still need to put this to the test more and I'll let you know if my views on it change, but for now I'm very, very happy with this primer. It's definitely the best I've tried from the drugstore.
Boots currently have a buy one get the second half price deal on No7 and £3 off No7 makeup vouchers circulating, so be sure to take advantage of them if you do decide to pick this up!
Have a fabulous day,
Nikki x
