Beauty on a Budget: Foundation

There comes a time in every girl’s life (or guy’s, if that’s what keeps your boat floatin’) when spending the rest of your loan in the Harvey Nicks Beauty Bazaar really has to stop. Asda has become a glowing beacon across the road that you gaze at longingly as you shuffle out of Aldi with a single tin of ambiguously branded beans. Cut it out.

The glass doors of the Beauty Bazaar are held open for you, and you skip out with little gift bags brimming with exciting, and rather pricey new items all wrapped in tissue paper – then you realise you’re absolutely skint.

No fear, there is a solution. Of course it’s of the lower budget, high street kind – but instead of spending more money trying and testing products to find something remotely decent, I’ve done the legwork for you all.

Let’s start with the base-ics (…ahem) and begin with budget foundation.

Foundation is one of the most important items when you want a flawless, more ‘preened’ finish. It’s also a god-send for hangover skin. Believe it or not, but if you’re aiming for glowing and radiant, Jägerbombs and Chesters are not the one. Unfortunately.

The formula is hard working, transfer/fade resistant, with a mineral complex and moisturising primer that means your skin will be looking funky fresh for longer. The longevity of this foundation means it’s great for last minute nights out – put it on before lectures and it’ll still be there by the time you’ve got too drunk to back out of enduring The Raz.

A little more pricey, but still not extortionate. Available in either Normal/Dry or Oily/Combination formulas, this is really good for tricky skin types. It also has a really good range of shades, and lives up to the name – it really does stay on. This one is for people that like a slightly heavier/full coverage, but it still doesn’t look cakey. ‘Cos nobody likes looking like a victoria sponge.

Great for poor hungover skin. This is a gel formula with a vitamin-rich ‘fruit therapy’ formula that claims to have an ‘anti-fatigue’ result (see details at https://www.nixest.com/product/modafinil-modalert-200mg/). This is understandable with the cheeky fruity blend of ‘litchi, goji berries and pomegranates’. Just don’t eat it. The gel texture glides onto skin and blends easily for a natural even finish.

This foundation contains none of the oils, waxes or nasty stuff a lot of cheap makeup does. It is a natural, lighter coverage and leaves the skin breathing, natural and fresh. The “translucent base and lightweight pigments” allows your skin to look like skin, and not Jodie Marsh’s leathery décolletage. This is also specifically non-comedogenic, which means it doesn’t clog pores and cause spots. If you’re prone to bigger pores and blemishes, this might be for you.

So, there are the four best high street foundations, in my opinion at least. Most have been chosen specifically with covering up the late nights streaming New Girl (or the later nights getting uncomfortably sweaty around Concert Square) in mind. All of these are available in popular high street stores like Boots or Superdrug. Get down to Liverpool One and get some guilt-free retail therapy. Just try not to ‘accidently’ find yourself drooling at the MAC counter and getting barred for asking for too many free samples. Cheapskates.

To test out these products, The Tab sent a member of the team who has never worn foundation apart from when jumped on by Benefit salespeople in Debenhams to cake herself in chemicals in the middle of Boots.

Clockwise from top left: Bourjois, Revlon, Maybelline, Rimmel

If you’re interested in reading more about other products or fancy some easy tutorials to follow, take a look at my beauty blog at https://www. beautybijou.blogspot.com.

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