I can't believe it's taken me this long to write about the No7 Stay Perfect Superlight Foundation. I've been using this foundation for the past year now and I've gone through two bottles of it. I was originally sent one from the lovely people at No7 following my work with them and I have used it almost every day since.
I had been using the original Stay Perfect Foundation on a daily basis before I got this and I really liked it, but after trying Superlight, I was totally converted.
I have combination skin so it can be dry, dehydrated and oily through the T-Zone with normal sized pores. To give you a reference I am usually the fairest shade in any given foundation range, I'm a BR20 in YSL Le Teint Touche Éclat and Intensity 01 in Estée Lauder Double Wear Light.
I was matched to the fairest shade in the range, Calico, which is perfect for my skin tone. As you can read on the box below, it is supposed to give you a natural but flawless finish with a weightless feeling on the skin. It's meant to be weather and transfer proof, oil free, contains SPF 15 and Vitamin E to help look after the skin all with a light to medium coverage.
It ticks the major boxes for me in terms of what I tend to look for and prefer with my foundation choice: Good shade match, skincare elements, light to medium coverage, lightweight easy to blend formula, some form of SPF, long lasting, transfer proof and budget friendly. I'm clearly not asking for much am I?!
I use the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush to apply this (which on a side note, can I just say if you don't already own this it's my favourite brush for applying foundation, it literally makes blending so effortless and is so inexpensive). Like Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua you have to shake this up before use as it's water based. The texture is light but not as light as the aforementioned Vitamuiere Aqua, which makes pouring the desired amount from the bottle a lot easier and prevents wasting any of the product.
This is incredibly easy to work with and blends into my skin so easily which is probably why it quickly became my go to foundation for everyday wear, it streamlines my make up routine in the morning and gives me precious extra minutes in bed.
I wouldn't say that there is any scent as such, definitely not an offensive scent anyway. I love that it contains SPF too as I do like to wear sun protection of some kind all year round. I find that it lasts on me very well, I do use a translucent setting powder on the centre of my face as I can become oily especially on my on my nose throughout the day. It still looks great at the end of the day even after I've been running around in work. It doesn't cling to dry patches which I can be prone to, nor does it sit in my pores, it just perfects my skin tone while allowing my natural skin to still be visible.
The packaging is a huge selling point for me. I love the hard plastic, sturdy bottle and the twist off top which make it durable and perfect for your travel make up bag.
No make up/ Just the foundation
Above is a close up of the foundation from this post, this photo is unedited apart from perhaps a slight change in the exposure.
My only criticism of this foundation is that it does oxidise slightly which means girls with fairer skin than mine wouldn't be able to wear it. I really think No7 could do with bringing out a shade that is paler than Calico as there are a lot of women who have a lighter skin tone and it would be great to give them a great quality affordable "drugstore" foundation as the very fair skinned ladies often get overlooked when it comes to more affordable brands.
It retails at €18.95 making it a similar price point to brands like L'Oréal, Revlon and Max Factor.
Have you tried this yet? What's your current favourite foundation?
Emma x
