Notes by Nicole | Beauty, Fashion, Life: Review | Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Foundation

I've been a bit naughty recently and bought the long-wanted Chanel Aqua Vitalumiere Foundation for no apparent reason but merely because I wanted it. However, I do not regret a thing! In this post, I shall share with you my likes and dislikes about this product and eventually inform you, is this really worth the £32 price tag?

Background

Like I mentioned before, I really had no reason in purchasing this foundation, it was basically for my own satisfaction and to add to my collection - I don't even wear foundation every day! As I had been on study leave, my friend and I popped out to Costa to do some Maths revision and ended up going to Debenhams for a bit and I decided that I would get that foundation that day, only to find out that a week later (this weekend gone), Debenhams had its Blue Cross sale and all beauty and fragrance items were 10% off - just a tad annoyed! But I eventually got over myself and here I am typing up this post informing all you lovely people out there whether or not I made the right decision in this impulse buy.

Actual Review

Let me begin by informing you that this is a water-based foundation and therefore will work well with most skin-types, I should also warn you now that this foundation requires shaking well or you will only pour out a foundation coloured water but not the product itself. Other than that, let's get cracking!

The first thing I would like to point out about this foundation is the packaging, I am one of those girls who are very affected by how the make-up is packaged as it affects the ease of storage, luckily for me, the cuboid shape bottle means that it fits nicely in my drawer in comparison to my cylindrical foundations, so this has definitely won me over already (small detail but definitely makes a difference). For all you travellers out there, this is also very light-weight due to its plastic bottle packaging and again can fit into any corner of any bag easily. Then again, for a £32 bottle of foundation should I expect something of nice quality - like glass? I guess it would be nice to have some luxurious packaging, but knowing me I'll drop it and smash it and cry at the thought of chucking £32 down the drain. So, so far, so good!

Next thing I noticed is the fact that this foundation doesn't have a pump but a squeezy bottle thing, I've always been complemented for my descriptions! This is what I don't like about is that it takes effort for the product to come out (jeez I sound lazy) but personally I much prefer a pump bottle as opposed to the squeezy bottle that this foundation has.

Now onto the foundation itself, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE CONSISTENCY! This foundation is definitely very light-weight so perfect for me. Luckily, I am blessed with naturally clear and even skin tone and therefore I have never been one to go for a heavy-duty foundation. This product is super light-weight and blends super easily! I have been using the Real Techniques Expert Face brush to blend this in and it does a perfect job! This was the foundation that I used for my prom and it lasted all night (I did use a setting spray). I actually got matched at the Chanel counter in Debenhams so I'm in 40 Beige. I would also say that because it blends so easily, a little bit goes a very long way and I usually use just under a pea size amount for my entire face (although this would depend on how much coverage you need).

However, my forehead is actually a lot tanner than the rest of my face, now I do not know whether it's because I need a different shade for my forehead (I'm not going to buy a darker shade for my forehead by the way) or the fact that the foundation oxidises as I wear it and it just becomes more obvious on my forehead, but around 3-4 hours later, the foundation does turn a different colour compared to its initial application - it hasn't done so on the rest of my face so I'm okay with that and therefore I am not entirely sure about the cause of this.

Unfortunately, I do not feel I am fit to compare this foundation to others that I have tried as my foundation history is very limited but I would say that if you have naturally quite clear skin and merely want a foundation to even out the skin-tone of certain areas, there are definitely cheaper alternatives to do so, for example the Rimmel London Wake Me Up foundation, they have both done a great job on the days I choose to wear foundation although I would say that the Chanel one sinks into the skin better and really doesn't feel like you're wearing foundation in comparison to the Rimmel London one. I also know that the Yves Rocher foundation is also great and the weight of the two are highly comparable.

Verdict

All in all, I absolutely love this foundation for the consistency and its colour. It really does make your skin look flawless (if I were a better blogger I would've taken a photo of me with just this foundation on, but I'm not...). Is it worth the price tag? I would say that it is worth it if you were just looking at this foundation by itself, but if you were to compare it to other foundations on the market there are definitely cheaper alternatives which will work just as well!

And finally, I'll leave you with a photo of my at my dinner and dance with this foundation on!