The Foundation Story Of Two Halves

Left: Happy Light, Right: Healthy Mix

Today I'm talking about my relationship with Bourjois foundations. Now, I've only currently tested out two, however this trial period has turned out to be a tale-of-two-halves type jobby. One - I've absolutely hated, and the other - I've absolutely loved. Guess that's how it goes in the beauty world, eh?

Let's start with the former first, so we can (hopefully) end this post on some kind of high. I'm talking about the Bourjois Happy Light. Now I've heard many a good thing about this stuff, and on the lookout for a nice, lightweight and dewy base, this fell into my basket one Boots trip a while back. The final push into buying it was by Anna who I'd seen rave after rave about how it was her favourite drugstore foundation but I'm afraid, I didn't have the same luck. On first application I was impressed, the foundation appeared to do what it claimed, giving a light base but still with decent coverage, and a nice, glowy finish to the skin. It was all going good. But on closer inspection when applying my concealer, I was noticing issues. There were patches beginning to emerge where my skin is slightly dryer and let's not even mention how it gathered around my eyebrows. I had to completely start again and, with this being the only foundation I had at the time, had to improvise and gently pat in a layer with my fingers to make myself look half decent.

On the other hand, when I tried the Bourjois Healthy Mix things were a completely different story. When on the lookout for an SPF free foundation at a drugstore price point for a recent wedding I was attending, this one caught my eye. I pushed aside all reservations I had considering the bad experience I had with (un)Happy Light and gave this a try. And I'm so glad I did, in short - this acted just how I expected Happy Light to, and possibly even better. The coverage was good, slightly more so than HL but still not giving the 'cake face' effect. The finish again was glowy and dewy and the foundation didn't feel to be sitting heavy on my skin. Of course the most essential part and the difference between this and the previous Bourjois base - it didn't go patchy on my skin and cling to any dry areas. I was sold and happily wore this to aforementioned wedding, which combined with Benefit's POREfessional made a very happy pairing indeed (excuse the pun).