Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation: Shell

Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation has been a firm favourite of mine since I first started wearing makeup! I love that you build it up to a full coverage finish but equally you can apply it wear needed for a sheer look. I also love the shade range, my absolute perfect shade match is ‘Shell’ which many of you probably know was discontinued. This is part of the reason I stopped wearing it but when I went to my local counter to see if there was anything similar the lovely girl working there told me due to popular demand they brought ‘Shell’ back!

Now Double Wear does have a bit of a mixed rep in the blogging world, for some it’s holy grail material and for others it is just to heavy and overpriced, in my opinion I can see both sides of this argument! First things first this is another pour bottle which drives me absolutely mad, NARS sheer glow and this one cost around the £30 mark and yet they don’t come with a pump!? Getting past that I can see how this could be a bit cakey on some people, the problem is actually also one of the great things about Double Wear, it blends beautifully! This means it is easy to keep adding more and more because it just looks so darn good!

Another thing I personally find is that it is a tad drying, not so much so that I wouldn’t use it but my skin is just a tad dry, for very dry skin this wouldn’t look great, it is definitely a dry skin clinger! The finish is semi-matte, it has a sort of luminous finish and it isn’t fully matte or glowy if that makes sense? I think it’s the perfect sort of finish if you want a blank (and flawless) canvas of which you can then set with a powder/highlighter to give you the finish you want. Talking of powder a light setting powder is crucial here to avoid looking too flawless! I would say a translucent setting powder works best.

As the name suggests this foundation is designed to stay put all day, and that it does! I personally reach for this when I have an important event (I wore it for my Graduation) or I know I am going to be out all day and don’t want to lose my face by lunch time! I also find that it helps to keep my blush in place too, if I use this as my base my makeup as a whole always lasts longer than with other foundations. Is it perfect? No, it is a tad drying and the pour bottle is a total faf but as far as a ‘staple’ foundation this one is pretty hard to beat!

The Estee Lauder Double Wear ‘Stay In Place’ Foundation costs £27 and is available here.

Oh one more thing, I would suggest you always double cleanse when using this, it is deceptively heavy and I have heard when not removed properly people have experienced breakouts because of that!