Summer can be a rough time for skin. Sun damage, late nights, festivals and parties that start way too early in the day can all take their toll, causing all sorts of unsightly problems from sunburn to excess patchy pigmentation and spotty outbreaks.
Having burnt the candle at both ends for the entire season and suffering from all these ills, I could tell my skin was crying out for some care and attention, so I turned to Clinique, a trusted name in problem skin, for guidance. Their answer was 'Even Better': an SPF 15 evening and correcting foundation that promised to tackle uneven skin tone and hide a multitude of sins.
Read on for my verdict
What it claims to do:
The big idea behind Even Better foundation is that it can "combat hyper-pigmentation and deliver brighter skin, both immediately and over time". In plain English, that means that any areas of skin where you've got light and dark patches will be evened out and homogenised to one single hue. This is a particularly useful property in a summer foundation, since the primary cause of hyper-pigmentation is sun exposure, which can manifest as freckles in some people or large light and dark patches in others.
Proactive benefits
The foundation also "includes treatment benefits to help even skin tone and SPF protection to help prevent future hyper-pigmentation.". Any foundations with a built-in sunblock get a big thumbs up from me and the reasoning here is pretty sound.
What I found:
Despite a near sun-free summer, my skin is definitely suffering from hyper-pigmentation at the moment caused by insect bites and too much partying. This has caused terrible eye bags, brown spots and endless blemishes - so I was very excited to try out this 'evening out' property.
I had to take care to ensure I rubbed the cream into affected and unaffected areas equally, but once I'd spent a few minutes massaging it in, I was instantly impressed by the result.
Super smooth skin
Before I'd even had a good look in the mirror, I was already loving the feel of this foundation: I'm fairly sure it feels lighter than any other I've tried. This is probably due to its mineral content, but there's no powdery undertone to this as is often the case with liquid minerals. Instead, it just makes the skin feel soft and silky, with no feeling of being 'coated' or greasy.
Getting even
But what of the reported evening out effect? I tried the foundation on one particular cluster of freckles on my forehead to test this theory. Looking in the mirror now, I'd never have known I had freckles there, so this particular claim is a sound one, at least when used on areas of minor excess pigmentation. Redness was also improved by the foundation, and my skin had an all-over dewy glow.
If you'd like to give Clinique's Even Better a try, you can buy it for £19.50 at House of Fraser
