Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Compact Foundation

When I was at a Chanel counter a couple of weeks ago, the assistant gave me two samples of their new foundation, the Vitalumiere Aqua Compact. I have the shades B30 and B40. I chose to use B30 because I have Vitalumiere Aqua in B40 and it's my summer shade so I expected B30 to be a better shade match for me right now. The samples are the classiest foundation samples I've seen in a while. I've used the one pictured three times and I expect I'd get just one more use out of it.

I tried applying this a few different ways and found the best way to be with my Real Techniques Buffing brush. I expected the Stippling brush to work better with it because I often prefer to use it with my thicker liquid foundations but hey ho! I wouldn't recommend using the sponge provided as it resulted in a rather streaky finish. It's quite easy to apply with either of the brushes I mentioned but I wasn't a fan of having to dip the brush back into the foundation to apply more. I guess I could have scooped some out onto the back of my hand first but the downside to that is that it could result in a lot of wasted product. I tried just applying dots of it on my face and then blending it out with the brush but I felt that it just disappeared into my skin without providing any coverage.

If I'm totally honest I don't know how I feel about this product. I found that I needed a lot more of the foundation than I was expecting to achieve medium coverage and thus it felt quite heavy on my skin. Not only did it feel heavy, it also looked quite heavy and greasy. Setting it with a powder either did nothing (when I used too little) or looked even more cakey (when I used too much). I decided to try setting it with some MAC Fix+ and that worked a bit better as it got rid of the cakey-ness and most of the oil.

The wear you can get from this foundation is also problematic. One of the times I wore it I checked my face about four hours in and thought my skin looked pretty nice but when I went to take my make up off a few hours later there was hardly anything there! I obviously like my own skin more than I think. This product transfers terribly on anything and everything; it ended up all over my phone and my top.

All in all, I can't recommend this foundation for anyone with skin that is in any way oily because it just never seems to set. Even though it offers pretty decent coverage I felt that I had to use too much product to achieve that. I think it might work for you if your skin is dry and not needing a great deal of coverage; that way you would require less product and benefit from the extra hydration on offer. FleurdeForce recently reviewed this foundation and said she liked it on her normal/dry skin but that she preferred to use it for touch ups during the day. I think if you want to try one of the Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundations, go for the liquid as it's so much easier to use and works on a range of skin types. It's also £8 cheaper.

The Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Compact foundation retails for £39 online (link) or from Chanel counters.

Stace xx