Trish McEvoy Treatment Foundation SPF15 - review

Trish McEvoy Treatment Foundation

I was really excited about trying this one out - after all, it's not everyday you spend €73 or thereabouts on a bottle of "face tint".  Then again, I didn't spend that either - I bought it in the recent Harvey Nichols event a couple of weeks back at (I think) 20% off.

Still, even with discount, it was not a cheap foundation.  And a few weeks of usage later, I'm still waiting for the magic to happen :-(

Here's the thing - I will cut to the chase before I go into the details as per my usual foundation posts - this is so full of silicones, I can't decide if it's actually the best foundation on the planet, ever, bar none, and really amazingly wonderful for my skin (per its claims to be a skin treatment foundation) or if it's just so full of silicones that it's leaving a skin of the damn stuff on my face and making me think it's silky smooth and soft...  Onwards, and I'll explain as I go.

Coverage

Pretty much straight down the line medium, slightly sheerable-outable (it's a word!) and slightly buildable to "almost full" coverage.


Finish

Apparently a "radiant finish" foundation, this is nice enough, but nowhere near the glow I was expecting of this.  On my dry skin, it looked like another luminising satin finish, like so many other foundations these days (look here for MontyC's review on YSL Youth Liberator Foundation for example).


Wear

Here's the thing - for this kinda money, I expect something to last me.  This is a very bog-standard 7-8 hours wear foundation; after that it needs a bit of topping up.  It fades, man does it fade, over time.  To the point that I noticed it and really wasn't impressed.  It also goes a bit patchy on dryer skin, and slides a bit (boy does it need powdering) over oilier skin.  Primer doesn't really make much difference to it - it has so much silicone content that I can understand why not.


Formulation

This is a water-based thick liquid/light cream foundation, handily enough it comes in a (30ml) pump bottle (this I like).  Ingredients-wise, silicones, silicones, silicones.  Apparently, noncomedogenic, gluten-free, not tested on animals - so far so good.  Hyaluronic acid.  Great.  Parabens.  Hmmmm.


Shades & Undertones

 

It comes in nine shades, from Fair (pale "enough") to Bronze (medium dark) - but there are no very pale or very dark shades.  They're divided into yellow, neutral and pink undertones - I'm wearing Sunny Beige (my skin is around MAC NC25-27 at the moment for reference) and it's more or less ok - ever so slightly too dark and ever so slightly too yellow, but nothing of any consequence, just if I wanted to be dreadfully picky.  I do prefer a more yellow base, but this seems excessively yellow.  It doesn't seem to oxidise, which is a good thing.


Best applied with

Pretty much every brush you've got will work with this - I like to use a flat paddle brush the best, although Trish McEvoy recommends a dual fibre brush, I think this sheers it out a little too much for my liking.  It's a strange foundation in that, the more you use of it (by that I mean with every progressive usage), the less you use the next time.  One decent sized pump will do you the first few times - a couple of weeks later, I was noticing that about 3/4 and then 2/3rds of that amount was now doing the same trick.  As I am pretty much mentioning everywhere, it's chock-full of silicones - for this reason, make sure your sponge/brush/fingers is/are dry.


Best suited to

I could see this one being problematic for either extreme of either very dry or oily skin types.  I found this went a little patchy on the very dry areas of my skin over time (and getting a little worse every day, which doesn't surprise me given the amount of silicones in it).  I think it might suit dry-ish, normal, up as far as combination, but that's pretty much it.


Skincare, SPF, Price, Flashback

SPF15.  Flashback - yes, slightly.  We've covered off the price early on - expensive, and if I'm truthful, not really worth the price-point.  Skincare?  OK this deserves a bit more time and effort.

This foundation calls itself a "treatment" foundation.  Trish McEvoy's claims are that this is an "advanced moisture-boosing, skin-improving formula that contains dual-action peptides and antioxidants to combine the power of color and skincare as it instantly diffuses fine lines and rejuvenates skin with regular wear".

Here's what I found:  the first time I wore it, it seemed fine, certainly nothing special, but fine - but when I tried to remove it later on in the evening, I was shocked by the level of silicone slip left on my face.  A quadruple cleanse later (I am not exaggerating) I had removed most of the silicone remnants.
With each progressive wear, my skin felt a little smoother, silkier, softer.  But honestly, I can't trust that it's not just the silicones - maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but first blush, together with the ingredients listing, has left me highly suspicious.


Overall, recommended?

No, in all honesty, given my uncertainty, given the price, I couldn't justify recommending this one - it may be the best thing ever, but I am just not sure, and I don't trust it.  So, long story short, no.  Keep your sheckles and use 'em on something else.