COMPACT

La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL: Compact, But Not Sturdy

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Ugh: nothing worse than the mix of sunscreen and make up. I’ve got a few liquids I’m trying, and so far, not so good. They are fine on their own, and I gotta say, SPF 50 works. I haven’t had the usual outbreak of freckles all summer, because I’ve been as mindful as I’m meant to be, especially when horseriding. Not a smidge of pigmentation! This is great news.

Not so great: the days when I want to put the foundation on my face, or even a tinted moisturiser, and continue on with the full complement of brows and mascara, much less eyeshadow. What’s gal to do then?

I’ve been doing this.
ANTHELIOS COMPACT
La Roche-Posay’s Anthelios XL SPF 50+ Compact-Cream is proper make up with proper SPF that properly protects and also makes you look like you’ve got a good, finished look to ya. You’ve got your UVA/UVB broad spectrum protection, and an excellent quality creamy foundation coverage. It is also water-resistant, so sweat as much as you like.

However, if like me you don’t know your own strength…
BUSTED
I’m pretty sure I’ve never used a compact so much that I’ve broken it. I don’t know that I’ve used this all that much, either, to result in such destruction. Good thing I bought that asparagus that time, because I kept the purple elastic and it’s just the correct size to keep everything together.

I’ve had this issue with other LRP products, in which the packaging doesn’t stand up to regular usage. Its annoying, but it won’t put me off altogether, at all.
ANTHELIOS B&A
And this is why I love it. I feel all sun-protected, and yet natural-looking. I can use this with allll the make up, or as depicted here, with none a’tall. I haven’t even scraped down to the bottom — you know the way you get that little hole in the middle of a compact? — and there is so much summer yet to be had.

Okay, so maybe there’s a freckle or two on my nose, but srsly: nothing like the splatter of frecklage that used to look so cute all those years ago…

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€21;  comes in Sand Beige or Golden; the former is depicted here.

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Sweet Sixteen Minus Six: Too Faced Caribbean in a Compact, Snow Bunny

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Whoops! Here’s the number ten product in my revised Top Fave All-Time Products, which I should have posted last week. D’oh! Just as well, really, because there was a dead link within, and I tweaked this accordingly, with information as to how to order Sephora from Ireland, which is v v spendy. No wonder everyone goes bonks when in NYC or abroad…

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People often ask me, ‘Sue, do you ever buy beauty products anymore, and if you do, what would they be? ’The first one that always springs to mind is this cutie-pie compact from Too Faced: Carribean in a Compact Snow Bunny Subtly Sun-Kissed Bronzing Powder {which is now known in Sephora as Too Faced Snow Bunny Luminous Bronzer -ed}.

TOO FACED snow bunnyThat looks very ‘yum’ to me, like Neapolitan ice cream, which, as I suspected, is almost entirely an American construction. Here, you’ve go the bonus fourth flavour, which is probs the one far right, to swirl all over your face in order for it to look sun-kissed and glowy.

I was a bronzer loser when I started down the slippery slope of self-tanning, and this one was my salvation. Even I couldn’t mess this up. A perfect combination of lowlight and highlight, of gold + white + pink + fawn, this flows over the face like the sun itself, and during the Tanning Times, I never walk out of the door without it.

Imagine my distress when I began to run out of my trial version. It didn’t seem to be available anywhere in Dublin, and the brand no longer seemed to be represented by anyone in the PR world. So, on a trip to NYC, I lunged into a Sephora and grabbed up two. This number now seems optimistic: I’ve gone through the first one, and occasionally look at the other one in my drawer, with relief and trepidation.

At the time of this writing, I’ve rung all round town, to see whether a shop in town is carrying the brand, to no avail. Ah, well. There’s always online shopping, and as Sephora don’t have a store in the UK, much less in Ireland, you can order from France. Here’s a handy link, if you happen to read French; if not you can google-translate it.

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€26 from sephora.fr, plus shipping, which is — wait for it — €18 {merde!}/£22/$30

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Haiku Review: Eau Thermale Avéne Tinted Compact 50 SPF

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When reviewing things
It helps to read directions.
Call me crazy, right?

I love French stuff: the food, the wine, the lifestyle, the whole santé thing that they do. I’d never heard of the Avène line before, but have had the chance to try several of their products. I particularly got a kick out of the Thermal Spring Water, but haven’t really made it a big part of my regime. I was spritzing myself with the pressurised spray because I was bored last year during the snowpocalypse. It helped break up the day, and I suspect my skin, housebound as I was, enjoyed the refreshing sensation.

We don’t suffer from a lack of moist air in Ireland, so it doesn’t seem necessary to carry around a container of hydrotherapy in my handbag. Neither is the sun much of an issue, but SPF enthusiasts will insist that any sun is sun that is going to age us and give us skin cancer, so when the Eau Thermale Avéne Tinted Compact 50 SPF came through the letterbox, I thought, ‘Better safe than sorry.’

Of course, I didn’t bother reading exactly what it was so when I tried to use it as pressed powder, uh yeah, it didn’t work. Because it is foundation. Unaware, I swiped it over a face that was already sporting foundation. Crazy! I put it aside and forgot about it, scarred momentarily by my misuse of it.

Then one day I was running late, and I wanted to cut out the middle woman, meaning the time-consuming dispensing of foundation and then application of it onto my face > yeah, wha’? This makes sense to me, okay? Remind me to tell you about the time I used to take a cab four blocks to work — And so! So I picked this up, and using the pad that cunningly rests in the hinge between the top of the compact and the flip-up mirror, had a flawless face in three-ish swipes of product. I’ve never actually counted. I’m trying to reconstruct in my mind’s eye… okay… more like four-ish.

I brought this with my on my hols because it’s compact and effective and easy. It looks amazing, and it lasts and lasts. It’s also got a laundry list of excellent qualities — protection against UV radiation, free radicals, and sweat, as well as offering irritation reduction — but frankly the most important thing to me, at the end of the day, is that I don’t want to have to be touching up excessively throughout said day. This is a matte finish that combines the best effects of foundation and powder, and I am quite sad that I am near to using it up.

€20/£15/$35