Makeup Forever's Infamous HD Range

Warning! Lengthy review ahead! :)

When I went to Marbella last month, I may have squealed and started clapping like a lunatic when I spotted Sephora! We aren't lucky enough to have it here in England and although the spanish Sephora doesn't carry all the brands that the US version does, they still have a few to get excited over, Makeup Forever being one of them. It's a brand that's notoriously difficult to get hold of for us Brits so I knew I needed to take advantage even with the hefty price tags! 

The first thing I made a bee line for was the HD foundation. Every blogger, vlogger and beauty lover will have heard of this super popular foundation. With a promise of flawless, airbrushed skin and a full coverage making it perfect for photos, it's definitely something I wanted to try even with a £32 price tag. It's a liquid formula (I wear the shade 127) and has a very runny consistency. I've been applying it with a Real Techniques buffing brush or a Sephora flat foundation brush (if you'd like a review on that then let me know in the comments). One thing I will suggest, is to make sure your skin's free from any dry patches, because this will cling onto dry skin like a mutha! I make sure I've exfoliated, moisturised, then applied a good quality primer ten minutes after the moisturiser. You definitely need to do some prepping before applying this. 

I prefer how my skin looks about half an hour after application, once it's had time to settle on my skin. At that point my skin looks even and just generally better than when it's first applied. It's full coverage-ish and the reason I say 'ish' is because I feel I have to apply quite a lot to achieve that. Comparing it to another high end full cover foundation such as Laura Mercier's Silk Creme, I only need a small amount to cover my entire face and still get that flawless, even finish, whereas with the HD foundation I find I'm using a lot more product which is quite disheartening when I've spent so much on it. This might be down to the fact it's such a runny liquid, whereas the Laura Mercier foundation is a thicker, creamy formula. 

Anyway, once applied and set with powder, this lasts all day. And I mean all day. I've set it with about three different powders and it still has fantastic staying power. This baby ain't budgin'! And that's hugely important to me when I'm judging a foundation. I hate my base wearing off by lunch time and making me look like a patchy mess, never a good look! So thumbs up for longevity. I have combination skin at the moment, so I get oily through my t-zone. This applies matte, but after about 5-6 hours I have shine that needs powdering. 

If you're a dry skin gal I'd say this may not be for you. The fact it clings to dry patches means it's probably more suited to the combination-oily crowd. In summary, this gets a 7/10 from me. I loved it at first but after a fair few uses, I'm not happy with the fact I need to use so much product and seeing as this is so hard to get hold of, I'll be saving it for 'special occasions'. My personal preference is definitely something thicker and creamier in consistency.

Wow that was pretty in depth! But again, it's super expensive so I wanted to give a full, honest review :) 

Onto the next one! 

The Makeup Forever HD powder was a bit of an impulse buy because I hadn't heard as much about it as the foundation but I'm not going to beat around the bush here... I love it! This retails at £24.95 which is definitely a lot for a powder. It's a loose powder which is translucent on the skin, so anyone can wear it. It has the handy netted bit (technical term!) so it doesn't distribute too much product and you don't end up with it all over your clothes, floor, child, dog etc. As soon as I apply this to my skin, it creates a velvety feel and adds to the matte effect I get from my foundation (or mattifies an already dewy foundation). I've never used a powder quite like it! The smallest amount completely transforms the feel of my skin and this baby locks everything down! Nothing's going anywhere under this, so it really helps to keep my makeup in place all day. 

I'm normally a pressed powder lover, but I've been converted. I'd say this has much more of a wow factor than the HD foundation and it gets a 10/10!

Essay over! Sorry for such a long post! I do hope you enjoyed it though and more importantly I hope this has given you some food for thought if you were toying with the idea of buying either of these HD products.

I have found a British website that stocks MUFE products, so check out this link.