Why I’m Ditching Fenty Beauty.

It’s been a few months now since one of the most hyped beauty launches – Fenty Beauty. With a loyal fan base and the help of beauty conglomerate, Kendo, Rhianna and her beauty range caused quite a stir.

Usually, I will religiously research a product before I buy. I’ll read blogs, watch wear tests and ask around. But I was suckered in. Mesmerised by the inclusive colour range (40 shades on launch!) and the gorgeous frosted glass bottles.

Judging by the waiting list, just to be colour matched, in Harvey Nichols, Birmingham, I wasn’t the only one. The ad campaigns were sleek and the marketing was magical. It was hard not to fall in love.

I got a bit carried away after getting colour matched with a shade that was way too yellow toned for me. I picked up both the foundation and the primer, without knowing anything about how either perform, what skin they are suitable for or if I even needed both.

First I applied the foundation with my Spectrum B01 buffing brush and, boy it covered. It took extra buffing to distribute evenly, as it wanted to cling to the areas I applied the primer. After application, it looked nice, covered my flaws and didn’t settle into to my wide cheek pores.

Fast forward an hour. I checked in my bathroom mirror to see how things looked and I was shocked. My skin looked incredibly dry and flakey. Considering I have never had dry skin, that was not what I was expecting from a high end primer and foundation.

To make things even more frustrating, after a full day of wear, my oily (my true skin type) skin had eaten the foundation on patches on my skin. This left with scaly areas, with a nasty juxtaposition on red uncovered skin. Not a pretty look.

To add salt to the wound, the colour I was matched with was so wrong for my skin and undertones, that my colleague asked me if I fake tan on my body, as she was confused by the colour difference to my face (she worded it in a much for tactful way). It’s a shame because the lady at the counter was so lovely and chatty, but she got it so wrong!

I tried so hard. I wore the foundation alone: better, but still dry. I applied with a beauty blender: nicer finish but lasted even less longer and wouldn’t adhere to the goddamn end of my nose. I set with it powder: which made no difference. I wore hydrating face masks before application: no luck. I wore the primer with the lightest coverage BB cream from L’oreal, which normal makes me look radiant, but my skin still looked like the Sahara Desert.

I wore both the primer and foundation for a whole month and still could not get it to look nice. I decided it was time to move on and sell both.

Lesson learnt, never give in to the marketing hype and always do your research.