Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour Foundation and Breathable Concealer review

Last week something terrible happened. I suddenly ran out of foundation unexpectedly. Shock! Horror! This kind of thing never happens to me. Mostly because I have back ups neatly tucked away to call upon when I need them. But this time, I’d been well and truly caught out. Sure, I have a kit full of beautiful foundations in the studio, but they’re for client use only.

I’d been wearing my drugstore favourite L’Oreal Infallible 24H Stay Fresh foundation for a long time and was really enjoying the coverage, the longevity and the lovely formula. I was gutted when my foundation pump suddenly spluttered throwing out the last little dregs of foundation before failing on me entirely. Even scooping out the remnants from the walls of the bottle with a cotton bud didn’t bring me much success. Not to worry, I thought. I knew I’d be heading to the supermarket later that day so made a mental note to simply pick a new bottle up on my travels down the aisles.

I arrived at the makeup counter and was dealt another swift blow…no L’Oreal counter in sight! I knew I didn’t have time to run into town before the next day so I set to work looking for something else to put me on. Now, I have a gorgeous client that always prefers to bring her foundation along to her makeup appointments with her as she simply loves the colour, finish and wear on her skin. I knew it was the Rimmel lasting Finish 25H Foundation so I scanned the shelves until I found the bottle and looked for the palest shade that they had in stock – Ivory. I also snapped up a concealer to match in the shade Fair.

I was dubious to try the foundation. I’m not a huge fan of changing my foundation game up and love sticking to what I know and love the best – either MAC Studio Fix Fluid (which I prefer to wear for evenings) or L’Oreal (my go to daytime foundation which is delightfully similar in coverage to Studio Fix). Anyway, I decided to give it a go after reminiscing about how perfectly it always sits on my clients skin.

The Foundation

Full name: Rimmel Lasting Finish 25Hour Foundation with Comfort Serum
SPF? Factor 20
Shade: Ivory
Coverage: Medium and buildable
Price: £8.29 for 30ml

The claim: This foundation claims to give a lightweight coverage which is transfer and fade proof. It also claims to last for up to 25 hours which I feel is a little excessive. Described as leaving skin feeling hydrated all day with a lasting finish, I had high hopes for the foundation.

My thoughts: I think that this foundation is best described as a medium coverage foundation that can be sheered out to a more natural coverage if desired. It has a beautiful coverage which effortlessly covers up areas of redness, and it even tackles the darker under eye area quite well too. My skin is pretty dry at the moment, but I found that this foundation looked extremely shiny on my skin which took me right back to the oily days before my Accutane treatment. It felt quite uncomfortable on my skin to be perfectly honest as my face just felt a little clammy and wet. I decided to powder my face as I usually do (force of habit after being an oily girl) which seemed to help very much. The foundation indeed did not fade throughout the day and didn’t tend to crease or crack even after 9 hours wear.

Verdict: Overall, a good drugstore option for foundation but I will be replacing it with my L’Oreal Infallible foundation once I’ve used it up as I just don’t quite enjoy the process of application due to the shiny/sticky texture. I suspect this has something to do with the ‘comfort serum’ which I think is thanks to the Dimethicone and Silica in the ingredients. This is not something that I personally like on my skin, but I know plenty that do. The shine does dry down a little once the foundation has sat on the skin for a little while, but the sticky texture remained for me.
On the upside, the foundation has an SPF of 20 which I think is really great as a lot of people don’t apply a separate sunscreen before their makeup. On the downside, this does mean that the foundation causes flashback with flash photography so I’d personally keep this to a daytime foundation rather than an evening or wedding offering.

The Concealer 

Full name: Rimmel Lasting Finish Breathable Concealer
SPF? No
Shade: Fair
Coverage: Medium
Price: £5.99 for 7ml

The claim:  The concealer claims to conceal imperfections with its medium coverage. The packaging contains a cushion applicator which is intended for perfect blendability and touch ups on the go.

My thoughts: The concealer offers a nice coverage the under eyes and even areas of redness. What I’m not so keen on is the fact that this concealer creases like crazy on top of the eyelid if you don’t set it quickly enough. I usually use the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer to prep my eyelids for eyeshadow and don’t have the same issues. I think this formula is a little thinner in respect to concealers like the Collection offering. The next thing that I’m not so keen on is the cushion applicator – I find it a little too small and hard rather than spongey and bouncy which doesn’t make it my first choice for blending (Beauty Blender, come through!), I also don’t like that it can’t be washed in between uses without a very messy job (you can actually remove the sponge to wash it, but if you’ve tried to do this once, you won’t want to try it again). The squeezy tube is both a help and a hinderance as you can really get to any last dregs of product inside, but its sometimes hard to squeeze it out directly onto your face to use the cushion applicator.

Verdict: A great concealer that can be used to conceal or highlight around the face, but not so great as a prep product for the eyelids. I’m happy to continue using it for the time being.

For the total of £14.28, I think these two products paired together are a pretty nice drugstore combination if you’re looking for budget beauty that performs quite well. Both formulas are long-lasting and offer great coverage.

© Rachael Divers 2017.