Quickie Review: Illamasqua Hydraveil

 

Everyone has been going nuts over one of Illamasqua’s latest releases, Hydraveil! There are different things written about what the product actually is, so here’s how it was explained to me by the girls at Illamasqua Beak Street:

-Hydraveil is a base for your makeup that you apply after your moisturizer
-It’s a quick step for flawless skin
-It’s not a primer in the sense that it doesn’t fill in pores, and that it’s not designed specifically to make your foundation last longer, just to provide a smooth, properly prepped base – but this can contribute to longer wearing makeup!
-It has a slight plumping effect
-It’s good for all skin types as it tackles to problem of dehydrated skin, as opposed to just dry skin like many products do.

 

Sounds amazing, right? The MUAs were certainly really excited talking about the product and I’m a sucker for a good sales pitch! All the above makes it sound too good to be true, no? I do have dehydrated skin – as well as dry, oh, joy!  It’s hard to tell, but dehydrated skin is lacking in water, whereas dry skin is lacking in oil, and you can be both – but one way is look for fine, crêpey lines, especially prematurely, which I certainly have. So I was really interesting in trying this product!

 

I love the packaging; as with all Illamasqua products it’s sleek and slightly quirky in an elegant way. This a round, slightly asymmetric tube with a screw-top lid. Inside, there’s a flip top lid which fits snugly, and a tiny spoon which clips in to the top. Very, very smart and practical. The spoon is totally necessary as scooping this out with your fingers is really hard because…

 

…of this crazy texture! It’s like jelly… smooth and shiny, and when you mix it up it goes mad, like bubbles or frogspawn! When you leave it, it settles again. Cool, huh? Because of the jelly texture, scooping it out by hand would be very hard, but with the tiny spoon you can get exactly the right amount. I find a little goes a long way, and one little spoonful spreads really easily across my whole face. It feel wet at first, but dries almost instantly and doesn’t leave any tackiness, or feel heavy.

I’ve been trialling this for a couple of weeks now, and I’ve certainly noticed my skin seems softer and my make is certainly lasting longer than it normally would. I’ve tried it with all my current foundations and they all applied beautifully over the top, and lasted a fair while longer than usual, and my skin felt comfortable throughout the day. I’ve read other MUAs saying it stops foundations they know to separate on the skin from doing so as well, and that it helps prep oily skins as well. So… it does seem to work!  While I’m not sure I notice a plumping effect, over time or on older skin perhaps that might be more noticeable? I’ll be certain to update the post if I notice anything over time!

I’m sure over time there will be dupes for this product - I’m not really an ingredient whizz, but the two main ingredients are water and glycerine (a humectant, something that helps keep things moist/retain water) which I believe is relatively cheap – but for now, regardless of cost, I’m certainly sticking with Hydraveil!

 

Hydraveil is available from Illamasqua.com, £27 for 30ml.