I was first introduced to Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum by the wonderful people on YouTube. Beauty guru after beauty guru would rave on and on about the wonders of this gel foundation. When I was in Ireland a few years back (yeah, I’m that late reviewing it) I saw the foundation in Boots and decided to pick it up in two different shades since I wasn’t sure what shad would suit me.

The shades I picked up are on the bottom of the range (of which there are really not a lot of shades); 51 Light Vanilla and 52 Vanilla. The shades lean decidedly yellow; none of them seemed even remotely pink.

The first thing I noticed with this foundation is the scent – it’s incredible! I can’t pinpoint the smell exactly, but it’s a pleasant fruity scent. For those concerned about the longevity of the scent on their skin; don’t be. It dries down quickly and the scent goes away immediately.

So here’s the deal with my foundation-free face (above): My skin is slightly darker than my neck, and definitely more pink. I have some redness, but nothing symptomatic of larger problems. I have moles I was born with that don’t bother me and freckles I love. My skin has been rather dry this past winter, but can get a bit on the oily side in the summer, but nothing excessive. When I look for a foundation, I’m essentially looking for something to give me a blank canvas to work from because it makes pictures look so much better. All this to say, I do not have any large problems I’m trying to cover up so I don’t need a full coverage foundation.

My favourite way to apply any and all foundations is with my Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge. Lately I’ve been doing two pumps of 52 Vanilla, with one pump of51 Light Vanilla. (Although on further reflection, judging by the shots below, I should’ve been doing it 50/50.)

And here’s the product completely blended in to my skin. You can still see some of my darker freckles, and certainly some of my moles but if you’re that desperate to cover those you could always use a concealer. On me, Healthy Mix Serum is a light to medium coverage foundation that has enough coverage to even out my skin, but still lets me feel like my skin is still my own skin. Unlike with other foundations where I routinely experience itchiness from daily wear, this foundation doesn’t do that. More often than not, I forget I’m wearing anything, and for me that’s a huge relief because I really struggle with the feeling of heavyweight foundations on my skin.

And here’s a close up shot that will hopefully show you the texture of my skin and the degree of coverage I achieve with one layer of foundation applied. I do experience some product rubbing off throughout the workday as I am prone to touching my skin a lot, or holding a phone to my ear where the receiver will eventually hit my face. I don’t use powder however, so you could probably set it with one to increase the longevity. That being said, this does last an entire work day if you’re not prone to touching your skin. At the end of the day when I take this off, I end up taking a LOT of pigment off on my makeup wipe which tells me that it clung to my skin very well throughout the day.

In short, I love the way this smells, feels and wears. I’m sad that I’m close to finishing these two bottles and will definitely repurchase it once I’ve cleared a few other foundations out of my collection. I do wish they had more shades though, since the range is very, very limited.

Do you have any recommendations for Bourjois products? I’m definitely wanting to explore this brand a bit more!