Product Review: Estée Lauder Nutritious Vita-Mineral Liquid Make-Up

Estée Lauder has a reputation for being for more mature ladies (I blame their Pure White Linen fragrance entirely) but its foundations offer surprisingly good coverage. When I worked in a beauty hall, I was obviously required to be a zit-free zone; my job relied on my mug being as blemish-free as a baby's bottom. Unfortunately when you have skin that is constantly threatening to go on strike (rather like British railway employees), this is easier said than done. A colleague gave me a sample of Estée Lauder DoubleWear Foundation and the coverage was great, nay, spectacular. It was heavy but looked light, I was in love. Sadly, within a few weeks its thickness had taken its toll and I was riddled with pimples and angry red blotches. I switched to DoubleWear Light, which was an improvement, but it was still messing up my skin. In the end I returned it and opted for the Nutritious Vita-Mineral Foundation, which is a creamy, liquid mineral foundation.

Packaging
Even if the product itself hadn't been enough for me to switch to Nutritious Liquid, the packaging may well have been. DoubleWear comes in a heavy glass jar and you need a cotton-bud to apply it without making a huge mess. Nutritious Liquid comes in a squeezy bottle - my favourite! - and doesn't take up as much room in your make-up bag.

Estée Lauder Nutritious Vita-Mineral Liquid Make-Up, £26.50 from Debenhams

Application
Nutritious Liquid is a dewy formula which, interestingly, is described as 'make-up' while its powder counterpart is labelled as 'foundation'. The reason for this is soon clear - the coverage is very light. I'd liken it more to a tinted moisturiser than a foundation, which is perfectly fine if you only need something to even out your skin tone. I've found this product is always better applied with fingers and then worked into the skin with a foundation brush, but fingers will do the job all the way if you prefer. If you apply it entirely with a brush I find you overload your skin (and your bank balance when you get through half a tube in a week).

Performance
As this foundation is very light, you definitely need to use a primer underneath it. If you don't you'll have to touch it up every few hours, which is a) inconvenient and b) a waste of product. I found it still broke me out a little bit, but if you've got nice, friendly skin which only needs a bit of a pick-me-up rather than full-scale coverage, this is a great product.

The Bottom Line
Although this product wasn't perfect for me, I've seen the results on other people to see that this is a good lightweight foundation, even if its performance isn't up to mineral standards. Estée Lauder get massive points for their excellent staff, however. Their consultants will give you a generous sample to take home of any of their foundations and if you buy a product and find it isn't for you, they will swap it to one they think might suit you better with no questions asked. I swapped my DoubleWear for a brand-new Vita-Mineral after using it for four weeks!

Recommended for people who want a radiant, dewy product with a little more oomph than your standard tinted moisturiser.

Rating: 7.5/10