Beauty review: Missha Blemish Balm

Thanks to Dita, the vintage look now seems to mean being as pale and as flawless as possible.  Now, I'm all for the flawless, I would love to look like my skin was poreless, smooth and perfect.  I'm not dead set on the pale though, for while pale skin does look lovely on some, tans were popular in the 30's onwards and if you are keeping out of the sun purely to be vintage correct, rather than for health or other reasons then well,  vintage - you are doing it wrong. ;-) 

Personally, I do wear factor 50 every day, I have good reasons for doing so though, which do not relate to being vintage: firstly, being a smoker (still trying to quit), I need to minimise my exposure to other carcinogens as much as possible.  Secondly, I don't tan, I burn and then freckle, and I look about 12 years old when my freckles come out.  Thirdly and finally, I really don't like the platinum blonde hair and tanned skin combination, it is all a little bit too Glamour Model for me. It may work on others but it makes me look terribly cheap.

I just wanted to mention all this before I start my review as these products, Blemish Balms, come from Korea and many are designed to whiten the skin. This is not why I decided to try one.  I am more interested in their multifunctional claims - they say they work as a primer, foundation, sunblock and anti wrinkle treatment all in one. Sounds great huh?

I did a bit of Internet research and the one I most wanted to try was the perfect cover cream from Missha, as it had great reviews and was reasonably priced, so I tracked it down on EBay and bravely bought the palest colour, as colour descriptions online have not been great,

I was impressed with the product straight away - it was beautifully packaged in an expensive looking box and stylish maroon and gold squeeze tube.  On swatching on my hand at work I was a little panicked that my choice of colour, the palest at Number 13, might have been too light.  I couldn't wait to get home and try it out though!

 unswatched and lightly rubbed in, super pale right!

I tested it when I got back and was quite impressed but, as with all bases, you need to see the effect under natural light and so it was in the morning that the real test began.  I applied it over moisturiser, and used the recommended pea sized amount.  A little does go a long way.

So, prepare yourselves, for pictures of my morning face; saggy eyed and without a scrap of slap.  I am posting two each of before and after photos so you can get a real idea of how it evens out the skin.

Before:

Note the very tired eyes, shiny skin and unevenly toned areas around the eyes, nose and chin.

Ignore the double chin and unbrushed  hair.  Oh, you can't.  Sorry!

After:

Everything looks matte and more even.

I was worried that it had the slightly grey cast I had been warned of, but I found that after 10 minutes on the skin the product settled and kind of warmed up.  The overall effect is not as artificial as I had hoped (who wants to look real anyway) but it did even out the redness in my skin.  It was especially good at hiding my freckles and the red spider veins around my nose.  It also smooths and disguises pores beautifully.  It doesn't gather and cake around the hairline / eyebrows either, which is wonderful!

I really like the product, I now use it daily either on it's own for daytime or as a primer for evenings.  It works beautifully under my Revlon Colorstay foundation and this combination makes my skin scarily doll-like - which I love!  It lasts all day and has not caused me to break out at all.  It also smells of baby powder, which I adore.

Here it is smoothing my skin out as part of a full face of make up.

My only real reservations are the lack of colour choice (I understand new shades are being added to the range as we speak) and also the claims of SPF 42.  You really don't use enough product for it to be of any use as sun protection.

It also wouldn't be any good if you were planning to be photographed as the high SPF included doesn't work well under a flash.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this product though, and have added it to my daily make up bag so I will certainly buy it again.  Top marks!h