We love this foundation for everyday use. It’s light enough not to feel cakey or heavy on our skin but it can be built up for more coverage, and even when we take it off it leaves our skin feeling soft and moisturised. We have dry, sensitive skin and we loved this foundation for its moisturising and redness-reducing properties.
For people like us, we highly recommend the IT Cosmetics Foundation+Skincare, especially if you are able to test a few different shades to find the perfect one for you.
With 40 shades available, we are certain there will be a better shade out there for our skin tone. Its light enough not to become visible around creases or wrinkles, and you can be happy wearing it every day, knowing it is doing your skin some good.
It’s not going to be what you opt for when you want a full coverage foundation, but it will make a great option for anyone looking for an everyday light to medium coverage. It feels incredibly hydrating which is great, especially for people who have dry skin. The addition of ingredients like hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, and Vitamins E and B5 really do seem to make a difference.
| Cult Beauty | £32 |
| IT Cosmetics | £32 |
| Boots | £32 |
If you’re a regular reader of mamabella, you’ll know we’re big fans of IT Cosmetics, particularly its Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream. The science-led beauty brand recently released a follow-up, called Your Skin But Better Foundation+Skincare and we’ve spent the past four months putting it to the test for this review.
The biggest difference between the two products is that the latter is not just a foundation, but a foundation plus skincare. This means it has ingredients such as hyaluronic acid for its moisturising properties, aloe vera to soothe skin, vitamins E and B5 and HEPES acid, also known as sulfonic acid, which breaks down chemical bonds between skin cells to act as an exfoliator.
We like to dedicate proper time to skincare reviews, to make sure we’re only recommending products that we’d be happy to pay for and use ourselves, so while it might mean other reviews go out sooner, you know that our reviews are informed and accurate. You can read more in our How we test skincare to see if it lives up to its claims.
FURTHER READING: How to find your perfect foundation match online
Before we get started on our IT Cosmetics foundation review, we should probably highlight the differences between the original Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream and the new Your Skin But Better Foundtion+Skincare.
The first, big difference is that the Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream contains SPF 50, while the Skincare version doesn’t. This is an incredibly high SPF rating for what is effectively a makeup product and it’s a major selling point which means if you’re looking to opt for the Your Skin But Better Foundation+Skincare, you’ll need to buy a separate SPF cream or moisturiser.
Don’t be tempted to skip this step, by the way. Wearing SPF every day, including on your hands, is the most important skincare tip you’ll ever get! It protects you from harmful rays and stops your skin prematurely ageing.
FURTHER READING: What SPF do I need? The best moisturisers with SPF
This lack of SPF may seem like a negative, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’ve had problems in the past when the IT Cosmetics CC+ cream has run into our eyes on particularly bright days, making them water uncontrollably. This doesn’t happen when using a SPF in a moisturiser, or on its own as it absorbs more into the skin, rather than sitting on the surface.
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Another difference between the IT Cosmetics foundation and its CC+ cream is the consistency. Perhaps because of the addition of skincare elements, like aloe vera and hyaluronic acid, this foundation has a runny consistency.
This means it requires a lot more of it to build up the same kind of coverage provided by one pump of the CC+ cream, even though it’s marketed as a foundation.
In fact, when we use the CC+ cream we often find one pump leaves us with some leftover, while this foundation plus skincare requires about two or three pumps to provide full cover.
This means you’re likely to get through the bottle a lot faster. That’s while also having to pay out for a separate SPF, but with the option of not having to buy separate serums or skincare.
IT Cosmetics doesn’t shy away from this difference, by the way. It describes the CC+ Cream as giving full coverage, and the IT Cosmetics foundation as giving medium coverage.
All of that said, we think this foundation is a great option for anyone looking for an everyday, non-comedogenic light to medium coverage that doesn’t clog your pores.
Its light texture means it doesn’t sit too heavily in any creases in our skin, making it better suited to more mature skin than that IT Cosmetics CC+ Cream, and it smooths the skin and reduces redness while still looking natural.
We applied the foundation using the IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe Flat Top Buffing Foundation Brush #6 which we found made it easy to apply and blend in quickly.
We like to combine the lightness of the foundation with the Bye Bye Under Eye concealer, which is extremely thick and provides full coverage for areas that need it, blended using a beauty blender.
FURTHER READING: How to apply foundation like a pro: The best way to apply foundation according to an MUA
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Thirdly, there’s a difference in the shades available between the two products.
We have very light skin with pink undertones, and for the CC+ cream we use the shade Light in summer and Fair in winter. In this new foundation, which we started testing in August, we tried shades 21 (Light Warm), 22 (Light Neutral) and 23 (Light Warm), but none of them were quite right.
Even though they say they are ‘warm’ shades, the colour comes out much more yellow than we expected.
We expect a shade like 10 (Fair Warm) or 10.5 (Fair Neutral) might be a better fit, especially as our skin lightens in winter.
You can find out how to find your perfect foundation match in our guide.
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The main selling point of the IT Cosmetics foundation is its inbuilt skincare routine, which IT Cosmetics claims will improve the look of your skin within two weeks.
We noticed a difference compared to other foundations straight away, when we removed our makeup, our skin felt much softer and more moisturised than normal.
While we sometimes get red and tight skin after removing makeup, none of this happened using the IT Cosmetics Foundation + Skincare.
FURTHER READING: What’s really in your foundation? The chemicals you need to look out for
As for the long-term benefit of the foundation to our skin, it’s difficult to tell because we have not replaced our own skincare routine with the foundation.
Instead we have kept up our usual routine; using hyaluronic acid, squalene, and caffeine serums both morning and night, a glycolic acid toner at night, a tea tree toner once a week, all followed by a moisturiser. We also use a moisturising mask overnight most nights.
Using the IT Cosmetics Foundation certainly doesn’t make things worse, and simply complements our existing regime; protecting our skin throughout the day when it would usually be exposed to the elements.
Buy now from Cult Beauty
We love this foundation for everyday use. It’s light enough not to feel cakey or heavy on our skin but it can be built up for more coverage, and even when we take it off it leaves our skin feeling soft and moisturised. We have dry, sensitive skin and we loved this foundation for its moisturising and redness-reducing properties.
For people like us, we highly recommend the IT Cosmetics Foundation+Skincare, especially if you are able to test a few different shades to find the perfect one for you.
With 40 shades available, we are certain there will be a better shade out there for our skin tone. It’s light enough not to become visible around creases or wrinkles, and you can be happy wearing it every day, knowing it is doing your skin some good.
It’s not going to be what you opt for when you want a full coverage foundation, but it will make a great option for anyone looking for an everyday light to medium coverage. It feels incredibly hydrating which is great, especially for people who have dry skin. The addition of ingredients like hyaluronic acid, aloe vera and vitamins E and B5 really do seem to make a difference.
Buy now from Cult Beauty
Abigail is a leading science journalist writing about space, sustainability, technology and culture. She is author of The Art of Urban Astronomy, a must-have guide to the night sky that guides you through the seasons and learn about the brightest stars and constellations, the myths and legends of astronomy and how to identify star clusters and galaxies.
