Boots launches a new range today: No7 HydraLuminous, a foundation and concealer with skincare benefits. Here's what we think
There’s been much talk about ‘skip care', the time-saving South Korean trend for detoxing your skincare regime and chucking out non-essential products. New to the party is Boots No7, with their entirely new HydraLuminous range aimed at glow-seeking millennials, although good for the rest of us as well. So far there are two products in the range a Moisturising Foundation and a Dark Circle Concealer . They are packed ingredients you’d more commonly find in your serums, eye creams and day creams and presumably, the idea is that you can get by with less on all of these, or maybe dispense with them altogether because your base is doing all the hard work. The price point is refreshingly reasonable too – the foundation is £15 and the concealer £14.
I’ve been testing the foundation for three weeks and I’m surprised how much I like it, particularly the way it makes my skin look dewy. I have dry skin and so am not prepared to ditch my moisturiser just yet, but it there’s definitely good hydration over time when I wear it and it feels super comfortable and lightweight and easy to blend. It contains skin-boosting vitamins A and C for evening out skin tone and an antioxidant complex with vitamin E and nourishing grapeseed oil. Light reflecting pearl powders give that extra bit of glow while SPF provides basic sun protection.
The great thing is that once you’ve been shade matched in store with the Boots Match Made tool (just ask in larger branches, it’s free) you can shop across all their ranges without endless swatching. The accurate match, plus the hydration and glow all deliver a natural looking light-to-medium coverage that makes skin look and feel healthy. The packaging, however, doesn't strike the minimalism and pastels notes that are code for 'millennials, this way'.
As for whether the ingredients actually improve the skin itself I can’t say as I use multiple power-packed unguents anyway. However, Boots did their own small trial on 101 women over four weeks and 89 per cent said their skin looked fresh and healthy after removing foundation (although it may have been fresh and healthy already, we don’t know). Regardless, this is a great looking and feeling product at a very good price.
As for the Dark Circle Concealer, Boots didn’t have advanced samples, but when I tested it at the preview, it did a great job on masking my shadows and has a colour-correcting formula. It has the same skin ingredients as the foundation but also contains caffeine to perk and reduce inflammation. I love the foam ‘dobber’, the sponge applicator which nods to Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Away Liquid Concealer. The Tilbury is a tenner more but comes in double the number of shade: 16 to HydraLuminous’ eight.
The shade range is the one - quite major - place this new range disappoints. The foundation comes in only 12 shades, which excludes women everywhere who are darker than Deeply Honey (see pic below). Boots do say that they plan to roll out to their full 25 shades, but in the age of Morphe and Mac with 60 shades and Doublewear with 54, it’s playing catch-up. If you're within range, I'd say definitely buy it; if you're not, message Boots and tell them you want to be included.