Boots No. 7 Match Made Service Review: Foundation & Lipstick (Moisture Drench Deep Rust)

Now, you probably know already I’m not really one for the beauty side of things – I’ve tried the beauty blogging thing in the past with a few make up reviews, hair products and the occasional attempt at neatly painting my nails (ha!), but to be honest, I’m lazy with all of those things! On a daily basis, my “beauty” routine consists of dragging a hair brush through my hair then throwing on my usual make up routine of foundation, concealer, blusher/bronzer and lipstick. I no longer bother with eyes for work, since they get dry from my contacts and staring at a screen all day, but I’ll sometimes try to do the mascara, eyeshadow, eyeliner thing on a weekend if I’m doing something special!Anyway, despite my being not so great with make up, I do have one make up love, and that is lipstick. Up until a couple of years ago, I probably owned about 2 lipsticks because I had this idea in my head that I just couldn’t wear them – I felt like they made my face look weird, probably because I only had a very bold dark red shade and a pretty sparkly pink. I realised though a couple of years ago that, hey! I actually like lipstick! So I found a colour that worked for me – I didn’t think it still existed until I just searched for it now! It’s – I still own my original one and use it occasionally. Then I delved into a few more lipsticks, discovering as well as the Maybelline’s Colour Sensationals (in the bright, clear tubes).

I read on a couple of blogs about which promises to choose you a lipstick that will suit you exactly colourwise. Despite having a selection of about 30 (oops!) lipsticks that I love, I was in Boots in Scarborough one day and decided I would see what it said about me – it was free after all, and couldn’t hurt to know. Got to be honest, I was a bit concerned that they would come at me with their fancy machine then tell me I was a weird shade and nothing would match me, but all turned out well actually!

The staff member wiped off what little foundation I was wearing on a small of patch of my jawline to get a clearer reading, then held a little gadget to my face. I’d like to say it beeped, but I may be making that up! It then gives you a skin tone shade (ranging from Calico to Walnut), based on which you’ll be able to choose a lipstick. And it was as I expected: the first thing she’d said to me was:
“You look like you’ll be one of our paler shades.”

I wasn’t offended in the slightest; I was pretty certain that would be the case anyway. So after the magical (possibly fictional) beep, she announced that I was indeed the palest shade: Calico. She handed me a little card which had all the lipstick shades for their Stay Perfect and Moisture Drench ranges that should suit my skin tone, pointed me in the right direction and said they’d be happy to try any on me, then left me to have a look at them.

So, the card doesn’t look exactly like this, as this is when I’ve picked that I wanted a “Coral” shade on the website, but it gives you an idea. And even better, , you can play around with the different colours so you can get an idea of what the lipsticks might look like on your skin tone; for example, here is my Calico skin tone with my chosen lipstick, Deep Rust.

So, that’s how it all works! I didn’t actually decide to buy anything in store that day, but I kept thinking about it, so popped into my local Boots on a lunch break one day to have another look. They happened to have an offer on that was buy one, get one half price, so I thought I’d better take advantage of that!

I’d been wanting a new foundation for a bit since I’d been using variations of and for years, and I’ve been finding recently they’ve been looking a bit patchy on my skin. So I asked the lady for a bit of help to pick one, and based off the Calico shade recommendation I’d had, I went for the , as I wanted light-medium coverage but long lasting (as I apply it only in the morning and never apply again – lazy!). The final decision was to go for the . So what did I think of each?

The foundation in Calico almost looked like it had a bit of a grey undertone when I squirted it out and tried it on my hand, but it disappeared into my skin easily leaving no obvious sign that there was foundation there, apart from looking a bit smoother. Essentially, it matches my skin tone perfectly. I don’t know all these fancy beauty words, and I’m afraid I don’t know whether my skin has pink or yellow undertones, but it works perfectly for me – I only need a tiny dot on each section of my face and it does me well all day long. So I’ve got the lasting effect I wanted, it makes my face look smoother and ‘tidier’, so I’m pleased! And no patchiness either – a winner! I’m not especially fond of the packaging as I prefer the little pump bottle type foundations, but I can live with that. It costs £14.50, which is a bargain for a good foundation really, plus Boots always have offers on.

With the lipstick, you have a choice between Moisture Drench and Stay Perfect (which lasts for up to 6 hours). Being honest again – I’m messy! At work, we use bottles of water, and I tend to smudge lipstick everywhere because of this, so I could have gone for the Stay Perfect, but I felt I’d still make a mess with that, then it would be more difficult to remove from all over my face! I often get dry lips (I have 5 separate lip balms on my desk at all times, yep…), so I went for the Moisture Drench as I hoped it wouldn’t do that funny drying thing that looks weird (I swear there must be technical words for this!). Deep Rust sounds like it should be a darker colour than it is – I find it to be a pale “natural” red – my mum said it was bright, and, strangely enough, it was much brighter on Charley when she tried it, but for me, it feels like a natural colour, enough so that I use it every single day without fail now – my other lipsticks have been pushed aside! And the Colour Match service truly does work – I’ve never had a lipstick that looks so inoffensive on my face! My old lipstick choices were always just verging on the side of garish, but this matches my skin tone perfectly (from what my inexperienced eyes can tell anyway!) and is a lovely colour. Thumbs up from me! It costs £9.95, but as I said, Boots always has offers. And here you can see the difference between how it looks on me and how it looks on Charley – strange! (And apologies for the horrible eye – keep getting this infection!)

I’d definitely recommend trying out the service – even if you decide not to buy, it’s free and you get some good recommendations on colours that should work for you.