Before my unexpected beauty blogging hiatus, I promised you a review of Illanmasuqa’s Rich Liquid Foundation, which I’ve been using for a couple of weeks now. Well, that’ll be along soon, but first of all, knowing how difficult my fellow palefaces find choosing the right shade of foundation, I thought I’d quickly show you some swatches of the two shades I’m using – RF105 and RF120.

These are the second and third palest shades Illamasqa do – or so I thought when I ordered them, anyway. I’ve since read that RF135 may be paler than the RF120 I bought, so that may be worth bearing in mind too. The very palest shade – RF100 – is a stark white that’s basically only going to be of use for editorial or theatrical purposes. The next shade up – RF105 – also appears to fall into that category at first glance, although it does have a pinkish tinge to it. It’s far too pale for even me to wear on its own, but I actually think a shade like this is really useful to have if you tend to have problems buying foundation, because it can be mixed with other, darker shades, allowing you to dial almost any foundation down to your shade. I’ve used it almost daily since I got it, and this is because the RF120, which I’d assumed would be more or less the perfect colour for me, is actually quite a bit too dark.  It’s billed as a pink-toned, pale base, but I found it a little more yellowish than I’d been expecting, and too dark for me to wear it on its own. Here are both of the shades blended in a little:

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