I have to admit, Seventeen has always been one of those brands that I just breeze past when I’m in Boots and never really bother considering buying from. It’s not a snobbery thang; it’s no secret that I’m more than happy to try the cheaper makeup brands and have plenty of Collection and MUA in my makeup bag. Rather, I just always assumed that Seventeen was just as the name suggests – a very young brand, on par with Miss Sporty in the sense that they cater to that ‘first makeup’ market.

However, when I saw Seventeen’s new releases I realised I might have been a bit quick to judge all these years, as they looked very interesting indeed. I popped into Boots at the weekend and lo and behold, they had a Buy One Get One Half Price offer on, so of COURSE both of these ended up coming along to the till with me. Sigh.

Seventeen Flawless Poreless Primer

Up until recenty, my pores never really had much impact on my life. About six months ago, in our pre-beauty blogging days, Lauren complained to me about her large pores and I remember literally thinking ‘what are you on about you idiot, nobody cares about their pores’. For me, legitimate skin complaints included spots, blemishes, dark circles, dry skin, oily skin, flaky skin and scabby skin – people who actually thought about their pores were clearly people with too much time on their hands.

And then, I suppose I got too much time on my hands.

I suddenly one day became aware of my pores. I noticed they were definitely there, and more problematically, they were bloody massive. They were all I could see when I looked in the mirror and I genuinely wondered whether when people looked at me their eyes were just about to travel down a fraction and settle on my large pores.

So when I saw this Flawless Poreless Primer, I knew I immediately had to try it. I’ve only ever really used glorified moisturisers liquid primers before, so at first I was a bit bamboozled by this balm-like product. Also as I initially swiped my fingers across it and could feel and see absolutely nothing on my finger tips, I began to think I’d royally been had. Then I actually applied the primer to my skin, and most important around my nose a.k.a. Pore City (a.k.a. Pore-tsmouth if I’m feeling particularly humorous), and I was FLABBERGASTED. It just smoothed right over them, like Pollyfiller for the face. I’ve heard people use the word ‘airbrushed’ to describe their skin after some primers and foundations and thought they were being dramatic, but that’s honestly how that particular area looked after using this.

I know the lighting etc is completely different on the following photos, but hopefully they’ll still give you an idea of how visible my pores were without the primer, versus their invisibility cloak with the primer:

I am genuinely ridiculously impressed with Flawless Poreless for its ability at hiding my pores, but how is it for actually making my makeup last? Well… also ridiculously good if I’m honest. I don’t think I realised but I must be quite used to my foundation casually slipping off my face over the course of the day, as usually by the time I go to the gym after work I look a lot more bare-faced. This week though, I’ve been heading to the gym with what looks like a full face of makeup (which everyone knows is the ultimate gym faux pas; it’s been an embarrassing time, I assure you).

This is sold for £5.99 in Boots and is honestly worth every penny. Seventeen, I am sorry I judged you.

Seventeen Wow! Skin Highlighter

The second product that caught my eye was this 3-way highlighter. As you may know, I’m very new to the highlighting game and was left somewhat unimpressed with my Bare Minerals ‘Radiance’ highlighter. When I heard this Seventeen product praised as a Benefit High Beam dupe then, I was feverish with excitement. It’s called a 3 way highlighter as, who’d have thunk it, it can apparently be used three ways – either underneath foundation as a primer, mixed in with foundation as some sort of all-over dewy base creator, or applied to cheekbones and all those other pointy bits you’re meant to put highlighter on (as I said, I’m new to this).

On day 1 I mixed it with my foundation. I wasn’t a huge fan of this look as it seemed primarily to thin out my foundation, leaving a much sheerer coverage. It also left me a bit glowy, but not really in an ‘ah, I’m an angel!’ way, but rather a ‘I’ve just had to walk pretty briskly to catch my bus’ way. HOWEVER, I do think that there are some days when this effect will be much more appropriate – I don’t mean to be a complete yob, but I’m mainly thinking those hangover days when your skin looks all pallid and you need to be perked up.

Next I used it just to highlight. It has a really lovely, pearly sheen to it that thankfully isn’t at all glittery (pet peeve). As you can see, when blended out it goes really sheer and is maybe not noticeable enough, so it’s a good idea not to try to blend it in too much and instead just stipple it on lightly.

At 30ml it’s not the biggest bottle, and depending on how you use it it might not last you that long. Again though, at £5.99 I would say it’s worth the money considering how expensive other brands can be (yeah Bare Minerals, I’m looking at you).

Have any of you tried these products? What did you think?

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