Laneige Skin Veil Base EX No. 40 Light Purple Review

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope you had great Christmas and New Year :)

Product description: UV ray protecting makeup base giving sleek and soft skin looks with veil-covering effect.

This Base contains three UV filters: Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide, which together give SPF22 PA++.

In the ingredients list we won't find any plant extracts, which disappointed me a little bit, but on the other hand it makes perfect sense. In Skin Food Black Egg Base we could find rice extract, in TCFS Rules of Pore Primer there were some plant extracts and hyaluronic acid, in Laneige's base - nothing. But as I said it makes sense, because at the end of the day base is base, not skincare product and plant extracts among all these silicons wouldn't do much for our skin anyway.

Full ingredients list: Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Alcohol, Butylene Glycol, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Trisiloxane, Titanium Dioxide, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Glycerin, Lauryl Peg-9 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone, Talc, Sodium Chloride, Zinc Oxide, Vinyl Dimethicone/methicone Silsesquioxane Crosspolymer, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Dimethicone/vinyldimethicone Crosspolymer, Dimethicone/PEG-10/15 Crosspolymer, Dimethicone/polyglycerin-3 Crosspolymer, Aluminum Stearate, Polyhydroxystearic Acid, Chromium Oxide Greens, Methylparaben, CI77492, Alumina, Fragrance, Disodium Edta, Propylparaben, Aluminum Hydroxide, Triethoxycaprylylsilane
Ingredients analysis [HERE]

The full size product is a 30ml bottle with pump applicator, I bought set of 10 sample sachets, 1ml each. One sample is enough for approx. 3 applications.

This product is available in three colours: No. 20 Light Peach, No. 40 Light Puprle and No. 60 Light Green. The peach one is supposed to revive skin's appearance, the purple one is brightening and the green one tones down any redness. If I could I would try all three of them to compare, unfortunately there are only samples of the purple one available.

This base has a very characteristic consistency - it seems just like any cream, but it feels kind of dry. Because of that dryness it's not very efficient, the amount shown on the pic wouldn't be enough to cover whole face:

Even though it's "dry" and light, it sits on the skin creating perceptible film. Using smaller amount of product may help with reducing that film feeling, however I cannot use it in smaller quantities, because in small quantities it doesn't cover my enlarged pores. In more generous amount it still doesn't exactly cover my pores, but makes them appear smaller and more shallow.

Since this base is not very good at pore covering, what it is good at then?
It works really well if you want to even out and brighten your skin tone.

There is no base on my pinky's knuckle and outside edge of my hand - can you see the difference? Where hand is covered in base my skin appears whiter. This whitening effect may concern some, but believe me - under the make up there is no Twilight effect, skin is just evened out.

For some odd reason this product doesn't like my BB Creams. I think that the cause may lie in BB's nature - BB creams kind of sink in, merge into skin. Because this base doesn't sink into skin itself it also doesn't allow the BB cream to sink in and after approx. 6 hours make up starts to oxidise and look cakey. However the Skin Veil EX goes well with the foundations, as foundations don't have BB's habit of sinking into skin, they just sit on top of the skin just like this base. It makes a great duo with Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid foundation, giving effect of almost perfectly flawless skin. Unfortunately I cannot use foundations on a daily basis (they make my acne worse), so I also gave up using Skin Veil everyday - Skin Veil and Satin Liquid duo is now my set for going out only.

The product has pleasant, but hard to identify smell. It's neutral for sebum production.

Price: the full size product costs about £20 on e-Bay, Amazon, Tester Korea. I bought set if 10 samples for £3 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ SPF - usually the SPF in primers doesn't matter as we don't put enough of them on our face to make the filtres work, however because this base's consistency requires generous application, it makes me believe that SPF in this product actually works
+ evens out skin tone
+ in a duo with foundation it gives a nice effect of almost perfectly flawless skin
+ nice smell

Cons:
- even when you apply generously it doesn't exactly cover pores
- leaves perceptible film on skin
- doesn't go well with BB creams
- quite pricey

Summary: I'm not sure about this product - it's a decent base, but it didn't blow my mind. A lot depends on your skin needs - the main reason why I want to use primer, is to cover my enlarged pores better, so if you have the same problem give up on that one, cheaper Skin Food Black Egg Pore base did much more better job with my pores. But if you are looking for something that would smooth and even out your complexion - give this a try.

Laneige Skin Veil Foundation

I wonder what effects could I achieve using Skin Veil Base EX with foundation from the same line. Since it worked better with foundation than with BB cream maybe the key to get flawless looking skin is using this two together? Unfortunately it is extremely hard to get hold of foundation samples, but if I ever manage to get some I'll try them together :)