Almost orange to almost perfect 🍊👌🏼💁🏼

I know it's not just me that is so unbelievably pale that any foundation by any brand in the lightest shade is just not right; It's either too neutral, too cool/ashy, too dark or just a little bit orange! It's something I've struggled with for so long and I've had enough of looking, I have a few foundations and even BB creams that I love but the shades just aren't right but the finish and hold make me not want to look elsewhere! I was constantly stuck in this pickle but thankfully a new "hero product" came to save the day, Lightening Shade Adjusting Drops from The Body Shop. A new innovative product claiming to turn your almost there shade into a perfect one with one drop! Now of course this seemed absolutely perfect for my situation so I got down to my local Body Shop and grabbed one as soon as possible, the sales advisor told me these are suitable to mix with any liquid foundation as long as the shades range from fair to medium. The lightening drops contain a mixture of pink and white pigments to lighten and reduce yellow tones with one drop of product being half a shade lighter. I simply couldn't wait till the next morning when I was to open these miracle lightening drops and change the face of well my orange face!

Following instructions I shake the product thoroughly before squeezing the pipette and opening the product, foundation at the ready on the back of my hand I squeeze one drop (or in this case attempt to) into the center of my foundation and mixed with my fingers, seems simple right? Not so much! The problem I had immediately with this product was the packaging, the pipette simply doesn't work! It doesn't allow you to drop one drop of product into your foundation without you squeezing it many times and getting a little angry. You either over squeeze the pipette to produce a huge blob of product or you press it a few times and get little spit droplets of product which ultimately cause no effect on your shade of foundation at all.

I have used the lightening drops for 5 days, mixed in with liquid high cover foundation, BB cream and a lighter cover liquid foundation all of which were an off match for my skin tone being too dark or too 'orange' for my complexion. As well as the packaging of this product the smell of the drops were a little overwhelming, almost reminding me of paint which isn't pleasant to put onto your face however once you manage to get the correct measure of product into your foundation or BB cream the lightening effect is quite effective! Take my high cover liquid foundation for example, in my case it's Estée Lauder Double Wear in 1N1 Ivory Nude, I've recently found this shade too yellow and neutral for my complexion and it leaves me with a significant line on the jaw however once I added one lightening drop into the foundation the shade became much more wearable.

Before 

After with 1 drop added

I feel it's still a little too yellow for my liking even with the lightening drop added but the overall appearance of my foundation improved along with the line on my jaw almost disappearing! I know it doesn't look like much of a shade difference but when applied it did seem different for me, I couldn't seem to capture the effect on camera but check out the results I got with my Mac BB cream! This product is something I found myself not wearing at all purely because of the shade, it was the lightest in the range and made me glow all sorts of orange but just look at the difference -

Before 

After with 1 drop added

I've found myself using this product at least twice a week now I can effectively adjust the shade to my liking and manage to wear it without looking like a tangerine! Perhaps the shade adjusting drops work more effectively with lighter foundation/BB formulas as in my experience the lightening effect has been most apparent in this case rather than with the thicker foundation. Let's round this off with some pro's! The shade adjusting drops certainly don't effect the overall finish or lasting power of my makeup, the off putting smell I mentioned earlier is forgettable once your makeup is applied and it's a great trial and error product; you can mix it with all of your liquid foundations/BB creams/tinted moisturisers etc to see which ones it works best with! All in all the product does its job, it effectively lightened my foundation and definitely made it more wearable however I wouldn't purchase this product again simply because of the packaging issue with the pipette. If The Body Shop were to redesign/improve the packaging I would definitely purchase again!

You can find the Lightening Shade Adjusting Drops in your local Body Shop store or online at here for £10 (15ml)

💕 Lucy