Chanel les beiges water fresh complexion touche de teint review

Any new Chanel product gains serious attention – it is the epitome of luxury beauty after all. So getting to try this one ahead of its launch made our tester feel pretty smug. But, of course, it wasn’t just a personal win, as we can now tell you everything you need to know about the hybrid beauty buy that’s hitting the shelves on 17 June (and is already online).

For those of you who are ahead of the curve, you may have guessed that the hybrid is made up of a concealer and foundation. While the brand has coined it a fondcealer, it’s too boujee to officially dub it as one – although we wish it would.

The official name is the water fresh complexion touche de teint and it forms part of the ever so popular les beiges collection. Joining a highlighting powder, illuminating oil, bronzing cream and eyeshadow palette in the line-up of summer-ready luxury goodies.

Of course, it isn’t cheap – it’s Chanel, darling – and has a price tag of £51. But our tester can truly attest to the length of time these products last and, in a confession seen as a serious sin within the beauty community, has actually been using the same Chanel les beiges blush stick (£38, Chanel.com) for five years. When we say the same one, we literally mean the same one stick that just gets an anti-bac wipe every now and again. But please do note we wouldn’t recommend keeping any products for that long.

And if you are still reeling from the advent calendar fiasco, this may just be the product that makes you fall back in love with Chanel all over again. Keep reading below to see what made it so special and why we’ll be clinging onto our bottle throughout summer and beyond.

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How we tested

With summer now here, a lot of people find little joy in having a full face of make-up slide down their face with sweat. Of course, you could always use a setting spray, but there’s sometimes nothing better than pairing back and letting your skin breathe.

So our tester did exactly that, using only the Chanel water fresh complexion touche de teint in shade B30 and seeing how well it covered undereye circles, dark patches, uneven tones and spots too. Of course, we needed it to last all day, look great, feel great and be easy to apply too. To show a real comparison of results we applied it to just one side of the face in these images.

Rating: 9.5/10

Number of shades: 16

The best surprise we had when testing the fondcealer came as soon as we opened the box – an incredibly cute mini kabuki brush with the Chanel logo at the base is also included.

The product, at first glance, looks like thousands of tiny dots of foundation-looking cream suspended in a clear liquid, which it essentially is. For anyone familiar with the water fresh tint (£51, Chanel.com) this is nothing new, but for those who haven’t seen it before, it can seem quite strange.

We’ll deep-dive into why this is below, but one of the core points we do have to point out for now is that if using it as a concealer, it’s actually pretty large compared to most other options, measuring 20ml.

Read more: 10 best CC creams that help to reduce redness

For comparison, the Laura Mercier secret camouflage concealer duo (£28, Johnlewis.com), which was named our best buy in our concealer round-up, is just 2ml. And the Yves Saint Laurent touche eclat is a similar 2.5 ml (£25, Amazon.co.uk), again re-affirming our fact that the Chanel products do tend to last a really long time.

The formula

Firstly, this is a water-based formula meaning it’s a good option for sensitive or dry skin and anyone experiencing acne or breakouts. Made from approximately 60 per cent water, it’s incredibly lightweight and feels instantly hydrating.

The floating dot appearance comes from micro fluidic technology, with micro-droplets of encapsulated pigments that melt into the skin on contact. But, being three times more pigmented than the water fresh tint (£51, Chanel.com) don’t think that the high water content reduces it’s concealing power.

Sitting around a medium coverage, the easy movement actually allows for it to seamlessly blend into the skin and become buildable without any cakey finish.

The formula is built around hydrating ingredients with caprylic/capric triglyceride, amodimethicone and hexyl laurate creating a barrier on the skin surface helping to reduce moisture loss, glycerin drawing water from the atmosphere to hydrate and soften the skin and castor oil rich in fatty acids.

Antioxidant rich ingredients such as tamarind extract and jasmine – a key ingredient in the new Chanel beauty products, and the sunscreen we reviewed – also ​​protects skin from pollution and other environmental aggressors as well as being anti-bacterial.

Application and results

Being a hybrid between a foundation and a concealer you can wear this product as both, layering it up as you wish to take it from medium to full coverage.

While the pigments do melt when in contact with the skin, we would recommend pumping the product onto the back of your hand and giving it a mix with the mini kabuki brush to really get it evenly dispersed first. If using as just a concealer, start with one or two pumps for the under eyes and any dark circles and add more as needed.

We used the brush to apply it to the under eyes and gently blend out and then moved on to the broken veins on the sides of the nose, any chin redness and a few small acne marks across the cheeks. A little really does go along way, but for those pesky under eyes we did need to add another layer to help conceal the darkness.

When using across the whole face, we applied with our fingers and buffed in with a damp make-up sponge, the EcoTools bioblender (£5.99, Lookfantastic.com). And, to add more definition back into the face we finished off with the also new les beiges water fresh blush (£42, Chanel.com) rubbed into the hands and then patted across the cheeks.

The verdict: Chanel les beiges water fresh complexion touche de teint

Our tester has been touting the “no make-up” make-up look for a while now, and this fondcealer may have just nabbed the top spot. With no greasy or shiny finish, a buildable natural-looking coverage and a weighless feel that made our tester forget they were wearing any make-up at all, it’s got to be one of the best products we’ve tried for a long time – and that’s one serious accolade.

You can see quite a notable difference between the side of the face the product is on and the one without, yet there’s no creasing, cakey build-up or greasiness in sight. The price point is high –  we expect nothing less from Chanel – but the ease of use, size, mini kabuki brush and ingredient list do make it seem more reasonable.

While we don’t think this product will be lasting us a full five years like the blush stick, we will be wearing this until it runs out and, unless something else blows us away, will definitely be re-purchasing.