Now here's the big question: If your skin doesn't tolerate silicones in any form and amount, what should you prime your skin with before putting on mineral foundation? (What you should do if your skin doesn't tolerate mineral foundation at all is a different question altogether, one I still can't answer...)

There were days when I wanted to put on some of my EDM Light Almond foundation to make my skin look a bit smoother and more even. I used to have 2 options:

1. apply the powder foundation on skin that had been primed already with some moisturizer containing silicone, and my skin would look great for a while, but by the end of the day it'd be full of small zits that were only small glipses into what havoc aforementioned silicone would later wreck on my face (=cystic acne, anyone...?)
   
   
2. put on some silicone-free moisturizer, apply foundation and witness the great, big splotches of makeup on my face

Recently, however, I picked up Alverde's Tagesfluid Perle and my problems were immediately solved. Before buying it, I read some German reviews, and one of the bloggers said about Alverde's Tagescreme Seide how she thinks it's very much like a primer, sinking in instantly and leaving behind no sticky residue, only silky soft skin ready to be made up. In a fairly comprehensive post about Alverde moisturizers I found some of them downright sticky and film-forming, others not so much, but even when there was no sticky residue, there was always something that just sat on my skin, no matter how inconspicuous it may have been. Not so with Tagesfluid Perle: it's the first Alverde face-cream that leaves absolutely no residue whatsoever, but sinks in almost instantly (especially if applied onto wet skin), and creates a perfect and even canvas for any kind of makeup to follow. There are absolutely no splotches of foundation, and it's actually a dream to put make-up on it. :-D

Now, about the name: Alverde is not very bright when it comes to naming their products, now is it? Their Feuchtigkeitsfluid Aloe Vera is supposed to be, as the name suggests, a "fluid". Let me tell you, however, that it's anything but. The same is true of Tagesfluid Perle.

Is this reeeeeally what a fluid is supposed to look like...?




I don't think so... :-S

Before you get disappointed and throw your newly-updated shopping list out the window, bear with me a little longer. This stuff may not be anywhere near liquid form, but it is a gel-cream of sorts, very light, absorbing into the skin with ease and staying quite matte throughout the day.

The scent is light, sort of aquatic and fresh (smells kinda like salt-water, actually), and thank heavens it disappears pretty fast too. (Aquatic scents and me just don't get on too well I'm afraid... ^_^ )

I wouldn't have bought it normally, seeing its ridiculously high alcohol content, but because I don't put on foundation very often either, I'm willing to make an exception and use it on those rare occasions after all. At some point along the way Alverde changed the formula of all their products, and now "alcohol" is sitting at 2nd and 3rd places on their INCI list, looking smug and bugging me to no end... Why the heck did they have to ruin something that used to be so good, I ask??? Their talk about all that alcohol having been derived from natural sources does not impress me much either... Alcohol is a severely drying and sometimes downright irritating ingredient, and where it comes from does not make any difference at all. Therefore, I can't really talk about its moisturizing properties, though I must admit it's not as bad as it may seem upon first glance at the INCI list. Still, I probably wouldn't even consider it if my skin were dry or sensitive, but as it is, my skin's oily and pretty tough, so I'm willing to risk it on occasion in exchange for its other benefits. :)

Where to get it: Drogerie Markt stores
Price: ~ 845 HUF
Amount: 50 ml (since it's Alverde's 20th anniversary, they gave an extra 20 ml)
My rating: 4 out of 5 (ditch the alcohol and I'll be willing to give it 5 ;-)

Ingredients:

Aqua, Glycerin, Alcohol (?!?!?!), Elaeis Guineensis (Kernel Oil), Olea Europaea (Oil), Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cellulose, Glyceryl Stearate Citrate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Butter), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Oil), Maris Sal, Hydrolyzed Pearl (Extract), Xanthan Gum, Helianthus Annuus (Seed Oil), Tocopheryl Acetate, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Parfum, Linalool, Limonene, Geraniol, Citronellol, Citral, Coumarin