I associate Fashion Fair with my oldest sister. I must have been 1987/88 and she had this amazing sixteen colour eyeshadow palette, full of shimmers and glitters in burgundies, midnight blues and fuchsia pinks. The texture of the shadows was really really soft, which was novel in those days. It had pink casing and she kept it in the pink box in the top shelf of her chest of drawers. I used to love dipping my fingers in the different colours when she wasn’t looking. By the time I was in my make up stride, Fashion Fair fell off my radar, their packaging was not as sleek as MAC, the foundation shades had a red undertone and I was looking for yellow based and overall, it just did not appeal to me.
Lots has changed since then. Fashion Fair have always made pigmented colour products but the reason why Fashion Fair retains a soft spot in the heart of many my age is because it always catered to the complete range of brown skintones so I decided to re-dip my toe into the range with concealer. The chocolate brown metallic packaging is very similar to the Hourglass Rouge Opaque casing. The lid screws on and off rather than the flip top lid of most make up ranges which makes it feel more secure and there is no mirror. This is a product that will need time and a mirror.
The true finish concealer comes in three shades: dark medium and light. The texture is not the butteriest I have ever used. It is not sticky, but slightly dry. The medium and dark shades have a smoother texture then the light shade. The texture means that once it is on, it is not easy to budge.
I use the light shade the least, mainly mixed as an under eyebrow highlight. It registers slightly ashy on my skin and I have to blend it in really well and then go over with a yellow/orange shadow.
The medium shade is great as an under eye highlight. I am not a fan of the stark Kardashian-esque highlight but with advancing years and under eye pigmentation, a little brightness is always helpful. The centre of my face is quite yellow compared to the perimeter so this colour works perfectly. I also mix it with the lightest and darkest shades to if I want to do more defined highlight on the cheeks and nose. It does not crease or crack when you move your face and holds power foundation really well.
The deep shade is the colour I use most. It is the colour that I wish they did in a compact (with a mirror) by itself. It is a more orangey undertone which means that it is not a perfect colour match but it is perfect for concealing the dark marks that spots leave on my face.
I have been using it over my Iman BB Crème or liquid foundation and under Bare Minerals, Mineral Veil or under my NARS Benares foundation powder which is my favourite way to wear it.
If you like to mix and blend concealers to exactly match your skintone this is a good option. If your skintone is close to one of the colours it also gives you the chance to use a small amount of that colour before investing in one of the mono colour concealers. It would be really good if they had different names of the different shades on the container so that you knew which colours you were using.
I like the colour correction element of this concealer a lot – it has given me the confidence to use more orange toned concealers for colour correction. Fashion Fair is changing, with the recent Sam Fine collaboration, the capsule collections (my favourite is the Divine collection you can see it here) and the recent upgrade of my local Fashion Fair concession in Morleys, I might find that my oldest sister is dipping her fingers in my eyeshadow palettes.