The Ordinary Serum Foundation

Anyone who knows The Ordinary will know that it really ought to be called ‘The Extraordinary’. From ‘disruptor’ beauty company Deciem, The Ordinary has rewritten the skincare rule book by offering customisable, layerable, high-tech and effective beauty solutions at incredibly accessible prices. Since it launched, The Ordinary has been an absolute sensation – witness the waitlists for new products at our friend Gill Sinclair’s beauty and wellbeing website, victoriahealth.com. So: this is The Ordinary’s first foray into colour cosmetics – though we suspect not their last. And guess what: we had the join the waitlist for our foundations, along with all the other customers!

But boy, was it worth the wait.

The texture of this foundation just isn’t like anything else we’ve tried. It’s an incredibly light liquid – almost like water, actually – which makes it hard to believe it’s going to do much at all. It’s called a serum – but it’s actually even lighter than that. And for anyone who doesn't like foundation because of the way it feels on the skin: this is imperceptible.

Yet when applied to the skin, it offers weightless and buildable effective coverage. (We like one layer for ‘weekends’, just to even out skintone – and more, for the week.) Basically, your skin looks just like skin – only way better.

There’s a comprehensive shade range with 21 different options. It might seem scary to buy foundation online, but somehow (and we’re not sure how!), the colours are unbelievably forgiving – and will work for two to three skin shades either side of. We’re in the Light Medium spectrum, but brilliantly it goes up to 3.3N Very Deep, for the darkest skintones. And – at the opposite end of the spectrum – there’s 1.0N Very Fair, which would do Snow White nicely.

They’re pump-action – but you can also buy a dropper, separately, to apply the product.

And, sheesh – at this price, can anyone afford NOT to try these?

The Ordinary Serum Foundation/£5.70 for 30ml at victoriahealth.com