Review: Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Tinted Balm

When this little beauty arrived on my doorstep this morning, I was left absolutely gobsmacked by the sheer beauty and quality of the packaging. Despite their being such a huge amount of hype surrounding the super-high coverage 'Sensual Skin Enhancer' I've never gotten around to trying it myself, but to be honest, this new tinted moisturiser type product seems a little more up my street anyway.

So it goes without saying that the packaging is stunning. Unique, classy, compact and very tactile. The see-through panel on the front is a type of matte silicone material that allows you to squeeze the product out, while the rest of the packaging is a hard plastic, with Kevyn Aucoin's signature metallic black and red finish.

The packaging alone made me desperate to love this product, just so that it could make it a permanent addition to my makeup bag.

The consistency of the product is much more akin to a BB cream than a tinted moisturiser... It's thicker, and takes a little bit more effort to blend it in. The most obvious comparison to make here would be with the Chantecaille Just Skin tinted moisturiser... Both have a similar aim and a premium price point (though I must note that this comes in considerably more affordable than the Chantecaille at £36 compared to £57)

So what's the verdict? The application is pretty much the same as the Chantecaille, very 'BB'-like in texture. 

The finish is very natural and super lightweight. As the name would suggest, it enhances your skin rather than covering it, leaving you with naturally glowing, fresh-looking skin. Having said that it is slightly build-able, so you can get a nice light-medium coverage from it if you layer it.

The one issue I did have with this on my skin, was that I found it to be a tiny bit drying. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it did seem to have better staying power than Chantecaille's Just Skin throughout the day, and it 'settles' in to the skin nicely after an hour or so (perhaps thanks to the Japanese bloodgrass, which is meant to help maintain moisture in the skin). I think this would be a great choice for oily skin types as it's less likely to disappear during the day than a lot of other similar products.

It also has some added skincare properties including botanical rice extract that works to preserve cell vitality, delay ageing and soothe and calm the skin. It's paraben, D5 and oil free, protects against UVA and UVB with a 'theoretic' SPF of 20 (I'm not exactly sure what that entails, but some reviews have stated that it doesn't contain SPF at all, when apparently it does - always good news!)

One major downfall for the product is the shade range. There are a mere 4 shades in the range, the shade I tried is the second lightest, so it doesn't seem to cater for all skin tones at the moment - hopefully that is something that will change in the future if the product sells well.

Overall, I think the packaging is slightly more impressive than the product, but the product is still nice, and I will certainly use it up. I think it may be better suited to oily skins so I would be interested to hear if anyone else out there has tried this yet, and what you thought?

The Sensual Tinted Balm is available now at SpaceNK stores, priced at £36 for 30ml. You can also buy the Chantecaille Just Skin from Space NK, priced at £57 for 50ml