No 7 Anti-dark spot facial sun protection cream

I had run out of my trusty clinique face cream and was waiting around for a decent bonus time before I picked another one up. I came across the No 7 Anti-dark spot facial sun protection at my last trip to Boots, and as I had one of those £5 vouchers, I decided to not get a nail varnish this time, and pick one of these instead. It costs £10.50 for 50ml at full price.

The description ticks all the right boxes for me:

- contains UVA and UVB filters

- has skin brightening properties to help improve appearance of skin tone

- helps prevent dark spots and hyper-pigmentation

- no shine

- great for make up base

I got it in the highest factor available in the line, 50+. It is a very soft, beige lotion and goes on really easily. I do have to wait about 10 minutes before I feel its absorbed properly into my skin before I apply my foundation.

Under my foundation, I feel it helps give my skin a bit of a glowy and healthy appearance. I tried to demonstrate this in pictures on the back of my hand, but alas the flash just washed the effect away.


I have been using this every day for about a month and a half now and I do like it... It hasn't clogged up my pores or broken me out, and my skin does not feel heavy or weighed down when I use it.  I have not yet seen any improvements on my hyperpigmentation, but i'm not using this cream strictly as recommended (i.e reapply every few hours).


One huge downside to this however, and the reason that I'm torn on whether I would repurchase again, is that it is not a great make up base for my foundation. In fact its the opposite. When I was at the nars counter at selfridges last week, the MA used a wipe to take my existing foundation off my face. Nothing transferred onto the wipe because it had all disappeared. This is because the cream seems to act as a barrier on my face and the foundation just glides off. This was about 6pm and I had done my make up about 7am. Usually I don't have a problem with my make up disappearing. So I was quite horrified to know that I was walking around with no foundation on my face. 


Such a shame because it is a good product. The slight tint is ideal for the beach or with someone with perfect, even skin. I have it on now, without any makeup on and my skin feels really soft and brightened. I will certainly use this up, but maybe not under the foundation anymore. Any recommendations on primers with spf?