Makeup that magically transforms to match your skintone? Impossible! Or is it...? The Budget Babe's resident beauty expert investigates. —BB



by The Budget Beauty Babe
Lately, Almay has been broadcasting these really tempting commercials on TV. Their fabulous model squirts out a little bit of white makeup onto her finger, and it magically transforms into her perfect shade on her face. The commercial then goes on to tell you about new Smart Shade technology, where microscopic color beads activate upon applying them and change into your exact shade of makeup. Needless to say, I was very incredulous, and yet their commercial worked because off I went to Ulta to give it a whirl.

It was easy enough to pick the shade I needed from their three options (light, medium and dark), and before even making it home I ripped open the package in the car and squirted some out on my fingers just like the spokesmodel. Gently rubbing it into my hand, I was really surprised: The makeup actually did change from white to my skin color! Then for the sake of my experiment, I grabbed my boyfriend's hand and proceeded to rub some on him, and amazingly it did the same thing (and his skin is at least five shades darker than mine!)

Upon very close inspection of the "white" makeup that comes out of the tube, you'll see little flecks of color, which leads me to believe that this is in fact "liquid mineral makeup" - where in the minerals are suspended in a makeup base and then blended into the face and like other loose minerals reflect light in such a way that perfect matching occurs. Pretty clever.

I think this is a nice product, however, I must say that it covers more like a tinted moisturizer and really doesn't have the covering power of foundation. I really like it as a base to loose mineral makeup, as it provides SPF protection and a nice evening of the skin tone. Those with more to hide need not apply - the makeup is too thin to cover redness, blueness, or spots.

Overall I like this product. Almay Smart Shade Makeup is clever, quasi-magical and delivers light, even coverage (great as a base, perfect replacement for non-tinted moisturizer) with SPF protection.

>> Almay Smart Shade makeup is available at Drugstore.com for $12.14.