I’ve always been a foundation obsessive. I remember once counting over 50 open bottles in my Ikea Alex drawers that were buckling under their weight. On the surface, I chalked it up to being dedicated to my job and wanting to try all the newest base launches that landed on my desk, but in reality, it was because I was deeply insecure about my skin.

I have rosacea, a chronic skin disorder that flares up with almost no notice and turns my face flaming red. High-coverage foundations brought me comfort in camouflaging my ruddy cheeks, but I never thought I’d be able to break up with these potent opaque formulas until I came across Vieve’s Skin Nova Primer.

I was adamant the low-maintenance approach to make-up wasn’t for me, but Vieve’s Skin Nova Primer claims to be a make-up-skincare hybrid that perfectly preps skin for make-up and delivers an undeniable glow to the skin. In terms of formula, it contains niacinamide to clarify and nurture your skin barrier and soothing beta-glucan and rose water to hydrate, so it’s no surprise that my skin drank this stuff up.

I slathered it on my skin and came to the (very rare) conclusion that it left my skin so even and radiant that applying foundation afterwards would only diminish my glow. Fast forward five months and one tube later, and I was using this stuff more than I was picking up foundation. So much so that I realised I had gone six weeks straight without any other base on my skin. A record. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still dabbed a bit of concealer under my eyes to counteract my late nights of binge-watching true crime documentaries on Netflix and added a few dots over any breakouts (I can’t go entirely teetotal), but the freedom Vieve’s Skin Nova Primer gave me meant I wasn’t checking the mirror every couple of minutes in fear that my base had gone cakey or had oxidised and I’d gone as orange as a Halloween pumpkin. 

If you’re still looking for a bit more coverage, I’ve seen Vieve founder Jamie Genevieve use a blob of this primer and mix it in with a swatch of concealer to give you the glow with a bit more coverage.  

What’s more – and I can’t say for sure whether it was me ditching foundation or the niacinamide-packed formula – my skin felt smoother and softer as a result of using this primer every day. I now cannot go anywhere without it. 

I butcher the packaging in my attempts to extract every last drop and I can’t not have a backup on standby just in case the inevitable happens and I finally reach the end of the tube. That’s how dedicated I am to this primer. As someone who rarely finishes a make-up product before it goes off, that is a huge feat. I urge everyone to add a tube of Vieve’s Skin Nova Primer into their lives. You won’t regret it. 

Images: Vieve; Charlotte Bitmead