I'm going to make this analogy and some people are going to eye roll at how dramatic I am (but let's face it, I was never the most subtle person when in writing) but here goes: makeup products are like the people passing through your life. There are the products that you get along with the first time round, there are the pests, there are the ones that you can't love no matter how hard you try, and possibly one of the most dire situations: the ones that won't let you love them no matter how much you want to. 

Oh Bourjois, why must you fall in that category? If you were following this tiny corner of the internet before I flew to London the first time round and changed blog names afterwards, you'll probably remember me shooting fireworks and party stringers on how wonderful the Bourjois Radiance Revealed Healthy Mix Foundation (£9.99) was. I even did a whole review on it in the wee ages of my blogging days. But after months of writing poetry of how beautiful the foundation was, it had stab me in the back. Okay, Daphne, tone down on the drama. Basically, my face was resembling the surface of the moon last year with all the bumps and blemishes in all its glory. I had chalked it up to bad lifestyle choices and hormonal issues. But after leaving this foundation behind in Taiwan as I trekked half a world away to London, my skin quickly cleared up. The rest of my skin was still in chaos due to the big climate change, but the blemishes were gone. After a quick google session and going through the six steps of grief - I finally accepted the fact that I was allergic to the fragrance in the foundation. 

Now of course, I couldn't learn my lesson and just had to give the brand another go. It's hard to find a perfect base without even limiting the scope to high street offerings. I had hated to give up on the Bourjois base products and after a couple months of umm-ing and ahh-ing, I squeezed my eyes shut and thrust my money at the Bourjois CC Cream (£9.99) - another potential breakout trigger. This sat in my collection for a couple of weeks before I finally braced myself for the test. At first, it was beautiful, it was perfect, and it wasn't breaking me out.

I should've realized the tune was too familiar as I hummed along. 

As I wasn't using it on a daily routine, the effect of the ingredients didn't seem to be obvious at first. But after using it daily for a couple of weeks, my skin started resembling the havoc it was in last year and I knew it was again, down to the base. I quickly switched up my base and the birth of new red additions have gone down, but it saddens me how two tries with the same brand has concreted how Bourjois and I will probably never have our foundation love story. It pains me to have to cross out our potential storyline as it would've been a good one - but maybe I'll get antsy again and give it another go when they release their next base. Third time's the charm, right? Or is it just wishful thinking?