Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation: My Thoughts

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the new(ish) Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation, and this review has been a long time in the making...


I was sent this foundation before it's release back at Christmas time and I must admit it took me a while to get around to trying it. I've never been blown away by Rimmel foundations in the past so it wasn't top of my list of things I wanted to use (especially around Christmas time, where I find I rely on my old faithful favourite products to look good for parties and photos!)

When I finally got around to using it, I was pleasantly surprised. What appeared to be super shimmery in the bottle and rather gloopy-looking on my hand, actually gave the skin a lovely natural, radiant glow.


The shimmer is rather deceptive, and has been the cause of debate amongst bloggers recently. As far as my experience goes, it looks glitterball-esque in the bottle, doesn't show up at all in natural light, but is noticeable on the skin under strong artificial light (After thorough hand-testing, I found it only really showed up under my bathroom and kitchen lights, at night) So for me, the shimmer isn't an issue at all.

The really-hard-to-photograph shimmer - I hope you get the idea!

The one issue I wasn't 100% sold on was the coverage. At first I thought this foundation was a little light for me but after a thorough testing (I've been dallying back and to from this foundation since January) It's not the coverage, but the amount needed that was my issue.


I'm not a fan of 'slapping it on' (to put it rather crudely!) I like to use a small amount of product to achieve a medium coverage. With this you need 1 1/2 - 2 pumps to cover your whole face, which is more than I would normally like. It doesn't feel light on the skin and you can most certainly tell you are wearing it, but I have to say it looks lovely. 


It looks natural, glowing and leaves your skin feeling moisturised and healthy (for anyone with dry patches like me... it doesn't cling - horaay!)

Overall, this is a really rather fabulous foundation considering it retails for 8.99, has SPF15 and is regularly on 3 for 2 at Boots. It beats most of the other hyped up high street foundations in my opinion (My previous favourite Bourjois Healthy Mix included) and it even gives a lot of it's high end competitors a run for their money.


The shade range is pretty abysmal. There are 6 shades of fair/medium, of which I wear the lightest, Ivory.

A blurry example of their shade range from Boots' website! Click here for shade names etc.

Is it groundbreaking enough to it replace my beloved Chanel or Shiseido bases as some are proclaiming? No, but it's pretty close on their tails! If you're looking for something new to try and they have a shade for you, it'd definitely recommend giving this a whirl! 


This week I'm going to be giving away a bottle of this foundation to one lucky reader. If you'd like to win, all you need to do is head over to my website, where you'll find all the details!