Wear time is where affordable makeup gets most of its bad reviews, and usually the expectation was wrong rather than the product. Faberlic makeup lasts about as long as its formula and your skin allow — and price does not repeal that.

Here is what is reasonable to expect.

Realistic hours

  • Foundation — six to eight on balanced skin, three to five on oily
  • Powder — a full day on balanced skin, two to four hours on oily
  • Eyeshadow without a base — four to six hours, half that on oily lids
  • Gloss and cream lipstick — two to three hours
  • Matte lipstick — four to six hours
  • Mascara — all day, in every skin type

Those figures assume no meals, drinks or heat. Any one of them roughly halves the number.

What matters more than the brand

Your skin type. Oily skin produces more sebum across a day than the amount of foundation you applied. Nothing sits on top of that indefinitely.

The skincare underneath. Dehydrated skin drinks foundation into patches; skin still wet with moisturiser will not let it set. A five to ten minute pause after moisturiser does more than switching foundation.

Layer thickness. One heavy coat slides sooner than two thin ones.

Weather. Heat and humidity take rich textures down first.

Steps that genuinely add hours

  1. A mattifying primer on the T-zone — the single biggest gain for oily skin
  2. Powder set immediately after foundation, before it fully dries down
  3. An eye base or cream shadow under any powder shadow
  4. Lips: liner across the whole lip, lipstick, blot, second coat
  5. Keep your hands off your face — touching removes more base than time does

What not to expect

Nobody in this price bracket delivers a true twenty-four hours, and the formulas that come closest tend to be harsher on skin. The workable compromise is ordinary makeup plus a pressed powder in your bag.

If foundation breaks up in patches or irritates regardless of which product you use, the variable is your skin rather than the makeup — worth a doctor's opinion.

The catalogue turns over roughly every three weeks; check faberlic.com for what is currently listed. Category guides are in the reviews section.