Normally, I rush to try out new products, but I'm uncharacteristically ambivalent towards foundations. I put it down to unrequited love: there are only so many times you can hope a product is going to be right for you, and then accept that, no matter how much you want to be together, it ain't ever going to happen. If the blurb for each foundation is to be believed, they all give you a perfect complexion, but if that were true, how come: a) there are so many on the market, and b) most brands launch a new one at least once, if not two or three times, a year?

So, is it any wonder that I feel cheated when a new foundation is launched, promising an "even more perfect complexion"? I just can't help but see that as meaning, "The last thing we sold you was rubbish, but this is a bit less rubbish." But the ads for Boots No 7 Intelligent Colour Foundation promised something different. Instead of the usual gushing, the blurb focuses on the importance of finding the exact match for you. Not only was it nice to see a range of face shapes and colours used to advertise a major brand (see, it's not that hard), but the idea appealed, too.

Having realised that, when it comes to picking a foundation, most women suffer "colour anxiety", Wilma O'Leary's formulations team at Boots decided they could approach the issue in two ways. Says O'Leary, "You can either increase the colour palette, in which case you're still making people choose, and it's still unlikely they'll ever find their exact colour. Or you can come up with something that covers a lot of tones." There are three shades (light, medium and dark), and the "intelligent" bit is that the colour adapts to your skin tone.

The really surprising thing is that it seems to work. I tried the dark and it looked great. I also tried it on Priscilla, our fashion administrator, who is also black, but a completely different shade from me, and to our amazement it worked on her, too. The foundation does seem a bit drying, but it definitely gets 10/10 for effort. That's one love requited; I'm working on the others.