Hello!
Last fall I decided to finally find my ideal foundation! My skin is of combination type, sometimes it’s very dry, sometimes it’s oily. From time to time I have acne, but I try to get rid of it as quickly as possible, so that’s why there’s some reddening on my face too. All the foundation products or BB creams used to apply well on my skin and even look okay in a couple of hours, but when I came home after the working day, I used to notice no foundation left on my face at all.
So, my mission was to find the most long-lasting foundation. Having read a hundred of different reviews on the Internet, I finally found out that the most long-lasting was considered to be Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place foundation.
Price.
Oh, well, the product is pricey, since it’s the high end cosmetic brand.
$39.50. That’s too much for me, so I decided to wait until Christmas sales and buy it then.
I can’t say that I’m a fan of the high end cosmetics, but I’m ready to pay for the good quality and good ingredients.
Packaging
The foundation initially was in the dark blue box of a thick carton. The bottle itself really looks like a high end product, it’s made of matte glass with a tad of gold lettering on. I heard that there are a lot of people who are annoyed by the fact that there’s no pump. But I found the way out. I took a pump from another cosmetic product and it fit perfectly well. I know, that now it doesn’t look great or as a high end bottle, but still, I like that it has become much more convenient to use.
Here’s the photo of the “upgraded” bottle.
By the way, the sales rep at the store offered a pump for purchase at the MAC corner, but I didn’t do that.
I don’t consider the pump absence as a great problem, and would have never bought a pump specially for it. If you have this MAC pump, then yes, use it, but if you don’t, then just take out a small amount of the foundation on the back of your hand and use it. No more fuss about it.
Color
I was confused by the number of the reviews where they told that there weren’t enough colors to choose from. They meant three. But actually there are about thirty in the collection. I understand that usually there aren’t a lot at the store, but you may always order it online on the official site.
http://www.esteelauder.com/
I have this foundation in two colors. At first I bought Fresco 2c3 but later I realised that I was wrong with the color as it was too pinkish on my face. (You should never test the foundation on your hand, but on your neck and face only). So, recently I bought the lighter and cooler color (but it’s not yellow) Cool Bone 1c1.
I mix these two colors together and get a beautiful, a tad warm undertoned, healthy face color. In the photo below you can see how much Fresco is darker and even has some red pigment in. I may wear it in summer, but now, I can wear it only by mixing with the other one. Cool bone is just perfect for girls with fair skin.
In general, the range of colors is really wide. There’s a selection to choose from. Usually, at stores there are testers, even if there’s no color to buy. So, I’d advise you to test it at store and order online.
How it works.
You can get a really delicate coverage if you take a few drops of the foundation out and dotty apply it and blend on the entire face. If you take more, then it’ll conceal all your imperfections like pores, pimples, spots - everything will just like disappear -- real life photoshop. I mean, your skin will still be velvety and real, with no mask effect. For those who are afraid to look “plain”, I’d advise to use a highlighter on the high points of your face and add a bit of blush.
As for flaking skin, there’s no doubt that such a “strong” and concealing product will define them. If you ask me, I think there should be no flaking on the skin, as it’s a serious call to add moisture in your skin care routine.
But if you’re in the process of treating your flaking skin, then you should place Estee Lauder foundation aside, until the flaking totally disappears. In general you should always apply it over the face primer or moisturizing cream. That way you’ll see that it applies way better.
It takes about 10 mins for the foundation to set. And during these 10 mins it’s visible on my face and later it adjust to my skin color and hides even the most visible skin blemishes. In the before and after photo below you can see the difference (my face is full of reddening after facial cleaning). My skin in the after photo looks more natural (here, I applied the mix of Fresco and Cool Bone)
Staying power
So, this is the main reason why I bought this foundation. And the product is really great in this respect. It stays on from the early morning till the very night. Of course, an oily shine can appear from time to time, but that's okay, no miracles happen in real life. But the foundation will stay on even you sweat in the gym. It gives me the staying power I was looking for.
So, here’s the photo of the foundation in 5 hours of wearing (on the left) and 8 hours of wearing (on the right). I presume that I could have continued wearing it, and it would still be looking rather decent. After a few hours of wearing this foundation my skin looks more natural than straight after the application. All the blemishes are still hidden, and the healthy (not oily) glow appears.
Overall:
The product is really long lasting with great staying power! For these two aspects, I can forgive its high price and the absence of a pump. It’s consistency is really thick, unlike any BB creams, but my face still has a natural finish and it doesn’t stain my clothes. By the way, in many reviews they say that this is not every day foundation, only for the special occasions. But, as for me, I use it regularly! If you apply it in the right way and the right amount only on moisturised skin, then the foundation will look great even in the morning. I want my skin to look good everyday, not only for special occasions. This product didn’t provoke any skin problems. There’s SPF, so I’m not intended to keep it only for special occasions:)
It’s a gorgeous product with gorgeous properties. I haven’t found any serious drawbacks in it.
I definitely recommend it! Thanks for reading my review 
