Looking through rave reviews of the Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, I set off looking for it for myself.
After testing out the fairest shade in the color line-up, which was 1C1, I understood that it was still too dark for me and I went to another beauty store. And actually, the fairest shade was waiting for me in the collection Futurist, which was also said to be moisturizing. At that time I didn’t even pay attention that it was another foundation. And the sales rep didn’t even bother with asking me what I was looking for.
My skin is mixed, which is more prone to dryness, that’s why I was really hoping that this foundation would suit me.
Packaging: the tube with the product screams “luxury” - heavy glass tube, straight lines… and terrible staining dispenser. I don’t get why they didn’t make it out of some other material that wouldn’t be so porous. You see, the foundation always sits in those pores and it’s impossible to get it out of there.
But the dispenser itself is nice and I can even get the tiniest bit of the product with it. After all, there’s a dispenser, unlike of the Double Wear version which doesn’t have any.
As for the foundation itself, it’s liquid to some extent: it neither runs down my hand nor applies with a mask coverage. I need one small drop for my entire face and part of my neck.
At first, I apply it with my fingers and then distribute with a beautyblender.
Coverage: First, I tried to apply it with a thicker layer. And it might even seem like I succeeded. All my skin blemishes were camouflaged, whilst my skin color was smooth and semi-matte. But once I started to apply eye makeup and lifted my eyebrows, my foundation lifted with them and never went back. After that all my fine and smile lines were visible and I couldn't blend the product out at all.
Later on, I began to apply the foundation with a thinner layer to avoid that terrible creasing.
My skin is dehydrated, so I was hoping that the foundation would apply smoothly over it. But my hopes were in vain: when applied with a thin layer, the product didn’t cover anything - my blemishes and flaking skin were still visible, and my peach hair looked more obvious. I can describe all that endlessly, but it’s better to show you the result in the pictures where my naked skin looks better, even though it’s far from being perfect.
Nude skin:
With the foundation on:
You can zoom the picture by clicking on it, so as to assess all that “beauty”.
Those pink spots aren’t the blusher, this is my skin that peeks through, which the foundation wasn’t able to cover. I was shocked when I saw all those blemishes around my nose. How ever could a moisturizing foundation define them so much?
By midday the foundation flakes off my face, even though I can’t say that it had been applied smoothly initially.
So, there’s no staying power.
Pros:
Cons:
it creases when I pack the coverage
it doesn’t have any coverage if I don’t pack it
it defines my flaking skin and peach hair
no moisture
no smooth coverage
no staying power. It flakes off with patches from my skin
staining dispenser
high price for such terrible quality
I bought this product 3 years ago and all that time I was hoping to tame it. During all those years, my skin tone was changed from a very dry to more hydrated thanks to the good skin care. I don’t know how a product for $68 can perform so badly on the skin. I guess this is the most disappointing product which I’ve ever tried in my life. And the most depressing thing is that there’s still a lot of it left in the tube.
So, why do I give it 2 stars in the end instead of 1? Comparing it with my other foundation from Clinique, I can see some good points about it: this foundation is really fair, it doesn’t dehydrate my skin and never boosts oily shine.
That’s it. Apart from those aspects, this foundation is horrible and I’ll never recommend it to anyone. So my answer to the question in the heading: no way.
