Welcome to my review! I’ll be extremely honest, indignant and picky:)
First of all, I bought this foundation only because I wanted to try out something from the high-end segment and I had a gift certificate. Also, there was a huge Christmas discount.
The package is simply gorgeous. A silvery box and a heavy glass bottle. Looks so beautiful!
The cap is nice too, adorned with a rose. The foundation is very nice to the touch, it’s really important for me.
Product description:
Coverage:✔ MediumSkin type:✔ Sensitive✔ Normal✔ Dry✔ Combination✔ OilyFinish:✔ MatteWhat it is:An oil-free, long-wearing, liquid foundation that delivers medium-to-full coverage and leaves a natural-looking, velvety-matte finish for up to 24 hours.What it does:For those long days, this foundation gives you the full coverage, comfortable, long wear that you need. Not thick or greasy, this foundation's innovative formula gives all skin tones flawless, complexion-perfecting coverage, while the broad spectrum SPF 15 sunscreen protects. Redness, pores, and imperfections visibly disappear, evening the skin tone and leaving a mattified-yet-natural result. Formulated with color-true NAI pigments, it maintains your skin’s pH level so that color stays put all day long—meaning your makeup doesn’t need to be re-touched and provides transfer-resistant coverage—plus, it’s infused with perlite and silica, absorbing oil for a shine-free wear.
Does this foundation live up to the promises?
Its texture is nice and liquidy. You can see that it’s highly pigmented, and yet not watery or oily.
But once applied onto the skin, the foundation starts looking patchy. Is it okay for a high end product, I wonder.
But with a little work, the foundation is applied evenly. The easiest way is to use a primer, makeup sponge and apply the foundation wet.
I’d recommend you moisturize your skin beforehand, since the foundation dries out even my combination skin.
I’ll show you my face naked so you could see all the problems I have, namely: the difference between under eye area and the rest of the face, pigment spots and enlarged pores.
In this photo, I only dyed my eyebrows and applied a moisturizer (not a primer):
And here is a photo with the foundation on. I applied it with fingers, but did my best to blend it out to avoid greasy spots.
It looks totally fine, I don’t even need a concealer, even though I couldn’t imagine my life without it before. It’s a big advantage of this foundation.
Also, the pigmentation is superb and the foundation can be layered (at least until it’s dry). It dries quickly and becomes matte, and it’s harder to fix any flaws or layer it then.
Now to the downsides. The first minus is: the foundation makes enlarged pores more visible. You should cleanse your skin thoroughly, otherwise you’ll end up with bumps all over your face. I’m not sure about dry spots and flaking, but I reckon the foundation would emphasize them too. So it’s more for oily skin, I’d say, and only after cleansing.
The second minus, and a very significant one, is its oxidation! I have swarthy skin and use the shade 035 Beige Dore. Usually, I choose something with a yellow undertone to it. In a swatch, this shade looked like Sand, but in 10-15 minutes I got a very warm reddish color. Seriously, what’s wrong with it?
In general, the foundation looks fine in my makeup, especially in summer. But it’s definitely not for winter.
The worst part is, the shade looked totally okay when I swatched it in the store, and you can see it in the photo above! And yet it ends up looking reddish, like a cheap fake foundation!
I know that many faced the same problem, especially those with fair skin. The color range is wide, but it doesn’t make much difference since all of them darken with time! So I’d recommend to apply a swatch and watch it.
I also have to note that the foundation has a rather sharp fragrance, which reminds me of old perfume. I‘m okay with that as I love vintage fragrances, but it becomes annoying after a while.
I applied the foundation half an hour before taking this photo, in combination with Smashbox primer:
As an advantage I can count on the fact that the foundation has superb longevity. Even after 12 hours, it looks as though just applied.
Also, it doesn’t come off (even though I touch my face often) and doesn’t make my face oily. There is no mask-like effect. And the biggest plus is - the foundation doesn’t cause breakouts.
So my experience is rather contradictory. I decided to give this foundation 4 stars, still, because the most important things for me are full coverage, longevity and mattifying properties. I don’t think I’ll ever repurchase it, but I’m pretty sure I’ll try out other stuff from this brand.
