I’ve been using this foundation for a month or two now, and I just wanted to write up some of the great things about it, and some of the not so great things. It is is always constantly raved about, so I wanted to give some real facts about it, once you get past the overwhelmingly positive hype. I have oily/combo skin for reference.
The Good
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It really lives up to its claim of being long-wearing. It makes it through a 12 hour day no problem.
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Very pigmented- medium coverage on the first, thin layer.
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Beautiful satin finish that keeps you looking alive after applying, and not like a blank piece of paper.
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Great shade range- although I do find it leans a little orangey-pinkey; yellow undertones(me) may have a little bit of trouble finding the right shade.
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Keeps shine from breaking through, and even when the oil does start to show at the end of the day, the foundation doesn’t break up or fade(eventually it does fade a little on my nose, but at the 13th hour and beyond).
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Very thin, comfortable formula for such a long-wearing and pigmented foundation.
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Looks fairly natural from a distance ONLY IF one thin layer is used- yes it will cover great when built up, but your skin will very much look like it has makeup on.
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Doesn’t really collect in laugh lines at all, which is pretty hard for me to find.
The Bad
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Because it grips to your skin so well, it does not do anything good for your skin texture. Even with a primer, I find it makes my pores pretty obvious, and every bump or otherwise uneven parts of my skin are accentuated.
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It doesn’t make your skin feel very good by the end of the day. It’s pretty drying, and I will notice dry patches I never even knew I had by the time I take my makeup off. I feel like I have to moisturize more at night to compensate for this. The EL lady at the counter even told me that she can’t wear it any more because it dried out her mature skin, and I’m only 16.
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It doesn’t look natural at all if you build to full coverage. Because of the previously mentioned texture issues, it really starts to look like a lot of makeup fast. What’s even worse is that it applies super thinly, but once it dries, the cake face becomes apparent if you used too much.
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It sets very fast, so fast that I can only blend one part of my face at a time. When I have dotted my whole face and blended after, people have pointed out to me that I have uneven spots of it. I started to realized the bottom layer of the dots were drying onto my skin as I blended other parts of my face. Once it sets, you can’t get rid of an uneven spot; its very unforgiving. You would have to remove the makeup and start over again.
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NO PUMP- I really, really, really hate that this foundation doesn’t come with a pump. If I’m spending on a high-end foundation, I really expect it to come with a pump. I had to buy the MAC one, because it is so annoying (and honestly time-consuming) to pour a little puddle of it on to the back of your hand, while avoiding spilling it onto the threads of the bottle (but it always does a little), which get disgusting fast.
Edit: One more bad: u/GlaDos00 mentioned in the comments that the foundation has bad flashback. I can personally attest that this is very true, and I don’t know why I forgot to mention it. Any kind of extreme lighting will result in a pretty ghostly look (camera flash, a bright ring light, even overhead fluorescent), due to the Titanium Dioxide in this foundation. So, avoid this foundation for any events or places you will have your picture taken, and especially don’t wear it for a night out. Low-light plus bright camera flashes will result in basically a completely white face 🙁
Hopefully this was helpful for those interested in this foundation. All in all, I really do like it, but I’m currently on a new search for my everyday foundation. I will always keep this in my arsenal for when I want a really long-wearing, yet thin foundation. However, when I take a few days off from wearing it, my skin feels a lot healthier and happier in general, so I can’t see myself continuing to wear this daily. I could see someone who is extremely oily really loving this for everyday though.
