Review (1/5): 03 NOT as light as product photo shows. NO SPF IN INGREDIENTS
This comes in an outer product box that is sealed with plastic wrapping. It is made in the PRC. The ingredients are listed on the box. The product page states they are cruelty free.
The product page doesn’t list a full ingredient list, just - “aqua, water, dimethicone,ethylhexyl etc.” I hate that. Might as well not even list any! It’s annoying. I show a photo of the product box that I got with the ingredients on it.
This claimed to be a lightweight, flawless, full coverage foundation. It claimed to cover “speckle, acne, scar, and so on.” It also claimed that it boosts radiance and leaves skin silky smooth. Claiming to be lightweight, full coverage, to boost radiance, and leave skin silky smooth seems kind of like they’re trying to combine all the different foundation finishes - natural, dewy, matte, semi-matte, etc. - together. But, it can’t really be all those things can it? I was interested to find out!
It claimed to be “poreless,” which is a huge claim I don’t think any foundation lives up to. So, even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t hold it against it.
It claimed to have SPF 15. It also claimed to be oil free.
It said that a “natural extract from the evergreen spice bush, provides antioxidant protection against so that you can stay 24 hours.” Again, that didn’t make complete sense, but I’m guessing it just means it provides antioxidant protection for your face while your outside.
It said you can apply it with a brush, sponge, or fingertips over your preferred primer and can layer as required for a fuller coverage. I thought it was interesting it said you could layer as required for a fuller coverage since it claims to be a full coverage foundation.
It comes in 2 shades at the time I was looking - 02 and 03. I assume there’s an 01 out there somewhere, but it wasn’t an option when I was selecting at it and it isn’t an option as I’m writing this review. I have very fair skin so I usually go for the lightest option. Usually, I’d think that would be the lowest number, which in this case would be 02. But, looking at the product photo where it seemed to have a drop of it out, it seemed like 03 was the lighter one and 02 was darker. I would have liked to have a product photo that compared swatches of the 2 shades. But, sometimes even when that is available the shades don’t work out right.
This comes in a nice, thick, frosted glass bottle. The top is plastic with a pump.
The product page said that this had a special design of the pump so you can control the amount of foundation, even for a beginner. It said, “When you rotate the lid can you use this foundation.” That sounds like a question but was written as a statement. I think they were saying that by rotating the lid, you’re able to use the pump and control the amount of foundation you get? When the lid is twisted where it’s closed, the spout of the pump is kind of in this little area, so the pump can’t be pushed down. When you twist the lid, it moves that little spout into an area where it can then be pushed down (see photos). I honestly don’t see how this pump is anything special, other than the fact that it will keep it from being pressed down accidentally IF you rotate it back each time. Seems to me just having a regular pump with a lid that goes over it would have done the same thing.
To me, this pump is NOT easier than a usual pump. It is funny because it said you can control the amount of foundation, even for a beginner. I usually can control how much foundation I get out, like I could do a half of a pump or 1/4 pump if I want. With this pump, I can NOT control it! I can only get a full pump. If you try to only push it down a little to only get a little amount of foundation, it doesn’t give anything. It needs to be pressed all the way down to give any foundation out at all. So, I’m not sure where they are getting that you can control it.
Another thing…the color is NOTHING like the product photo showed. The product photo made it look like 03 was the lighter shade. It looked like it would be a fair shade, maybe possibly fair to light. 02 looked like it was medium, possibly light to medium. But, in person, 03 is a medium shade to me. Maybe light to medium. So, I don’t know if they mixed up the product photos that show the bottle with the drop of foundation or what, but the shade 03 does NOT match the shade shown in the product photo with bottle and the drop of foundation. It looks like the one that’s in the product photos for shade 02. Of course, it would make sense since 03 is the bigger number. But, I was going by what the product photos showed. I show a photo of it swatched in my forearm compared to Maybelline Fit Me Matte+Poreless in 110 Porcelain. As you can see, they’re very different!
This has a creamy texture. It glides onto the skin. It blends in easily with a sponge or brush. It gives a dewy finish to the skin. It definitely is a nice finish for dry skin. If you have oily skin, this might not work well for you. It definitely isn’t full coverage. It gives very light coverage. You can build it up a little, but even then it just doesn’t seem to give much coverage at all. It’s just kind of going to even everything out.
Another thing…this says it has SPF 15 in it. But there’s no ingredient listed in the ingredient list that is an SPF ingredient. The box and product page doesn’t state what the SPF ingredient is supposed to be. But, I thought, maybe I just wasn’t seeing the ingredient. So, I ran the ingredients through an ingredient checker and not one came up as an SPF ingredient. I don’t like they flat out lied about that. At the end of the ingredients there is the usual may contain area (“[+/-…”) and there it has “titanium dioxide (Cl 77891)”. That is a pigment for coloring, NOT for SPF. So, I’m not sure where the SPF is, but it’s not anywhere in this ingredient list!
There are a lot of moisturizing ingredients in it like Shea butter, glycerin, urea, sodium PCA, yeast extract, beet root extract, sodium hyaluronate, and squalane.
Overall, this is just a no for me. I hate the pump. It’s nothing special and I use foundations daily and can control how much I pump out, but with this one I can’t at all! The shade is totally wrong for me and it’s because of the product photos they have shown for 03 don’t look anything like what I got! The shade I got looks more like what’s shown for 02. They say this is full coverage, but it’s not at all. It’s light…very light. They said it has SPF 15 in it, yet not a single ingredient listed is an SPF ingredient, so where they came up with that one at I don’t know. I don’t like all the misinformation.