Review (4/5): Gives light coverage that evens out skin, can be built up. Hydrating and smooth
These come with 3 product boxes wrapped with plastic around them holding them together. All 3 of the outer product boxes look exactly the same, so initially I thought they had sent me the wrong thing - 3 foundations - instead of 2 foundations with sponges. But, once I took off the plastic wrapping and felt the 3 boxes, I could tell that 1 had sponges in it. Kind of weird they put them inside one of their foundation boxes. Not sure how comfortable I am with them not being wrapped on their own, but rather handled someone and placed into a foundation box? But, I guess either a machine or person normally handles makeup sponges in order to get them in their packaging, so this isn’t that weird 🤷‍♀️ Then, I took the sponges out and they looked like they had lint/paper or something all over them. I always wash my sponges before use anyways, and these felt soft and bouncy, so I figured I’d give them a try once I washed them. They worked really well so I’m glad I didn’t toss them right away. They are really soft and bouncy and increase in size once wet. Even though I really like them, I took a star off for them coming in a foundation box and having paper/lint all over them.
This comes in a thick frosted glass bottle with a dropper to dispense. It’s a nice clean way of dispensing product and to be able to control the amount of product you get out, which I like.
It claims to be made from natural ingredients. The ingredients are listed here on the product page and on the box. I put them at the end of this review. There were some ingredients that were listed oddly. When I first saw them listed I didn’t recognize them, so I looked them up. I’m not sure if they had to be translated and they got messed up that way or what, but they just weren’t written completely correct. Like I said, I put the ingredients at the end of my review. First, I put them exactly how they’re listed on the product page and the box. Then, below that, I wrote out what ingredients I felt were written the wrong way and wrote out what they should have been written as. If you want to look them up, it definitely makes it easier looking them up written the right way, at least for me it did. The ingredients can come from natural things. It does include parabens (methylparaben and propylparaben). I know a lot of people now are against parabens and now a lot of companies are producing “paraben free” products, but parabens are used preservatives. If they aren’t using parabens, which have been used regularly in products for many years, for the preservatives, they’re going to be using something else. Methylparaben occurs naturally in a handful of fruits (like blueberries), but it can also be created synthetically. Propylparaben is also a natural substance found in many plants and some insects.
I had gotten another foundation from Amazon that came in a glass bottle with a dropper to dispense similar to this one. I got that one in the lightest shade and it ended up being way too warm for me. I got this one in #2 because looking at the swatches it seemed lighter than #1. #1 seemed darker and warmer than #2 and #3. #2 and #3 seemed to be the lightest shades, with #2 looking more pink and #3 more yellow. I decided to go with #2. I always hate when companies make their #1 shade darker than the ones that come after it! I never understand that! But, I’m glad they had swatches to look at!
#2 is light enough for me, and like it seemed in the product photo of swatches, it has a pink tone to it. I did a swatch comparing this foundation in #2 to Maybelline Fit Me Matte+Poreless in 110 Porecelain. As you can tell, Maybelline one is more warm toned and this foundation is more cool toned.
It gives a nice natural, slightly dewy finish. It gives okay coverage. One thin layer just evens out my skin tone, but you can build it up some and/or use a brush instead of a sponge and get more application. With a foundation like this, that is a thinner consistency, if you want the most amount of coverage you can get from it, I recommend using a short haired, dense foundation brush. If you want to blend it seamlessly into the skin where it just evens out skin tone, you can use a sponge or use a fluffier brush to blend it onto the skin (I like using a fluffy dual fiber brush or my luxie 522 brush - it’s called a tapered highlighting brush, but I love the look it gives when I use it to blend in a thin consistency foundation! It just looks so seamless!). I usually don’t powder my face completely, only where I absolutely need to. But, with this foundation, I definitely recommend powdering! If I do a thin layer and powder, I don’t get much transfer at all.
Overall, I think it’s an okay foundation. If you like a natural but dewy finish, like a foundation that you can even out your skin tone with or build it up for a little more coverage, and don’t mind that you have to powder it to keep the transfer down, this would work for you. Personally for me, I like how hydrating this feels. It doesn’t cling to dry patches at all. Where a lot of foundations, even dewy ones, will sometimes look dry or cakey (like between my eyebrows, no matter how hard I try I can’t get foundation to look smooth and good there 😠), this one doesn’t do that! It looks nice and smooth there! I like using it on days where I just need to even out my skin.
INGREDIENTS
AS LISTED ON BOX AND ON AMAZON PRODUCT PAGE
Water, glycerin, propylene glycol, poly two methyl siloxane ring five, titanium dioxide, palmitic acid ethyl ester, liquid paraffin, PEG-30 two poly hydroxy stearic acid ester, poly two methyl siloxane cross-linked polymer, petrolatum, C12-15 alcohol benzoate, magnesium sulfate, avocado fruit fat, beeswax, rose flower extract, lanolin, magnesium stearate, polysorbate -80, methylparaben and propylparaben, phenoxyethanol ethylhexylglycerin, rose oil, iron oxides.
MY CHANGE OF HOW SOME INGREDIENTS ARE LISTED
“Poly two methyl siloxane ring five” - Cyclopentasiloxane D5 (Cyclo = ring, penta = 5, dimethyl = 2 methyls)
“PEG-30 Two Poly Hydroxy Stearic Acid Ester” - PEG-30 Dipolyhydroxystearate (di = 2, stearate = salt or ester of stearic acid)
“Poly Two Methyl Siloxane Cross-Linked Polymer” - Polydimethylsiloxane
“C12-15 Alcohol Benzoate” - I think it means C12-15 Alkyl benzoate