So weird - thin, oily consistency but looks so dry on the skin no matter how well I prep!
This comes in a nice outer product box. Ingredients are listed on the box. It’s made in Italy. It’s vegan and cruelty free (PETA certified). This is in a plastic squeeze tube with a thin tip the product comes out of. According to the product box, it’s made from sustainable 100% post consumer recycled plastic. You only get 0.84 fl oz (25 ml). Most foundations come with standard 1 fl oz (30 ml). So it’s odd this one skimped a little on the amount you get, especially since this a serum foundation, which are usually pretty thin. It says to “shake well before use. Due to the silicone-free formula, some natural separation may occur. This is normal and it will reform when applied to skin.” When shaking it, it sounded extremely thin - like water in the tube. This is an extremely thin consistency. Like thinner than most of my actual serums. If squeezed onto your hand or back of your hand, it’s going to run and run fast! It also comes out of the tube really fast, so I needed to be very careful when turning it over - it’s so thin you don’t even need to squeeze the tube. It just comes right out! I got the lightest shade - “Bold.” They gave no shade description at all. Just the shade names and swatches of the shades (which aren’t even labeled here on the Amazon product page). I had to go to their website to look at the foundation there and they had the same swatches there, but they were actually labeled - not sure why they couldn’t include that photo here instead of the one that’s not labeled? Anyways, I’m very fair with a very cool undertone. In the swatches, the lightest shade “Bold” looked like it was a fair shade with a neutral to yellow undertone. The next shade up “Brilliant” looked like it had a pink undertone. So I thought the undertone of “Brilliant” would work better for me, but it looked like it might be too dark for me. So I decided to go with the lightest shade - “Bold” and hoped the yellow undertone wasn’t too much. I’m glad I went with the lightest shade because anything darker than this would have been too dark for me. It definitely has a yellow undertone to it. But, I can make it work like I have done with many other foundation shades over the years. But it would be nice if they had more shades. This claimed to be lightweight, buildable, blend seamlessly like a second skin, medium to full coverage, all day coverage, transfer proof, blur and smooth skin tone, and have a soft matte finish. This is an oil based foundation. I was curious how an oil based foundation was going to have a soft matte finish and be transfer proof. In my experience, oil based foundations are usually more dewy or natural finishes, and usually transfer. But, I’m all for one that is semi matte and doesn’t transfer, if it actually turned out to be that. It definitely feels like it’s oil based. It has an oily feel as I touch it and spread it out, but it also looked kind of dry/chalky as I was spreading it out. It’s a really odd consistency/texture to it - being so thin and feeling so oily, but then immediately looking dry on the skin. It emphasized any little dryness I had on my skin. When it’s warm like it has been lately, my skin is dry to normal - normal in the t-zone, getting slightly oily throughout the day, and slightly dry on the rest of my face. This looked dry everywhere. But, in the slightly dry areas, it looked so bad! It pilled up in dry areas. It looked cakey and crusty in those areas. It’s really pigmented. For being so thin, you think it would be pretty sheer. It is, but it isn’t at the same time. 1 little drop spread pretty far - half my face. That 1 drop gave me light coverage. It evened out my skin tone - concealing my redness. But it didn’t cover any of my post acne marks or my stubborn sun spots. I tried to build it up over the areas I wanted more coverage, but it just started to pill and look weird and cakey. I show a photo where I did 1 drop of this foundation, then another photo where I blended some of it out slightly with my finger, then another photo where I blended it out completely with my fingers on my arm. Hopefully it gives you an idea of how far that 1 drop went, and I feel like in the photo where I blended it out completely on my arm. Then, I decided I really wanted to show how it looked on the skin, so I took some photos of it on my cheek. Not the best photos, but hopefully you can see what I mean - how dry it looks. I applied 1 drop to half my face. So it’s just 1 layer of the foundation, applied with my fingers. And that’s the best application I’ve been able to get. This just isn’t for me. I tried it a few more times, making sure to prep my skin really well, and I still got the same result. In the winter, my skin gets extremely dry. So I know how to prep my skin well to handle foundations. I can prep my extremely dry winter skin well enough where I can wear a matte foundation without issues. But, not with this. Nothing I did prepped my skin well for this. I thought it could be because this was oil based and it wasn’t interacting well with my skin care. So, I used an oil to prep my skin, and still go the same results. I tried this with a damp beauty blender - bad idea. It just soaked it up almost completely. Using a brush made the application streaky and weird. The best way was using my hands, but it just never looked good. Not even okay. It always looked dry and cakey in most areas, even my normal t-zone. Other people seem to really enjoy it, so I’m obviously the minority with my opinion. But, I just can’t get it to work for me. I’m going to continue trying because I’d love for it to work as well as other people seemed to get it to. I’ll update a my review if I’m able to figure out how to make it work. They claim this is “the world’s first 100% natural, certified organic serum foundation.” There’s generally no regulated definition for “clean” or “all natural.” BUT, “organic” does have regulations and definitions. This has a certification label on it - “ACO Certified Ltd. Cosmos Organic.” It also states it’s 39% organic (according to the information I looked up about “Cosmos Organic” certification, the 39% organic is the percentage of organic origin ingredients by weight in the total product). There’s 4 ingredients that have the asterisk labeling them as “From Organic Agriculture.” According to the information I looked up about “Cosmos Organic” certification, “From Organic Agriculture” is “for physically processed agro-ingredients.” Under the ingredient list it also says this is 100% natural. Apparently the “Cosmos” certification also certifies “natural” products. But, this only seems to have the Cosmos Organic label. INGREDIENTS Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil*, Dicaprylyl Ether, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil*, Macadamia Integrifolia Seed Oil*, Undecane, Tridecane, Mica, Silica, Kaolin, Adansonia Digitata (Baobab) Seed Oil*, Ceramide NP, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Citrus Aurantium (Orange) Peel Oil, Lysine, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate, Aluminium Hydroxide, Magnesium Chloride, Limonene. May Contain (+/-): Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499). *From Organic Agriculture 100% Natural Origin. Natural Ingredients: 100% Organic Ingredients: 39%
