little white truths

You may remember that I included this foundation in one of my recent sachet posts (see here), and I'm back today to give you some swatches and first impressions.

Long story short, I thought I would absolutely hate it but I don't. Sure it's too full-coverage for me so I wouldn't buy it, but at least I could work with it and find a way to enjoy it - and I can't say that for all heavy-duty foundations so there you go.

The product retails for $49 AUD so it's not the most expensive foundation on the market, although it's not cheap either. Still, at least with Sephora you can wait for a 20 per cent off sale.

Now for swatches. Below I've given you a heavy blob, a partially blended one and a blended one - in a few different lights.

Indirect sunlight:

Direct sunlight:

Natural light (outdoors):

Natural light (indoors):

Verdict

This is obviously a first impressions post and I've only worn the product a handful of times - so if you're after an in-depth review, this isn't it. But I do have some thoughts to share that might be helpful to someone.

First, the product has a weird, mealy scent that I'm not a fan of, but it's not very strong so I'm only aware of it if I hold the foundation up to my nose.

It's fluid and a little paint-like in texture (and it does look a bit like paint until you blend it in), but fortunately I found it a lot easier to work with than I have many other thicker foundations. Sometimes I have trouble blending heavy-duty products out, but I didn't with this so that's a plus.

Note that the coverage isn't full straight out of the starting gate: I got more of a medium with this when I wore it alone, but I'm sure you could build it if you wanted to - it's just that I didn't.

Medium 54 is described as 'medium with yellow undertones', and I agree with that. It was too dark for me, but I lived with that because I wasn't going out when I wore it so it didn't matter that the colour was off.

It did dry down but it still had a slightly tacky feel to it so I ended up setting it with a tiny bit of powder. The finish wasn't a true matte: I would call it more of a satin-matte, which I liked because it didn't look drying or flat on the skin. 

It wore well throughout the day, but best of all, it didn't sit in pores or cling to dry patches - and it looked more like skin than I expected. Yes you could tell I was wearing foundation, but it wasn't mask-like so I was pleased about that.

Also note that you can mix this foundation with the primer (which was also part of my sample cards) for a sheerer coverage. I did this on four occasions and really liked it! It was dewy, it looked like skin, and it didn't emphasise texture. If KVD released a product that was like this mix, I may well buy it - but I wouldn't go out and buy both the foundation and primer for the purposes of mixing them on the daily. I liked the combination, but not that much.

Worth noting too is that I swatched the foundation alone on the back of my hand while writing this review (hands being a good place to test foundation because they have so much texture), and I don't think my hand has ever looked so airbrushed! The product has a smoothing effect and it hasn't sunk into lines, not a single one. Tick.

Overall I think this a good foundation and although it's probably better suited to those with oily skin who like more coverage than I do, the fact that it played well with my dry skin (and my preference for a lighter coverage) says a lot.

Decent.