Welcome back to another foundation Friday! This post is a little different for me. In fact, I have a question for everyone. This foundation was not initially a ‘love’ for me. I did not like this at first but grew to like it. My question for you is this: are negative beauty reviews valuable to you? Would you rather see the highlights, or would you rather know all the nitty gritty (rave reviews and negative reviews)? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!
This foundation is the E.L.F. Beautifully Bare Foundation Serum in Fair/Light. If you are at all familiar with my foundation reviews, or if you are familiar with very pale foundation, then you might be thinking the foundation in the photo below looks a little dark.
And that’s because it is.
I was shocked to pull this out of the box to see how dark this is. How is this Fair/Light? This thought definitely clouded my initial opinion about this foundation. My next experience, which was a swatch on my hand (photographed below), was my next negative experience.
As a serum foundation, I expected this to be liquid. But, it is practically non-existent on my skin. Now, let’s get into the claims!
CLAIMS
The website claims that this silky, lightweight foundation will give you a youthful and radiant glow. The luminous, dewy finish helps boost suppleness and minimize the
appearance of pores and fine lines for flawless coverage. This Broad
Spectrum UVA/UVB SPF 25 formula helps revitalize color and
radiance to skin. It is infused with Vitamin A, C, & E, Grape Seed Oil,
Pomegranate Oil, and Goji Berry to help brighten, restore, nourish and
protect the skin.
SHADE RANGE
I was shocked about two things regarding the shade range. One, there are only five options. Two, the spectrum of the shades is very wide. It goes from this Fair/Light shade (which is too dark for me) to a very dark shade named Deep. Since this foundation is so lightweight and applies so sheer, I can only assume that’s why there are limited shades. Unfortunately, I don’t see pale shades benefiting from such limited shades in this range. You will see below what I thought of it!
For shade comparisons, here are other foundations that also match me:
Anastasia Beverly Hills Stick Foundation in Porcelain
Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Foundation in 100 (first impressions video here)
rms beauty Un Cover-Up Foundation/Concealer in 000 (review here)
Wet n Wild MegaCushion Foundation in 106A (review here)
Wet n Wild PhotoFocus Foundation in Soft Ivory (review here)
APPLICATION
I tried my usual ways to apply this. I started with my damp beauty blender, but unfortunately the foundation serum was soaked up into the sponge too quickly. It took a long time to cover my entire face. The second time, I used my ever-faithful Marc Jacobs The Face III brush. This brush is so dense, it doesn’t soak up foundation easily. I love it! If you are looking for a more affordable option, I would check out the Sonia Kashuk range at Target. Their brushes are very soft, and they have a thick kabuki style option.
The Marc Jacobs brush worked, but the foundation serum is so runny it was difficult to blend it. I took these pictures immediately after applying it. The foundation looks incredibly patchy. In fact, the top half of my face looks much lighter than the bottom. It also emphasizes any lines on my face, along with any large pores.
All that to say, as the day went on the foundation actually looked better. I don’t know if it was my natural face oils coming out through the foundation, but my face looked radiant in a good way. The color looked smoother in person. The color is absolutely not a match for me, if I don’t have on self tan. So, unfortunately, I won’t be reaching for this one often.
My one qualm with pale foundations is that in order to find a foundation that matches, it seems I have to sacrifice texture and glow. This foundation has a gorgeous, radiant finish to it but it’s too dark. If it was 1 shade lighter, it would work for me. I can’t say I recommend this to pale shades, but if you are in the middle of the shade range this might be wonderful for you.
I was hoping this would work for me, but unfortunately it didn’t. Have you ever tried this? What did you think?
More foundation reviews that might interest you:
rms beauty Un Cover-Up Foundation/Concealer
Wet n Wild MegaCushion Foundation
Marc Jacobs Beauty re(marc)able Full Cover Foundation
Milani Conceal + Perfect Foundation + Concealer
Wet n Wild PhotoFocus Foundation
NYX Total Control Drop Foundation
Flower Beauty Light Illusion Foundation
Physicians Formula Touch of Glow Foundation
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Rebecca has been writing about style, beauty, and lifestyle topics since 2011. Thank you so much for reading this post! Feel free to leave any questions or comments below. I love hearing from you!
