Beauty

L’Oreal Foundation Stick Review (and my first ever L’oreal make up purchase)

That’s right, my first L’Oreal make up purchase.

No idea why, but despite my years of running Boots stores I never purchased any L’Oreal make up. I don’t even tend to use any of other their other products either, with their hair dye the only exception.

During my search for a new foundation stick, L’Oreal released their own. Figuring this would be a good time to finally try the brand I headed off to purchase. Naturally, it was on 3 for 2 so I figured if I was going to try something, I may as well try a few products.

Alongside the stick I purchased the Fixing Mist and Concealer Pomade. Bit of an accidental Infallible theme going on here!

Concealer Pomade

While I’m pretty happy with my under eye routine I wanted to give colour correcting a try. With my concealers currently they’re just matched to my skin tone and I wanted to see if a coloured concealer would help with those dark circles. 

This is a surprisingly dry concealer. It takes a little work to get it to blend into the skin properly. Given it’s not always the easiest place to blend – around your eyes – it did take some getting used to. Unfortunately I didn’t really see much difference using this than from my usual NYX dark circle corrector. While there was definitely colour there it didn’t neutralise the grey/purple of the dark circles like I’d hoped.

Because this is a little drier and thicker in texture it didn’t play too well with the slight dryness around my eyes. I’ve previously had to stop using any powder around my eyes for this same reason. I definitely need to use more liquid concealers around my eyes it seems, otherwise I find dry patches around them. This concealer is still kept with the rest of my make up, but I find I don’t reach for it all too often anymore.

Fixing Mist

This product should come with a warning. It says to shake well before use, which I did. What it should say is shake well until you hear the little ball bearing move around inside. If you don’t, and spray this, you cover your face in white splashes. 

In fact, even if you do shake it to the point of hearing the ball bearing you still run the risk of white bits on your face. That is my only complaint about this mist. You really have to shake it for a stupidly long time to not get white sprayed on your face. It doesn’t come off easily either so if you get some on your eyelid that’s your eye look needing re-doing.

Despite that, when this behaves it is a good fixing spray. I’ve used this for long nights out at gigs and come home with a face that looks exactly the same as when I left. This looks like it’ll last ages, but it would be on a repurchase list for me.

Foundation Stick

For £8 I shouldn’t have expected too much. However, I was hoping for something that might be a quicker alternative to my liquid foundation every day.

As is always the way with drugstore foundations, I went with the lightest shade, Ivory. There’s 12 shades in the range which isn’t bad but given the shade ranges of their other foundations, a bit disappointing. This has slightly cooler undertones than my usual foundation but I quite liked it. It made me realise that maybe my usual is a little warm for the winter months.

I’m not a regular user of foundation sticks but I must admit I was shocked at how little product you actually get. It’s 9g which is the same weight as the Bobbi Brown one I’ve been looking at and the Tarte one I already own (and don’t like) so I guess it’s just standard. I did look at this and think it wouldn’t last if I was about to start using it daily though.

Application

This, like the concealer above is a lot thicker and drier than I was expecting. In comparison to my Tarte stick which just glides on the skin and buffs in really quickly this was tricky to work with. I swept this over my face and than used my Tarte brush to work it into the skin. This took more effort than it should have really. In some areas of my face I had to work so hard I could see my skin getting a little pink. I could see this, because the coverage is pretty terrible. It claims to be buildable and I kept trying to build it up but couldn’t get anything close to medium coverage out of this. 

If I wanted decent coverage I had to top it up with my Tarte stick. Unfortunately it’s not long lasting at all (hence why I was looking for an alternative) and so it just ruins the wear time of this. The claim that this lasts 24 hours is a bit optimistic but I did like how long it lasted if I wore this without the Tarte to boost the coverage. I’d probably get a day’s work out of this. However, the coverage just isn’t good enough for a work day for me.

Alas, this hasn’t replaced my regular foundation. Instead I’ve found myself a new weekend foundation. For days when we’re just going out to breakfast or shopping and I just want a little light coverage this is ideal. Unfortunately that’s the only use for this for me.

Overall thoughts on L’Oreal?

These have neither put me off the brand, nor made me excited to try more. If I see a new release that intrigues me I’ll probably pick it up. However, I won’t be seeking out replacements for my usual make up on the L’Oreal stand. Are there any standout L’Oreal products for you? Let me know in the comments below!

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