“No one talks about…” is a series of makeup reviews of products that have very few to no reviews online (reviews on online stores are not accounted for). This is so that if you’re searching for a bit more information before biting the bullet, you’ll at least have these swatches, photos, and my humble opinion :).
I’m a weak woman. There was a 3 for 2 offer on suncare products on a Portuguese beauty website, and I caved and got myself two self tanner products, and this compact to make the 3 for 2. Even though I knew nothing about the compact and don’t really use self tanner.
There are almost no reviews on this – I think this whole sun care line was released or updated this year, so this is a relatively new product. This is marketed has a tinted face sunscreen that serves the double purpose of providing sun protection and adding a little coverage. To me, it’s a light coverage foundation with a high SPF.
The packaging is very curious: it looks like a cushion compact, but instead of a sponge soaked in product, there is a perforated surface that you can press down and that makes the cream rise through the little holes of that surface. I actually like it, it’s more hygienic than cushion compacts.
It also comes with a silicone applicator, which I was so curious about. I always wanted to try one of those but never wanted to purchase a silicone applicator that was bound to be underused and switched for something better immediately – this was a very short lived trend for a reason. The application is indeed, less than perfect, a brush or your fingers end up giving a smoother and more even finish, but it is certainly the method that wastes the less product: every single bit ended up on your face, because silicone does not absorb any bit of it. It’s also very hygienic because of it – which seems to be a theme with this.
The product itself surprised me a lot. The coverage is light but evens out the skintone surprisingly well for something so sheer. It’s comfortable on the skin and it doesn’t really dry down completely. There is always a somewhat sticky feeling on your skin, much like when you apply a sunscreen and leave it at that. Despite that, it was transfer resistant (not transfer proof!).
I tested it with just moisturiser underneath – no powder, no primer, no extra makeup, because that’s how I imagine most people would wear this. Just a quick tinted sunscreen to go to the beach (or the grocery store, where you don’t really want the fuss of a full face of makeup but you want to disguise your pasty uneven complexion in case the love of your life is by the frozen vegetables section – we’ve all been there).
The finish is, as expected, very natural. The surprising part was this thing lasted for a full 8 hours on my face with fading, getting oilier – and it was a hot day – or moving in any sort of way. Goddamn. My other foundations could take some notes. Bunch of underachievers.
Now for the downsides. There are two, but they’re major:
- the compact is only 11,5 mL. That’s less than some concealers. An average foundation/ face cream is 30mL. So cost per mL, this is really steep;
- there is only one shade so far: Universal Beige. I doubt it’s really universal. The colour looks too dark for me on the pan but because it’s a sheer product, it didn’t clash with my skintone (MAC NC20/25, for reference). Deeper skintones, I’m not so sure – it might end up just looking translucent? This is marketed as a sunscreen, not a foundation, but I’m not sure skintones darker than a medium would benefit from the complexion-evening abilities of this cream. I would advise to try it in store first, when possible.
This would have been a rave review if not for those two downsides. I’m liking using it for the summer, but I would not repurchase at full price. Might as well dish out the money for that over hyped La Mer foundation I’m so curious about.
If you have a deeper skintone and have tried this, or if you found a review on this by a darker skintone person on this, please let me know? I would love to know how this works out for you / link the review for reference.
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