Foundation Friday for Over 50s #6 | Too Faced Born This Way!

Foundation Friday for Over 50s

This is the 6th post in my series “Foundation Friday for Over 50s” in which I’ll be testing a different foundation every friday for over 50 year old skin! In the past I’ve tried around 70 Foundations and of those I’ve liked about 5-7 which just shows how hard it is to find a foundation that looks good on more mature skin (or it shows how picky I am. . . )

Older skin comes with it’s own set of problems like uneven tone, age spots, enlarged pores, surface roughness and wrinkles, and I’m sad to say I’ve got them all. So the ideal foundation would help to disguise those things and hopefully make my skin look better than it really is! So check back every friday to see if I’ve found the elusive “holy grail” foundation yet. . .

Today’s foundation is Too Faced “Born This Way”* ~ $39 for 1 oz., comes in 18 shades (6 more coming Fall 2015)

This has been one of the most requested foundations since I started doing Foundation Fridays! I had to order from Sephora.com because it’s not in the stores yet (coming mid-July). The marketing is pure genius. . . after all who doesn’t want “absolute perfecting” from their foundation? So let’s see if it can deliver!

The description from the Too Faced website reads: “Born This Way is an oil-free foundation that masterfully diffuses the line between makeup and skin. For coverage so undetectable, you can’t see the makeup and you can’t see imperfections—all that’s left is naturally radiant skin that looks like you were Born This Way.”

It comes in a glass bottle with a plastic pump to dispense the product.  I got it in shade “Light Beige – for light/medium skin with neutral to golden undertones”. The coverage is “Medium-to-full undetectable coverage”

The color match is pretty good and looks natural, although I would like to sample it in the next darker shade when it comes to stores.

Ingredients:

This is an oil-free, water based formula that contains a quite a few silicones, and a little alcohol. It doesn’t contain sunscreen, but does contain coconut water to hydrate, alpine rose to brighten and promote elasticity, and hyaluronic acid for a smoother more youthful appearance.

Application:

I tried the Too Faced Born This Way Absolute Perfection Foundation two times with different application methods and VERY different results.

Day 1

The instructions on the Too Faced web site are to apply the foundation sparingly starting in the center of the face and blending out with the fingertips so that’s how I tried it first. I wanted to see if it really was “absolute perfection” right out of the bottle so I didn’t use primer. Using half a pump of the foundation resulted in sheer to medium coverage that would still require concealer to hide blemishes, but it was good at evening out skin tone.

 I added the rest of the 1st pump to see if it would offer full coverage and if it was buildable. It is buildable but still didn’t offer truly full coverage so I added concealer over my blemishes.

Applying with the fingers was NOT the way to go with this. It went on unevenly and was smeary in some places. The “radiant” finish is too shiny for me and needed mattifying powder all over.

It settled right into pores giving me the polka-dot face!

The shine accentuated my ripply skin and made it look rough AND it settled into wrinkles.

At 4 hours, it looked exactly the same, so I didn’t take any new pics. I was impressed with it’s staying power. It was a hot humid day and even sitting in my 99 degree car didn’t make it slide around or drip off my face so that was promising!

At 8 hours it was starting to wear off, and not in a good way.

From a distance it looked pretty good for most of the day, but people with good vision (my teenage daughters) could see the spotted pores and accentuated ripples.

 

Day 2

Based on the results from Day 1, I decided to use a mattifying primer (Cover FX Mattifying Primer with Anti-Acne Treatment*) and to apply the foundation using a damp blending sponge. . . and WOW, what a difference it made! It gave a much smoother, sheerer, less problematic result, but it still needed concealer to cover blemishes and finishing powder to lessen the shine.

I used a full pump of the foundation again, but the sponge absorbed a lot so it gave sheer to medium coverage that was more even and didn’t settle into pores (thanks Cover FX!)

But, all was not perfection since that shine just couldn’t be stopped. It continued to accentuate those ripples.

At the 5 hour check in it hadn’t worn off much, but it had gotten shinier so I had to powder it again. Overall, it still looked good.

At 10 hours it was largely still in place and it was another hot, humid day.

Day 2 was a success! Born This Way met most of my criteria once a primer was added and I really liked the natural, youthful look it provided!

Coverage:

Is it “medium-to-full undetectable coverage” as promised? Not really. Coverage is sheer and is buildable to medium but even with 2 coats, it still needed concealer. That said, I prefer it at sheer coverage along with some spot concealer. It did not cover skin imperfections and is not undetectable because of the shine. On it’s own, it accentuates most imperfections settling into wrinkles and pores, and the shine shows up every ripple in the skin.

Finish:

The finish is very radiant so I prefer it with mattifying primer and setting powder, but even with these helpers the shine comes through after 4-5 hours so it needs frequent re-powdering. It’s supposed to blur imperfections and make skin look good, but it does not provide any blurring or smoothing effect. It does look natural on the skin and if it was less shiny the finish would be quite nice.

Pores:

Without primer this immediately settled into pores leaving the polka-dot face.
With primer it didn’t settle into pores but didn’t do anything to smooth or diminish them either. 

Wrinkles:

On it’s own it settled into wrinkles under the eyes and around the chin.
With primer it stayed out of wrinkles the entire day. The formula is very moisturizing and the addition of coconut water and hyaluronic acid help make the skin act more supple so wrinkles caused by facial expressions were less visible.

Wear:

The wear was good on it’s own and improved with the primer. It doesn’t promise to be long wearing, yet it was still in place at 10 hours and didn’t slide around in the heat and humidity.

Feel: 

It’s a weightless foundation to wear that wasn’t drying and felt like skin to the touch.

Phone Test:

Flash Photography: 

The Verdict:

On it’s own, this foundation was coming close to being an epic fail. . . BUT, it’s saving grace is the natural, youthful look it provides from a conversational distance. The addition of a mattifying primer and setting powder elevated this to a very good foundation that could actually work for some mature women (although sadly not me).

It’s very moisturizing and doesn’t cling to dry patches and it makes larger wrinkles look more supple when used with a good primer, so I can see women with dryer skin being very happy with this foundation.

And so the search continues. . .

Click Here for My Picks for the Best Foundations for Mature Skin

Shopping Links:

Too Faced Born This Way Absolute Perfecting Foundation:

Sephora*                       Ulta*        

Cover FX Mattifying Primer with Anti-Acne Treatment

Sephora*                       Amazon*

* Marked links are affiliate links. If you click the link and buy something, I receive a commission for the sale, but it doesn’t cost you anything extra. You are free to use the link or not as you choose.

This is not a sponsored post.