First Look| Too Faced Born This Way Foundation in Light Beige and Sand

The Too Faced Born This Way Foundation ($39) is a medium to full coverage foundation that's supposedly friendly to dry skin and comes in 12 shades. 

Ignoring the claims, because all foundation claims to make you beauteous and flawless, this foundation is infused with coconut water, alpine rose, and hyaluronic acid. The third ingredient is what piqued my interest, because it does help to keep moisture on (in?) my skin and help prevent the office AC from sucking the life out of my face. 

Below are the ingredients if you're interested. 

I didn't want to buy off of the Too Faced website, because all of the swatches on their website, PR samples sent to bloggers and vloggers, and general Internetz hullabaloo didn't seem to be accurate. There were many many complaints of the shade range not encompassing very light and very deep skintones. I wasn't sure if the shades were TOO BEIGE (as the names suggested) or very friendly to olive and yellow skin tones and the swatches were just grossly inaccurate. 

When it was released on the Sephora website, I was able to scientifically guesstimate my shade as Light Beige, described as a light/medium shade for neutral to golden tones despite the ALSO HORRENDOUS swatch box featured. 

The labelling seems to suggest that it's an olive shade! The foundation comes in a weighty frosted glass bottle and pump. Very fancy on the vanity. 

Below are swatches in outdoor lighting. I also received a small sample of the shade Sand, in case I tan up to NC35-40 this summer. It seems to be very peachy and golden at the moment, but it may prove to be a perfect match later on. I compared next to Maybelline Better Skin foundation in Warm Nude and Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation in 4.0. 

The consistency is lightweight and blendable, but you'll want to work quickly in small sections. Two pumps were ample to cover my face. The coverage is medium-full with one coat and I could forego concealer on my biggest blemish.

I wouldn't say it's an ultra-polarizing olive. Light Beige is more neutral-yellow than true olive, and in direct daylight you can see that my face is more neutral than my neck. While this matches my chest and doesn't look completely wacky in pictures, it's still not olive enough for my skin.  I am currently NC30, more or less. 

Here it is with no setting powder or primer underneath. Even with no moisturizer, my skin didn't feel dry. Please note, my skin is now normal with minor oil breakthrough in the t-zone halfway through the day. There are no obvious flakes or dry patches, so I can't tell you how the foundation sits on truly dry skin. The area around my blemish and the sides of my nose are drier, and the foundation did not noticeably cake up around these areas. 

Here is a closer look. I think that this foundation wears best over a moisturizer or primer. The one big con: this stuff can settle into your pores if you have larger ones. I will have to use a primer underneath for best results because the skin on the sides of my nose seem to take on an "orange peel" texture when I wear this. BOO!!

Even without a powder, it did not transfer onto clothing and dried with no tacky "dewy" feeling on the skin. It's a satin foundation on my skin, but I don't think it will be the friendliest to combination and oily skin unless you use a very matte powder. 

This foundation wore for a full day (7-10 hours) with minimal transfer and *bunching* around the nose and on the chin for me. From a human distance this foundation holds up well. It lasted through a sweaty kettlebell session without any obvious fading! However, there are many other medium to full coverage foundations that hold up just as well. I don't think this particular foundation is any kinder to dry skin than most. 

My biggest gripe is the shade match and the fact that it settles into my pores when most foundations do not. I can technically buff my Too Faced Primed and Poreless on top in order to get rid of that problem, but shouldn't a foundation perform well on its own with no fusing? 

It's a shame that the shade range is limited, so I suggest you wait for even more swatches to pop up so that you can compare for yourself. 

xo Be