L'Oréal Magic Nude Liquid Powder : Product Review

This is actually one of three drugstore foundations that I picked up to review for the blog several months ago; the other two can be found here and here and it is the one that I have had the hardest time bringing myself to review. Perhaps you can tell from that last sentence, but this foundation and I have not, do not, and will not get along. Keep reading to see what I disliked about this foundation, because even though it doesn't work for my skin, it doesn't mean that it won't work for yours!

The Facts

Price: $10.99 (this was at Target in Kansas, prices may vary)

Amount of Product: .91 fl oz.

Number of Shades: 12 - there are darker shades, but as per usual, they are limited

Claim: "Get the ultimate un-makeup look with Magic Nude Liquid Powder Bare Skin Perfecting Makeup with SPF 18. Revolutionary liquid transforms on contact, leaving a soft powder like finish. This foundation is so amazingly lightweight it's like wearing no makeup at all! Just shake and apply – it’s magic!"

Shade that I used: 312 Classic Ivory

Shades and the foundation itself: I decided to purchase this in 312 Classic Ivory, because 310 Light Ivory looked way too light in the store. Looking back, I kind of wish I had picked up 310 because it looks (online) to be more yellow, which is my undertone. Oh well, not horrible since this foundation is very thin. Yes, you read that correctly, the foundation is incredibly thin. It's a straight up liquid, not like any other liquid foundation you have probably ever used, this flows like water. It's actually very hard to control and makes application, which I'll touch on below, a bit difficult. It also smells like it has fragrance in it, but I can't find it on the ingredient list, so perhaps it's the alcohol in it. More on my skin's disagreement with this foundation later, but I think one of the biggest issues that my skin has with this foundation is that the first four ingredients are all silicones and alcohols, which isn't unusual when it comes to foundation, but it is unusual compared to the foundations that I use. All of my regular foundations have water as one of the first four ingredients.

Coverage: The coverage on this foundation is sheer to light depending on how much you apply. At a max, and I mean max, it would be considered light.

Application: The directions on the bottle state that you should apply this with your fingers and the L'Oréal website directly states not to use a brush or a sponge. That being said, I've applied this all of these ways and I completely agree with them, if you try to use anything other than your fingers, it immediately absorbs the product. The extreme liquid nature of the product makes it pretty difficult to apply. It says to pour some out, but I think that is quite possibly the worst idea of all time. I simply shook the bottle, tipped it over with my finger plugging the hole, and then took what ended up on my finger and applied it to my face. I worked it in immediately because this dries pretty quickly.

Wear Time: This is going to sound really goofy, but I have no idea. Since I could barely see this on my face, I'm not completely sure how long it wore.

Does it deliver on its claim? I will say that it does in fact deliver on its claim, but for me, it didn't work at all. It is very lightweight, it doesn't feel like you are wearing anything on your skin, and it does leave a soft powder finish... but I also can barely see this on my skin. I mean, I go over areas a few times to help "perfect" my skin. The description that they give is that it is a "bare skin perfecting makeup" and honestly, it's only a perfecting makeup if your skin is almost already perfect. This isn't going to cover up any dark spots, it won't cover any redness, and I don't think it does anything for your pores.

You can see in the pictures above, the areas of my skin that were already ok looking, have just been smoothed out a bit. For the third picture, I applied concealer on my blemishes, which is something I almost never do, because they were still so red looking (to be honest, my skin is overall really red looking right now due to whatever the hell is going on with my face). I shot this a few days ago and obviously, my skin is not happy, but I also wore this foundation when my skin was much, much happier. Even when my skin was behaving, I didn't like this foundation. I find that I have to wear it with a primer because otherwise my skin just turns into a huge oil slick a few hours after application. I used Hourglass's Mineral Veil in these photos and that helped the oil tremendously. 

And... since there is a high alcohol content to this foundation, it makes dry spots even drier or areas with flaky skin even flakier. If you have dry skin, this foundation is most definitely not for you.

Final Verdict: I'm pretty disappointed and bummed to have to write this, but I would say to avoid this foundation unless you already have fairly nice skin that is "normal" or only slightly oily. This has lighter coverage than any of my other foundations and that includes BB creams and tinted moisturizers. If you are looking for something very lightweight and with very light coverage, then this might be the foundation for you.

Questions? Comments? Let me know down below!