Okay, so I know it's pretty much impossible to find the 'perfect' anything! But this is going to be be a series of posts to test out and try and find a foundation that's as close to perfection (for me) as possible. I've been testing out a few different foundations recently and I've collected a few samples from some counters to test out.
What I look for in a foundation is a medium-heavy coverage, without looking cakey obviously, a semi matte finish and I have combination skin and I find anything that claims to be 'dewy' tends to make me look shiny a few hours in to wearing it and finally I like a yellow toned shade as I'm naturally quite pink so I like to counteract that! And also as I usually wear fake tan it tends to blend in better. Also if anyone is wondering about what shades I use (if you're similar to me) I'm NC25/NC30 in MAC foundations for reference :)
Estee Lauder Invisible Foundation - £27.00
with no flash
with flash
Coverage: 3.5/5
Application: 5/5
Long lasting: 4.5/5
Shade: 3.5/5
When I first applied this I was quite impressed, I used my fingers to apply it and found that it blended in really easily. It was quite sheer at first, maybe a bit too sheer than I would usually like so I applied a second layer and found this did the trick. It also felt nice a light on the skin which I liked. In terms of staying power it lasted pretty much all day which I was actually really surprised at, so very impressed at that! One of the only things I wasn't too impressed at was that it was slightly pink toned, and I tend to go for more yellow toned foundations but maybe I just need a different shade! The fact that it doesn't have spf in it puts me off a bit though but it does mean that it photographs quite true to colour in flash photography though. Overall I was impressed with this but there were a few things that may stop me paying the £27 for it.
Next review will be the Chanel Perfection Lumiere foundation so look out for that soon...