I feel like everyone and their mother has tried a NARS Foundation, and I was over here not knowing what the hype was about! So when I found out I could pick one up 20% off in one of Look Fantastic’s many sales, I knew I HAD to pick it up!
So I decided to try the NARS Sheer Glow Foundation, and the description on the website sounded ideal for me! Here’s what the claim for this foundation is:
“A sheer, buildable foundation with a natural-looking finish that immaculately evens skin tone. Complete with skincare benefits and the NARS Complexion Brightening Formula, it leaves skin hydrated, softer, and smoother. An artistry essential for creating a natural finish, when used daily, Sheer Glow Foundation improves the skin’s brightness and texture. Ideal for evening the complexion with a natural, lightweight glow.“
Packaging, Price & Shade Range
So the bottle is adorable! However, do be careful that you need to buy a separate pump! The pump is only about £3, but it’s a bit annoying that they don’t come with the foundations! The thing that does annoy me, is once you put the pump on, you then can’t put the lid back on the bottle…. so now I just have a lid floating around in my foundation drawer. Putting that aside, the bottle is in a really luxe class packaging, with the iconic NARS logo vertically and off centre. It does look pretty classy!
The price is £35 for 30ml, making it one of the most expensive foundations in my collection, but I’m also really into higher end foundations, and sometimes paying a little more is totally worth it.
And the foundation comes in 40 pretty diverse shades. I have the shade Mont Blanc, and it’s a pretty good shade match for me and pretty much on par with Mac’s NW10
The Application & Coverage
I always apply my foundations with a sponge (I really can’t work out how to stop my foundations looking streaky with a brush), and this foundation blended out super easily! It has a relatively liquid texture, and find it doesn’t dry down super fast so you have a good amount of time to work with it and get it where you want to get it. If you use around 2 pumps, you get a really good low-medium coverage foundation, evening out your skin tone and helping to reduce any redness or spots or scarring, but it still very much lets your skin and it’s texture shine through. You can build it up to a medium-full coverage foundation, and it does a very good job of covering any redness, but I find you will always need a full coverage concealer if you really do have something quite dark or bold you want to cover.
It also blends in really nicely with the other cream products in my collection, and (if you set it) I find my powder products don’t lift it or react weirdly to it
The Finish
I always thought I was a matte or demi-matte girl, however, the finish of this foundation is beautiful. It’s in no way shimmery or shiny or overly glowy. But it does give your skin that natural glow like you’re healthy and happy! However, if that’s totally not your game, because there’s no shimmer particles in it, you can achieve a more edging on matte finish with a good mattifying setting powder.
Wear Time
Is it just me, or is it just refreshing not to see ’24 hour’ or even ’48 hour’ or something else nuts wear claimed next to this foundation. In fact they don’t really make any wear claim at all. I think the longest I’ve worn this was 14 hours. And for reference I have combination, verging on dry, skin. I find this wears really nicely! If you sweat (or perspire), then you may need to blot it at around the 6 hour mark and it does rub off when you wear a mask for any prelonged period of time. But other than that, it doesn’t seem to pile off, break down, or cling to any drier patches of my skin!
I haven’t noticed any of the skincare benefits they claim, but I also haven’t noticed any bad side effects… so…
Overall Thoughts
I mean, safe to say, I’m obsessed! It’s not surprising, as everything I seem to try from NARS I love! But the natural, but flawless, look it gives your skin is just GORGEOUS! If you can warrant the pricey price tag, then 100% go for it! The drugstore does do some amazing foundations (Max Factor All Day Flawless Foundation), but if you’re looking for something a little bit more luxe, then this is amazing!
Have you tried a NARS foundation? If so, what did you think?
Katie x