Beauty Review: Too Faced Dew You Full-Coverage Foundation

I write about foundation a lot. Like, more than I ever thought I would, really. Which makes sense, as foundation is the makeup I bought use the most and struggle the most with. The truth is there is never going to be a perfect foundation that suits every skin type and every need. When it comes to my reviews, I’m often speaking just of myself and making generalizations for people with skin types similar to my own.

When it comes to foundation, I’ve reviewed Sephora’s and Ulta’s quizzes (as well as 6 different foundations). I’ve reviewed the Wet’n’Wild Photo Focus foundation and the Makeup Revolution stick foundation. I’ve even developed a process that I use for making sure my foundation lasts longer than four hours.

In the process, I’ve tried a lot of good and bad foundations. In writing my blog post on the Sephora & Ulta foundation quizzes, I discovered that the Too Faced foundations were, surprisingly, some of the best I tried. I didn’t love the Born This Way foundation, because the colors closest to my skin tone were all a bit off and I found it broke down a little too quickly. The Peach Perfect foundation was one of my absolute favorites, but the strong peach scent was a bit of a turn off and I found it oxidized a lot.

As a birthday present to myself, I decided to try the Too Faced Dew You foundation. It’s a full-coverage, but “glowy” foundation that was part of the fruit-themed collection that came out at the beginning of Fall. (I won’t get started on my tangent about that collection; it was extremely cute, but was definitely a summer collection, so I don’t know why it came out in September! From a marketing perspective, I had a lot of questions.) My hopes weren’t exactly high, but I was excited to try this foundation; I hoped it would combine the things I loved about the Peach Perfect foundation in a slightly less oxidizing formula.

This foundation is marketed as a “hydrating” foundation; it’s “dewy” as opposed to matte, but still full coverage. Here’s what it promises:

“Hydrate and brighten your Tutti Frutti complexion with this dewy, gel-cream foundation infused with soothing watermelons and cucumbers.”

And here are some more promises:

• 20 hydrating, brightening shades

• Formula leaves skin with a glowing satin finish

• Infused with soothing watermelons & cucumbers

• Helps even skin tone

• Gel-cream formula leaves skin ultra-hydrated and brightened

• Non-comedogenic

• Longwearing

20 shades isn’t exactly very many. However, there do seem to be a fair number of medium shades; the parts that are missing out are the darker shades which is a systemic issue in the beauty industry. It doesn’t make me happy to see this foundation with so few shades for people who are darker skin toned, but I know they just recently expanded the Born This Way shades. Here is to hoping they expand all their shade ranges for all their foundations and concealers.

The idea of a hydrating formula that is also long-wearing was very exciting to me, shade issues aside. I am oily (very oily) often because my skin gets dehydrated; so I need a combination of both hydration and powder to keep my skin looking decent throughout the day.

So what did I think of this foundation?

My first impression was, just like the Peach Perfect foundation, it has a very strong smell. It smells strongly of watermelon. It’s not bad, but again, it is sickly sweet. It’s not as bad as the fake peach scent, but if you’re sensitive to smells, it can be a huge issue. I found that the watermelon smell didn’t bother me nearly as much as the peach scent, so it works for me. But if that’s an issue for you, this foundation may not be the one.

Just like the Peach Perfect foundation, I love how it looks on my skin as I’m applying it and immediately after. Most Too Faced foundations are very, very yellow to me; I feel like they struggle with pink or neutral undertones. However, I’ve found that Swan is a close enough match that I can tone down the yellow with concealer afterwards. The finish is absolutely amazing, though, and looked great after applying.

I’ve worn this multiple times for 12+ hours. I find that with my standard method of applying (The Body Shop mattifying spray and powder underneath my foundation, then powder on top as well), it lasts about 6-7 hours looking really good and without touch ups. After 6 hours or so, I start to notice it getting quite patchy; by 8-10 hours of wear, I usually have patches where it has rubbed off or simply disappeared completely. This isn’t out-of-the-ordinary for foundations and my skin; 6 hours is actually longer than I’ve ever gotten most foundations to last! I’m impressed for that reason; very rarely do I even wear foundation for 8+ hours. However, if you’re very oily, struggle to make foundation last, and work long days, again, this might be a more difficult foundation.

My favorite thing about this foundation is that it manages to be both dewy and matte on my skin. It doesn’t look matte-matte; you know that look of a very dry foundation. It almost makes me look old. This foundation doesn’t do that, but it does dry down—and that can make it oxidize a tiny bit. However, it’s not nearly as bad as Peach Perfect, so I’ll take it. I feel like it’s a very natural finish on the skin; not too matte, not too dewy.

Is this the perfect foundation for oily skin? Well, I think it depends on what you’re looking for. For me personal, I place how it looks over any super long-wearing abilities. I tend to wash my foundation off the moment I leave work and I don’t wear foundation on the weekends, unless I’m going to an event. If you need long-wearing, I don’t think this is the best foundation out there for that. If you do want something that looks incredibly natural, this is a great option—and despite being “dewy,” it does work very well for my oily skin.

Have you tried the Dew You foundation? What did you think?

Beauty Review: Makeup Revolution Luxury Baking Powder

If you've read my blog before, you know that I love my IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores powder; it features heavily in my preferred foundation routine. 

However, the It Cosmetics powder is $32 for a jar and it's not very much in terms of weight. It works like a dream but for $32, I felt like I needed to test out some other options. 

Enter Makeup Revolution's Ghost Luxury Baking Powder. While buying some new concealer, I spotted this powder. For $9, it seemed like an absolute steal. After using it almost every day for about a month, I have some thoughts. 

How I Use It

As you probably know from my foundation routine, I wear powder underneath my foundation; it's my first step after moisturizer. I use this powder first, then apply foundation, then more powder. 

There are a few things I look for when it comes to using powder under my foundation: it doesn't make my foundation pill or look cakey; and it doesn't leave white patches. I found that this powder wasn't as dry as the IT Cosmetics; it reminds me more of elf's HD powder, but heavier. It didn't pill underneath my foundation.

How It Wears

As I said, this powder isn't as dry feeling as IT Cosmetic's. It doesn't have that instantaneous dry and matte feeling. It's not bad, but I was really hoping it would be a good, affordable dupe. 

It did set my makeup relatively well, but it did not extend the light of my foundation at all; within a few hours, I was getting breakdown around my nose and on my forehead, my two big problem areas. Even on my "no foundation days" where I just wear concealer, it ended up making my concealer look very cakey and it broke down a lot faster than usual. 

As well, I noticed that if I wasn't careful, it made me look so cakey! As well, if you don't brush it right away, it leaves large white patches. It is supposed to be a baking powder, which means you do leave it on for a while. However, if I brushed right away, I didn't get white patches. 

It's not the worst powder I've ever used, but it doesn't perform the way I would expect a baking powder to. 

Final Thoughts

Would I repurchase this powder? Absolutely not. For the same price, there are powders that don't advertise themselves as baking powders that do the exact same thing and don't look as bad. In fact, I own some of them! 

I'm still on the hunt for a good dupe for the IT Cosmetics powder. Until then, I guess I'm dropping $32 on an ounce of powder! 

Who Has the Better Foundation Match Quiz: Ulta vs. Sephora

Foundation is, and always has been, my bugbear. It's the one part of my routine that I can never really settle on. If the shade is good, then the wear is terrible; if the wear is great, it oxidizes, or breaks down, or just looks shiny as a new penny by the end of the day. I've tried all kinds methods to keep my foundation set and, while I finally settled on a good method in the last 6 months, I got it into my head that it was time to find... the Perfect Foundation. 

A few weeks ago, I was watching ThaTaylaa's video on her experience with the Ulta Foundation Quiz and it struck me that I should do that too. And then, as I was preparing to get all the foundations it recommend, I realized that Sephora has a foundation quiz as well. Ulta and Sephora have some crossover, in terms of the foundations that they carry, but they also have some exclusives; an example is that Ulta doesn't carry the Peach Perfect foundation from TooFaced, but it does exclusively have Tarte's FaceShape foundation and the Shape Tape concealer. 

I decided to buy what I could, get some samples, and test 3 foundations from each quiz to find the ultimate winner. 

How I Took the Quizzes

You can find the Ulta foundation quiz here and the Sephora foundation quiz here.  Each quiz asks the same 3 questions, with roughly the same answers, so I tried to answer them the exact same. 

• I said I wanted medium coverage.
• I said I wanted a satin or natural finish. 
• I said I wanted long wearing. 

Sephora did ask an extra few questions about preference (with sunscreen or without, liquid or cream, etc), but those don't have much influence on the end results. I got roughly 10-15 foundation suggestions from each website; Ulta's included some drugstore brands, which was nice. 

Which Foundations I Picked

Due to money constraints (and honestly, time), I decided to pick 3 foundations from each store to try. 

From Ulta, I chose: 

1. Maybelline Dewy & Smooth Fit Me in Shade 110 Porcelain
2. NARS Radiant Longwear in Oslo
3. TooFaced Born This Way foundation in Swan

From Sephora, I chose: 

1. Tarte Rainforst of the Sea in Fair Neutral
2. Marc Jacobs Shameless Youthful Look in Y110 
3. TooFaced Peach Perfect in Snow

Methodology for Testing

I tested approximately 1 foundation a day for 2 weeks, trying to wear each foundation twice with different application methods. I kept note of the time I applied it, what I applied it with, how it wore, and any issues I had with application and wear. I kept notes on my computer with specific dates and times. I tried to be as fair as possible with each foundation, in terms of the amount I applied, how I applied it, and how long I wore it. 

I ended up only buying one foundation: the Maybelline Dewy & Smooth. I got samples from Sephora of all the others, which they weren't super happy about, but they did it. (Thanks, Sephora!) 

The Swatches & Color Match

As you can see from swatches above, as much as I tried to get all of the foundations in a shade closest to my natural skin tone, they vary greatly. I'm a fair neutral shade, and true neutral foundations can be difficult to find. Initially, I was sure that the Marc Jacobs foundation would be the best match for me--and while I'll save my conclusion of best color match, it actually turned out to not be. It's funny how different foundations can look blended in versus just swatched! 

The way I determined my color for most of these was by using Sephora's Color IQ feature; I'm a 2Y01 in their color matching, so I picked the appropriate shades based on that.

Wearing TooFaced Peach Perfect Foundation

Wearing the NARS Radiant Longer Wear 

The Results

I thought for a long time how to best go through this and I finally settled on sharing a brief review of each foundation, as well as information for how I wore it. Then, I'll share my picks for a few distinctions (least favorite, most favorite, best wearing, best color match, etc.) Ok, let's jump in! 

• Maybelline Dewy & Smooth Fit Me in shade 110 Porcelain: I wore this 2 days in a row. The first time, I wore it with setting powder underneath and Maybelline Fit Me Loose Powder on top; the second time, I wore setting powder both underneath and on top (It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores loose powder both times). Both times, I felt like it looks really good going on, but it has relatively low coverage. The first time I wore it, it started breaking down and feeling tacky within 2 hours, and looked quite cake-y within three hours. in general I found that this didn't wear very well and it oxidized about 1/2 a shade each time I wore it. There is also a smell to this foundation; not as bad as the Wet'n'Wild Photofocus Foundation, but pretty chemical. 
   
• NARS radiant Longwear in Oslo: I wore this two days in a row, both times with It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores loose powder underneath and on top. It went on really beautifully and seemed like a very good color match. In terms of how it looked immediately after applying, it was one of my favorites. However, by noon it had settled into my pores really badly and looked very cake-y on my chin and forehead. It had also broken down and rubbed off my nose and upper lip, emphasized the texture on my cheeks, and generally look awful within a few hours. 
   
• TooFaced Born This Way in Swan: Initially, I thought this would be one of the worst color matches; however, it ended up looking beautiful on my skin and didn't oxidize at all throughout the day. I applied it with my usual method of setting powder under and over it. It wore really well. I did notice a little bit of breakdown around my nose, and I got quite oily on my chin and forehead, but not as bad as the previous two foundations. I was really impressed with this foundation. 
   
• Tarte Rainforst of the Sea in Fair Neutral: First things first, this was too dark the moment I put it on. With lots of blending it looked fine, but I could definitely see the line to where I blended it. I went on beautifully, however, and looked great throughout the day. I wore my setting powder both under the foundation and over the top, as usual. Some breakdown on my chin and some settling into the pores on my forehead, but not as bad as I expected considering how dewy this foundation is. It did feel quite oily and tacky; I used blotting papers throughout the day and that did control the oily look quite well. 
   
• Marc Jacobs Shameless Youthful Look in Y110: I thought this shade would be really close to my natural skin tone but going on, it was quite yellow, even in my admittedly bad bathroom light. I felt like it really enhanced and emphasized my texture. The coverage is quite low. I wore it with my usual setting powder under and over. It settled very oddly on my forehead almost immediately and it had a powdery look to it, almost as if it was just sitting on top of my skin. Throughout the day it got very cake-y, settled into all my pores and lines, emphasized my texture, and almost completely disappeared from my chin. It transferred almost everywhere and I had to wash it off my 3pm. I also felt like it made me breakout really bad. 
   
• TooFaced Peach Perfect in Snow: This is the foundation I was most excited for! As usual, I wore it with setting powder under and over. It smells very sweet, like artificial peaches, but I didn't find it overwhelming. I'm not sure the color is the best match for me, but it did look great on my skin. The moment I applied it, it seemed to dry down to an extreme matte, which was really interesting. After about 5 hours, it wore really well, particularly on my cheeks and forehead; it did settle into my pores somewhat on my nose, and did breakdown slightly on my upper lip. I actually wore this through a nap both days and it looked great even after I'd slept in it! 

Here are a few distinctions:

• Best Color Match: TooFaced Born This Way in Swan
• Best Performance: TooFaced Peach Perfect. If you are very oily and need a matte, long wearing foundation, honestly this is the best I've ever worn. 
• Least Favorite: Surprisingly, probably Marc Jacobs. Being a luxury brand, I was sure MJ would perform amazingly--but I was very disappointed by this foundation. 
• Foundation I Would Purchase: I will probably purchase either of the TooFaced foundations in the next 3-4 months. Both wore extremely well and, in terms of price, gave the biggest bang for their buck.  

Which Quiz Got It Right? 

My two favorite foundations came from either quiz--so it's hard to narrow down which one really "got it". Each quiz, of the three foundations I picked from each one, gave me two foundations that worked well enough that I would consider purchasing. I do think that Ulta's quiz is better as it gave me some of the same recommendations as the Sephora quiz, but also provided some drugstore brands. If you're shopping on a budget, that's definitely a bonus. 

Have you tried either of these foundation quizzes? What did you think? What do you look for when it comes to foundation?