I just had the opportunity to finally get my hands on The Ordinary Foundations – The coverage foundation and the serum foundation.
I know one of them was around for a while and the other is quite new. However, they both go out of stock pretty fast and therefore, I know many of you have not had the chance of trying them out.
I bought mine via Beautylish. It’s US$ 6.90 (~ NZ$ 10.35). When you buy via Beautylish, all orders over US$35 are shipped free and takes only about 10-14 days to arrive. *Not Sponsored!
Commonalities
Both the foundations come with a pump and carry 30ml. They both should have a semi-matte finish. Both are oil-free, cruelty-free (as is the product line) and has a light-weight formula.
The foundations come in 21 shades. So you, quite easily, can find a close match for your skin shade (No foundation will be able to carry shades that match all the skin colours in the world). Here Wayne Goss has a list that matches The Ordinary shade based on your MAC foundation shade. I bought 3.0Y in both foundations (which is the shade match for MAC NC44).
In the picture to the right, the top swatch represents the coverage foundation and the lower, the Serum foundation.
The Serum foundation
The serum foundation has a watery consistency and has a light coverage buildable to a medium. I used The Ordinary high spreadability fluid primer underneath and used a brush on one half of the face and the LA Girl beauty sponge on the other half to apply the foundation. The application was indifferent on both sides.
The foundation does have a semi-matte finish as it claims. it went on smooth. I did not notice any of it clinging to the smile-lines after the first application. The foundation is tacky to the touch so it needs to be set with a light powder. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture soon after the application.
The picture below is after about 3 hours of wear.
At this point, the foundation starts to break apart. It got cakey around my mouth and settled into the smile-lines despite what it claims. I always get oily no matter what foundation I wear, so the oiliness you see is not specifically because of this foundation. The foundation gave me a white cast which was visible to the naked eye.
So naturally, my first impression was a BIG NO!
BUT,
I decided to try it once more, with a colour corrector underneath and skipped the primer this time. Oh My God! … the result was b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. The white cast disappeared with the colour corrector and skipping the primer.
The picture to the right is an untouched (no filters, not edited) photo taken from my phone. The foundation looked absolutely amazing. It lasted quite long this time – about 6 hours, without breaking apart (on a 33 degrees Celcius day too).
Final verdict: The foundation is definitely not long wearing but can be extended with a good setting spray (I recommend the UD all nighter). The foundation gave a smooth finish and looks gorgeous in the pictures. but I did notice tiny bumps on my face after wearing this for a prolonged time. So, if you have sensitive skin, be aware!
I would give this an 8/10.
Coverage Foundation
The coverage foundation has a creamy consistency and gives a medium coverage buildable to a full. Like the serum, this too has a semi-matte finish. the picture below is taken soon after it was applied before setting it with powder. I used the same technique of applying the foundation with a brush and the beauty sponge with the same primer underneath. No colour corrector.
It applies light at the beginning but gets darker. However, the final shade is the shade you are buying (at least in my case).
Even though the foundation was full coverage it was not ‘full’ enough to cover the dark spots around my mouth and cheeks. It looks cakey in some places.
This too gave me the same white-casty look that did not look good in real life.
Picture 2 and 3 were taken at the 3-hour mark.
It shows how the foundation has started to break around my mouth just like the serum foundation did in my first attempt.
Unfortunately, I could not try this with the colour corrector yet. But I assume it would perform the same way as the serum foundation did since the result at the end of the first attempt at wearing them were pretty much the same except the coverage.
Final verdict: For the price point, I think this foundation did an okay job. I’m sure colour correcting before the application would rectify the white-cast problem too. However, the setting spray did not extend its wearability.
overall, I’d give this a 7/10.
Even though I would not say these are two of the best foundations in the market, they are pretty good for $10. I recommend the serum foundation a little bit more than the other only because I like its coverage and the amazing natural finish.
Let me know if you have tried these and what you think of them.
Until the next,
Cheers
