This will be a confusing review because I’m going to list a lot of things that I think are “wrong” with this foundation. But — this is actually one of my favorite foundations that I’ve used!

Right off the bat, this is not a super accessible brand to find in my area. I have to order it from Ebay or Amazon, who ship it from the UK, which guarantees a good ol’ two to three week wait time. Likely because of the shipping involved, I’ve never paid less than $16 for this. Although I need about four pumps of this to fully cover my face, I don’t find myself burning through the product too quickly, so I fortunately don’t need to reorder too often.

My second issue is the shade range. Now — previously I’ve seen some reviews on this brand that the selection of shades wasn’t all that great to begin with, but I just hopped on Bourjois’s website, and it looks like they expanded their range for this foundation. Still, those shades are nearly impossible to find outside of this website — ie: Amazon doesn’t seem to have much in the way of offerings beyond no 58. Then, finding your actual shade seems to be a bit more arduous than other foundations I’ve used. Swatch tests online don’t seem to be anywhere close to what the real color is, and I ended up having to swim through shade 50 to shade 55 to actually determine what my actual shade was. I felt like 51 through 54 were completely the same shade! Final issue was that the colors do skew a bit yellow, or grey, on initial application, but it does oxidize after awhile and seems to fix itself.

Onto the actual application. I would say this is light-medium coverage, but it’s very buildable! I use about three pushes of the applicator for the first pass on my face and rub it in using my fingers. It’s very smooth, and easy to apply. I usually let it dry before applying one more light layer over top. This does have some noticeable settling into fine lines and creases, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a quick touch up, or powder. The dry time is a little bit longer than some other foundations I’ve used, I’ve noticed, but not too bad. And once dried, it’s absolutely smooth sailing for any other product you want to use over it — no pilling, or muddying the other product.

As I mentioned before, the color does skew weirdly yellow or grey at first. But after it’s reacted to the heat of your skin for a few minutes, it seems to dissipate, and matches the skin tone better without the usual orange tint that you tend to get with oxidation (powder also helps, in this case). Coverage, in general, seems to become better after the five minute mark – so if you feel like the color is too light after your first application, you may need to wait a few minutes to see the full effect.

The biggest selling point here is how beautiful the foundation still looks after 12 hours of wear (I know it says 16 hours on the bottle but hey, if it makes it to 8 hours, I’m impressed). REGARDLESS of any product you have underneath or over this foundation, you shouldn’t notice any substantial oil build up or foundation cracking around lines. This really has a phenomenal longevity. Oh, and — this is great for sensitive skin. It doesn’t cause any dryness, itchiness or irritation. No surprise break outs when you remove this, at the end of the day!

I think the only remaining issue I have with this foundation is that I sort of wish it had SPF in it, along with all the other goodies it seems to have (Vitamins B, C, E, and even hyaluronic acid), but I’m probably asking for too much. 😉 But this is really my go-to foundation these days. The coverage and longevity are so far unparalleled in this particular price range.

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 5/5

How much I actually like this product: 4.75/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes