Revlon New Complexion One Step Compact Make Up in 01 Ivory Beige

I'd been curious about the Revlon New Complexion One Step Compact Makeup since I saw it in some videos by Australian beauty gurus.  It seems like they get new products several months earlier than they hit the states, so I'd been on the lookout for a good month or two before I finally stumbled across it at Wal-Mart.

I've tried a few cream compact foundations in the last year, including the Cover FX and NARS, both of which were absolute disasters for me.  But hope springs eternal and a drugstore price point didn't hurt either.

As it turned out, this was the goldilocks cream compact foundation for me.  It was neither too dry and stiff (like the CoverFX), nor was it to sheer and oily (like the NARS).  It had nice pigmentation and applied well.  I tried applying it with both a brush and a sponge and both yielded good results.  It did set rather than remaining tacky (I'm looking at you again, NARS).

The only downside to this foundation for me, and you can probably tell from the swatches, is that the lightest shade, 01 Ivory Beige, is a good two shades too dark for me.  BOO HOO!  Because aside from that, it's a lovely foundation.  It wore well - most foundations do wear well on me.  It didn't separate and turn into an oily mess and it didn't break down and pool in my pores.

The shade range does seem to be pretty limited.  I think there are 6 shades total and per usual, the online swatches are absolutely useless.  Looking at them in store, I picked up what appeared to be the lightest shade and like I said, it is way, way too dark for me.  However, looking at online swatches, it looks like shade 2, Tender Peach, might actually be lighter.  I'm going to have to hunt it down because if I can find a shade match (or at least something close enough that I don't have to wear a scarf and/or turtleneck with it), I will be a very happy camper.

I haven't really noticed anybody talking about this foundation.  Has anyone tried it?  If so, I'd love to know what you thought.  The Revlon New Complexion One-Step Compact Make Up contains 9.9 grams of product and retails for $11 - $14 wherever Revlon is sold.  I picked mine up at Wal-Mart.

Overall:  6/10

Cover FX Total Cover Cream Foundation in N10 and Cream Foundation Brush

I watch Lisasz09's YouTube channel a lot.  I love how thorough her reviews are and I love the broad range of items and price points she reviews.

Lately, Lisa has been raving about the CoverFX Total Cover Cream Foundation.

I will admit that I'm not very familiar with the CoverFX line.  I do like their philosophy, that makeup should actually improve your skin over time.  Their cosmetics are free of many irritants commonly found in cosmetics and they are supposed to be great for people with sensitive skin.

Now, I don't have particularly sensitive skin, but I like the philosophy behind the brand.

As for the Total Cover Cream Foundation specifically, Cover FX describes the product as a rich emollient based cream foundation with SPF 30 offering flexible coverage. For All Skin types.

A couple of weeks ago someone started a YouTube tag about foundations that people use.  The idea behind the tag is that if you, as a consumer, can find someone on YouTube with your specific skin shade, then you'd have a better idea of how certain products would look on you.  I LOVE the idea behind this.  And I'd like to add another component to it, skin type.

I have dry skin.  Really, I cannot stress enough just how dry my skin is.  It is always tight and often flaky, especially around my nose.  I wear the most emollient night creams that I can find - usually over the top of straight up argan oil and rosehip oil.  I use hydrating masks regularly.  I drink lots of water every day.  None of it makes any difference.  My skin is dry.  Dry, dry, dry.

I promise you, that wasn't a total digression.  Back to the foundation.  I already know that Lisa and I do not have the same skin shade and I know that she tends to have combination/oily skin. But, she was so impressed with the product and I trust her integrity, so I wanted to check it out.

I went to the counter and got shade matched to N10.  As a reference point, I am usually a MAC NW15ish.  MAC Face and Body in N1 is too dark for me.  I am almost always the lightest shade in a foundation range, unless the lightest shade leans too yellow (NARS, Bourjois), in which case, I usually just can't wear that line at all.  Let it be known that CoverFX's N10 is not the lightest shade in the range.  They have N0 (boggles).

As it turns out, N10 is too light for me (this never happens).  It was a great match for my neck.  But since my face is probably 2 shades darker than my neck, I usually try to split the difference.  The N10 made me look like Casper the friendly ghost - well, moreso than usual.

Now, I certainly could have gone back and picked up a better shade match, but I didn't.  And I'll tell you why.  

This foundation sat terribly on my skin.  It was awful.  Like I said, I know that Lisa's skin is a lot oilier than mine, but since the PR materials specifically used the word "emollient" and it says its suitable for all skin types - and when I tested it in store, it didn't feel drying - I thought it would be okay.  

It wasn't okay.

This stuff just clung to my skin.  It would not move.  And it just went on so unevenly.  It would be really sheer in places and then pool in my pores and grab onto patches of dry skin.  It looked terrible.  (In addition to being the wrong color).

Now, I know that I probably could have improved things if I'd worn a primer under the foundation.  But I generally don't wear primers because my skin is so dry.  And really, at this price point, I am not willing to go out of my way and add extra products into my routine to make something work. 

For $42, you work or you go back.

So ... it went back.

When I bought the foundation I also picked up CoverFX's Cream Foundation Brush ($38) since Lisa and several other reviews I read said that this brush really did a fantastic job of applying the product.

The brush is okay.  I kept it.  Mostly because I have a brush problem.

It is really, really similar to one of the brushes in the Sephora Advanced Airbrush set, which I already have and which retails for $65 for 5 brushes. Both the CoverFX and Sephora brushes are synthetic brushes.  

(And fwiw, I'm pretty sure this set from Crown Brush is the same thing as the Sephora set and it's only $30.  Moral of this story is if you're really curious about the CoverFX brush, you could pick up one just like it from Crown for $8 cheaper and then get 6 more brushes to boot).

The CoverFX Total Cover Cream Foundation contains 10g of product and retails for $42 wherever CoverFX is sold.  The Cream Foundation Brush retails for $38.


I picked up both of my products at Sephora at JC Penney.
Foundation:  0/10


Brush: 7/10