NARS Sheer Glow Foundation
Last year I really branched out when it came to foundations, I tried and tested so many (and in the end went back to my old favourite). Being an avid wearer of double wear can sometimes lead me into wanting something just a little more sheer and dewy for those unmade-up days - enter NARS Sheer Glow which sounds like the perfect, completely opposite alternative. I knew nothing of NARS Sheer Glow before seeing it in Space NK and liking the sound of it, the assistant colour matched me and off I went with my new purchase in tow. This little story doesn't have a happy ending however, I have a bone to pick with NARS over this seemingly misleading foundation…
Sheer Glow claims to leave a natural, radiant finish on your skin whilst delivering hydration for softer, smoother skin and an even skin tone. It's been a 'love for about a month and hate for the next five' relationship with me - at first it was glorious, beautiful…like the first month of a new relationship. And then something changed and it just stopped being so great (now isn't that a paragraph to remind you of 500 Days of Summer or what). It just didn't look good anymore and gradually got worse and worse. I've tried for six months to make this work for me and now I give up - nothing I do can make it look good and I mean nothing, no amount of exfoliating, primer, slathering on moisturiser or even mixing it with an illuminating fluid or repair serum like Advanced Night Repair will make it work for me. I've even tried changing the way I apply foundation to prevent micro-exfoliation of my skin…and still it does not change the finish. So what's so bad about it? Everything, I can't actually think of one thing I like about it except, at a push, the colour match. The packaging is awful, my bottle topper lid started cracking about a month into use rather oddly and now it constantly seems to leak out of nowhere. The formula is so drying, I have quite dry skin anyway but it takes double wear absolutely fine with no problems, yet this foundation just makes it look flat, it clings to dry patches and makes my skin look unhealthy. The finish is quite 'wet', if I touch my face the foundation comes off in an odd oily patch on my finger (gross…) yet it looks like it's dried completely down on my skin. I just can't make it work for me and so I'm done, this is not the sheer, dewy, glowy, hydration-delivering foundation I bought into.
My colour is 'Light 4 Deauville' which I'm very pleased with, I'm usually an Estée Lauder Desert Beige perfect match for your reference on shade. The colour selection is okay, not hugely extensive and mainly neutral toned but it does cover right through from pale to deep skin tones. The formula is a thick fluid, it's a little bit creamy and best applies with a brush, if I use my fingers it just moves about all over the place rather than settling into place. I'd personally say this is a medium coverage foundation, you can build it but I wouldn't recommend doing that because it goes terribly thick and cakey.
This is a wholly negative review over a foundation that I really wanted to love, really I did. I read reviews after purchasing and on the whole a lot of people seem to be unhappy except the odd lucky few who have made it work for them. I think this foundation is absolutely not what it says it is, it is a semi (totally in my case) matte finish foundation that is not glowy at all, it isn't even particularly sheer because in one application with a buffing brush it gives me medium-full coverage. I think it's just been labelled incorrectly which led me into purchasing a foundation which I thought would be one thing and is in fact something else entirely. I'm not going to waste my money on it though, in Summer I'll be mixing it with my moisturiser to create a tinted moisturiser to wear to the beach.
What can I say, you might love this and you might loathe this. I would urge anyone considering buying this to ask for a tester before purchasing and use it once a week for four weeks to see how it changes with your skin over time. Don't impulse purchase like I did and end up very disappointed.
NARS Sheer Glow Foundation costs £30.50 from NARS stockists.
