Mirror, mirror on the wall, who makes the lightest foundation of them all?

I spent just over a month in the US recently, and besides having a proper adventure, used the opportunity to actually see a lot of beauty brands and their products in person, that aren't available anywhere close to me. Focusing on foundations that based on research (fingers crossed) might work for me straight from the bottle, I obtained a number of samples both there and back home (of foundations I hadn't considered before but suddenly saw in a new light), and tested them to see if anything might suit me, or if perhaps in colour but not finish, someone else (for swatches, skip to the very end of the post).

Nars Sheer Glow and Sheer Matte in Siberia

I was extremely excited about Siberia, of all the products on my list to try, this colour was the most promising. I received samples of it in both the glowy and the more matte formula at the Sephora on 5^th Avenue in Manhattan. I was pretty sure the Sheer Glow wouldn't work for me and I'd prefer the other, but the weather was very cold and a lot drier than what I'm used to, so much so, even the oily, slippery mess that is Teint Touche Éclat was struggling to spread over my skin, and since mine is a much darker colour that I'd need, I decided to try out the Sheer Glow first, hoping it would be something to wear while I'm there in the bitter cold.

It's nothing like the YSL! Not blindingly dewy at all, with just a slight glow. The colour is pretty nice, but not entirely light enough. It emphasized dryness more than my foundation, particularly as the day wore on, it definitely needs to be applied with a brush and unfortunately wore away somewhat patchy. For the sake of research, I've worn it with powder and without and couldn't tell a huge difference.

I enjoyed wearing it for a couple of days until I saw a colony of pimples emerge! It was the strangest thing, an old hyper pigmentation mark became enlarged and bright red, not raised or anything, and it didn't even feel inflamed, but it looked like this huge, painful blemish! Also I got a few superficial ones, small and very close to the surface on m chin and forehead. This is how I know it was the foundation's fault because these are areas where I never ever get breakouts, even at my worst I didn't, and because of the type of blemish – tiny whiteheads. That's just not something I get on my own. I immediately stopped using the foundation and went back to my YSL and my skin was back to normal in two days. I will say that this is the reaction I had to all four of the Shiseido manufactured foundations I sampled after a few days of use.

But back to the Sheer Glow. Would I buy it? Not unless I had an incredible amount of disposable income and wanted it just for the sake of having it. Frankly, the colour is good, but it's not good enough and not as good as my own foundation, it's not as nice of a finish as mine is and it takes more effort to apply, doesn't wear as well and for some reason disagrees with my skin. I think someone with normal, even oily skin, who doesn't have particularly sensitive skin and who likes applying foundation with a brush and prefers a creamier formula, should give it a go and try it out.

Now, the Sheer Matte is very similar to the YSL Teint Touche Éclat, in that it's the exact opposite. You know how certain foundations have pretty much no opacity, no colour, but have glowy, blurry finish, like the YSL? The Sheer Matte is that, no colour shows up on the skin (my skin at least) at all, and all it does is leave you with a finish, expect it's not glowy or dewy, it's dry and flaky. I hated this foundation. Honestly, no pigment showed up at all and all it did was make my oily combo skin look dry and flaky all over! And I only got around to trying it when I was back in a warmer and more humid climate! Very disappointed by this one. This would work for someone with pretty much perfect skin, nothing to conceal, but who's very, very, VERY oily.

Makeup Forever Mat Velvet+ in 15

The Sephora SA I asked for a sample of this was very clearly not amused and gave me a host of silent attitude. You know the kind. I was going to ask for a Bobbi Brown sample as well, but not after I witnessed how tedious providing the barely pea size amount of the one MUF was for her.

I had been quite interested in Makeup Forever, because again it's something we don't have, and because it's a brand that's mentioned a lot in tutorials. Plus it's a makeup artist type brand with huge shade varieties and formulas that are designed to perform in very particular environments – such as HDTV, underwater etc. I can think of at least two youtubers I follow that love Mat Velvet+. I wasn't actually looking for it, I just happened to be at their display when the SA asked if she could help me, and found myself drawn to the very pale shade.

I've worn it once. As far as degree of lightness, it's pretty spot on. It's as close of a match as the Illamasqua foundations that are one shade up from pure white, and it has a similar formula, which is the main reason I don't care for it. First of all, it's too pink for me, made my hyper pigmentation look like a blue-purple disease. Second, it's way too dry and settles into the tiny lines and pores that make up the skin. And third, just like Illamasqua, for some reason the formula just refuses to fuse onto my skin. It sits on top and moves around forever. Like, if I rub my lips together and go slightly over, it'll make the foundation around my lips come off immediately. Or if I wear glasses, it'll rub off completely where they sit on the nose and so on. It was a fun experiment, but this one's definitely not for me.

Shiseido Sheer and Perfect Foundation in 000

I got a sample of this at a Macy's counter and was pretty excited about it. It wasn't really on my radar, but I'd been really enjoying wearing as runny a formula as possible, something that just spreads effortlessly over the skin and needs nothing but your fingertips to blend, and this was just that sort of product. The coverage is very sheer, sheerer than the Teint Touche Éclat, and it sets to a satin finish. It evens out the skin tone and covers the pores in a translucent veil, is slightly buildable but won't do much for proper red marks and imperfections.

As the day went on, my t-zone did get shiny and it was a more sweaty, oily sheen than a glow like the YSL. By the end of the day, in the areas where the foundation had worn off most, the skin was visibly dry and dehydrated, not a horrible amount, but still more noticeably than I'd like. The colour, though the lightest in the range, was too dark for me and as much as I love how the formula feels to apply and the convenient packaging, I wouldn't get it, primarily because of the shade and how differently it wears off my combination skin. I think it's a foundation that will work nicely for someone whose skin has a more universal character to it, either oily or dry all over, or normal, so that if someone wears a richer moisturizer or powders it, it'll wear throughout the day more naturally.

Shiseido Sun Protection Liquid Foundation SPF 42 in SP 01 Light Beige

I was giddy excited about trying this! The worst my skin ever got was as a direct result of stress, bad skincare, makeup and too much Sun, so ever since then and now that my skin is so much better, I'm obsessed about keeping it safe and happy. I spent pretty much all of last summer going to work before the Sun was at its most powerful, coming home when it was already setting and worked indoors with artificial light (and air). Pretty depressing... On the other hand, I was on a course of prescription acne medication that thinned out my very sensitive skin, so the fact that I pretty much had no choice but to stay indoors, might have been a good thing. I stayed as pale as a sheet of paper. Since then I haven't been exposed to summer type heat or the Sun enough to know if my current skin care and makeup is providing enough protection, so I'm always on the lookout for something more should I need to amp up my defenses.

I'd learned about the Sun Protection Liquid Foundation somewhere on youtube. A little bit of research later I found out that the line wasn't available in the Baltics, it should be in Scandinavia (it is available in Finland in a limited shade range, I just saw it by chance there a few days ago in a department store), and my friend who used to work for Shiseido's head office in London said the lightest shade available for the European market was SP04 Medium Beige. Basically, if I wanted to try any of the lighter shades, I'd have to go to the US or Asia. Luckily, I was in the US and this particular counter had every shade! I have to say, the three lightest shades all looked pretty similar in terms of darkness, and had only very slight differences in their undertones. Never the less, out of all of them, Light Beige was the least wrong shade for me (if that makes any sense).

The shade is just much too dark for me, but other than that, I really like the foundation! I like how thin the formula is, how despite this it's got good coverage, it lasts superbly (it's almost completely water -and sweat proof), it has a high SPF, the bottle is tiny and very portable... I pretty much like everything about it but the colour. To be honest, if I am in extremely bright daylight, I can almost get away with the shade. Indoors is trickier, the difference is pretty obvious as you can see on my arm. Despite the fact that it doesn't suit my skin tone, out of all the foundations I sampled, if I had to choose any of them to purchase, it would be this one. I certainly wouldn't wear it every day because I've been preferring a sheerer more luminous finish, and because of how dark it is, but I would love to have it in my collection for holidays, travel and just being in very humid and hot situations wherever those may be.

Estée Lauder Invisible Fluid Makeup in 1N1

First of all, can we just take a moment to appreciate the quantity the SA deemed sufficient for me to sample this foundation, along with the fabulous packaging of said sample? Honestly, department store with orange logo, if you want to sell this foundation to me or if you want me to sell it to anyone else via my experience, how about giving me enough product to cover more than my nose and one cheek? Just a thought.

This was a foundation I got inspired to try out when I got home. I was actually at the Estée Lauder counter to get a sample of the next foundation, but accidentally looked at a tester of this, because they're all organized to no particular reason, loved the thin, runny texture so much that I decided to research it when I got home. Turns out, this was another offering in the very style I'd been loving – small, no fuss plastic bottle with a shaker ball and squeeze-tube. Also, it came in one of the lightest shades by such a mainstream brand, and our department store happened to carry it. I read a couple of reviews and watched some youtube videos on this foundation, which seemed to really praise it, and off I was the next day to retrieve a sample for myself (a measly, non-existent sample).

I wasn't able to give it as good of a try as I would have wanted to. Generally, I want at least 3 days of wear to form an opinion. I want to be able to wear it with powder, without, indoors and out, and for various durations etc. With this amount I was only able to do a very sheer layer and not even properly try if it was a buildable formula. If I remember right, it wasn't buildable. Much like the Shiseido Sheer and Perfect. They're actually very, very similar foundations, which is why I was drawn to trying it, hoping that Estée Lauder's lightest shade might be lighter than Shiseido's. It wasn't. If I had to choose, I'd say the Invisible Fluid Makeup's formula is nicer, however it's colour is a lot darker and leans more peachy orange than the Shiseido, so there's absolutely no way I would consider buying it. I did really like the texture of the foundation and it seemed to agree with my skin. If only Estée Lauder's Invisible Fluid Makeup came in Nars' Siberia shade!!! I would beg them to take my money and just give me that gorgeousness.

Estée Lauder Double Wear Light in Intensity 0.5

I was killing time, just browsing at the beauty counters when I noticed this shade. EL's double wear line is a cult favourite, I've just known that they didn't make colours even remotely close to light enough for me so I never really looked at the range with too much seriousness. Intensity 0.5 in the Light formula intrigued me and a quick internet search later turned up that this was actually the lightest shade they made and that it wasn't even available everywhere.

I felt pretty damn lucky to have that shade available so close to me at all, I simply had to try it. Of all their formulations I'd always thought I'd particularly like Double Wear Light. I was daydreaming about how it would suit me straight out the tube, taking up very little space in my makeup bag on a plane across the Atlantic, it would take no effort to flawlessly apply without a brush... I envisioned it to be half as thin of a consistency as that of the Teint Touche Éclat, triple the coverage, and a quarter as shiny. I was completely wrong.

First of all, it is sadly not light enough at all. Second, despite the name Light, it is thicker than any foundation I've ever worn at any point in my life. It clung to the skin very fast, so my feeble attempt to apply it with fingers turned into a painfully uncomfortable ordeal as I tried to stretch it over my face. The level of coverage caught me a little bit off guard. I hadn't worn anything so opaque in so long I had to change my entire look that day, because suddenly a sheer pink eyeshadow and one coat of mascara wouldn't do, oh no. I did a full, metallic purple feline flick to go with the almost completely blank canvas. I'd never connected two and two before and now figured out that the reason I was enjoying my particular clean and very minimal eye look, was because of the much sheerer foundations I was wearing, that allowed my beauty marks and freckles (albeit along with the other, not as nice marks on my face) to shine through and add complexity to my complexion. When you obliterate all of that, you need to seriously overcompensate somewhere else just to look not dead!

I didn't love wearing the foundation. I certainly could make it work, mix it with something, but that defeats the point of this search. I already have a mixture I love, that's not what I need. Someone with darker and oilier skin than me who likes full coverage would really enjoy this though. There certainly are fuller coverage foundations than Double Wear Light, but I couldn't imagine a regular person, someone who isn't on camera for a living, needing any more coverage than this.

Diorskin Nude in 10

I have Diorskin Forever in 10 and I know it's too dark to begin with, plus oxidizes like crazy. However, I'd always been under the impression that mine was the more heavy duty, thicker coverage foundation, and since I was on a light formula kick, where the shade matching tends to be more forgiving, I was intrigued to give Dior's lighter foundation ago.

Let's just say I was as wrong as wrong can be. The formula of Diorskin Nude is anything but light. It's even thicker than Diorskin Forever, which has a more airy, whipped consistency by comparison. Nude is thick, creamy, stringy... Like wet clay. Kind of. Number 10 in this foundation is ever so slightly, barely noticeably lighter than the Forever, and oxidizes just as badly. I almost feel like it was even thicker coverage than Forever, with the difference being that Forever has a velvety finish, and the Nude a more neutral, barely satin finish. It did not have the transparency I was hoping for that might have compensated for the darkness of the lightest colour, it's so much darker, there's really no blending it into anything close to passable, and the thick formula would require more work than I'm willing to put into it.

Napoleon Perdis Sheer Genius Liquid Foundation in Look 1

That was random. The way I ended up with this sample was a complete accident. I was at Bergdorf Goodman, on a mission to try a Tom Ford foundation, any TF foundation, but I was particularly interested in the stick version. After I scanned the upper floors and all the latest fashions, I made my way down to the beauty department, located the TF counter and actually had a very lovely SA who was super helpful. We swatched their lightest shades on me and my heart sunk when I saw how dark they were. I thought she was kidding when she said those were the lightest colours they had... My inner beauty junky cried inside. I will never be able to say I wear Tom Ford foundation. Oh well. Moving on. I'd explained to her what I was looking for and she exclaimed “Have you tried Napoleon?” I said no, never heard of it. So she took me all across the winding beauty department and found the Napoleon rep, told her what I needed and left me there to be taken care of.

That's when I realized the Napoleon they were talking about was Napoleon Perdis, the snippy judge from Australia's Next Top Model! I admit, I did know he was a makeup artist with his own brand, but I would have never thought it would be a brand of this price range. Regardless, I kept an open mind, the girl was very nice and helpful, invited me to a makeup even they were having, which I wouldn't be able to attend though, gave me a sample of the lightest yellow foundation they had and gave me a complimentary primer sample (which I've lost).

I'm actually sad that this didn't work on me because of how nice the service was an how freakin' generous the sample was (a month's supply I'd say!). It is a very different shade of yellow than anything I've ever tried, a sort of mustardy yellow, which oxidizes on me like craaaazy. On my arm it looks like it would suit someone of a Mediterranean complexion, but in the pot it looks like it might even suit me. It's very odd. I wore it once and I'm not going to again. The particular shade of yellow made me look jaundiced and I'd never seen myself like that before. It was kind of frightening. I can't remember if I had the nerve to go out that day or not because of how dark, muddy yellow my face was... The coverage was good, the finish was sheeny (not enough to be glowy) and that's about all I can say on this subject unfortunately.

I've swatched all my samples in the order of the reviews (or in the opposite order, depending on how you look at things) and also added a swatch of Le Teint d'Or (hehe, doesn't that sound fancy?), which is still unrivaled in how well it suits me, for comparison.

I'm happy to have gotten a chance to play around with new products and get a lot of them out of my system. I have a new list in my head for foundations I'd like to try next time I travel, like Bobbi Brown and Laura Mercier, the lightest shades of which weren't available at any of the Sephoras I visited, Stila, Burberry, By Terry and Suqqu, Shu Uemura and Astalift if I go to the UK, although the list is ever evolving!