| Review | NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation

NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

| Review | NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation

NARS is jumping on the skincare-makeup hybrid train and coming out with its own skincare-infused foundation. This trend seems to be growing in 2022 and I'm loving the stronger focus on skincare this year. However, as I have discovered with most formulas claiming to contain skincare, it could be all marketing. While I don't want this to be the case with this foundation, these popular trends tend to have brands deceiving customers. Hopefully, this isn't the case. If you want to learn more about this foundation, keep on reading. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

The NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation retails for $49.00 USD and is available at Sephora and other retailers. The bottle of this foundation is very sleek, compact, and modern. It feels very NARS with the rubberized black cap. Frankly, I hate this rubberized packaging because it is a dirt, dust, and makeup magnet. Plus, over time, the soft coating will disintegrate and it will become a sticky nasty mess.  The rectangular glass bottle is beautiful though and I always appreciate a pump with my liquid foundations. As far as luxury goes, they do hit the nail on the head. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

SHADES

This foundation comes in 36 shades, which is a pretty massive shade range. You should be able to find a match for most skin tones; however, I always find that NARS foundations lean very yellow-toned and this one is no different. It's actually a real shame because I find this yellow tone to be very unflattering on most people, myself included. While this range claims to have "neutral" shades, these shades still lean much too yellow for me to consider them true neutrals. Personally, I think they really need to fix their shade range, it is one of the reasons why I stopped buying NARS foundations. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

Sahel M2.5 - I chose this shade because, Santa Fe, the shade just lighter than this one is considered "neutral" but it is much too light for my skin tone. I settled on this shade because it would suit my coloring but the undertone is described as "peach", which I wholeheartedly disagree with. It seems like it is a yellow-neutral undertone. Not so yellow that I would call it "warm" but yellow enough that I wouldn't call it "peach" or "neutral". This shade range is pretty bad because I have to choose between a shade that will suit my undertone but not my actual coloring or a shade that suits the color of my skin but not my undertone. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches
Straight from the bottle

NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches
Heavily swatched

NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches
Partially blended swatch

FORMULA 

This foundation has a thinner texture than a traditional liquid foundation but it is also incredibly pigmented! You really don't need much of this foundation for coverage and I would highly recommend starting with less per area of your face and building up the coverage. I find one layer is medium coverage, which can easily cover redness, minor imperfections, and lighter pigmentation. With a second layer, you're pretty much at full coverage. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

The thin texture spreads quite easily across the complexion, which is another reason I highly recommend starting with as little as possible. The foundation blends into the skin quite easily; however, I do notice that it can look heavy and emphasize dry or textured patches on the face. In the winter, my skin often has areas that are particularly dry but not necessarily dry patches that are noticeable to the eye. However, when I apply this foundation on top and my skin isn't prepper with a very emollient moisturizer or facial oil, this foundation looks really heavy and obvious on the skin. It emphasizes these dry areas and makes my skin look much drier than it actually is. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

Given the name of this foundation, I'm pretty disappointed with the fact that this foundation doesn't apply like it contains skincare nor, feels like it contains skincare. When you look at the ingredients list, there are quite a few skincare ingredients in this formula and they are located somewhere in the middle of the list, which is kind of promising but when I actually use this foundation, it is clear that the "skincare" in this formula is not in a significant amount to make a difference. With a formula that is supposed to contain skincare, I don't want to have to create a skincare intense routine to be able to use it. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

Honestly, this formula reminds me a lot of NARS Sheer Glow but only slightly more glowing and it has a lighter texture. The finish of this foundation is "light-reflecting" as indicated by the name but it is definitely not as light-reflecting as I would have expected or would have liked. I was hoping for a dewy foundation but this foundation has a naturally glowing finish, like just a step more glowy than a natural finish foundation. The finish is very skin-like, which I appreciate, it makes the foundation a bit more flattering. This is a finish that most skin types can wear and with the right primer and a little powder, an oily skin type can certainly enjoy this foundation. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

This foundation has a really great wear time, lasting beyond eight hours on the skin without primer or setting powder. This foundation looks really good on the skin after hours of wear because it is designed to be really long-wearing but, I still have a bit of an issue with how makeup-heavy this foundation looks on the skin. I would forgo a couple hours of wear for more comfort in this formula, especially because it is supposed to be a skincare-infused formula. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

INGREDIENTS

While you can see that there are quite a few skincare ingredients listed near the top-middle of the list, indicating that there should be a significant amount of skincare in this formula. However, after testing this foundation for some time, I didn't notice any change or improvement in my skin and the formula didn't feel any more comfortable than a typical foundation. This is the ingredients list from the Sephora website: 
-Biomimetic Oat: Visibly improves clarity by reducing the appearance of redness.
-Japanese Lilyturf: Supports a strong skin barrier by helping maintain moisture.
-Cacao Peptides and Milk Thistle: Minimize the negative effect of blue light and environmental stressors.

Water/Aqua/Eau, C9-12 Alkane, Butylene Glycol, Undecane, Tridecane, Isodecyl Neopentanoate, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Polyglyceryl-6 Polyricinoleate, Polyglyceryl-2 Diisostearate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Diisostearyl Malate, Glycerin, Synthetic Wax, Sodium Chloride, Ophiopogon Japonicus Root Extract, Ascophyllum Nodosum Extract, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Extract, Curcuma Longa (Turmeric) Root Extract, Silybum Marianum Fruit Extract, Aluminum Hydroxide, Magnesium Chloride, Sodium Dilauramidoglutamide Lysine, Tocopherol, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Pentylene Glycol, Hydroxyphenyl Propamidobenzoic Acid, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Citric Acid, Sea Water/Maris Aqua/Eau De Mer, Trisodium EDTA, Barium Sulfate, Alumina, Chlorphenesin, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Sorbate, [+/-(May Contain/Peut Contenir): Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Mica, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891)].


THE LOOK 

You can see in this first image, I applied the foundation directly to the skin with only a normal moisturizer underneath. You can see that the foundation looks more satin and not as dewy as you'd expect from a "light reflecting" foundation. If you zoom in a bit on the photo, you can see the foundation emphasizes the dry texture of my skin. 

So, in the second photo, I applied the foundation over an oil and you can see that the foundation looks dewy and it doesn't cling to texture. This is my preferred way to wear this foundation for my dry skin type. 


NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

NARS Light Reflecting Advanced Skincare Foundation Review and Swatches

FINAL THOUGHTS 

I really wanted to love this foundation but I can't help saying that I'm quite disappointed with it. I like it but not as much as I would have expected. With all the hype about the formula including skincare, it's a huge letdown because I don't notice the benefits of the skincare ingredients at all. It just feels like most foundations on the market except, the formula is a little thinner, reminiscent of a serum but it doesn't feel like skincare at all! This foundation is mostly marketing hype and while not a bad foundation, it doesn't live up to the hype. I think the coloring, like all NARS foundations, is a little bit off and leans too yellow. The texture does not blend into the skin as easily as you'd expect from a skincare-infused formula and it even emphasizes texture. This may work for some skin types but if you have any dryness or texture at all, you may not like this foundation. For the price and the prestige brand, I'm just not impressed and quite disappointed. It is not a foundation that I would personally recommend. However, this may be a phenomenal formula for another skin type.


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4 Comments

  1. I have the same dry and textured skin as you what foundation would you recommend?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would highly recommend trying the Chanel N°1 DE CHANEL Red Camellia Revitalizing Foundation. I have a review of it here: http://www.prettyismyprofession.com/2022/01/review-chanel-n1-de-chanel-red-camellia-revitalizing-foundation.html

      I think you'll enjoy its smoothing texture and the way the formula really melts into the skin.

      Delete
  2. So bad :(, I was hoping this would be something for me. Have you tried the Givenchy caring glow foundation? Is this maybe better? Have a nice day :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your great review. Just curious about what oil you used that worked so nicely with this foundation. You really transformed the finish into a stunning glow.

    ReplyDelete