Beauty Chitchat: NARS Sheer Glow Foundation: A Liquid Love! :D

After watching people raving about it online and using it from my friend Tansia (who is also a huge fan of this product), I tried to give NARS Sheer Glow Foundation a try. And here I am today, with my review.

Yes, it is NARS Sheer Glow Foundation, not the Sheer Matte one. People who know me, also know the fact that I suffer from an excess-oil secretion-syndrome on my facial zone. So it was ideal for me to pick up Sheer Matte instead of Sheer Glow. But when I tried Sheer Matte at Sephora, I found it to be a bit harder to blend than the Sheer Glow. And moreover, I used Sheer Glow even before I tried at Sephora and was quite happy with the result.

When I went to Sephora to buy this foundation, I was quite tanned and the SA matched me to the shade Syracuse, which seemed pretty matched to my skin tone. It was CA$ 55 when I bought it. When I came back to my country (by that time my sun tan was almost gone), and started using Sheer Glow in Syracuse, I found out the shade to be a shade darker than my skin tone. The shade before Syracuse is Barcelona, which is again a shade lighter than my skin tone. I realized that I was somehow in between these two shades and bought Barcelona again, this time from USA, and it was USD 42.

It is described by NARS as a "satin-finish foundation with sheer and buildable coverage." It also says that it benefits your skin when used regularly and claims to "improve skin brightness, radiance and texture." It is recommended for normal to dry skin types, but as I said me, being an extremely oily skinned girl, loves every bit of the product!

The coverage of the product is light to buildable medium. If you are looking for a full coverage foundation, you should better skip this one, because applied once it gives a very light coverage and reapplying another layer, it gives you medium coverage at most. If you have a flawless skin and are looking to add just a tinsy bit of glow you can give this one a try. I don't have flawless skin (not even close to flawless) but I always love light to medium coverage foundation, thats why I have picked it. It hides slight acne scars and unevenness of skin tone, and there is a soft glow which emanates from your skin after you apply the foundation. It also photographs well as it doesn't have any SPF.

my skin, before and after applying NARS sheer Glow Foundation

The consistency of the foundation is neither too thin, nor too thick. It doesn't feel heavy on my skin or too cakey, blends smoothly and doesn't dry out too fast, so I get sufficient amount of time to blend it. NARS asks you to use your hands to apply this foundation, I tried both with my hands and brushes, and I love application with brushes more. I use it with a flat top kabuki brush like Sigma F80, or Coastal Scents 110, I use Sigma F84 too, which gives me wonderful result. I take pea sized amount on back of my hand, dot both of the shades on my entire face (I don't mix the shades prior blending) and blend it with the brush. If my face is too dull, I spray MAC Fix+ on my brush and then blend. Though I have oily skin, I always love dewy finishes for my foundations, rather than matte or semi-matte. I, of course, set the foundation with a powder like MAC MSFN or MAC Select Sheer Loose Powder.

Generally my face becomes oily within an hour I apply my foundation, so I do blot a lot. But when I am at an air conditioned situation the duration of the wear my foundation becomes longer and I got a wear of almost 5hours in an air conditioned room with NARS Sheer Glow Foundation. But if I stay at the hot humid condition of my country I have to blot it right after an hour.

The only problem I have with this foudation is its packaging. The foundation doesn't come with a pump. But NARS says it is intentional as they want you to shake really well before you apply it. You can buy an additional pump, for that you have to pay USD 6. Quite steep for a pump, eh? I am better without a 6 dollar pump lol ;) another problem is that the lid doesn't shut properly once you open the bottle. This might be a problem if you are a bit obsessed with how-your-make up-stuffs-close, like me. Also the lid is very much prone to catch finger prints, which means it can get dirty with usage :/

I love this foundation, just like I love my MAC Mineralize SPF 15 foundation. Purchasing two shades is a bit heavy for my wallet, but yes I would really be repurchasing NARS Sheer Glow over and over again.