Review: NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation

Oh my. Another new foundation I really like!

NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation, Punjab

Pluses

• Wears great on my oily skin for 12 hours, even hit the 14 hour mark one day and it still looked good. 
•  Light as air on your skin yet outstanding medium plus coverage.
•  No need to set with powder
•  Extremely comfortable on the skin, feels like nothing - I mean nothing. .
•  Very little oil break through and I'm oily! Intuition tells me this will be a summer go to! 
•  Beautiful packaging and a pump

Minuses

• I noticed  it clung to dry patches after about the 5 or 6 hour mark. Although I have oily skin,  I have dry patches, too.  I apply a 15% Salicylic Acid Peel with the tip of a Q-Tip to hyperplasia bumps. Ah, aging. I cannot not see the dryness around those bumps but it showed up with this foundation. I've been working on these spots for 3 months and the dry patches do not usually show up with other foundations. 
• Pores were more noticeable than usual especially when I over applied the first two days. I have tried other foundations that are much worse with exaggerating my pores but was very surprised at this concern. It wasn't horrible but, to me, it was noticeable.
• It is very easy to over-apply. The consistency is that of the new serum technology in foundations, very liquidy but heavily pigmented. Because it is so liquid, logic makes you think you need more. Nope! I over applied the first two days, finally got it right the third day.

Finish and Skin Type
Natural finish, maybe a bit on the matte side. Absolutely not luminous as the name would imply. That's a shame because it might scare away those with oily skin and attract those with dry skin - which is exactly the opposite of reality. This foundation is better for those with oily skin issues. I don't think those with dry skin will love this one. Might like it but probably won't be "the" foundation for those with dry skin. Will work for most with normal skin if you like an almost matte finish. Based on wear time and finish, great for combination, oily and very oily skin.

Application Method
I've applied with my fingers, a brush and a Beauty Blender. I like it best with the Beauty Blender but because it is so liquidy, the BB will soak up the foundation more so than foundations with a more creamy consistency.  Brush was very good, too. Even fingers were good. This foundation dries very quickly so best to work in areas rather than dotting all over and then blending. I used powder to set on my nose area.

Coverage and Wear
Coverage is very good with that fine line of over applying. Better to use two thin layers for more coverage if that is what you need, don't try to do it with one thick layer. I found this to be medium coverage on the plus side. Due to consistency, if you work fast you could make this light coverage. One and a half pumps is good for my face. Two full pumps is too much.

Wears a very long time. I've had it on for 14 hours and it looked really good for the first 12 hours. This is my longest wearing foundation that actually looks good to the end! If you read on, though, you'll see that with primer, I get less wear time. Huh?

Primers
I bought Smashbox Pore Minimizing Primer this weekend (love to the moon and back) and used it today with the NARS. Gorgeous. This primer is uh-mazing.  Last week I used none, Hourglass, and Napolean Perdis. I could not tell the difference from one day to the next. With the Smashbox Pore Minimizer, significant difference. Foundation looked great immediately, rather than an hour later, and my pores were almost gone. However, and this is very odd, this foundation wears longer when I don't use primer. I cannot get 12 hours out of it when I use primer, more like 8 or 9 hours. Very odd.

Color Range
NARS has a good color range  if you have yellow, strong yellow or olive tones. It is my understanding they added colors to this line including more selections for pink or neutral undertones. I'd love to here from those of you with cool or pink undertones and your thought of NARS color range. I wear Punjab in NARS Sheer Glow (it's not sheer, it's not glowy - strange name!) and NARS Sheer Matte (it's not sheer and it's a natural matte). The few reviews I found on this new foundation seemed like it was running light. I ordered my regular color, Punjab, and it is fine but it is lighter than Punjab in the Sheer Glow and Sheer Matte.

Packaging and Price
Frosted glass bottle and an easy to control pump. Shake well! $48 for 1 ounce.

Overall
It's a keeper for me! I can't get over how good it looks for 12 hours. Coverage is exactly what I like, medium on the plus side. I have an excellent color match which is my top criteria. Now that I know the perfect pairing is Smashbox Pore Minimizing Primer, I'm over the moon about this foundation. I always like to add the disclaimer that I own a lot of foundations which gives me the advantage of being able to compare lots of great foundations and lots of not so great foundations. I also own a lot of primers and brushes which gives me the advantage of finding the perfect pairing. If I hadn't used the Smashbox primer, I don't think I'd be over the moon. It would still be a keeper and would have given it a positive overall but not an over the moon! Even at over the moon status, if I had to choose between the last foundation I reviewed, L'Oreal Infallible Pro-Matte, I would choose the L'Oreal! My oily skin looks darn near perfect in the L'oreal.

Let me know if you have questions!

Cheers,

Lulu
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