Perricone MD No Foundation Foundation

As soon as I heard the phrase “No Foundation Foundation”, I started getting excited.  I mean, this is basically The Dream, isn’t it? Foundation that doesn’t actually look like foundation? Flawless skin, without heavy coverage? Count me in…

And don’t get me wrong: I love my heavy coverage. My skin isn’t naturally flawless, so Revlon Colorstay is currently my best friend, but there’s no getting away from the fact that thick coverage comes at a price, and often that price involves foundation falling into the lines under the eyes, or just generally looking like thick foundation (and actually, it can sometimes make your skin look worse, rather than better, especially in direct sunlight).

Perricone MD’s No Foundation Foundation, however, is designed to be the answer to all of that, so when the company offered to send me some to try, I jumped at the chance. Here’s what they have to say about the product:

Created to keep skin looking dewy and flawless, this unique formula delivers many benefits of a traditional foundation without the heavy matte finish, which emphasizes the tiniest skin imperfections.  No Foundation Foundation is a multi-purpose product that provides natural translucent coverage, corrects skin undertones, instantly smoothes fine lines and boosts skin’s natural moisture throughout the day, all the while delivering antioxidant benefits.

When it arrived, the first thing I noticed was the medicinal appearance of the bottle – perhaps unsurprising, given the name of the company, and the fact that it was developed by a skin doctor. The pump dispenser comes separately, and screws onto the top of the bottle, allowing you to get the right amount onto your skin. Because the coverage is supposed to be translucent, it comes in “one universal shade”, and this turned out to be problematic for me, because I don’t think there IS one universal skin shade, and this one turned out to be too dark for my skin:

Here it is right out of the bottle:

And here it is blended in a little:

As you can see, it was much too dark for me to be able to wear normally, so this isn’t intended to be a “review” of it, although I’d be interested to hear from anyone who did get along with the colour, as it sounds like it could be fantastic if it was a better match. It would probably be fine if I’d been using self-tanner, because the coverage is pretty sheer, and looks more natural on the face than it does in this swatch, but on my natural skin it wouldn’t work, and I’d think that if you’re similarly pale, you’ll have the same problem, so a range of shades in this would be great.

Because I wasn’t able to wear it all day, I can’t tell you how well it lasts: I did, however, put it on just to try it out, and was impressed with the consistency and coverage. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a bit of an oily t-zone, and this seemed to soak up the moisture without looking too matte: it also has an SPF of 30, which is great news, as most skin products I encounter seem to go up to SPF 15 or 20 at most, and I like to take all the sun protection I can get.

Want to try it out for yourself? It costs £41, and you can click here to buy it from the Perricone MD website.