REVIEW: Laura Geller Balance -N- Brighten Foundation

Hello, everyone!

I recently got my Hautelook order from the mail and it just instantly made my day. Now, for those of you who don’t have an idea what Hautelook is, I have a separate blog entry discussing what the website is about.

Anyway, the package that came in is my much awaited Laura Geller Balance -N- Brighten Foundation in the shade Fair. I was initially skeptical on what shade to get (Fair or Medium) but as I was researching for reviews regarding the oxidation, I felt like I was running out of time since many of the items got Sold Out for the first few hours of the event.

Website photo:

So I went ahead and purchased Fair since a lot of the commenters with Medium skin tone like me have said that this powder oxidizes and becomes so much darker.

Without further ado, here are photos and swatches...

Laura Geller Balance -N- Brighten Foundation

Fair with SPF 15

THE PACKAGING

I think right off the bat, I can say that the packaging is not too striking but it makes sense. Here’s why:

The mirror is not your typical round cut that occupies the cover/top flap but it’s decent enough for touch ups. Now, the thing that makes sense about this is even though there is a mirror, which is always useful, there is still that window that lets you see what shade it is without having to flip the product to check the label. I find this to be quite helpful in compact powders considering they normally make these things uniformed.

Beautiful swirly swirls!

So in-love!

This is close up of the actual product.

You can see that it looks like a beautiful baked marble of neutral colors with hints of yellow. It seems like it has some really fine shimmer and the finish is more Satin than Matte which gives your skin more of a multi-dimensional finish— reminds me of NYX Stay Matte But Not Flat but with better staying power and more lightweight feel to it.

The texture is actually rather smooth and possibly one of the smoothest face powders that I have ever tried and the coverage is definitely more light to medium depending on the brush you use.

The swatch!

Blended out - you can barely see it as it merges so beautifully on the skin.

PERFORMANCE / STAYING POWER

I looked up reviews and many people had said that it’s a good product to reduce ruddiness on the skin which I can definitely attest to. I have discoloration on my under eye and redness all over the sides of my nose and it did help a lot on those areas, coverage-wise.

Another thing that got me interested is the consistent praises about its staying power. True enough, it does last THE WHOLE DAY. The first time I tried it was when I went to the Polynesian Cultural Center with my family. We left the house at 9AM and got home around 10PM— so that’s a full 13 hours. To be honest, I did notice some minor shine around my t-zone which is obviously the ultimate oil factory. It wasn’t bothersome at all though as I think the shine is mostly because I didn’t retouch the whole time. Not to mention, there was a lot of sweat going on and we did have to walk under a drizzling weather so considering all of the factors and how well it still performed, I must say, I am genuinely so impressed.

PRICE POINT

I have been meaning to get a MAC Mineralized Skin Finish in Medium+ and I was going to get it that day I saw Laura Geller went on sale on Hautelook. I normally don’t trust my gut feeling because I am not very lucky at that so I always rely on reviews. Also, I happen to have a $10 store credit because of a purchase that a friend made on the website through my referral link (hooray for that) so it didn’t feel like a huge risk to get this.

This full-size 9g compact retails for $33 on the Laura Geller website, but normally goes on sale at Hautelook for $20. I only had to pay around $12 for the product (because of my store credit) and $5 for shipping. Not bad! Not bad at all!

I will do some follow up reviews about it when when we go to the beach or when I do retouch. Maybe we can see a difference? But for now, that’s my verdict!

xo,

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