I had been eyeing this new L’Oreal foundation for a while on store shelves when their PR agency sent me one to try out. It was way too dark, but after playing with the formula a bit I wanted to really try it, so I picked up a fresh shade on my next Target run.
There’s been a lot of talk about how L’Oreal has “duped” (or not duped at all, depending on who you ask and how reluctant they are to use a drugstore product) the Armani Maestro Foundation (note, Armani’s beauty division is part of L’Oreal) and Hourglass Immaculate Liquid Powder Foundation (which I own and haven’t reviewed yet). I’m reviewing this as its own separate, stand alone product. I haven’t tried the Armani so I can’t compare them, and I’m very confused by how this could be a dupe of the Hourglass, which seems like a normal foundation to me. The Magic Nude is very different in formulation.
The first thing you’ll notice about this formula is the bottle. It comes in a glass bottle, and unfortunately it isn’t sealed at all. This does make it easy to glance at the color while you’re in the store, but it also made it easy for others to do that as well in the store. I’m not really a fan of that idea. Notice that in the bottle it definitely looks a bit pinker than it comes out on the skin. I recommend either just going with your “usual” shade in a L’Oreal foundation (which is what I did) or look for the correct depth of tone, ignore that pink!
I’ve been wearing Classic Ivory #312, and it seems to be just like other Classic Ivory L’Oreal shades to me, so I think it runs pretty true to shade. The product is very liquidy, it feels like water. I shake the bottle very well before use, and to apply they recommend using your fingers. I put my fingers over the bottle, shake a little to get my fingers wet and just start dotting the product onto my face. The liquid will evaporate off fairly quickly so I spread it around right away, but don’t worry about trying to get a perfect finish at this point. With the liquid you just want to get the product evenly distributed over your coverage area.
After a minute or two the liquid will all be evaporated leaving behind a very uniform and light coverage of product. If you need to do any blending this is the time to do it, I’ve just dabbed my Beauty Blended sponge on to my face or blended with my fingers. For some reason using a traditional foundation brush has not worked well for me at this point, though some people have said it works well for them with this product. If you need more coverage you can dab a little more on at this point, though I don’t think I have ever needed more than 2 light layers.
The coverage is light to medium and I think it gives a pretty flawless finish. I applied this over a light moisturizer, without primer. I had no issues with it settling into pores or dry areas, and I did use this quite a bit during my recent issues with dry skin. I have combination skin, and I did notice that in the later afternoon I looked a tad shiny on my nose, but the coverage was still present. Note that I do apply concealer over the Liquid Powder, but no powder except to set my blush. It seems silly to apply more powder, right?
Overall, the best part of this product is definitely the super lightweight feel. Once it has dried you really can not feel anything on your skin, which I love! The finish makes my skin look fantastic, which is another great bonus. I’ll keep using this throughout the fall for sure. I just would love it if L’Oreal sealed these bottles for the store!
You can buy L’Oreal Magic Nude Liquid Powder at Amazon
Check out more tips, hacks and product reviews in the Foundation Guide!
Product Sent for Review (and I bought it!)
Iām a doctor, a mommy and a bit of a beauty addict. If you let me, I can take 2 hours to get ready in the morning. Really. I'm on a quest for faster beauty that works!
Thanks for the review, its well said and I would say that I completely agree. I bought this when it first hit my local stores and I bought a shade too dark so I repurchased it in a better shade and let me just say, I really love this product! I think its amazing for people who dont want to "feel" their makeup. I will be using mine a lot over coming months!
Great detailed review, thanks. I had no idea what shade I'd use from L'Oreal, but now I do! A pale face is a good canvas, but first we need that perfect base coat, right? The texture of this base sounds very attractive to me just now.
Drugstore makeup is no problem for me– I'll buy makeup from the dollar store, the drugstore, the grocery, the Ulta store– wherever they carry a product I need that looks like it will work. But I haven't used L'Oreal foundations, at least not since I was a teen. There's a fair smattering of their other cosmetics in my makeup closet, though.
Thanks for the review. I tried it out at Target (Yes, the bottle design makes it easy to play with in the store!) It seemed a little dry. My skin is dry so I did not buy it. Thanks for the review
I've been seeing this around blogs for a while now but was hesitant to try it. I think I might try this out for the remainder of the hot weather here in Vegas. š Thanks for the review!
Haha. I tried this out at the store, I'm one of those people. If I needed foundation at the time I would have purchased it.
This would have been perfect for the summer but I bet my skin would be too dry if I used it in the fall. I actually just wrote my review for this as well.
pretty pale shade, I might think of buying it..