NARS: Sheer Matte Foundation

Happy Foundation Friday everyone!

Today's review is of the NARS Sheer Matte Foundation. I had been wanting to try this foundation for forever because I absolutely LOVE matte foundations. I purchased this foundation from Sephora for $45 for 1 oz of product, which is quite pricey for a foundation in my opinion!

I purchased the color Ceylan which Sephora describes as a light-medium shade with yellow undertones. Colorwise, I found that this shade matched my skin pretty perfectly, which is great since I just guessed as I bought it online. On the Sephora website, this product is available in 17 different shades, ranging from very fair to very dark with everything from pink to yellow undertones, so there's bound to be one that's a pretty perfect match to your skin. If you can, I do recommend going to Sephora and swatching the colors before purchasing just to ensure that you buy the right shade as this is a pricey item and you don't want to get a shade that is a poor match.

NARS describes this product as "This Sheer Matte Foundation enhances, without masking, your overall natural complexion. The weightless formula absorbs oil and keeps skin shine free all day long. The complexion brightening properties improve skin brightness, radiance, and texture, leaving the complexion with a luminous, fresh finish."

In terms of packaging, this lives up to the beautiful packaging that NARS is known for. I like the frosted glass bottle, it looks absolutely gorgeous! The only downside in my opinion is that it doesn't come with a pump. The foundation is very runny so pouring it out on your hand is an absolute MESS. You can buy a pump separately for $6 from the NARS website, but when I'm already paying almost $50 for a foundation, I want it to have a pump and I don't want to pay even more for one.

The formula of this product is VERY sheer, it actually surprised me how sheer it was. I know the word "sheer" is in the name of the product, but this product really didn't cover up my red spots or blemishes very well. I think this is a good product if you don't have many skin imperfections and aren't trying to hide anything. Honestly though, I don't have too much to hide, but I felt like this foundation just helped to even my skin tone a tiny bit but really didn't have much to offer in terms of coverage. If I'm going to put a liquid foundation on, I want to see medium to full coverage, otherwise I tend to use more powder foundations for light to medium coverage days because I think that helps my skin breathe more.

Top Row: Light Swatch, Heavier Swatch
Bottom Row: Blended out Swatch

Applying this foundation was very interesting to apply. It was okay at blending out, but not the best. Also, a long time after applying this foundation my skin looked dewy which I thought was very strange. Eventually, maybe 20 minutes later, it would mattify, it was just strange to put it on and immediately look dewy. I did apply a setting powder with this product to help mattify it faster and add a little more coverage. I don't think you have to apply a finishing powder but I generally prefer to no matter what foundation I'm using.

This product is for normal to oily skin so it probably wasn't the best product for me since I tend to have normal to dry skin and I definitely did notice it sticking to my dry patches. If you do have oily and super oily skin and don't need much coverage I would highly recommend checking out this foundation - I think it would be perfect for you! This foundation does say that it's buildable to get a little more coverage, but I find when I did that I looked very cakey and it didn't look very natural.

My problem areas show through!

Final Verdict:
All in all, this just wasn't a good foundation for me so I did return it back to Sephora. I wanted to love it so badly, but it just wasn't right for me. Having normal to dry skin just didn't mesh well with this foundation as it enhanced my dry patches and it also offered such little coverage that it wasn't worth the expensive price tag for me. I do think this is a great product for someone who doesn't need much coverage and doesn't really have any skin imperfections that they're trying to hide. If you don't like a matte foundation, NARS also has a Sheer Glow Foundation which I believe is a pretty similar formula except gives you a glowy, dewy look.

Have you tried any Nars Foundations? What do you think, are they worth the hype? Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!