Fenty Beauty Foundation Review

I’m a big Rihanna fan, but when Fenty Beauty was first revealed there was nothing I wanted.  Trophy Wife, the beaming yellow gold highlight was beautiful in the pan, but looked like something for dark skin tones.  The Match Stix were a good idea and cream contouring is huge right now, but I feel like I can buy good ones at the drugstore.  Everything was a pass for me, including the foundation and primer.  I have so many foundations so I don’t usually jump on new releases, but when I was watching reviews my mind was changed.

I bought the Fenty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation on Monday because all the reviews were saying how nice it was for oily skin.  My skin is a greasy mess so I was definitely interested. I went into the Sephora inside the JcPenney store in an effort to avoid a crowd at the main store.  Everything was perfectly stocked and there was no one around so I was able to swatch a ton of the shades and walk around for a few minutes to see how they dried down on my arm.

The shade range is great. I ended up going with 290, which is described as being for medium to tan skin with neutral olive undertones.  When I first put this shade on it literally looked light green and I didn’t think it would be the right color.  It is very important to let the swatch dry ALL the way down with these because when it was set it blended perfectly into my arm.  Thankfully I had just done a few layers of Banana Boat Summer Color the night before so I was able to see my tan shade.  Naturally I’m more like shade 150 and my skin is really peachy.  I like to get colors that are non- peachy pink to counteract that, and the olive tones in 290 gave me exactly what I needed.

I’ve worn it twice now- once to work on a super hot day over Smashbox original primer, and once out to dinner over Becca Evermatte primer. The finish is exactly what I want- not cakey, matte but not too flat. One pump gives me light coverage but still covers my whole face, 2 pumps for medium, and 3 for full coverage perfection.  I’m so happy I picked it up and that they made it great for oily skin!  At $34 it isn’t too pricey either.  I loved it the most when I set it with Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless powder, but I still need to keep playing around with my other setting powders.

I can’t wait to wear this to a friend’s wedding I’m going to this month to see how it wears all night as I’m doing makeup on the bridesmaids, drinking, and dancing. I’ve noticed that it doesn’t set into my fine lines on my forehead or around my mouth thankfully. I get so self conscious about that and start thinking about getting fillers when foundation does that.

For help finding your shade, check out this great resource.

I’ll stop raving about the foundation now and go back to talking about how the other products felt.  The beautiful packaging is full sized, not dinky little products like I expected them to be, so I think the price points are good.  I wanted to love the Killawatt Freestyle Highlighters but some of them were almost transparent.  My favorite color going into the store was the highlight duo Mean Money/ Hu$tla Baby, but when I swatched Mean Money it barely showed up. I understand that one side is supposed to be subtle, but I couldn’t even see the swatch of the color. The “supercharged” sides of the highlighters were absolutely beautiful and I would have bought one without the subtle sides. I could foresee them coming out with those in singles in the future *fingers crossed*.  Trophy Wife is so beautiful and a unique color that I can’t think of a dupe for. The formula had this transparent feel- it was a bit glittery which I don’t mind, but it was like it didn’t have a base color, just the shimmer.  I’m not sure if that makes sense but it almost looks like the sun is shining on your face in that spot rather than actually putting on an illuminating powder. The more I’m thinking/ writing about it, the more I want it lol.   The closest I can get to comparing it to another highlight formula is MAC Soft and Gentle, but transparent.

I was excited to see the gloss because it looked like the perfect color to keep in my purse and easily throw on.  When I swatched it was very warm and rosey which makes sense since it is designed to be a universal color.  While I thought it was beautiful, I’m more of a lighter nude gloss person and feel like I can find a warm rosey shimmery gloss somewhere else for less. If they expand the shade range I may be more interested.

Overall I’m very impressed with this collection and happy it is easily accessible at Sephora. They didn’t sell out in minutes, it wasn’t sent in PR packages super early to influencers, and isn’t limited edition. Other brands should take note! I shouldn’t be too surprised… this is RIHANNA were talking about.

-Kim