Light Foundations: Ellis Faas vs Urban Decay vs Gio Armani
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free skin care · Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:34 am

As promised, here's a round-up of my foundation head-to-head trial. The contenders were Ellis Faas Skin Veil, Urban Decay Naked Skin Liquid Foundation and Giorgio Armani Maestro Foundation.

Please note that all of these contain ingredients which are supposed to be good for your skin, adding an extra element of interest.

Ellis Faas Skin Veil
Forget the beautiful but annoying bullet containers. They look ever so gorgeous but are a pain in the bum to use as the product takes forever to dispense via the twist and wait (and wait and wait) mechanism and the brush applicator is not brilliant. Instead, make sure you visit a counter or email the Ellis Faas website and obtain a sample in order to see whether it suits you - and then order the larger bottle of foundation. It is so much easier to use and also more economical.

I found this to be a light to possibly medium coverage foundation. It goes on beautifully using fingers. I didn't try applying it with a brush so can't comment on that.

Once on the skin, you'll need to conceal blemishes. (Although sometimes a little more of the foundation on top will be sufficient.) It is buildable in case you feel you need a little more coverage. However, this is meant to give a very natural, your-skin-but-better look, so you're never going to achieve full coverage, if that's what you're looking for.

I loved this and would be very happy to buy it. It looked great and very natural on my skin and lasted well through the day. Please note that it gives a slightly dewy finish. I have dry skin and dusted a teeny tiny amount of powder on top (using an almost empty brush) to make it look more matte. Some people, though, would be happy with that soft, dewy look.

Urban Decay
Shake the bottle well before using as this is quite a liquidy foundation.

I was matched by the SA with a darker shade than I'd normally use. This worried me initially - until I tried in on my skin, and it seemed to magically adapt to my complexion. The shade numbers ending in ".5" are more rosy/pink in tone, whereas the others are more beige.

You can apply this using fingers perfectly well, although I really feel that a stippling brush, such as UD's own recommended Good Karm Optical Blurring Brush, gives an even better finish.

This gave more of a medium coverage, I'd say, and doesn't require so much concealer for blemishes - although you may still need a little. Again, it looks very natural on the skin. I do use a tiny dusting of powder over it and it lasts pretty much all day on my dry skin.

Another product I really love, and the one I'm using at the moment. In fact, I'm onto my second container.

Giorgio Armani
I understand that this is a bit of a love it or hate it product. One thing that the fantastic GA MUA warned me is that it has a tendency to show up any dry, flakey patches. Luckily, despite my very dry skin, I manage to keep flakiness at bay by using an exfoliator regularly on a weekly basis. So this doesn't seem to be a problem for me. Just something you should be aware of if you are considering making a purchase.

Again, you need to shake the product well before use. It isn't water-based, unlike so many of the new, light-as-air foundations. The MUA explained to me that it contains volatile oils, which give it its extremely distinctive sensation of slippage over your skin. Then the volatility of the oils cause them to dissipate, leaving the pigment in place. Hence that fact that it's fine, and possibly even especially suitable, for oily skin.

It does feel rather strange when you apply it, although not unpleasant - just very different to any other foundation you've probably ever used.

Once again, the coverage is light - rather similar to that of the Ellis Faas, I think. It gives a very natural look which is a little less dewy than the Ellis Faas - so I can get away without any dusting of powder over the top. The look is still ever so slightly dewy, though, which adds to the naturalness of it.

Buildability is excellent. I'd say that you almost definitely will need concealer for any blemishes, but I did find that it toned down redness and evened out my complexion rather well.

The foundation lasted all day on my dry skin and, yet again, I loved it.

So - which is best?

I'm afraid that my very unhelpful answer is that I don't know! I loved them all and would be happy to buy any of them. Each had its strong points and it is impossible for me to decide between them.

Urban Decay gives the most coverage, but the others are buildable. All have "skin treatment" ingredients and pupport to be good for your skin. None of them made my skin break out.

The Giorgio Armani needed the least amount (if any) of powder but it still gave a nice, ever so slightly dewy finish. Urban Decay needed the least amount of concealer for blemishes.

All of them are a pleasure to use. I think it's all down to how much coverage you want, whether you're happy to use powder over the top and whether you want to cut down on having to use concealer. Another consideration is whether your skin is very dry and prone to flakiness.

I think that each of these 3 foundation is pretty damn fantastic. I'd love to know the opinions of anyone else who has used them.

Thu Dec 06, 2012 7:21 am

Fantastic review, majorb!

You know, the MUA matched me to a much darker shade in the Urban Decay foundation too. It seemed to look okay in the store but when I got home, I could see that it was way off--too dark and a bit orange to boot! Laughing

But now that you mention it adapting to your complexion, I wonder if I should try it again before returning it.

Thanks for the tip about emailing the Ellis Faas website for samples! I will give that a try.

free skin care · Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:49 am

havana8 wrote:

Fantastic review, majorb!

You know, the MUA matched me to a much darker shade in the Urban Decay foundation too. It seemed to look okay in the store but when I got home, I could see that it was way off--too dark and a bit orange to boot! Laughing

But now that you mention it adapting to your complexion, I wonder if I should try it again before returning it.

Thanks for the tip about emailing the Ellis Faas website for samples! I will give that a try.

Glad you liked it, havana. I absolutely love these new very light, natural-looking foundation so it's been a real pleasure to test them. If I get hold of any more, I'll update this review with my thoughts. Funnily enough, though, I've been quite impressed by a heavier Chanel foundation (I think it had "lift" in the name) and may buy it before long and give it a proper trial run. It seemed nice for winter wear.

As for your UD shade, those store lights do not make things easy with matching, do they! It may well be that you need to go for something lighter in tone but try applying your current shade and waiting for 30 minutes or so, then checking to see whether the colour is right for you under both natural daylight and artificial light. I think it takes at least a few minutes or so for the colour to settle.

With the Ellis Faas site, it took a while for my samples to arrive. In fact, I'd practically given up on them when they finally made their way through my letterbox. They fit with one of my favourite avalange descriptions as being "cosmetically elegant", I'd say. Beautifully textured. Ellis Faas seems to achieved a very high standard of quality.

Most of all, please let me know how you get on, and whether you find any other foundation you prefer. I think I'm turning into a bit of a foundation junkie. Embarassed

free skin care · Sat Dec 08, 2012 5:56 am

Just thought I'd add that I also tried the Giorgio Armani Maestro Eraser Concealer and the Ellis Faas Concealer.

My issues are hereditary dark circles which never fade, no matter what I try, plus very dry skin under my eyes and fine lines. A tricky combination.

Most concealers tend to dry out the skin there and settle in fine lines. I'm happy to report that both the Armani and Ellis Faas concealers performed brilliantly in this respect. Unfortunately, the coverage is not enough to fully cover my dark circles. The fact that both products are buildable does help a lot, though. A couple of layers makes my dark circles barely noticeable, but doesn't settle in fine lines and lasts the whole day without any dryness whatsoever.

These are the only 2 concealers I've found which seem to be suitable for my dry skin and fine lines and I'm very happy to use them.

I ended up choosing the Armani concealer over the Ellis Faas one simply because the latter has a beautiful, but completely impractical container. The Armani squeezy tube is so much easier to use and smaller to fit into my makeup bag for travelling.

I found that the shade numbers for both Ellis Faas foundation and concealer were the same for me, but the Giorgio Armani ones were different. Worth bearing in mind if any of you are interesting in buying some.

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