Tuesday, September 6, 2016

bareMinerals barePRO foundation | First Impression

I'm baaaaaack! I hate myself for letting nearly nine months go by without writing anything for you guys. I've gone through a lot of changes during those months and lost my passion for makeup along the way. BUT I'm finally back in a great place and have fallen in love with makeup and beauty all over again.


I figured what better way to get back to it than with a first impression/mini review of the hottest foundation launch of the summer - barePro! I've never been a huge bareMinerals user, but I've worked with their products a lot since it's a line I offer my clients. They finally discontinued the Ready Foundation (hallelujah! - I can't begin to describe my distain for that cakey mess of a formula) and replaced it with barePro.



barePRO Performance Wear Powder Foundation

The new foundation is supposed to give you the ultimate coverage with a 12-hour wear while still letting your skin breathe. They released 30 new shades, which is 10 more than the original line offers. One thing I noticed off that bat is that matching is a bit trickier than I thought it'd be; meaning, I'm a Fairly Light in the original line, which is 3rd lightest. In the new line, though, I'm the shade Warm Natural - the 7th lightest. That tells me they extended the line to match people with lighter skin tones, but I would have loved to see more shades in the deeper colors.


Check out more details on Ulta's website.

One of the biggest shockers is that the first ingredient listed in the new formula is talc, which has always been a selling point of bare's other foundations - that they were talc-free. (I can only imagine is thanks to Sheseido, the parent company that bought out Bare Escentuals in 2012.) Talc doesn't bother me and won't stop me from using the product, but many people are sensitive to the filler and can often experience clogged pores. I also think it's strange the new formula is advertised to be "formulated with 90% vitamins and minerals." That begs the question: What's the other 10%?


The Core Coverage Brush is designed with synthetic hairs at the core to pack on the coverage and natural hairs surrounding it to blend the foundation seamlessly.



My Thoughts

While I do think the coverage is beautiful, I'd say it's more medium than full. In order to build it to a full coverage, I'm thinking I'll need to layer it over a lightweight liquid, like bare's Complexion Rescue or another BB cream. The finish is very natural and not overly powdery. I did pair it with bare's Mattifying Prep Gel to keep it from settling in any fine lines. I've had the foundation on for about 6 hours - so far, so good! And I'm not even oily. Bonus points.

Jury's still out on the Core Coverage Brush. I'll need to use it a few more times before I come to a firm opinion, but I wasn't super impressed with it at first. I think I actually prefer their Precision Face Brush, because it's got a larger radius and can apply more at a time. I'm also wondering if I can get a little more coverage with that brush.

I did notice while taking pictures for this post it that it does flash back (white cast), which I can only assume is the titanium dioxide. It's not horrible, but it was definitely noticeable. Keep that in mind if you're wanting to wear this to any special occasions where there will be flash photography.

So far, I'm really loving this foundation (it's 100 times better than their Ready foundation!) and the natural finish that it gives. I will keep you guys updated the more I use it if I change my mind, but my first impression is that I'm thoroughly... well, impressed!


Check out my instagram @makeupbyaundi to see the full list of products used for this look.


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FTC: Not sponsored, y'all.