I have always been on a quest for the perfect foundation. I prefer drugstore brands because honestly normal people can't afford to spend $39 or more (I know I can't!). So this past weekend I hit up CVS and grabbed these 5 foundations.

Side note, can we discuss for a moment how expensive CVS is these days? I typically never go in there because it's like letting lose a kid in a candy store because drugstore = affordable. However, I was shocked when I saw some of the prices. Also, my local one sucks because they never have anything I see in other blog posts. [insert depressed face here] Ehem, now back to what I was saying.

I have decided to dedicate a blog post to each of these foundations after a full day of wear. Since I plan on returning any that totally suck, I did not want to do a week long test of each. So this is almost like a "first impressions" however for me personally I can tell whether or not a product will work for me after 1 day of use.



Round 1: Covergirl Outlast Stay Luminous
The bottle says "New" but I am so behind in the makeup world I have no idea if this is true or not. The color I picked up was 825 - buff beige. It's kind of funny that no matter what time of the year (whether I'm tan or pasty) I always have a foundation that is named something similar whether buff beige or warm beige. Odd. Hmm, moving on.

Unfortunately it does not say whether it's for oily, combo, normal, or dry skin. I'm totally digging that a lot of drugstore foundations say that now a days. My first impression was hallelujah it has a pump! I haven't purchased new foundation in a hot minute so I was really impressed how more brands are putting pumps on their products.

Application: I've tried many liquid foundations in my day and they all seem to basically apply the same. I only did 1 full pump on my hand and at first it seemed almost mousse like. I was actually kind of excited to see how many pumps it would take for my face. Currently (crosses fingers/knock on wood) my face is blemish free so I wasn't concerned with having 100% full coverage. So 1 pump covered about half of my face. Not too shabby that 2 pumps does everything. The coverage was pretty good. I would say medium. I let it dry then applied a second layer where I felt I would need more coverage and it worked like a charm. So totally build-able! The only downside was that it made my pores stand out like BAM! They are the bane of my makeup wearing existence. Heavy sigh. I typically have clear skin, no hyper-pigmentation or acne scars BUT I do have large pores around my nose going towards my cheeks. Very depressing. So the last thing I want is to make them more visible which sure enough this foundation did. It was like it really sunk into them. I used the same flat top brush I use with all my foundations.


Daily Wear: Now, my current face is normal to oily. While I'm sitting in my office at work my face is totally normal - no dry patches but also no oil buildup. However, whenever I go outside in the sun my face gets oily quickly. I would not recommend this foundation to anyone with oily skin. It felt like the second my face wanted to be oily, it went into overdrive. Although it never claimed to prevent oil and it does have the word "luminous" in it (hint anything related to illuminating your face is not an oily girls friend). I feel in the colder months when my face is simply normal-to-dry this might have worked better. It did last a hot minute on my skin. About 5-6 hours after initially putting it on, it still looked pretty darn good.

I'm not sure if it was the foundation, the oil on my face, or the combination of the 2 but it ate my blush. After about 1 hour my blush was nowhere to be seen. And oddly my bronzer/contour looked darker. Hmm, scratches head. Not sure if it was the foundation or not but I noticed after my face got a bit oily that my contouring looked like I never blended it in. Maybe the foundation started to fade, but my bronzer was like "Nuh uh! I'm here to stay!" Shrugs.

My overall thoughts? I'm returning it. My only reason is that it makes my pores look humongous! I can't stand that at all. The coverage was great. The lasting ability was pretty good. Once it got a bit oily it went into full on oil slick. If you do not tend to get oily and aren't worried about pores, then I'd give it a try. I have 4 other foundations so my quest for my new everyday foundation continues.