The beauty world is overflowing with products that come and go, but few pass the never-leaving-my-makeup-bag test like Beautyblender’s bright pink sponge. Even through 2016’s craze for slapping on makeup with bra pads, countless copies, and that gray mold that shows up when I forget to wash it for, like, a year, I always come back to the iconic little egg. And now, after all these years of Beautyblender’s sponge going wherever my foundation travels, the brand is releasing its first dip into color cosmetics with a base product of its own.
Dubbed the Beautyblender Bounce Liquid Whip Long-Wear Foundation, the brand says it features a light texture and a velveteen matte, multidimensional finish, which means that it’s meant to look like gorgeous skin—smooth and even from a straight-on angle, but with a slight sheen when you turn your face from side to side. Like you just put on moisturizer.
Sure, that’s the general foundation ideal, but Beautyblender’s founder, Rea Ann Silva, went in with another specific mission: Nail every undertone in the medium-to-dark skin tone families, which she says are constantly unsung. A year out from Fenty’s 40-shade foundation launch, brands have started filling out the missing links. But two and a half years ago, when Silva started brainstorming the formula, that wasn’t the case. Even now she says that the undertone selection for women in the “medium plus” to dark shade range needs work, so that’s where the brand concentrated its efforts with the span of 32 foundation hues.
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To that point, the Bounce ($40) comes in an almost overwhelming array of undertones. When Glamour‘s staff gathered around to find their shade, it felt like the beauty version of a Kinder surprise to see which undertone the swatch would reveal. (A heads-up: You really do have to swatch them to find your match, since from the outside, the bottles don’t give a ton of clues.) After finding their fit and test-driving the Bounce for a few days, staffers gave their feedback.
The consensus? The vegan foundation creates its own category. By and large, base makeup falls between two goalposts: sheer, light, and dewy (the tinted moisturizer side of things), or heavy, full-coverage, and matte (welcome to Instagram). Pulling off the “just right” sweet spot—one that feels light but gives full coverage with a slightly luminous finish—is a tall order, since those adjectives live at either end of this metaphorical foundation football field. But the Bounce does: “I did find a shade that worked for my cool, fair-medium, sallow skin, and it was pleasantly sheer enough not to scream, ‘Hey world, I’m wearing makeup,'” commented Glamour senior political reporter Celeste Katz. “Once my sister confirmed that it looked good, I was sold.”
Contributing editor Elizabeth Kiefer also had luck with her difficult-to-match, neutral olive skin. “Shade 16 was a perfect match for my summer skin, not too yellow or blue underneath and the right balance for my olive tone. In terms of comfort, it went on pretty easily—I applied with my fingers, not a sponge—but I needed to add a little moisturizer in order to get it to blend evenly, which meant the coverage was a tad more transparent than it might have been otherwise.” Other editors agreed, mission soundly accomplished on the undertone front. Credits editor Christina Draper said that while her match, shade 29, looked one-note in the bottle, it paired well with her medium brown skin and red undertones, which are often left off the deep-end spectrum.
If you’ve always struggled to find your 100 percent right shade, navigate directly to Beautyblender’s Sephora station. Just bear in mind three things: If you have dry skin, use a dollop of moisturizer beforehand, since the foundation covers best when your skin is a little wet. Moisture and Beautyblender products go hand-in-hand, and to that point, Silva says that the biggest mistake she sees people making is using their Beautyblenders dry. “Your mind will be blown when you finally use it wet. You use less product, your makeup will blend effortlessly, and your finish will be flawless,” she says.
And lastly, Silva says the real key is pumping the foundation fluid somewhere before putting it on, regardless of whether you’re using a sponge, brush, or finger to apply. That allows you control the amount you put on, and tailor coverage to exactly where you need it. Voilà, the foundation’s packaging comes with a built-in, Beautyblender-shaped reservoir for the mixing. If you enjoy things fitting perfectly together, it’s good for that too.
Beautyblender Bounce Liquid Whip Long-Wear Foundation, $40, available at sephora.com on July 24
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