In the flurry of recent foundation releases, Fenty Beauty dropped their Pro Filt’r Hydrating Longwear Foundation in 50 shades. Targeted toward normal to dry skin types, this foundation claims to provide medium to full coverage with a natural finish. It comes in a 1.08 fl. oz. tube with a pump applicator and instructions to “massage well”. All righty then, let’s see what happens once we do that and get to wearing it.
Price: $35
Find it HERE
Tested September 2019
Liz:
I don’t like this foundation. I’m getting that out of the way right at the beginning so that I can explain what led me to this unfortunate conclusion. My skin is dry and I’m quite fair, so reading about this product made me think there was no way I wouldn’t love it. Hydrating? Check! In 50 shades from very fair to very deep? Check!
I actually struggled to find a good shade match in this range, which I know sounds CRAZY. My Sephora Color IQ suggested 110, for very fair skin with cool pink undertones. When I swatched this in store, however, it looked ghost-white on my face and neck, which is very rare for me. I tried 120, the next shade up for fair skin with neutral undertones, and the color matched my neck better but the undertone was a little too warm. I got samples of each shade and after much back and forth, settled on 120 as the lesser of two evils.
The absolute worst thing about this foundation is that is seemed to activate a vacuum in every pore on my cheeks, sucking all of the product into said pores and failing to cover the rest of my skin. I tried pore filling primers, as well as application with a sponge, a brush and my fingers and this still happened every time. Visible pores aren’t something I normally struggle with, and I have never worn another foundation that settled in my pores as instantly and horribly as this one.
Another reason this product did not work for me is that it applied so unevenly when I attempted to blend it out over the entire face. Trying to build up a second layer on my problem areas, it picked up the layer underneath and made everything blotchy. I had a lot of my normally coverable redness and dark spots showing through after using two small pumps of this product, which is just not the goal.
This is also one of the most makeup-y foundations I’ve ever tried. It sat on top of my skin and settled heavily around my eyebrows and in the creases on the sides of my nose (you can see this in some of the close up photos). It looked patchy after just a few hours, and completely disappeared from my nose and the apples of my cheeks as the day went on, so the “longwear” claim gets a failing grade from me. Also, for a hydrating foundation, my skin didn’t feel or look all that hydrated, and it wasn’t dewy or glowy AT ALL. So I guess this product does live up to its “natural finish” claim. It loses more points for me because of this, however, as I’m all about glowy, lit-from-within makeup and this just missed the mark.
Liz’s Verdict: Skip this and buy a Fenty highlighter instead!
Lea:
For me, products like this are why we started Best Coast Beauty- everyone raves about it because it’s new and Rihanna’s brand but in actuality it performs terribly. We researched this ahead of time, guru’s and Sephora reviews rave about it. The price point is reasonable, we own various other products from the line (contour stick-spot on!) but this is just a total miss.
Like Liz I had issues finding the right shade. According to Sephora’s shade finder 120 should be an “exact match” for me, spoiler alert- it’s not. Based on the sales associate’s help 150 should be a closer match, it’s not. There are FIFTY shades and I still couldn’t find one that was spot on. I settled for 120 which is a bit too light, I had hoped it would oxidize and end up darker (it didn’t).
Let’s address the various claims.
#1 hydrating: I tried this 3 ways: with my usual moisturizer under it, no moisturizer just primer and lastly with absolutely nothing as a base. In every scenario this stayed tacky and sat on top of my skin. It felt like a chalky mask and rubbed off on everything. At one point I went to look through the peephole at at the Amazon delivery guy and left a Lea-shaped smear all over my white front door. I tried setting this with powder, spraying it with setting spray, using less… nothing helped.
#2 “filt’r”: Described as medium to full coverage, I’d say that’s a stretch. Because it never sets you can’t build this up, especially not using your fingers to massage in the product as the box instructs. As you can see from the photo below it didn’t cover redness on my nose, sun spots and freckles on my cheeks, darkness around my eyes or the couple of broken capillaries. What it did do was slide and bunch around my nose and in my forehead lines, so I looked old and crusty- thanks Rihanna.
#3 longwear: After just a few hours, let alone the whole day this had completely rubbed off my nose and chin. The foundation actually made other products perform worse too. My usual trusty mascara had smeared due to contact with the tacky foundation and the blush and bronzer I had applied on top of it has also been rubbed away.
I don’t even want to keep this to mix with my Summer foundation for use in Winter it’s that bad, like chalk mixed with Vaseline that left me looking pallid. It even smells like gross baby powder. The only good thing about this is the packaging: the pump doesn’t over dispense, it keeps the product from drying out and the squeezable tube means you could likely get it all out- sadly I don’t want to get any more out, ever.
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