January 23, 2010

I tried so hard to love you Revlon PhotoReady, I really did...

Revlon PhotoReady Makeup - 30ml - $19.99  You may recall in my post here where I first spotted PhotoReady a couple of weeks ago that I was really looking forward to giving it a try - I didn't realize at the time that it had so much buzz which made me even more excited to get my hands on one.  Since the time I saw it, bought it and have been testing it, the reviews have been coming out and they are mostly not good.  Rather then disheartening me, this made me even more determined to find a way to make this sucker work!
I was so hopeful, first off there were two fairly light colours - 001 Ivory and 002 Vanilla.  The ivory seemed a little more pinkish and the vanilla a little more yellowish.  I have a pink tone to my skin and usually end up with something yellow based to hide the pink, but in this case, the pink was so subtle and the colour seemed slightly lighter so I went with the ivory.  It didn't help that there were no testers so really I was just guessing.  Luckily the colour turned out to be a good match - so that was the first positive.

Other good things about this foundation.  It's oil free, fragrance free, has an SPF of 20 and is in a pump bottle.  We were off to a great start!

I decided to try it three different ways - with no primer, with Elizabeth Grant primer and with Make Up For Ever HD primer each time applying it with my Lancome foundation brush.  Through trial and error I found that half a pump was all I need for a fairly sheer coverage which I prefer.  A full pump gave me a more medium coverage.

No primer - the results were as expected and as they are for me with every foundation be it $20 or $80 - my face proceeded to eat the foundation and I was foundation-less by noon.  No surprise there although I do wonder where the foundation goes - do I have giant blob of foundation is my head somewhere?  Is it making me smarter?  Someday science will answer these questions.

Elizabeth Grant primer (you can find my review here) - This actually gave me the best results for application and I think because it's not an oil-free primer it helped the foundation just glide on.  The staying power was also excellent, it was still on my face at the end of the work day.  I have read other people say that they noticed it had settled into their lines and pores or didn't stay put but I didn't have any of these issues.

MUFE HD primer (you can find my review here) - This is an oil-free primer which is probably why I didn't find the application as glidey as I did with the Elizabeth Grant.  Again it had excellent staying power but I did find that it settled a bit into the lines beside my mouth.  I wonder if the oil in the other primer acts as more of a barrier to prevent settling.

None of this sounds terrible right, no reason so far not to be tickled pink with this foundation?!  So here's my issue with PhotoReady - there is something about it that really emphasized my eye sockets, I know this sounds strange but I don't know how else to describe it.  In the morning when I put it on, I could really notice the hollows underneath my eyes.  I know they are always there but for some reason this foundation made them look so obvious!  For this somewhat strange reason I cannot give Revlon PhotoReady makeup the love that it is probably longing for but I can't totally rule it out for somebody else who doesn't have eye socket issues.  I would probably recommend that you try and test it out at the store first before you commit to a whole bottle.  For the time being if I get the urge to buy Revlon foundation again, I will stick with ColourStay.

- Lisamarie



4 comments:

  1. I saw this at the store the other day and have been wanting to try it because of all the hype around it, but there was only one tester, not in my shade. I don't really like the idea of trying to find my match based on just looking at a bottle, so I passed on getting it that day. Maybe that's a good thing because in reading other reviews, it doesn't seem so great for dry skin, which I have in the winter. Plus I hear that it's quite shimmery, which I did notice when I tested it on my hand.

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  2. Aaw, yeah, PR seems to be hit-and-miss with most ladies (but a super HG! hit for those who do like it). I laughed out loud when I read the part about having a giant blob of foundation in your head making you smarter XD

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  3. I actually passed this up on my little makeup journey today, thanks to your post :)

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  4. So Very Fab - I bet this is what caused the eye socket problem - the shimmer! I honestly didn't notice the shimmer, but it is not something I would normally have in a foundation and shimmer really does draw attention to anything you put it on so it makes total sense that it would accentuate my eye sockets! Thanks for clearing up that mystery!

    Best, Lisamarie

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