Hello my lovelies,
After waxing lyrical about my love affair with NARS Sheer Glow, following my long-awaited purchase in December, I have fallen for yet another NARS base... The All Day Luminous Weightless foundation began to pop up on beauty blogs left, right and centre, and inevitably my desire to own it soon outweighed my conscience. Throw an ASOS discount code into the mix and well, you can surely understand how this beautiful bottle ended up in my possession!
Packaging
NARS All Day Luminous Weightless foundation is packaged in their usual sleek glass bottle, with a matte black lid (which attracts smudges IMMEDIATELY. I do apologise). It's a taller, more squared off design than Sheer Glow, and looks very sleek and sophisticated in my make up tray. The main selling point however is the pump - finally an improvement on Sheer Glow!
Shade & Finish
I opted for the same shade I use for Sheer Glow, which is Deauville (I'm a MAC NW15-NW20 for reference and my skin has the occasional olive undertone with some redness and blemishes!). Now this was my first observation - it comes out a lot more yellow than Sheer Glow on me, so necessitates more blending! It's not unwearable, but something to bear in mind if you're expecting to receive an identical shade.
The finish is not terribly matte, but leaves your skin looking nice and glowy. However, it will highlight any dry patches - as you can see, the areas on my skin where I have a few blemishes in the process of healing are quite visible as the foundation clings to them.
Now I need to be honest - I was really disappointed with this foundation at first. It's a risk you take with every purchase but when it's around £30, that's a pretty expensive mistake to make! I couldn't get it to work for me at all in the beginning - it applied weirdly over my usual primers, regardless of whether I used my fingers or a brush to apply. Despite having combination skin, it looked dry and parched whilst showing up every single pore! It also didn't seem to last very long on my skin and at this point I was tempted to sell it on and go back to using Sheer Glow. But I'm not a quitter, so I decided to experiment with different methods to see if I could get it to work for me.
First I started using a pump of All Day Luminous Weightless with a drop of Bobbi Brown Long Wear in an attempt to use it up and it began to look a little better on my skin, although still not the perfect finish I was hoping for. I also mixed up my primers a little bit, and tried applying more moisturiser, but it still didn't quite click.
Finally, I tried applying it alone over the new L'Oreal Infallible primer and immediately fell in love with it. It just seems to apply so much better over a primer with a bit more slip (I usually use matte primers) so if you're struggling to get it to work for you, try a silicone-based primer and see if it helps!
Longevity & Coverage
As with Sheer Glow, the All Day Luminous Weightless foundation lasts especially well when used over a primer and powdered down. I usually apply at 7am and it lasts through until my evening cleansing routine. In fact, recently I applied it at 7am and due to being out and about, didn't remove it until 10.30pm and it genuinely looked the same as when I first applied! Sometimes the redness around my nose will sneak through after a few hours, and I have noticed some transfer on my phone but not enough to completely obliterate the coverage on my face.
The coverage is where this foundation performs especially well - it's on a par with Sheer Glow. I usually only need concealer under eyes and on very stubborn blemishes or around my nose. On good skin days I can get away with just this on my blemishes, without adding extra concealer.
Despite the claims of needing a single pump to cover your face, I definitely need more than one pump to achieve my desired coverage - I usually use two. I apply using my Zoeva brush, I don't get on with finger application at all as it's a very runny foundation and can cause a bit of a mess! It does feel weightless on the skin, although when I touch my face later in the day I can definitely feel there is product on there!
For the sake of the review I have taken a quite frankly terrifying close up of my face prior to application, followed by a snap of me wearing All Day Luminous Weightless, no concealer, no powder (but lashings of eye make up as I frequently do my eyes before the rest of my face).
Would I repurchase?
I think Sheer Glow just edges it for me but this is a very good alternative. Despite our issues at the start, it has become a staple in my routine now I've found the right primer for it. I can't really put my finger on why I prefer Sheer Glow, as there isn't a lot of difference between the two other than the runnier texture of All Day Luminous Weightless. I suppose if you have oilier skin or dislike the feel of foundation on your face, then ADLW would be best! In all honesty I am more likely to purchase Sheer Glow again before this one, but I'm glad to have it in my collection and can see myself wearing it on a daily basis for quite some time. It's my daily foundation at the moment and meets all my expectations now that I've cracked the best way to apply it!
NARS All Day Luminous Weightless foundation retails at £32, although I used an ASOS discount code to get 10% off mine!
Love Dani
xoxo
