Almay Smart Shade Mousse Makeup Review & Swatches
Almay Smart Shade Mousse Foundation ($9.99) recently launched for Spring 2013 at drugstores in four color selections (I found mine at Harmons).
This is color adapting foundation product that supposedly “changes” once applied to your perfect shade of color thus the lack of colors. Light, Light/Medium, Medium, and Dark are the soup du jour for this foundation.
Take a look!
Funny story, this comes with one of those protective seals that you can keep to cover the foundation or toss out. When I was taking photos of it I placed the seal on my desk and had plans to reseal the foundation after.
Well it disappeared.
I was on freak out mode looking for it since it disappeared. Not a big deal right? The problem? It had a huge heap of foundation on the seal! I was so worried it would get on the my cream carpets or worst my clothes. I HAD no idea where it went. I finally found it earlier today stuck to a bottle of perfume. I don’t even know how it got there! To make matters worst a newly dry cleaned shirt I put on this morning has a HUGE smear of the foundation on it. I dread finding out if I got it on anything else.
Beauty blog problems. They be big.
Anyway…on with the review!
They call this a mousse but the texture is more of a thicker cream. It has a bit of a gelatin-like feel to it. It kinda bounces when you touch it but isn’t the whipped up texture of a traditional mousse foundation.
The foundation starts out life as a pale gray-ish shade. There are tiny little pigment capsules embedded in it which burst as you apply and begin to morph into “your perfect” shade. Honestly, you can rub it on your arm, your face, a piece of paper, or even a napkin and the shade pretty much comes across exactly the same. I tried it on myself, my sister, and even my best friend (we all have different skin tones) and the shade kinda sorta has the same exact color finish. I got the Light/Medium shade and it goes a bit orange beige on me. Thankfully not so much so that I’m running around looking like Snookie! The color is too sheer to really pick up on the orange. The orange isn’t noticeable until I head into an hour or two of wear, that’s when it begins to darken and go more orange. Otherwise, the color fits not too badly to my skin tone.
On the upside it does feel very nice. It has a little bit of a silicone feel and blends out to a creamy, smooth, almost matte satin finish. It’s lightweight and wears comfortably. It doesn’t conceal major problems so if you have acne scarring, darkness, or just depend on your foundation to give you completely flawlessness I don’t think this will cut it. It does create a nice working canvas for makeup. The color is wrong for me on some levels but in a certain light it almost looked flattering. The shade does have oxidation issues and begins to deepen and go more orange within a two hour period and will fade completely by hour four. I don’t love how dark it begins to get within an hour or two of application.
Overall, the verdict is still out for me. If it fits your tone you might be lucky enough to say, “Hey, I like it!” but that will probably be rare. They got a nicely texture foundation here but the entire color match technology ruins things. If they released it in say 15 or even 20 different shades, same formula, I might be inclined to get the right match and proceed to rave it because I honestly have no problems with the application and wear. The real issue is all of the “Smart Shade” technology that makes the entire product wishy washy for me.
If you find it on sale it might be worth a haul. If you’re lucky enough to call one of the four shades a perfect match, again, it might be worth a haul.
But I think many will be disappointed. You’ll like the texture and formula but probably hate the color.
Available now at drugstores.
Tried it?
Do share!