It’s taken me over a month to test out this foundation but with good reason. I have heard such mixed reviews about The Ordinary foundations, so I wanted to make sure I had all my thoughts straight before I shared it with you. For those of you who aren’t familiar with The Ordinary, they are an AMAZING brand by Deciem with skincare products that are all pretty much under $10. You can get Vitamin C serums and Retinol Serums for like $9. That kind of pricing doesn’t exist anywhere. It’s truly revolutionary. They pride themselves on bringing effective, more familiar technologies at honourable prices.
They recently started adding makeup to their lineup to compliment their skincare and I couldn’t be more excited. Actually, that’s a lie. You know what I was more excited about? When I was in Vancouver last month, I was walking downtown and across the street, I saw a Deciem store. I didn’t even know there was on in Vancouver so I screamed when I saw it. That’s not an exaggeration. I actually screamed. My friends will verify. I had the best time in the store looking at all the different products and chatting with the saleslady. She did an amazing job explaining them all to me. I was in skincare heaven. Now, I definitely would have bought every single product there but I was travelling with just a carryon so I could bring a limited amount of liquids back to Edmonton so I had to be very choosy with what I was going to pick up. But I’m planning on making an online order very, very soon (and they’re sold at The Bay in-store as well).
So The Ordinary Foundation comes in two different formulas: The Serum Foundation and The Coverage Foundation. The Coverage foundation is more matte and full coverage, while the Serum foundation has more of a dewy, glowy finish with medium coverage. Both foundations feature pigments that are suspended in their proprietary spreadability system that allows pigments to look natural on the skin, resist collecting within fine lines and stay on for longer!
Because I have drier skin, I opted for the Serum foundation instead of the Coverage foundation and I’m not going to lie, when I first tried it out, I was disappointed. But I stuck with it and kept trying it out and now it’s one of my favorite foundations. The biggest pro is probably that it’s only $6.90 (CAD). For a foundation of high quality that is vegan, cruelty-free, and oil-free, seven bucks is an absolute steal. There isn’t even drugstore foundations that are under ten dollars anymore.
The second pro and another vastly important one in my eyes is the shade selection. There are over 20 shades and listen to this: the lightest shade is TOO light for me. That has never happened in my life. I am so pale and every foundation is usually too dark for me… until now. I got the shade 1.0NS and it is so light, it’s almost white. It has become the perfect foundation to mix with other foundations that are darker than me so I get my perfect shade! But the foundation is also beautiful on it’s own. It’s advertised as having a moderate coverage but I would say it’s more of a light coverage than medium. It feels so lightweight on the skin. You can’t even tell you’re wearing makeup. As you blend it in, it quickly absorbs in and creates a gorgeous, skin-like finish. It’s amazing for those days when you want to even out your skin tone but you don’t want it to look like you’re wearing makeup.
Another super cool feature of this foundation also has to do with it’s shade. Mine is 1.0 NS, with the N meaning neutral and the S meaning silver highlights. They have a normal 1.0N but mine has added silver shimmery pigment that gives my foundation an extra glow to it! It’s gorgeous. Also I tend to be extremely pink and cool toned so the silver highlights really helps the foundation to match my skin perfectly. I love it.
So what are the disadvantages of this foundation? Well with a $7 foundation, it ain’t going to be perfect. Actually, no foundation is perfect, regardless of the price. The only problem I had with this foundation is it can be a bit tricky to blend in because it’s so liquid-y. I had no success using my fingers or a beauty blender to apply it. However, when I used a dense flat brush (like this one), I found it blended in effortlessly and looked so natural on the skin! So make sure you try a brush like that when applying it so you have no trouble applying it!
But other than that one little con, this is an absolute amazing foundation and it’s given me a great outlook on Deciem and The Ordinary, making me want to try every other product they have to offer! If you’ve tried any of their products, be sure to let me know down below in the comments! I’m dying to hear your thoughts!