The Liquid Airbrush Foundation from Kevyn Aucoin sounds very promising. It is infused with soy to create an airbrush-like finish. Always searching for perfect skin, this sounded perfect and certainly worth a try. It provides medium coverage with a semi-satin finish and is made for normal to oily skin types. And being from Kevyn Aucoin’s line, I had high hopes (though I cannot say I have tried any other makeup products from the line). So does it live up to expectations?
The plastic packaging is quite nice. It feels substantial in your hand without being heavy. It looks plain, yet still sophisticated. The color transitions from a very deep burgundy or black to a burgundy and then back to the deeper shade and the writing is in a beautiful almost metallic gold. This does disguise the amount of product inside so it would be difficult to tell when the bottle is near empty, although many foundations are packaged this way. It has a pump dispenser that works beautifully and about one and a half pumps was plenty for covering my entire face. Dispensing a half pump was no problem either. The casing is shiny, but not slippery and it would be easy to clean. The cap fits securely without being difficult to remove and it does not seem likely to come off in a makeup bag, though I have not tested that out to be sure. The one deceptive thing I have noticed is that The Liquid Airbrush Foundation only contains about 20mL (0.68 fl oz) as opposed to many foundations in a similar price range that usually are around 30mL, or 1oz, in size. So nice packaging, but how does it perform?
The foundation looked quite beautiful and evened out my skin tone beautifully. The coverage was quite nice. It did not feel heavy and did not look cakey and did in fact have a semi-satin finish. I do not believe I have ever encountered another foundation with such a finish. It was closer to a matte, but was still dewy enough to look like natural, healthy skin. It applied wonderfully with just my fingers and did not emphasize my pores, though it did not disguise them either. As far as my pore obsession goes, I would say they looked pretty much the same with the Kevyn Aucoin foundation as they did without makeup which is actually better than most other foundations I have tried since most emphasize my pores at least a tiny bit. The texture was creamy without being oily and felt nice on the skin. Almost like a moisturizer actually. The wear was pretty good. It is definitely not water-resistant as I could see it coming off immediately when I splashed water on my face at the end of the day, but otherwise, it had pretty good staying power. I did not notice it changing much as the day went on. Not a great choice for a day at the beach though! The Liquid Airbrush Foundation really does perform quite beautifully, but….
Especially given everything I just said, I really wanted to like this. I really did. And I really would have if it were not for one pesky little thing – the smell. It smelled like an old lady. I am not quite sure how else to describe the scent. I could possibly live with that if it wore off quickly, but an hour or two later I could STILL smell a faint kind of musty old kind of floraly just old woman scent on my face. I am not a fan of scented foundations in general, but with foundation from Chanel, for example, the smell is not terrible. I would like the Chanel foundations a lot better without the scent, but it is a scent I can live with and it also does not hang around forever. Sadly, The Liquid Airbrush Foundation from Kevyn Aucoin was not in this category of scented foundations as it just plain stinks and the stink lasts and lasts and lasts.
After Applying Kevyn Aucoin's The Liquid Airbrush Foundation
No Makeup
If one can deal with the scent, this really is a beautiful foundation and I would say it is worth the money. However, I just could not get past the smell and had to return it. I was really disappointed because the way it made my skin look was quite nice and as good, if not better, than other foundations. That said, everyone has different tastes when it comes to scent, so maybe you would love the smell. If you can get a sample of this foundation or smell it before buying it, I would give it a try because it really is beautiful on the skin. Personally though, I just cannot stand the smell. Maybe the company will reformulate this foundation and eliminate or at least change the scent. One can hope, right? If anyone has any thoughts about how to combat the smell issue please leave your thoughts in the comments below because I would really love to use The Liquid Airbrush Foundation, I just cannot overcome the constant grandma smell (Don’t get me wrong I loved my grandmothers and had no problem with the way they smelled, but this smells like a stereo-typical, unpleasant grandma-type scent.)
Kevyn Aucoin’s The Liquid Airbrush Foundation retails for $45.00 and is available from: www.Nordstrom.com and select retail locations www.Barneys.com and retail locations www.Beauty.com
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Kevyn Aucoin Beauty in any way, nor have I been compensated for this review.