Korres Mineral Foundation Review

 Anyone that knows me, knows that I pimp Korres foundations and skincare products with a vengeance. One of the reasons is because as a brown girl with golden rather than yellow undertones and crazy sensitive skin, it’s harder than you would think to find foundations that match well. Most companies make foundations and powders with red/orange/pink undertones and very few have a wide range of yellow undertone foundations with the exception of MAC, but I’ve gone from an NC42 to NW45 and various combinations in one season, and I can feel it on my face which I dislike intensely. I also hate full coverage, and prefer a dewy finish, so when I walked into Sephora looking for something new that fulfilled all my needs and the makeup artist led me to the Korres counter, I walked out a believer. And a pimp. Because Korres is a Greek brand, the undertones are ONLY gold and yellow, and they tend to be a bit on the darker shade side because well, Greeks tend to be more olive toned, however the foundations are pretty workable because of the very sheer coverage and they blend in extremely well (pictures below after the jump). So if you’re not a gold or yellow undertone, with this brand you’re probably out of luck.

 

I’ve always wanted to own (and be able to wear) a mineral foundation, but have never been able to. My sister who has skin equally as sensitive as my own, uses and introduced me to Bare Minerals, that was a disaster, my skin itched so badly I wanted to rip it off and throw it away. I found out that the ingredient in most mineral foundations that causes the itching is Bismuth Oxychloride, so I started the search for minerals sans the accursed ingredient. I found Everyday Minerals from people raving about it online and ran into the same, although milder, itching problem. I thought, ok, that’s it, no minerals for me. And then Sephora sent me the fall lookbook, and I swear I heard the heavenly host singing and bright lights washed over me, because there it was, Wild Rose Mineral foundation from Korres, I use the entire Wild Rose Foundation line from the pressed powder to the liquid. Needless to say, I dropped the lookbook, grabbed my keys and was off to my closest Sephora, which happens to be across the street, inside of JCPenny. It’s not 34^th Street, but it’ll do in a pinch and they always stock a complete line of Korres products.


For $28, I picked up the Mineral Foundation in the darkest shade, Medium Tan (WRMF4). 


I was a little leery because they only had four shades, but decided what the heck, I can return it if it doesn’t fit.  I also noticed that they had an Illuminating powder and a setting powder, AND a new primer, but since I didn’t want to be greedy I opted for samples of the Illuminating powder and the new face primer since I’m always on a hunt to keep my oiliness at bay, and to date nothing has worked (including the Elf Mineral Primer, I’ll do a review on that later).

The jar is on the small side,which made my mother balk at the price, as she was getting me something because I agreed to be her chauffer for the day.

The container has product all the way up to the top. It has the standard sifter, and I found the holes to be a little bit bigger than usual so I had to be extra careful when shaking it out. One thing that I noticed when I was that unlike most minerals that I had used and seen before, it wasn’t a uniformly finely milled powder, there were some little balls of product that came up through the sifter (pictures after the jump), I wondered if this was because Korres is a natural brand that whatever is used in other minerals to keep the powder loose wasn’t included in this, in any case, it didn’t affect my use of the product and after swirling my flattop brush around the container, it looked on the brush the same as any other powder. I removed the sifter and felt the powder and regardless of the lumpy looking texture, it felt as smooth as silk and the little clumps were not visible under the sifter, which leads me to believe that the sifter is what causes it to lump up.

Here you can see the way the foundation is in little lumps. But like I said it blends in tremendously well.

When applied, the powder goes on very lightly and is very building friendly, after some trial and error I wound up using my Elf Studio All Over Complexion brush, as I found that it distributed the foundation very evenly, when I tried the flat powder brush, it picked up too much product and I wound up with too much in places and had to spend extra time buffing it out. The finish is a dewy one, not at all matte which is what I was looking for, but then my application was pretty minimal, on the cover is says medium to full coverage so I'm sure it can be built to a matte finish. I had a chance to test it out on my first day of class, my day started at 5:30am and ended at 11:15pm, and in that time I only had to do one touch up at around 3pm, and I suspect that I wouldn't have had to done that if I hadn't been running between the administrative buildings and class and had started sweating, the most I got was a bit of shine on my nose, but that happens with the best of foundations and primers that I've used, so that's par for the course, the important thing is that I had no shine on my cheeks which with lesser foundations is always an issue. Best of all, I can't feel it on my face at all, and because the Wild Rose line is brightening it actually helps to improve the look of your skin. All in all I give this foundation a 4.5/5, half a point off because of the way that the sifter shakes the powder out. Blending pictures below.




Unblended foundation

Blended Foundation

Now just a little about the Illuminating powder and the face primer. The face primer I tried and would not use again because it goes on like a moisturiser and stays that way, what I mean is, it doesn't mattify the face and prepare it for smooth application, if anything it seems to increase oil production under the foundation. If you have oily or combination skin, I wouldn't recommend it. If you have dry skin, you may have a different outcome. The illuminating powder is a translucent powder with a bit of shimmer, it's pretty looking and all and I liked it, but I can't see where I would have much use for it, but it can be used over your foundation to give it a slight shimmer or a dewy look if you use a matte foundation, with the dewy finish that I usually go for, this doesn't really do much for me. 

Songs used during this post; Elie Goulding;-Lights, Guns & Horses, Human, Starry Eyed. Breathe Carolina; They Say You Won't Come Back, Edge Of Heaven, Blackout, Get Off Easy. Lykke Ll; Youth Knows No Pain, Love out of Lust, Get Some, Breaking Up, I'm Good I'm Gone.