The quest for the perfect foundation: Nars Sheer Glow

Nars Sheer Glow in Fiji £29.50

Right I must explain, yes I have oily skin, 'so why Sheer Glow and not Sheer Matte?' I'd read/watched on every review that Sheer Glow is the best one regardless of skin type. Sheer Matte seemed very thick and cakey and I just gravitated toward Sheer Glow, Miss Glamorazzi on youtube also raaaaaves about this and she has very oily skin so, for me, it was a definite goer.

Another reason I felt compelled to do this post is because I feel VERY strongly and have some good advice about getting matched when purchasing a new foundation, if you're new to this or not sure how to go about it, as almost every time I get matched it's always wrong, and this can be an expensive game.

When I first went to the Nars counter I was originally matched between Deauville and Fiji, with Fiji being recommended as a summer shade. So off I went with a sample of Deauville, and oh how wrong this was. It seemed fine in the store, of course it did there's no natural light! But when I got home it was waaaaay too light and very chalky. I then went back and asked for a sample in Fiji and this was near on perfect, not to mention the name is so much more exotic ha! I am intrigued to try Ceylan after me hollidies but Fiji is fine for now. And this isn't the first time this has happened either no, no. I have also been matched wrongly at Estee Lauder and Bobbi Brown. 

So the moral of this story? Ask for a colour match between two shades and get testers of both, then YOU decide which one YOU feel suits you best, if they've pointed you in the right direction, you can't go wrong. Just because they are professional artists it doesn't mean you should feel like everything they recommend is gospel, they are experts of course but makeup does always come down to personal preference at the end of the day, especially when it's your hard earned cash that's paying for it.

OK so rant over!

I just wanted to give a brief description of the Nars Foundation shades as I found it pretty confusing at first and if you are new to these, I think/hope you will too! So they fall into 4 categories Light, Medium, Medium-Dark and Dark. Within each category they are numbered 1-6 with exotic locations as names! And that's it, easy once you figure it out. So my shade Fiji is Light 5 with Deauville being Light 4 and Ceylan being Light 6. This is the case for both Sheer Glow and Sheer Matte.

Bottom to Top: Nars Sheer Glow in Deauville, MAC SFF in NC20, Nars Sheer Glow in Fiji, Estee Lauder Double Wear in 2W1 Sand

Instead of just swatching Fiji I thought it would be helpful to swatch it against a few others. As you can see Deauville at the bottom is very light in comparison to the rest, not good. The swatch next to that is my regular MAC SFF in NC20 with Nars Sheer Glow in Fiji and lastly Estee Lauder Double Wear in 2W1 Sand (a recent rediscovery within my quest you will hear about in my next foundation post). You can see Fiji is the lightest out of my shades with MAC being the darkest, and most pink, and Double Wear being the perfect marriage of the two. 

So in short what do I think. Sheer Glow is the lightest one in texture out of the three and I find I apply an extra layer because of this. It does apply really nicely though and gives a sightly dewy/satin finish. It's longer lasting than MAC and doesn't oxidise (yay!) but it doesn't last all day and I do need to powder it. I do really like the finish though and I can imagine in the summer with perfect skin it will look even better. As you can see from the swatch it's most yellow in tone and this true of Nars foundations as a whole, they are very yellow based, but this is perfect for me as I am a lot more yellow than I am pink!

So could this be the final farewell for me and MAC foundations? Look outfor my Estee Lauder post and all will become clear!

What are your favourite foundations? Have you tried Sheer Glow?

Until the next post,

Love, love, love,