Despite the fact that I'm totally in love with Cover Girl's AquaSmooth foundation, I still experiment with other foundations. Recently, my mother bought a few products at the Elizabeth Arden counter and got a very generous sample of Flawless Finish Bare Perfection Makeup, which she gave to me. As always, I was eager to try yet another foundation!


Details:

Flawless Finish Bare Perfection Makeup is a liquid foundation. My sample came in a small squeeze tube, but the full-size version of Flawless Finish comes in a heavier, glass bottle with a pump top dispenser. You will receive 1 fl. oz. in each bottle of foundation for $25.00.

Flawless Finish Bare Perfection Makeup comes in the following shades:

*Beige
*Bisque
*Bronze
*Buff
*Cameo
*Cream
*Fawn
*Golden Beige
*Honey
*Ivory
*Mahogany
*Mocha
*Shell
*Sunbeige
*Vanilla


Ingredients (taken from www.beauty.com, where this item is available for purchase):

Active Ingredients: Octyl Methoxycinnamate 4% w/w

Inactive Ingredients: Water, Isostearyl Palmitate, Butyl Glycol, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Dimethicone, Oleic Acid, S12-20 Acid PEG-8 Ester, Glycerin, Polysorbate 40, Triethanolamine, Dimethicone Copalmer, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Phenyl Trimethicone, Sodium Hyaluronate, Retinyl Linoleate, Tocopherol, Glyceryl, Stearate SE, Sucrose Laurate, Trehalose, Lecithin, Phospholipids, Tridecyl Salicylate, Behenyl Alcohol, Decyl Glucoside, PEG-40 Stearate, Sorbitan Palmitate, Sorbitan Stearate, Carbomer, Xanthan Gum, Disodium EDTA, Koalin, Silica, Cyclomethicone, Dimethiconol, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Phienoxyiethanol, Propylparaben, Iron Oxides, Titanium Dioxide.


From Elizabeth Arden's Website:

This multi-benefit liquid foundation creates natural looking, sheer to medium coverage without a makeup look. Virtually weightless, it gives skin a firmer, smoother look and feel. Light-reflecting particles soften fine lines. A gentle SPF 8 and vitamin E help protect from sun and environmental damage.


My Experience:

As I stated earlier, my sample was a very generous one. I got 8 days of use from this one sample. The shade was Buff, which is a shade slightly darker than the normal ivory shades that I wear. I actually liked having a little more color on my face!

The consistency of Flawless Finish Bare Perfection is pretty runny. It is definitely the consistency of your average liquid foundation. In this age of gel-based, cream-to-powder and stick makeups, I felt that this foundation was maybe too runny.

Applying the foundation was very easy - the foundation glides on and blends nicely. The color stayed true all day. I was afraid of the color changing, but it did not.

I use loose powder over my makeup, and there was no problem with the foundation reacting to the powder at all.

I have one oily area on my face - my nose. I usually have oil breakthrough after about 2 hours of having foundation on my face. Flawless Finish did nothing to control or prevent oil breakthrough. This is OK, because this product does not claim to control or prevent oil.

This is a very sheer makeup. You should not expect it to cover blemishes or imperfections well - it is simply too sheer to handle these types of jobs. To get some coverage over these areas, you will need to apply this foundation with a heavy hand.

The Elizabeth Arden website states that Flawless Finish will give skin a firmer, smoother look and that it has light-reflecting particles that soften fine lines. I did not notice that my skin had a firmer or smoother look. I don't have any lines, so I can't speak for the line-softening properties. Because I do have a few imperfections, I can say that the light-reflecting particles did nothing to make these less noticeable.


Problems I Have With This Makeup:

The first is the fact that Flawless Finish does not wear well. I found that it wore from my mouth area a lot more quickly than other brands do (even drugstore brands). It just does not have much staying power.

The second is that when I did have to touch up, the foundation caked with the already-there foundation and powder. I never have this problem with ANY other brands! Almost every day, I had to wipe off the excess and start over.

As stated earlier in this review, the coverage is really sheer. With a name like "Flawless Finish", I would expect a more flawless finish. There really was nothing flawless about this foundation other than the fact that it went on smoothly and blended nicely.


Who Can Wear This Makeup?

I think that just about any skin type may be able to use this makeup, depending on the severity of your skin type. If you have very oily skin, you may not get much coverage at all once the oil from your skin mixes with the very sheer coverage of this foundation.

If you have dry skin, Flawless Finish may not be a good choice for you. I did not notice any moisturizing properties in this foundation.


All In All:

All in all, this makeup is just an average, sheer coverage liquid makeup that does not do much at all for the skin. It just does not do much to warrant a higher rating, but does get an "average" rating from me for its SPF, smooth coverage and nice blending.

For your $25.00, there are much better brands out there that will give you more. There are even a few drugstore brands that average $8.00 that will do a better job than this one.


Purchasing Information:

The Elizabeth Arden website does not sell products directly from their site, but you can purchase this makeup at any Elizabeth Arden counter nationwide, or from www.beauty.com.

Recommended: No