A Cautionary Tale: Illamsqua Rich Liquid Foundation

Lock away your inhibitions and bring your confidence to the fore. Touted by professional makeup artists, Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation provides maximum, long-lasting coverage without feeling or looking heavy. It blends easily and hides problem areas perfectly. Create your canvas and then paint your work of art.-Sephora.com ($34 USD)

This whole debacle has finally taught me a much deserved lesson on impulse buying. Shame on me who knows better than to buy a foundation on a whim without testing it properly. And shame on the Sephora consultant who convinced me that this is a miracle in a bottle. 

Here is the situation: I was in Seattle a few weeks ago for two press events and made a quick stop into the Sephora downtown before we left to come home.  Illamasqua is a brand I have been wanting to try for years but it is not available here in Canada. Sephora won't even ship it to a Canadian address, so when I saw it in store I knew I had to get something. I was looking for their new Skin Base Foundation which has been receiving raves from all of my favourite UK beauty bloggers and vloggers. Unfortunately it has not reached the US yet but the consultant raved on about how the Rich Liquid Foundation was its amazing matte full coverage sister. FALSE!

Rich Liquid Foundation is so thick it is almost a cream, hyperpigmented, and smells faintly of vanilla. Seems like it should be a winner, but do not be deceived. One would assume that "rich" would allude to a moisturizing or emollient formula that glides smoothly on the skin, but in fact this is one of the most drying and patchy foundations I have ever tried. I have combination-oily skin so dry patches have never been an issue when applying my foundation, especially since I moisturize and prime. This foundation will find any molecule of dry skin and cling to it for all its worth. The more you blend, the worse it looks. 

Not only does it highlight non-existent dry areas, but it emphasizes any textural problems. My acne scars and bumps looked 100x times worse after I applied this foundation than it did before. Instead of neutralizing red spots and hyperpigmentation, it highlighted them and made my skin look blotchy. It caked around the nose and stuck to the fine hairs between my brows making the finish very uneven sallow. 

I thought that cutting the foundation (mixing it with a moisturizer or primer) would help, but it only made it slightly more blendable. The texture problems were still there. 

No foundation should require this much work. If the finish was at least something amazing and worth the frustration maybe I would be willing to commit for special occasions, but this is just rubbish all around. 

Now I am faced with a real problem: What do I do with stuff?! I will never use it and the bottle is completely full. This is where you come in. If you are a MAC NC15-NC20, live in Canada or the US and want to try this foundation, leave me your email address below and I will pick a random person to send this to. FREE. Maybe you can find a way to make this work for you. 

Grade: F