Review & Swatches: NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation in Barcelona

Another day, another foundation review! This time, I'll be reviewing NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation in Barcelona and the color is for those with "medium skin tone with olive undertones". For color reference, I'm around a MAC35 (with more yellow tones), generally all Maybelline Foundations in Natural Beige, and Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in Beige. The claims include giving full, but natural, coverage for 16 hours with just one drop. It contains 1 fluid ounce / 30 milliliters of product and retails for $48.

I originally tried out this foundation right when it came out, but it was just samples from Sephora. I got color matched by one of the sales associates, but it seemed to be a good match. If anything, Barcelona applies a bit darker and then it looks like a perfect match so far. 

The texture is very thin and liquidy and NARS claims that you'll achieve full coverage with just one drop. I'm still playing around with how much one drop is actually supposed to be, but one full pump plus a tiny bit extra is enough for my full face. It dries pretty quickly and so I need that little bit extra to do my forehead since that's the last place I put foundation.

I like to dot it all over my face, pat it out to spread the foundation a bit more, and then blend out with my fingers. Because of the texture and pure pigments, NARS suggests using fingers to get the most coverage and even finish. 

Bare face / One layer of foundation

During these photos, my skin was much more calm. It was just acne marks with a small zit on my jawline.  Generally, I feel like my skin looks better from the front and that's why I also include side shots to demonstrate how the foundation look. 

I usually don't put foundation on my forehead, but I did for the above pictures and forgot for the ones below. In pictures, you can see a difference in color for my forehead by the way the light hits it. In person, it's less noticeable. Overall, it did even out my complexion. There's still some darkness around my eyes, but I usually fix that with a brightening concealer since bringing my foundation up that high tends to make everything crease.

Bare face / One layer of foundation

 For the side shot, you can see that it's not fully full coverage, but almost there. Times like these, I wish my skin was a bit worse to show a true gauge of how of coverage. I also don't want to admit that because I don't want to jinx myself...

It definitely doesn't offer the same amount of coverage the Cover FX Custom Cover Drops add to foundations, but it does a great job at hiding almost everything. It wasn't until I used my other foundations without the Custom Cover Drops that I noticed how well the coverage is by itself. I definitely got medium to full coverage out of this, but definitely not full coverage.

Bare face / One layer of foundation

With that being said, it does feel weightless! I've tried wearing one layer of the MAC Pro Longwear Concealer all over my face when I'm really breaking out and it gives me the same amount of coverage, but feels so heavy on my skin. The NARS All Day Luminous Foundation goes on feeling like a very light moisturizer and then sets to feel like nothing on the skin. 

It sets down to a dewey / luminous finish that is like the Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation, but a tiny bit more matte. I find that it also holds up a lot better at the end of the day than the Bourjois foundation does. 

I still get very oily by 6 PM, but that's a full 11 hours of wear time for me. My nose is very oily and the rest of my face teeters between oily and a slight sheen. To combat this, I use Tarte's Amazonian Clay Finishing Powder or recently, L'oreal's Pro-Matte Powder Foundation lightly all over my face. The foundation breaks down over my blemishes faster than the other parts of my face and so it does not match NARS' claim of 16 hours of wear. 

Final thoughts: If I base this foundation against other foundation wear times, it does last longer than the majority of foundations I have tried out. The Make Up Forever HD Foundation doesn't get as oily, but the coverage level is lower and breaks down faster. Like I've mentioned before, it's almost like the Bourjois Health Mix Foundation, but holds up better. Overall, this foundation is a hit for me but I'm not completely in love with it compared to when I first tried it out during the drier and cooler months. I don't need a lot of this product to do my whole face, but it's hard to get a consistent and perfect amount every time. I have high hopes that this would be great during winter, but I'll be putting it away while I'm a sweaty mess in summer.

Have you tried this foundation? What do you use to powder since apparently my face's oil production has gone crazy?