Review- Revlon PhotoReady Foundation : Quality Unready

Ok so here goes. It's Revlon PhotoReady Foundation. I saw it first being used by Michelle Phan in her School Picture Day Look tutorial..


I was looking for a foundation that will look good in photos-no ghostly white face in flash photography. So I went and bought Revlon PhotoReady Foundation at Guardian's for RM64.90, quite a hike from my previous SilkyGirl's RM19.90 foundation. But of course the amount and packaging are different. I brought it home, oogled at it like a 6 year old would a Barbie.


Let's get up close and personal:

Front

Back

Price

Tone :006 Medium Beige
Content: 30ml
SPF20

It's water based, and claims to achieve 'perfected airbrushed skin in any light'
-Yes! Photography y'all!

Bottom of bottle-content description

Has a pump nozzle.

Pump nozzles are great because they save time, keeps products fresh  & hygienic and mess-free.

These are pictures taken as soon as I ripped off the plastic wrap, before the product was used. I was oh so very excited to try it out. 


But there were a few doubts...What I learned from my search is that low to zero SPF foundation is good for photography. SPF protects our skin by bouncing off sun ray that touches our skin. Hence, SPF naturally will bounce back the camera flash, making you look ghostly white in pictures. When I saw that PhotoReady has SPF 20, I was a bit iffy about it as SPF 20 is quite on the high side. I saw other (drugstore) foundations that has lower SPF (L'Oreal True Match Liquid Foundation has SPF 17). But I was so excited about this new Revlon's baby and having watched Michelle Phan's tutorials using this has made me more confident about it. I mean, she wouldn't have recommended a product that doesn't work, right? She's a make-up Guru after all.


Below are photos of the foundation applied on the back of my hand:

It's slippery, glides on liquid (some foundations glides on with powdery finish)

It dries off quite quickly, making blending hard..

Taken without flash. I can see the difference between my real skin and skin applied with PhotoReady.
My skin looks 'layered' and cakey.

Taken with flash. See the bits of shimmer? How can that be good for photography? Is that 'photo ready'? 

Taken in natural light-by the window on a sunny afternoon at 2PM. Looks natural.

So here's what I found out after trying it out for 4 weeks:


Pro's
Here's where it works:
1. Outside in bright daylight:

Looks alright outside in bright daylight

2. Inside room with lighting & camera without flash

Inside a room with lighting, without flash

And...that's pretty much it.


The Con's

1. Looks BAD with FLASH!

SHIMMER! Really Revlon?! This what you mean by PhotoReady?

SPARKLY! Nuff said. Hey Edward Cullen, I figured your foundation out!

2.The formula's a bit runny. If you squirt it on the back of your hand before blending it with your foundation brush, please make sure your hand doesn't move too much. It will drip.

3. The foundation sets liquid . It means that it settles down on your skin without a powdery feel. It also makes it feel heavy.

4. When blending, the formula dries too quickly, making blending and building up the layers very hard. So you cant' help but looking like you're having a fight with your brush when applying it. Yikes!

5.  Since it's not blend-able & buildable due to the quick-drying formula, the result is medium coverage, cuz seriously, you'd just give up on it after applying the 1st layer because of the effort you had to put in to coat the whole face. Sigh.

6.The finish is shimmery, which baffles me.

In a dark room with flash. Sigh...The shimmer shows up more. Bad for night time photography

For people like me who wants a foundation that DOESN'T reflect light, what makes Revlon think that shimmer doesn't? It is the exact opposite of photo friendly! If we're talking about photography, we're going for matte not dewy, Revlon.

7. It has limited shades. Revlon PhotoReady Liquid Foundation comes only in 5 shades in Malaysia. 


8. Ok here's the big BUMMER. My skin broke out. After 4 weeks, my skin decided to pass me the message that this foundation really sucks by breaking out all over my face. I don't have a photo of my skin right now, as y'all know how break outs look like, right? It's just too ugly. To make sure it was the foundation causing these break outs, I  stopped using it for a week and since, my skin has stopped breaking out. So there.  BAD, BAD, foundation!


So there you have it. Even though it works in daylight & in photography without flash, I will NEVER repurchase.

I wish to share this (unpleasant) experience as many people have been too excited over the arrival of this new product . I hope this helps! 
I'm gonna curl up in bed now and cry my eyes out over my ugly skin, while continuously rubbing vitamin E on the scars. Begone scars, begone! :P


*All pictures were taken using Nokia N79 5MP camera.