Yeah, I did it. I spend my hard earned money on a foundation without pigment. Hell yeah I did it... I just couldn't stand the fact that it might be great and I might never know. So let's look into it!
The Becca Zero No Pigment Virtual Foundation comes with a little too catchy of a name. It's a makeup/skincare hybrid that's supposed to be like a foundation without pigment. Sounds like the worst gimmick ever? Let's keep going. It retails for $36 and you gel 30ml of product. That's hella expensive. But it's also Becca which is a high end brand. Let's look at the claims.
It doesn't have any pigment, it should blur the imperfections and hydrate the skin all day providing a transparent-matte finish. Now that sounds like an interesting claim. It contains hyaluronic acid, doesn't have any silicones and controls oils as well. It has gel-like texture that cools on contact. It should basically give you smoothing filter face IRL without any extra pigment.
It comes in a little frosted glass ball which looks cute and kinda futuristic. It also comes with a little spatula so you don't have to dip your fingers into the product. That's very handy.
Now, many people say this is a cash grab and just a good marketing and I agree. But I wasn't really into it because of the name or because of the gimmick-ness of the product. I really cannot use a regular primer instead of my foundation. No joke. I cannot make the other products on top of it work. That's why I think this product is going to be different and I hope that maybe someone had the same intension and the same issue as I have with primers.
I have pretty decent skin and I believe that this could be the thing for me. I don't like going outside with no makeup on. Just solely because of the air pollution and the fact that my skin gets oily sometimes, my pores clog easily...it's a mess when I don't wear anything on my face. But I don't have much to cover. So providing me with something that's going to help the rest of my products get on my face, it's going to hydrate and control oils...I mean that sounds amazing to me.
There are also many people who think this is just a blurring primer. First of all, I think this product could work really well as a primer just based on its properties. However, a regular primer just doesn't do it for me. Have you ever tried using just a blurring primer on your whole face and go with like concealer on top? It's just not it.
I think the one different thought that went into this product is that people may not want to wear primers as their foundation. Primers are means for other things to go on top of them so they wanna be tacky and sticky and more grabby and have weird textures and applying powders on top of such texture is just tricky. That's why I think this can work. Now let's see if it does.
My thoughts a month after purchase
I wore this "foundation" about 10 times already and to be honest I'm kinda glad I bought it. As I mentioned before, my skin type is not happy with just skincare or a primer as the base, I need something more. And this is my perfect more for the moment.
Since I have to wear a mask everytime I go outside or go to the office for some reason, it's hard for me to keep my skin in a normal condition. I started wearing this product when I know that I'm gonna be having a long day and I'm going to wear the mask on and off a lot and it's been a great help for my skin. It's not bare and it doesn't just soak up sweat and fumes under the mask. It feels nice and hydrated, it's looking smooth and I can layers powders and concealer on top if I want to. If I don't, that's fine too.
It's literally a barrier for my skin from the outside and the environment and I really enjoy using it. I like the texture of it a lot, it kind of melts into the skin like water even though it looks like a silicone-based primer. It's not silicone-like at all, it's not even really a slippery primer to the first touch. It melts real quick, kind of dries down and makes your skin feel very nice and refreshed. For my skin it blurs the pores quite well and I don't tend to use more primers underneath. Just SPF sometimes.
I didn't see a reason to do a wear test with this products because you would be just seeing the weartest of the products on top of it. I can tell you that the nice feeling on the skin lasts for a long time and my skin doesn't start feeling dry or tired until the end of the day. That's usually about 8-10 hours of time. Everything applies well on top of it and everything lasts well on top of it too. I didn't use it as a primer but I can imagine it will work really well.
Final thoughts
I kind of feel like nobody wants to hear this but I do actually like this product. Sure, I don't agree with the marketing and the whole thought behind it looks like a joke to some people but I actually enjoy using it. It's perfect for my usecase, for my no-makeup makeup days and my skin enjoys it too.
Does that mean you should go and buy it? Absolutelly not. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone, I enjoy it but I don't think that it's an important product literally for anybody. You probably don't need this, I don't need this either I just happen to have it and I really like it. But honestly I don't feel like many people share my concerns when it comes to having quite clear skin but not wanting to go outside just without anything on. I don't personally know anyone who would adress this concern, so I assume there's no point in trying to hype this product and make you want it. But to be clear again, I do like it a lot.
What do you think about this product? It's a pretty controversial one...thanks for reading!