The Essence display in a drugstore that's close to my office literally just changed half the products overnight and I am very excited. We have the Hello, Good Stuff collection which I'll dive into later but we also have the brand new natural foundation.
The Essence Pretty Natural Hydrating Foundation with hyaluron and aloe vera is supposed to provide you with natural feel, lightweight coverage and weightless texture. It's also supposed to be 24h longlasting hydrator for your skin. It's also vegan. I was very intrigued by it because it fits the bill of foundations that I love to wear on the daily. So let's see how it does.
It retails for 134 Crowns which is a good price and you get 30ml of product. It comes in a squeezy tube which has a little transparent window area where you can actually see the shade. This foundation comes in 31 shades and in the drugstore they had about 10. Which is actually a pretty good selection because there was a wide variety. Take notes Catrice! This is how you do it better. I have the shade 040 Neutral Vanilla. I had a bit of trouble shadematching because they didn't have many testers in the store and the shades I wanted to try weren't available. So I tried opening up a couple boxes to at least see the shade in the bottle. And I think it's pretty much a perfect match.
The texture reminds me a little bit of the Colourpop Pretty Fresh Tinted Moisturizer. It's very lightweight and has more coverage than that but it's still low-medium coverage. I love that kind of look. It looks quite glowy on the skin but it's not like greasy or slippery. You cannot really feel it at all. I am very interested to see how this wear through the day.
Wear test
I applied the foundation with my fuzzy sponge as I do with all my foundations these days. I really like the coverage, it looks very skinlike and natural. It doesn't feel heavy on the skin even with powder on. I also tried applying cream bronzer and gel blush on top. I think the bronzer picked up the foundation on a couple places but nothing major. I think that might be because of the brush I used for it. The blush went on just fine.
In the photo with just the foundation on you can tell I'm probably wearing something, but it doesn't look of feel heavy or cakey. And my skin has that nice natural glow to it that I really like.
List of used products
Essence Prime+ Studio Hydrating + skin refreshing Primer
e.l.f. Prep & Blur Stick
Essence Pretty Natural Hydrating Foundation, shade 040 Neutral Vanilla
Bell Cosmetics Cover Eye & Skin Concealer, shade 20 Light
e.l.f. Under-eye Setting Powder
Fenty Beauty Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Bronzer, shade 03 Macchiato
Maxfactor Miracle Sheer Gel Blush, shade 004 Glowing Sunrise
Essence MySkin Perfector Loose Fixing Powder, shade 10 Light
ABH Brow Wiz, shade Soft Brown
Bell Cosmetics Brow Modelling Stick, shade 01
Essence I <3 Colour Intensifying Eyeshadow Base
e.l.f. Mad for Matte Eyeshadow Pallete - Holly Smokes
Catrice Art Couleurs Eyeshadow, shade 110 Chocolate Cake By The Ocean
Colourpop BFF Creme Gel Liner, shade Peach Fuzz
Essence I <3 Extreme Crazy Volume Brown Mascara
Catrice SUNGASM Luminizing Bronzer, shade C01 Golden Ecstasy
Essence x PAC-MAN Baked Highlighter, shade 02 ready!
Barry M All Night Long Setting Spray
Fenty Beauty Slip Shine Sheer Shiny Lipstick, shade Glazed
Wear time 8 hours
I would've worn the foundation longer but I really felt sick and needed to get some sleep and I didn't want to nap in my foundation to be honest so I washed it off. But I feel like I have a very decent idea about its abilities. There's just some missing around my nose because had to blow my nose about a thousand times this day.
I felt very lightweight on the skin even after the hours of wear, it didn't look oily at all but it also didn't look dry. I usually get bad separation between my brows and on parts of my face because the foundation dries too much on my skin and it starts creating patches. This foundation is truly very hydrating and doesn't do that at all. My skin looked very healthy, skill nice and glowy and very skinlike. But not too hydrating if you know what I mean. I have a very good feeling about the texture of this foundation and I also want to wear it for even longer time but I'm pretty sure I will test it even more because I really like it so far.
Final thoughts
So overall, I would say that this foundation is a good steal for the price and the shade range is also very nice. I love the slightly glowy natural finish and the low-medium coverage because it's very much something I wear all the time.
The foundation feels amazing on the skin, it's very hydrating but not oily or slippery and I really like the finish of it. It also plays well with powders and creams as well. I really like it and I feel like this might be one of my new favorite foundations. It reminds me a lot of the Colourpop Pretty Fresh Tinted Moisturizer but with more coverage and less oily texture. It's less glowy than that by a lot but it still gives you a nice radiance and you look very healthy and alive. I would absolutelly recommend it if you want something light and easy for a good everyday makeup or no-makeup look. You can build it up but these textures tend to build up weird. I didn't experience any caking of problems with this formula but I think you can get medium coverage at most out of it. Which doesn't bother me, because I really love the foundation as it is.
Have you tried this new foundation? Let me know your thoughts, I'm well surprised! Thank for reading!