Rimmel Stay Matte Clarifying Matte Foundation

 

image from rimmellondon.com

Price: $6.99 1 fl oz.

What they say:
"Rimmel introduces new Stay Matte Clarifying Matte Foundation, a fluid, shine-free formula that leaves your skin looking flawless and fresh for 12 hours. Stay Matte Foundation is formulated with SKINPURE™ Complex: a gentle dose of salicylic acid, a known skin clarifying ingredient, and botanical extracts which help purify skin and minimize the appearance of pores, leaving you with a visibly purified complexion. 12 hours of comfort and confidence.

Go ahead and give your skin an immediate and much-needed confidence boost with this fantastic foundation. It’s the ultimate pick-me-up."

What I say:
This particular product, along with the primer, came to me at a sale at CVS (used to be Longs), when I was bored and waiting for a nearby office to open. I had heard mixed reviews on this foundation, but decided to try it out anyway.

As of this writing, I have just applied for the first time, so I cannot tell you how long it lasts, if it creases, oil-slicks, nothing. I can, however, tell you my first impressions. So far, while not being the best foundation I have ever used, it is not the worst. This foundation has a sheer to maybe medium if I applied it on thick coverage, so I would say it's along the lines of a tinted moisturizer with more coverage, and less moisturizer. The color (in this case, 100, Ivory) was pretty good, but a little yellow. I would have liked the lightest, pinkest foundation to have less yellow to it, but since it applies so sheer, I guess it's not all bad (especially for its price).  This foundation isn't the easiest to blend/spread, but it's not the hardest....  I guess what I'm trying to say so far is that this is an overall C, maybe C+ student foundation.  It's not going to surprise you, but it's not going to disappoint you, either.  Given that it is a drugstore brand, and how cheap you can get it, though, I would have to bump it up to a B because of effort.  If I got something like this from, say, Shiseido, I would be quite angry, but I paid a little over $4 for the thing, so what can I really say.  The finish is matte, and I didn't have to apply powder to get rid of the shinies you sometimes get, but weither this is a good or bad thing has yet to be seen, since the extra layer of powder can help make the foundation stay on.

Past first impressions: This stuff melts off.  Now, I will give it the benefit of the doubt here, since it is summer, I was at a BBQ, and it did fade gracefully, but it melts.  Also, it melted on me in the "here's your pores!" fashion, but everything does ;P (I don't mean settle in).  I wore this from 3pm to 9pm, and there was very little, if any, left in the end.  It didn't crease, so that's something.

So, overall, this is a decent foundation, especially for its price.  I don't think I will purchase again, but I can say that if you need something cheap, you could do worse.

3/5