Hey loves! Today’s blog post is a little different…I know sometimes when you’re looking to buy a foundation online, it is crucial to be able to see swatch photos so I’m posting a collection of these that I took recently along with my review of the products:
Urban Decay All Nighter Waterproof Full Coverage Concealer ($29)
The All Nighter Foundation is one of my favorites of all time, so I was excited to try out their new concealer. It was even rumored to rival Tarte’s Shape Tape Concealer, but most of the beauty vloggers I saw review this still preferred the Tarte a little more. I tried on this new Urban Decay concealer in Ulta and I have to agree, I think the Tarte coverage is still a bit greater. Here are the shades that would be closest to correct for my skin tone:
These swatches below are in the exact order of above: Light Warm, Light Neutral, Medium Light Neutral, Medium Light Warm
Tarte Double Duty Beauty Empowered Hybrid Gel Foundation
This is super interesting! Ulta had a massive sale (50% off) on this foundation a couple months ago and I was wondering if they were trying to discontinue it (it’s one I happen to love.) The employees I asked said no, but sure enough when I went to put together this blog post, it is nowhere to be found and there are some verrryy interesting articles out there…basically it is thought that Tarte discontinued this to re-brand it as the recently launched Shape Tape Foundation which had a pretty controversial launch if you recall. There were questions about how this foundation had the same ingredient deck as the Shape Tape Foundation and the answer given was never really very clear. Anyways, apparently this is no longer available for purchase at least in it’s original packaging as you see below:
Here are swatches of the 3 shades I own from left to right: Medium Honey, Medium Neutral, Medium-Tan Sand
In less natural store lighting from left to right: Medium Neutral, Medium-Tan Sand, Medium Honey
Tarte Double Duty Beauty Shape Tape Matte Foundation ($39)
This is the new Shape Tape Foundation in the matte formula. There was a lot of controversy over the limited shade range when it first launched, and for that reason as you can see in the swatches in this post, I never bought a bottle because I couldn’t find a shade that fit me well…the two I know are usually decent for me from Tarte are Medium-Tan Honey and I also tried Tan Honey:
The middle swatch is Medium-Tan Honey & the right swatch is Tan Honey:
In natural lighting, here is how they dried. As you can see, the middle shade (Medium-Tan Honey) is too light for me & the right swatch, Tan Honey, is really too dark. They had nothing in between these two despite how different they are!
Tarte Double Duty Beauty Shape Tape Hydrating Foundation ($39)
I also swatched the hydrating version of this new foundation which is the one you’d choose for a dewy/satin finished as opposed to a matte finish (matte is best for skin types that tend towards oily, not mine.) The shades were again pretty limiting. The ones I tried are: Medium Honey, Medium Sand, & Medium-Tan Honey
Swatches from left to right (just after applied, so still wet looking) are: Medium Honey, Medium Sand, & Medium-Tan Honey
Swatches from left to right (in natural light, after drying) are: Medium Honey, Medium Sand, & Medium-Tan Honey. I think there is not an appropriate color for me here either, I needed something between the two on the right side…
NARS Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation ($49)
This one has been getting glowing reviews (no pun intended) and I am digging it so far too! I got some samples from Sephora to play around with the shades but I do love the formula and the finish. It is radiant/dewy as the name implies and it also does wear for the long-haul…so far, so good! NARS is offering 33 different shades, so here’s a look at the range I’m toying with for my own skin tone:
Swatches below are
Top row: Syracuse (Medium/Dark 1), Valencia (Medium 5), Vanuatu (Medium 3.5)
Bottom row: Huahine (Medium/Dark 2.6), Tahoe (Medium/Dark 2), Aruba (Medium 6), Barcelona (Medium 4)
Let me know if there’s any other products you’d like to see swatches of in the future!
xo, Nicole