L’oreal vs L’oreal

My ride or die foundation for the last few months has been the L’oreal Paris Infallible 24H-Matte foundation (24 – Golden Beige). I’ve just repurchased it for the 2nd time. In summer it is perfect for those oily days that I permanently have. In winter though, I wanted to try something that wasn’t as matte, as our skin tends to be a bit drier, so perhaps something with a more dewy look is what I wanted to try. I stumbled upon the beauty fair at Dischem recently and decided, better late than never, so I took the plunge to try a different foundation. I kept it in the family though, and went with the L’oreal Infallible 24H foundation.

The 24H-matte foundation promises high coverage and it’s apparently a medium texture. To me this foundation provides more of a medium coverage, but I only go in with one layer of foundation, so it could be if I did 2 applications it would be high coverage. That being said though, it doesn’t state: ‘High coverage with 2 layers’. All my blabbering aside , I love the coverage. It’s my skin, but improved. I don’t look perfect, I can still see a few of my imperfections peeping through, but  it looks good and natural. I don’t feel like there’s anything heavy on my face when I wear this and I don’t look cakey. It applies beautifully with a damp beautyblender, but be warned, it dries very quickly. So apply, dab, apply dab. Don’t apply to your whole face and then go in to dab.

I have received so many compliments wearing this foundation, that people think it’s my actual skin. I have to tell them I’m wearing foundation. This definitely has a matte finish. In winter with my skin being drier, this didn’t look dry on my face, but it looked dry to me, so I always spritzed some make-up finishing spray and felt that added a bit of moisture to my foundation. In summer however, this is just perfect! No moisture needed. If you have terribly dry skin, I would not recommend this for you at all though.

So when I went on the hunt for the regular non-matte 24H foundation, I assumed I’d just be able to grab the same shade that I wear in the matte version…..but apparently not. They don’t have the same shades in the different foundations. I went through a few colours and this was the closest match (250 – Radiant Sand) I could find (which when swatching now, doesn’t look so close! lol):

The 24H claims:

• No transfer
• No visible imperfections (high coverage)
• No visible shine
• No dry out
• No mask effect

The cons

The no transfer claim isn’t true. I have had to blow my nose and had lots of transfer on the tissues.

Again I feel this is a medium coverage foundation. I even applied 2 layers to see if there was a difference and there wasn’t much of a difference, but again to me, I prefer medium coverage vs looking like somebody with perfect/flawless skin, when we all know that isn’t true.

I had quite a bit of shine after about 5 hours, and it’s winter. So in summer it’ll be way worse.

I don’t know that this lasts for 24hrs (or even 8), because after a few hours I can see it’s faded and I used a primer, a powder and a setting spray. Okay not that I’ll be testing it for 24hrs anytime soon, but still…to not even make 8 hours…..

The pros

This foundation, like the matte one, feels so light on my skin. It doesn’t feel heavy on my face at all.

I love the finish, it’s not matte and it’s not dewy, but somewhere in between. It’s really lovely. I prefer the look of this over the matte foundation for winter.

This foundation contains SPF 18 which is great as I never apply sunblock to my face! I know….. bad….

This foundation is much runnier than the other one, so I think I am going to try applying with a brush instead of my sponge to see if it will give a different finish as a lot of the product disappears into the sponge. Initially I thought something was wrong with it as it seemed to split when I pumped some out, but I realised you need to shake this A LOT before using it.

Which do I prefer? For oil control I recommend the matte 110%! For a more hydrated finish (but have lots of blotting sheets on hand) I’d recommend the regular 24H foundation. The Matte foundation seems to last longer that the other one, a good 8 to 10hrs.  For some, that still would not be long enough, BUT if I’m headed home to finish up grade 2 homework, shower and jump into bed….well it doesn’t bother me too much 🙂 I prefer the Matte foundation as it’s just a bit more reliable in terms of what it promises.

Have you used either of these foundations?

PS Only a few more days left to enter my Spring Giveaway <3