About & Claims

A few weeks ago I received a new product to test out from Glam Sense – Make Up For Ever’s (MUFE) Water Blend Foundation.  I currently use MUFE’s Ultra HD Invisible Coverage foundation (review here)  and enjoy it, so I was pretty excited to give another product from this brand a try.

MUFE’s Water Blend Foundation is a formulated with 80% water and enriched with Pro-Vitamin B5, offering a unique and long-lasting water-gel texture.  It claims to give skin a fresh, dewy glow that feels lightweight, sheer and comfortable, while offering a quick and easy application that makes it ideal for face & body.  It also states that it evens out the complexion to leave a natural-looking, satin finish and naturally hydrates and blends in evenly for a smooth, flawless look.

Availability

Available exclusively at Sephora.com

Price

This foundation retails for $54.00 CAD / $43.00 USD; the bottle contains 1.69 fl.oz/50 mL of product.

Packaging

A real positive of this foundation is it’s packaging; it’s housed in a thick, frosted glass bottle with a pump.  While not ideal for travel, I do like it’s simple yet classic design.  I also love that they included a pump – I refuse to use any liquid foundation that doesn’t have one.

Scent

Scent is not usually something I have to address when reviewing foundations but that’s not the case here.  As someone with sensitive skin, I don’t understand the logic behind including fragrance in this but thankfully it didn’t seem to irritate my skin at all.  It’s a really light floral scent that was strongest when I first applied it and faded quickly thereafter.

Ingredients

Shade Selection

MUFE has 20 shades in this line; I received shade Y225 – Marble.  This shade is a little too light for me right now, it’d be a better match when I don’t have a touch of a tan but I can definitely make it work with some extra bronzer.

My Skin Type

I have combination skin that leans to dry and is acne-prone. It can be quite sensitive and reactive; I have quite a bit of a redness on my cheeks and some hyper-pigmentation / acne scaring and breakouts on my chin.

Application Instructions

MUFE included a Ellipse Blender Sponge that I was instructed to use to apply the foundation; the sponge was quite a bit different than the Beauty Blender (and dupe) sponges that I’m used to it.  It was quite dense and when dampened (as instructed), it absorbed no water, which is a good thing given the formulation of the foundation.

The instructions stated to dampen the sponge and press and roll it starting the in the center of the face.  For buildable coverage, I was supposed to let it dry for 20-30 seconds in between layers.

Formula & Performance

Water Blend is a perfect name for this foundation – this is probably the thinnest “foundation” I’ve ever used.  When blended out it truly resembles a mixture of a foundation with water – very thin and extremely liquidy.  It offers a very sheer coverage with one application and I found I could build it up to debatable light coverage with a second application but no more than that.   It didn’t really cover any of my redness, breakouts or scaring, but I didn’t expect it to.

Given it’s lightweight consistency and it’s hydrating claim, I was hopeful that this would melt into my skin and leave me with a really natural looking finish.  Unfortunately I had the exact opposite experience.  This foundation highlighted and clung to both known and unknown dry patches on my face.  It collected in my pores and was very difficult to blend and as a result, looked patchy and uneven.  As the day went on, any dryness was enhanced.  Areas without dryness did look glowy and luminous however, I felt like it was just sitting on my top of my skin, rather than melding with it.

Feeling frustrated, I decided to switch it up and attempt to apply it with a few different options.  First up a brush (IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe Brush) but that just seemed to enhance dryness.  Next, my fingers – which produced similar results to the Ellipse Sponge but was more difficult to blend.  And lastly and reluctantly the Beauty Blender which, as expected,  absorbed the majority of the foundation and left me with zero coverage.  As much as I didn’t enjoy applying it with the Ellipse sponge, it did seem to apply it the best.

Not wanting to give up on it, I also tried applying various primers beforehand, which did help increase blendability and decrease the dryness.  I also found applying extra moisturizer beforehand helped too.

One area that did somewhat impress me was it’s longevity; I was surprised to still see product on my face at the end of the day, which is a rare occurrence for me with lighter foundations.  That said, it seemed to wear off quickest in the areas where I needed it most (my cheeks and chin) than in others (forehand, nose) which was frustrating.  Another benefit – I didn’t experience any irritation or breakouts with this, which is a bonus!

Verdict

Unfortunately, I just don’t feel like I have the right skin type for this foundation.  I think it would work well if you have normal or oily skin with no dryness, redness and/or hyper pigmentation.  For me, it requires too much work to get it to somewhat work – and even then, it doesn’t really work well.  If I’m going to have to apply extra moisturizer and a primer to get a lightweight foundation to work, I might as well just use a higher coverage one – it’s less steps and I have a better result in the end.

Have you tried this foundation?  Let me know what your favourite lightweight foundation is below!

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Disclaimer: This product was sent to me by GlamSense in exchange for a review but all opinions are my own.