Welcome to Deep Reviews—your one-stop destination to discover the absolute best products and brands the beauty industry has to offer. The Who What Wear staffers you already know and trust will research, test, and review the market's most sought-after and buzzed-about products to see which formulas (of the hundreds up for consideration) are truly worth your hard-earned money and attention. You can expect honest, completely uncensored feedback and no-BS recommendations our hard-to-please testers endorse without reservations.
The majority of our Deep Reviews will feature our editors' honest, ultra-hot takes on entire product categories or multiple products from a particular beauty brand, but every so often, we'll sprinkle in a special single-product format called Honestly, I Love It. As the name suggests, these reviews will hone in on one standout beauty formula our editors quite literally can't shut up about. This time around, I'm highlighting the Nars Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation ($50).
I have always been a makeup person. When I was younger, I was a competitive dancer, and when we would get ready for competitions, shows, or recitals, we got to wear makeup for the performance. This was my introduction to makeup. Ever since I did my makeup in the dressing room before going onstage for my dance studio's production of The Nutcracker, I've been hooked. The product that I've always cared the most about is foundation. After all, that is the base of your makeup look and the number one thing that can really throw your glam off. If the foundation isn't the right shade, doesn't blend well with your skin, isn't full coverage enough, or is too full coverage, you may as well throw the whole makeup look away. Having the right foundation is key. Just like a building's foundation, it's the most important part because everything else falls apart without it.
For my own personal journey with foundation, I had a few hurdles to overcome.
First of all, I'm biracial, so finding a foundation that is my exact shade without being too orange or too gray has proven to be extremely difficult. However, I refuse to purchase two different shades and mix them together, as it's important to me to shop beauty brands with a wide shade range and inclusivity in mind. When I find a brand that doesn't have a shade for me, rather than giving them double the money for two products I have to mix together, I move on to a brand that values customers who look like me. Second, I struggle with acne scarring and discoloration, so I need a foundation that covers imperfections but still looks like skin. Lastly, I have oily skin, so I also need to make sure that the product is mattifying and glowy while not being too dewy so that my face isn't an oily mess by lunchtime.
This was a lot to ask of one foundation, but I was determined to find one that checked all of my boxes, and luckily for me, I found it. Somewhere along the way while testing every long-wear foundation under the sun, I tried Nars's Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation in the shade Tahoe and fell head over heels in love. That was it. I had found the foundation that I was going to be wearing for the rest of time.
The Nars Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation lives up to its name. It provides 16 hours of lightweight, natural, and fade-resistant wear. As someone whose schedule often includes showroom visits, running to the office, heading to an event, and popping into dinner wrapped up into one day, I need all the hours of coverage I can get. But what I really love about the product is the shade range and how the product lays on the skin. With 34 different skin-like shades, I found my match so easily, and when I applied the product, it literally was like I was using liquid skin. The formula blends into your face so well and leaves a skin-like finish, making it look like whatever blemish or dark mark that was there before has evaporated. It's amazing and full coverage without that cakey, overdone foundation look.
If you're a woman of color, I especially recommend this product to you. When making brown shades, some brands can make them too cool or too warm and don't understand the undertones of Black and Brown skin, but not this product. When I say it looks like liquid skin in a bottle, I'm not exaggerating. Not only that, but the product blends so well with the other products you will be putting on your face. It blends perfectly with concealer and blush (whether you like powder or cream blush), and I often use a cream contour with it.
HOW TO APPLY:
I know there are quite a few ways to apply foundation, but for the best results, I apply my Nars Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation with a clean Beautyblender all over my skin after prepping with skincare products and a primer. I put a few pumps of the product on the inside of my wrist and use my wrist almost as an artist's paint palette to dab the sponge into the foundation and then apply it on my face as needed. I do this instead of pumping the product directly on my face so I don't use too much and overdo it. You should press the product into your skin with the Beautyblender rather than leaving it to sit on top of your skin. We want our foundation to be almost unnoticeable, so making sure the product is applied correctly is very important.
This foundation is incredibly buildable, so keep that in mind as you're applying. You can decide how full coverage you want it to be. As I mentioned before, I have some scarring and discoloration, so being able to build in those areas has been key. When the foundation is set with powder, you'll look like you've always had perfect skin and may not even be wearing foundation—I'm not exaggerating. I can't tell you how many people come up to me to give me compliments on my skin, and my response is always "It's my foundation!"
PRO TIPS:
While you don't have to do this, I definitely recommend pairing the foundation with the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer. These two are made for each other and work together in perfect harmony. If you want buttery-smooth, bright, awake-looking under-eyes, then this is the concealer for you. After using both products for years, I can't have one without the other. I also highly recommend the brand's blush. It lasts so long and works incredibly well with the foundation and concealer. At this point, you may as well just get all of your face products from Nars.
Another foundation hack I live for is setting your skin with setting powder underneath your foundation. I do this to stretch that 16-hour wear to 24-hour wear, and it totally locks in the foundation and adds extra mattifying power. I mostly do this technique in the summer months to keep my makeup in place while I'm out in the heat, but if you need to look good all day long, definitely add a little setting powder to your base before applying the foundation. Plus, Nars is a French cosmetic and skincare company that prioritizes anti-aging properties and incorporates them into all of its products.
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