The Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick arrived with considerable furore, touted as the ultimate in high coverage foundation that looked and felt natural, but covered everything. Having heard all of that, obviously I was desperate to get my hands on it, but I had also read elsewhere that it wasn’t great for tricky skin as it would show up dryness and dehydration, so I tried it with mixed feelings of hope, excitement and caution.
Impressively, the Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick is available in 26 shades that go from extremely light to very dark, so hopefully everyone should find their perfect match. As this is a high coverage and highly pigmented foundation, a slightly wrong colour match would be incredibly unforgiving. I figured I would be the palest shade, as is usually the case – the aptly named Blanc – but it’s far, far too pale for me, so if you’re extremely Casper-esque, you’ll be happy to hear that this is a range that caters for you. I instead popped in to Space NK for a shade match and found that my perfect colour is Porcelain, and perfect it is.
The Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick is a triangular shaped, twist-up foundation stick that you can apply in a number of ways depending on your preference, especially if you get yourself shade checked for a spot-on match. When I first tried this, I applied it directly to my face, all over, then used a brush to blend it in. This was the worst way to do it as it left a thick layer of foundation that eventually started looking pretty obvious once other elements started getting involved, like my skin oils, face touching and being out and about, although the colour doesn’t darken or change at all. The very best way, in my opinion, is to apply a few streaks – both cheeks, nose, forehead and chin work for me – then get a Beauty Blender involved to blend it all together. I then check for any obvious bits that still need coverage, add another layer, and again finish off with the Beauty Blender. Another way to do it is to apply a good whack on the back of your hand and use a brush to apply it. Both of these ways are a little time consuming, but the payoff is so worth it.
I was worried that the Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick would show up my dry patches, but I’ve actually found this to be quite a creamy finish that’s just on the right side of dewy – those who are especially oily will need a bit of powder – but I like to leave it exposed for that skin-like sheen. I will say though that I tried the lighter shade, Blanc, and I found it a bit dryer than the Porcelain shade, so I’m not sure what that’s about. I find this lasts really, really well and stays in place for around 6 hours without setting, but longer if I involve powder and spray, although I find dry patches are more likely to show up after a while if I’ve used powder, which makes sense really, doesn’t it?
The Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick is my most reached for by far as it gives such a great, natural finish that’s a dream to apply and doesn’t give me any skin issues. I do think I’ll get through this very quickly as it’s only 7.3g and I do use quite a lot each time, but it’s such a fantastic match – one of the very best – so consequently it blends into skin beautifully, quite unlike anything else I’ve tried. You could definitely use this as a concealer instead though, and also, if you get the match spot-on – easily achieved thanks to the shade range – you can use this just to conceal problem areas rather than all over the face. This is one of the very few high coverage products I know of that doesn’t look like make-up when on, and for that alone it deserves it’s impressive reputation. There appears to be a mass shortage of the lighter shades, but you can find out everything you need to know about the foundation here – link.
*PR Samples
Hi how do I get some samples of skin care x