Perricone MD No Foundation Foundation SPF30 – A review

I’m not a fan of “one size fits all” anything. Its bad enough with clothes but when foundations get in on the act, I get worried. I have not found a “one foundation fits all” to suit my skin tone thus far because they don’t really cater for the light end of the spectrum.

So, when I got my hands on Perricone MD No Foundation Foundation SPF30 I got a little worried. However, when I read through the instructions, I realized that despite the “foundation” in its name, this isn’t a foundation per se but more of a skincare with tint.

The Perricone MD No Foundation Foundation is supposed to provide natural translucent coverage while protecting your skin with non chemical SPF30 and delivering anti-aging benefits with Alpha Lipoic Acid to smooth skin texture and minimize lines and DMAE for lifting benefits. Their active sun protecting ingredients are zinc oxide 12.2% and titanium dioxide 3.2%. Knowing I’m a little allergic to zinc oxide I was wary but I needn’t have been because I did not break out from this. What I had instead was a bit of wrestle getting it to work for me.

First off, smell. I’ve read numerous reviews on this product that complain about its “fishy smell”. Truth be told, I did not detect this smell. There is a light citrus scent overlaying another stronger smell but no fishes feature. Maybe I’m not so sensitive 😛

Second, colour match. The little 30ml bottle comes with a separate pump for convenience. The liquid-cream pumps out thick and orange. Yes, you saw right. Its like an orange tan. The first few times I used this, I found my skin looking about 2 shades darker. I thought it was not that noticable until my colleague asked me why I was looking so tanned. I did eventually get it to work as I’ll tell you below.

You can see from the picture that just lightly blended into my skin, the tanned tint is still noticable.

After about 2 weeks of experimentation, I eventually got the Perricone No Foundation Foundation to work for me so I don’t walk around with the oompaloompa orange skin or with facial skin 2 shades darker than my neck.

Here’s how I do it:-

• Pump just 1 pump on the back of your hand
• Take a dab of foundation with your fingers and apply it to your skin smoothing it into your skin blending as you go.
• If you are fair, you might find at this stage that your skin looks about a shade darker
• Rub your hands together and press on your face making sure you apply the heat from your hands to every part of your face.
• When I do this, I realized that this helps the No Foundation Foundation blend into my skintone quite well
• Top up with loose powder and in my case, Guerlain Meteorites highlighter and all’s good!

This isn’t what they tell you actually – I just learnt that it worked for me because I wanted this to. You see, I like the fact of a tinted sunscreen. Yes, that’s what I’d call the No Foundation Foundation – tinted sunscreen. It gives you a no foundation look yet protects your skin, has anti-aging benefits and gives a little tint to even out your skintone. Once I have a thin layer of loose powder and/or Meteorites on, my skin looks pretty good 🙂

Oh here’s another tip – Do not use this over concealer or a primer. I tried and it went on streaky and messes up the concealer. So, I apply the No Foundation Foundation over my primed face i.e. skincare + sunscreen and then apply concealer on top of it, before setting with loose powder. It looks much better and you don’t go crazy trying to get it to go on thinly without streaking.

I experienced no reactions to this and I did not get oily throughout the day and now that I’ve gotten it to work, I like it for lazy days when I don’t feel like having liquid or powder foundation on but want a light base. It works well.

A 30ml bottle of Perricone No Foundation Foundation retails at RM259.

Pros: High non-chemical sunscreen protection, Light texture

Cons: Colour may not suit everyone, Takes a bit of work to get it to blend into the skin, Expensive for the majority

I’m not sure if they give out samples at the counter but you can try asking. In any case, if you are interested in this product, I’d highly recommend that you try it in person before buying. On the one hand, it takes the guesswork out of looking for a foundation colour that matches.

On the other hand, it might just be too dark for you. Those with medium to darker skin tones will have less problems than us lighter skinned girls.

Paris B

Perricone MD is available at Isetan KLCC, Parkson Pavilion, Escentials Tangs Pavilion and Metrojaya Midvalley Megamall.