Emmie Reviews – Tower 28 Swipe Serum Foundation

As far as beauty brands go, few brands have a strike rate in the green with me more than Tower 28 Beauty. I have been a ride or die for them since 2023 and I have been consistently impressed with all of their launches. So, when they announced back in August that they were at long last releasing a foundation to go alongside their best selling (and my all time favourite) Swipe Concealer, well, I would have broken laws to get my hands on it! Thankfully, I didn’t have to go that far. This foundation pretty much had a global day and date launch. But it has taken me a while to get around to trying it. I’ve spent the last few weeks using it behind the scenes and I’m finally ready to share my thoughts. So, let’s get into it!

TOWER 28 SWIPE SERUM FOUNDATION – $59.00 – mecca.com.au
*36 Shades Available*

Kicking us off with the packaging, the Swipe Foundation is housed in a sleek, frosted glass bottle. There is white detail on the glass and a plastic purple cap that is pretty much synonymous with Tower 28’s line of products. Basically, they’ve recreated the concealer packaging for their foundation. And if that’s not brand cohesion, I don’t know what is. The Swipe Foundation contains 30ml of product.

The Swipe Foundation is dispensed via a plastic pump at the top of the bottle. The pump is noticeably stiffer than a lot of the pumps I’ve come across. Having said that, when you see the consistency of this foundation, it’s easy to see why they went this particular route. It also doesn’t pump a lot of product. Again, I think that’s due to the consistency. You get a ton of control here. Though for that reason, it might not be the most accessible.

The Swipe Foundation has 36 shades in the range. And I have to just say, this is one of the better shade ranges I have come across recently. You can tell that there was a lot of intention and care made to have a shade for as many skin tones and undertones as they could. There is a very solid mix of warm, neutral, cool, and olive undertones in this range. We even have olive undertones in the deeper range. Which is borderline unheard of. I’m genuinely impressed by what they’ve managed to accomplish in 36 shades.

For me, I wear shade 3P Coachella. Described as being light with peach undertones. This was the shade that I got when I used the Mecca Beauty Foundation Finder and it’s a very, very solid match for me. And it’s a good thing that I used the foundation finder because I almost went with a deeper shade. Consider this also a review for that, 10/10, would recommend.

Right off the bat, I had an interesting time trying to apply the Swipe Foundation. When they used Serum in the name, they mean it. The consistency is extremely thin and slightly oily in feel. It reminded me a great deal of the Westman Atelier Skin Tint that I reviewed a few years ago. Which is why my first instinct was to apply this with a brush because I naturally assumed that it would get soaked up by a sponge. And while I liked the finish with a brush, I didn’t love it. I felt like it was sitting on the skin rather than blending in. I also wasn’t wild about using my fingers. In fact, I wasn’t wild about touching this foundation at all. But when I decided to nut up and use a sponge, that’s when this foundation finally clicked into place for me. This foundation blended with a sponge is a match made in heaven. I found that the foundation went a lot further and looked more blended overall as opposed to just sitting.

The Swipe Foundation is described as being a medium buildable coverage foundation with a natural, skin like finish. Coverage wise for me, I would say even with 2 pumps, I was still on the lighter side of medium. My tone overall was evened out but my dark spots and some of my darker acne scarring was still visible. Finish, on the other hand, I do have some gripes with. I would say more natural glow rather than skin like. I’m dewy, but not shiny, if that makes sense. Heading into summer, I did use my more mattifying primers (the Go To Skin one really came in clutch here), and I was also setting this with a powder (Tower 28 Get Set, of course). Both of these did help reduce the skin throughout my wear.

As for fun ingredients, you already know that Tower 28 has loaded this one with some skin loving goodies. We have Fermented Oat, which is a favourite for those with dry, sensitive skin, Lactobacillus Ferment, a natural skin soother that also assists with environmental stressors, and Portulaca Extract, which is supposed to be excellent for calming irritated skin. So, if you have dry, easily irritated skin and you’ve made it this far already, yeah. This foundation is absolutely for you. Buy it immediately. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

But how does it wear on someone with combo oily skin during what ended up being a 38° day? Shockingly well, apparently! I think the prep I did beforehand did help a great deal with my wear overall. I can’t discount that. But I was kinda blown away at how much I ended up liking this by the end. I had no cracking, no fading, no sinking into pores. The coverage stayed true to colour and consistent throughout the day. I actually got a ton of compliments whenever I wore this foundation. Yeah, I’m kinda gagged at this one.

Ok, so this one is tough. For me personally, I love this foundation and it’s yet another home run for one of my all time favourite brands. Having said that, I can’t say that this is a 100% rush out and buy. Like I said earlier, if you have dry skin and you’ve made it THIS far, first of all, thank you for continuing to read well past the point of ‘this is a thumbs up for you’. But I shall reiterate, you need to get this on your face immediately. If, however, you have oily skin, I would strongly suggest a sample first. Because I’m somewhat of an outlier when it comes to those in the oily camp who actually likes this foundation. And I’ve seen more than a few negative reviews from my oilier skin friends and fellow bloggers who could not get this to work for them. So, if you do try it, please let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts. And I hope you all have an amazing Friday!

Cheers and love
Emily xo