Emmie Reviews – Nars Soft Matte Foundation

In case you folks had missed it, I’ve been on something of a foundation review kick at the moment. I’ve really been enjoying putting these foundations through their paces. Especially now that it’s been getting warmer up north. Plus, it’s given me an opportunity to finally get around to trying foundations that have been on my to try list for ages. In this case, the Nars Soft Matte Foundation.

Now, the Soft Matte Foundation actually launched last year internationally. But for a variety of reasons, it didn’t arrive in Australia until a couple of months ago. And while I wasn’t planning on testing this one out immediately, I had that many requests to try it out in warmer weather that it got bumped up a few slots. I’ve been using this foundation for a few weeks now and I’m ready to talk about it. So, if you want to know if the Nars Soft Matte Foundation is a new fave, just keep reading!

NARS SOFT MATTE FOUNDATION – $57.00 – mecca.com.au (34 shades available)

Starting with the packaging, as I always do, the Soft Matte Foundation is housed in a very sleek, soft plastic packaging with black detail and a black twist cap on the end of the bottle. This is slightly different from the other foundation in Nars’s line as they are stored in glass bottles. But I like the convenience of this packaging. This would be very easy to travel with and it would be good for a makeup artist’s kit. The Soft Matte Foundation contains 30ml of product.

The Soft Matte Foundation is dispensed through a tip at the end of the bottle. I’ve mentioned before that I’m personally not a fan of this style of dispensing. Especially when the foundation consistency is on the thinner side. Fortunately, the hole isn’t too big. So it is pretty to dispense the right amount.

The Soft Matte Foundation comes in 34 shades. With the majority of shades leaning towards the medium shade spectrum. Having said that, the lightest shade is very light, the deepest shade is very deep and there is a good mixture of undertones available. I would still love to see an expansion of the deeper shades as well in the future. I wear Vienna 4.5. Described as being for Light Skin with Peach Undertones. And in hindsight, I really should have gone a shade down. I can still easily pull it off as a summer shade. But for winter, I might want something a bit more neutral.

The first time I applied this foundation, I won’t lie, I totally fucked it up. This is one of those ‘a little goes a long way’ kind of foundations and I used WAY too much. Leading me straight to cake town. For all other uses, I found that a drop around the size of a five cent piece was more than enough to cover my face, ears and neck comfortably. This foundation also really works well with any kind of primer. I was very partial to the Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Face Base while using this foundation as it gave me a nice boost of hydration. But if you’re more oily, you might want to go with whatever primer already works for you.

The Nars Soft Matte Foundation is described as being a full coverage foundation with a natural matte finish. And it absolutely ticks those boxes. I was kind of in awe of the finish when I first used it correctly. My freckles were for the most part covered and a lot of my acne scarring was gone too. In the above picture, I actually have a sizable blemish on the left side of my jaw that was completely covered by this foundation. As far as application goes, while all three techniques work well, I found myself really loving the finish when I used a sponge. It really helped blend the foundation into the skin and made it look very soft and natural.

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But now, the all important wear test. And the day I ended up doing it ended up being perfect because we hit well over 40 degrees that day. So, for this foundation to look as good as it did after a pretty intense 8 hour shift is really saying something. I did lose a little bit on my chin because of some soupy noodles that I had for lunch that day. But the rest of my face held up extremely well! It didn’t fade, skin into lines or move around. This foundation is pretty budgeproof and I’m so impressed.

All in all, we might have a new contender for my favourite foundation of the year! The Nars Soft Matte Foundation checks all of my boxes for what I look for in a foundation and I couldn’t recommend it enough. Have you tried the Nars Soft Matte Foundation? Let me know in the comments below!

Cheers and love
Emily xo