Emmie Reviews – Colourpop No Filter Foundation

When Colourpop launched their No Filter Concealer last year, we all knew it was only a matter of time before they expanded their range. And just last month, they finally bought out the long awaited No Filter Complexion range, adding a pressed powder, a loose powder and the long awaited foundation to the line. When I mentioned on Instagram that I was interested in picking up the whole lot, I was bombarded with requests to review it. And having now played around with it for a couple of weeks, I’m pretty excited to talk about it.

COLOURPOP NO FILTER NATURAL MATTE FOUNDATION – $12.00US – colourpop.com (42 shades available)

I’ll start with the shade range first. The No Filter Foundation range has 42 shades. Six different categories with seven shades in each category. The pressed powders come in six shades, one for each category. And finally, there are three loose powders. Translucent, Banana and Translucent Deep. It’s always awesome to see such an inclusive shade range so props to Colourpop. When trying to find the best shade for me, I used the Temptalia Foundation Matrix and I ended up choosing Fair 35, which was a pretty spot on match for me once the foundation had dried down.

I ordered the foundation on the day it came out and it arrived in Mount Isa over two weeks later. Considering my and other people’s previous histories with Colourpop shipping, this isn’t too bad. The package was wrapped especially well, with both foam and bubble wrap used to keep the foundations from moving around too much.

Next, the packaging. Unlike the concealer, which is in an acrylic packaging, The No Filter Foundation is in a glass bottle. Normally, this would worry me (I’m a klutz and I drop things frequently) but it did make it’s way from California to my house in one piece. So as long as I pack it well, it should be OK for travel. The stars on the bottle are a very cute touch. One interesting feature that I did like is that it foregoes a cap for a locking feature. You just twist the pump and it locks in place, preventing any foundation from accidentally pumping out. The foundation itself only has 25ml, which is less than the standard 30ml, but for the price, I don’t mind having a little less.

When applying the foundation for the first time, I was surprised to find that it had a very liquidy consistency. I assumed that it would be a lot thicker than what it was. Due to this, I felt like I had to use a lot of foundation to cover my whole face. If I remember correctly, I used around four and a half pumps on my first attempt. Three pumps to cover the face, and then a pump and a half for a bit of extra coverage on the nose and cheeks.

I also quickly discovered when I first applied it that when I used a brush (I used the Sigma F80 brush), it became very streaky and it didn’t buff in very well. Using a sponge however, I found that it blended out pretty easily. So I highly recommend a sponge with this foundation.

On Colourpop’s website, they described this foundation as a medium coverage with a natural matte finish. Overall, I would have to agree. It covered up my redness and my faded acne scarring with minimal effort, but It still allowed my freckles to peek through. Another thing to note is that it’s liquidy nature meant that it didn’t feel heavy at all and I often forgot that I was even wearing foundation. If I did have a negative note, I noticed that pretty quickly, it had clung a bit to some of the blemishes that I had on my face at the time. If you have dry skin or just some drier patches, this might be something to look out for.

The first time I wore this foundation, I wore it for around 10 hours while doing my day to day tasks and it lasted on me pretty dang well. It was a slightly hotter day the first time that I wore it, so I did need to break out the powder on a few occasions, especially while I was uptown. I had no major fading or breaking down around the nose and upper lip area (my two problem areas). I did notice though that after a few hours, it had cracked a little around my smile lines and my forehead wrinkles. This is pretty normal for me and after popping on a little extra powder, that sorted it out. It didn’t sink into my pores all that badly and it didn’t clog them either.

One other thing of note is that the range didn’t initially come with a primer (Colourpop has since released a primer), so I did do a little experimentation to see which primer would work best. I tried a long wear primer (Rimmel Lasting Finish), a firming primer (Guerlain L’or) and a pore minimizing primer (Face By R Pore Perfecting). All three of these primers worked well with the foundation.

Below is some swatches of The No Filter Foundation with some other foundations in my collection.

I’ve now worn this foundation enough times for me to say that I highly recommend it. If you’re in the market for a really good, lightweight, day to day foundation, this is one that is hard to go past. Just make sure that you do your research when picking out your shade!

Cheers and love
Emmie xo