I Tried 8 L'Oreal Foundations so you don't have to...Ranking Best & Worst for Dry, Mature Skin

Hello, hello! L'Oreal is very well known for their foundations. They make quite a few, and I tried almost all of them, so you don't have to. I am going to go through this mini-review style, and I'm going to loosely rank them top and bottom, favorite and fail. You get the idea. Some of my rankings might be unpopular opinions, so if I put your favorite foundation at the bottom, please don't be offended. We all have different skin types and preferences. In fact, the reason a foundation doesn't work for me might be the very reason that you love it. A couple of side notes, as usual. I am looking at these foundations through the lens of how they work on my almost 63-year-old, very dry skin, which includes some fine lines and some not-so-fine lines, sun spots, age spots, all the usual suspects. My foundation preference is a light to medium coverage. I don't want to look makeup-y. I want my skin to look like skin. I don't mind if some imperfections peek through. And as far as finish, I really prefer a skin-like finish, a glowy finish. Matte foundations just tend to suck the life out of my skin, but I don't want to go overly dewy either. One last thing. I really don't use primers under my foundation. I consider my skincare, moisturizer, and my daily SPF to be my primer. So for consistency's sake, I use the same moisturizer for all the testing, Dermatology Peptide Night Cream. Yes, you can use a night cream as a day cream. And as we're getting into the colder months, I really do need the extra moisturization. And for SPF, I wanted to use a clear SPF so as not to impact the foundation shades. So for all the application, I use the Canmake Mermaid Sun Gel SPF 50++++. Everything will be listed and linked in the description box as usual. Starting at the bottom, I have the Visible Lift Serum Absolute Advanced Age Reversal SPF 17. This also happens to have the lowest star rating on the L'Oreal website at 3.4 stars out of 5. It runs in the $12 price range. It does come with a pump. It does come in 12 shades. I have it in the shade 146 Nude Beige. And even though it is a thicker consistency, it does have a nice silky spread to it. You know, even though there's only 12 shades, this is one of the best shade matches I've found. Not too warm, not too cool. Nice and neutral. L'Oreal claims that this foundation will reverse five signs of aging over time. I personally never rely on my foundation for my skincare or for my SPF for that matter, but I do appreciate the fact that they did attempt to put some skin-loving ingredients. It includes Ascorbyl Glucoside, which is vitamin C, antioxidant, retinol palmitate, which is a vitamin A derivative, there's glycerin, dimethicone, sodium hyaluronate, and it gets the SPF of 17 from the octanoxanate. Now, although I didn't see fragrance listed, it definitely has a detectable fragrance. So if you're looking for fragrance-free, this might not be for you. As far as the other claims, L'Oreal states it has medium coverage, radiant finish, which I actually disagree with. I found the coverage to veer more towards full coverage and it didn't look radiant on my skin at all. In fact, it leaned a little bit too matte for my preference. It claims to be for all skin types. They really didn't have a wear time claim, but I did find it to be long-wearing. However, as the day wore on, my skin looked drier and older. Age reversal, not so much. Next up, we have the L'Oreal True Match Lumi Healthy Luminous Makeup SPF 20. This is 4 out of 5 star rated on the L'Oreal website and it is in the $8 to $12 price range. It does come with a pump. You can see it has a nice, creamy consistency, not too runny, but a little thinner than the previous foundation I showed you. It comes in 20 shades. I have it in the shade N3 Natural Buff. I hope you can see how very, very orange that shade is on me. This is supposed to be a neutral shade. Although they have some skin care claims, they claim to have medium luminous coverage, I got so frustrated with the shade. This is one of the last foundations I purchased for this video. I didn't want to go back to the store and purchase foundation after foundation if their neutral shade is this orange on me, I just didn't think I would be able to find a shade. For reference, and one of the reasons I purchased N3 Natural Buff, is because that shade in one of their other foundations is perfect on me. Here is the True Match Lumi and here is their other True Match, both N3 Natural Buff. You can see a huge, huge difference. So I'm not going to show application. They claim medium luminous coverage. I think based on just this little swatching that I've been doing, I think the coverage is very luminous. They claim for all skin types. I don't know if a combo or oily person would appreciate this level of luminosity. But for me, based on the shade alone, the L'Oreal True Match Lumi is a fail. This one is a super popular foundation and it is the L'Oreal Infallible 24-Hour Fresh Wear SPF 25. It is 4.5 star rated on the L'Oreal website and the price range is $11 to $16. It comes in 30 shades. I picked up 2 shades. This is 420 True Beige, which is a tad too light, and 425 Linen, which is just a little bit too yellow, but I can make it work. It comes with a pump, and I think you can see it has a nice thin consistency. It really does feel silky as you blend it in. As far as the claims on this foundation, there are no specific skin care claims. Long lasting is the main claim to fame. They do state it has lightweight, medium to full, buildable, natural, healthy looking coverage with 24-hour wear for all skin types. Ingredients include octanoxonate, titanium dioxide, there are 2 dimethicones, there is vitamin E. I actually think this is the only foundation without glycerin on the ingredient list. Denatured alcohol is number 4 on the ingredient list and added fragrance is halfway down. Even though this foundation has a nice liquidy consistency, it does set down and get tacky very, very quickly. So I do recommend working it on one section of your face at a time. I don't know if you can tell from the footage here, but it was sort of dragging as I was trying to apply it even though I only did half of my face at a time. The coverage leaned a little bit too on the full coverage side for my preference and it definitely veered matte. So this is an unpopular opinion. Yes, many people love it, but it is just not my favorite. Before we go any further, I want to take just a moment and talk about denatured alcohol. It is a very common and quite controversial ingredient. It is used as a solvent and as a penetration enhancer to create cosmetically elegant, lightweight formulas. However, it can be very drying on the skin and some experts even think that regular exposure to denatured alcohol can actually damage our skin's moisture barrier. It seems to be a little bit more common in drugstore foundations than high-end, so I think it's just an easy, cheap way to formulate products. For my super dry skin, anything with denatured alcohol too high up on the ingredient list just cannot be in my everyday rotation. I just don't want to take the risk of drying out my skin or damaging my skin's moisture barrier. However, on the occasion where I do use something with denatured alcohol high up on the list, I do want to create a barrier. I was really surprised to find that 5 out of the 8 foundations that I am reviewing today do have denatured alcohol in the first 5 ingredients. I will call it out as we go through, but again, I encourage you to do your own research and I will list some information in the description box below. First up, we have the L'Oreal True Match Nude Hyaluronic Acid Tinted Serum with 1% Hyaluronic Acid. This is 4.4 star rated. It is the most expensive at $14.00 to $19.99. It comes in this horrible dropper situation which is super, super messy. It comes in 14 shades and you can see it is fairly runny. I have it in the shade 3-4 Light Medium which is just ever so slightly too deep for my skin tone. Because it is so liquidy, I really do prefer to apply this with my fingers and follow with a sponge. The claims on this one, hydrating, natural, radiant finish, lightweight coverage while hydrating and smoothing. Ingredients include denatured alcohol is number 3 on the list. It does have a couple of dimethicones, silica, clay, chocopherol, glycerin, hyaluronic acid. It definitely has a scent. I do find this to be super blendable with my fingers. It offers a very light, natural, undetectable coverage. It dries down quickly so no powder needed. But it wasn't particularly radiant on my dry skin. I found it to have more of a natural, skin-like finish. It is very long-lasting on my skin. I often use it as a blender to lighten the coverage and extend the wear of other foundations. Next up, the Age Perfect Radiant Serum Foundation SPF 50. It is 5-star rated and in the $13-$17 price range. It does come in 30 shades. I have it in the shade 25. Cream beige, which is just a tad too warm for my skin tone. You can see it has a nice, liquidy texture. This is another one that I really do enjoy applying with my fingers. I have to say, I really do appreciate their marketing has evolved from Age Reversal, the first foundation I shared with you, to Age Perfect. This foundation was specifically designed for mature skin. The claims are lightweight, radiant coverage. There are no specific skin care claims or wear time claims other than all-day hydration. Ingredients include... Now, it does claim an SPF 50, but again, it is just one foundation for SPF, and they're not using octinoxinate. The filters they're using is homosalate, octisalate, octocrylene, and titanium dioxide. Other ingredients include, unfortunately, denatured alcohol is number 5 on the list, which is disappointing since this is supposed to be a super-hydrating foundation. It does have a couple of dimethicones, and it does have hyaluronic acid, glycerin. You know, this does blend really nicely with my fingers. It provides a light, medium, very radiant coverage. It does stay tacky for a while, so you might need to powder it. Not particularly long-lasting. My favorite way to use this foundation is a 50-50 blend with the serum foundation that I just talked about. Now we're getting to the top 3. L'Oreal Pro Glow SPF 15. It is 4.3 star rated in the $11 to $14 price range. 12 shades. 202 was too light for me. 204 was too deep. 203 is just right. You can see it has a nice, light, liquidy consistency. You can use this to blend easily. Fingers, brush, sponge. Whatever your preference is. The claims on the Pro Glow include medium, radiant, long-lasting, up to 24-hour coverage. I don't know about that. You know, this is one of their older foundations before skin care claims became popular. So there are no skin care claims, but I am very disappointed to see denatured alcohol number 3 on the list. It also has dimethicones, glycerin, talc, silica, vitamin E, and it does contain fragrance. This was my very first L'Oreal foundation. I have been using and loving it for about the past 5 years. But now that I know about denatured alcohol, this can no longer be an everyday go-to. I love it because it blends effortlessly. I love the light, medium, radiant, natural-looking coverage. It never looks dry and cakey on me. And it really wears gracefully throughout the day. I will keep it on hand, but I am not sure yet if I will repurchase. This next one has really grown on me. And it is the L'Oreal Age Perfect 4-in-1 Tinted Balm. It is 4.5 star rated and 5 star rated in the $13 to $16 price range. It only comes in 8 shades, which is a huge bummer. And I do feel like the shades run a little bit on the deep side. So I purchased the 2 lightest shades, shade 10 Light Claire and shade 20 Fair Claire. This has such a unique consistency. It's very balmy, definitely balmy. And I am going to swatch both my shades for you. So there is the 10 and there is the 20. And I actually like to blend these 2 shades together to get a good shade match for me. I actually prefer to apply this with a brush and just stipple it on and finish it off with a sponge. The claims. L'Oreal states this is a skincare-inspired formula which will restore firmness over time. I am sorry, I just don't buy that. They do claim it to have a light, medium, radiant, hydrating coverage. There are no wear time claims. Ingredients include glycerin, 4 dimethicones, hyaluronic acid, vitamin E, tea and fruit extracts, wax, peptides, no SPF, no alcohol and no detectable fragrance. When I first tried this several months ago, I wasn't super impressed. The coverage is sheer to light at best. It really disappears into the skin, although it does look very natural and radiant. But now that the seasons have changed and my skin is much drier, I really do appreciate the hydrating feeling of the balm. This is a super easy, fast, out the door on errands, nothing fancy, almost more of a tinted moisturizer than a foundation. Lastly, and absolutely my number one, this is a super easy, fast, out the door on errands, Lastly, and absolutely my number one favorite is the True Match Super Blendable SPF 17. This is 4.3 star rated and it is the most affordable, very easy to find for under $10. It has 45 shades which is absolutely incredible and I found the perfect shade N3 Natural Buff. It does not come with a pump so I am going to try to pour just the right amount out to show you the consistency. There we go. Oh my gosh, it is just such a lightweight, super easy to blend formula. Again, N3 Natural Buff is a perfect shade for me. My favorite way to apply this is with my fingers and finish up with a sponge. Now this foundation has been around for 15 years before we got into all the fancy claims so the claims on this one are simple. A hydrating, medium buildable coverage, natural skin like finish, no specific wear time claims and no specific skin care claims other than it is moisturizing. I love the ingredient list on this one. Oil free, fragrance free, there are several dimethicones, glycerin, silica, panthenol, urea, vitamin E, all lovely hydrating ingredients. This has been popular for 15 years for good reason. I love the ingredients, it is super easy to apply, it literally looks like skin while providing lovely medium coverage. It dries down nicely, no powder needed, no blemishes and wrinkles, it's just very natural looking. It wears gracefully throughout the day. I think it would work for all skin types. This is also my cousin's favorite foundation. She is 68 years old, she used to be a makeup artist so I really trust her opinion. So this one is Virginia approved. It is a keeper for sure and one I will absolutely repurchase. I hope you can see we really can find lovely foundations at the drug store but as you can see there is a lot to take into consideration and a lot of trial and error. I do think it is easier to find a higher end foundation. They just seem to invest the time and money in quality ingredients creating elegant formulas and none of my high end foundations have denatured alcohol. Also we can get samples, try before we buy. Sometimes I spend less money buying one high end foundation than I do with all this trial and error at the drug store. I would love to hear your thoughts, drug store versus high end. I would also love to hear some of your favorite foundations. I always get the best recommendations from you. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video and found it helpful and if you did I would love it if you would throw it a thumbs up. Please subscribe to my channel and I very much appreciate it. With all that being said, I hope you have a beautiful day and a wonderful week. I look forward to visiting with you in the comments section and I hope to see you in my next video. Thank you. Bye.