Two Wonderful Drugstore Foundations! L’Oreal Infallible Pro Glow & Revlon Photoready Inst

Before stumbling onto these two drugstore foundations, I hadn’t bought a drugstore foundation in YEARS! I think the last foundation I tried was Bourjois Healthy Mix and that had to of been agggges ago. To be honest, drugstores can kinda scare me with their foundation shades. On a whim I bought the L’Oreal Infallible Pro Glow foundation, as I loved the sound of a glowy and dewey foundation. I didn’t want to spend a lot on a foundation as my tretinoin acne treatments had made my skin dry and peel a bit – making it super temperamental (to the point where a $90 foundation would look dry and awful on my skin). Therefore buying a more reasonably priced foundation was less risky 😉 The Pro Glow foundation has been out for a while, but at least with certainty now I can tell you that I love it! The Revlon Photoready Insta-Filter foundation was a purchase on a whim whilst browsing Priceline. I have never purchased or tried a Revlon foundation before – can you believe it?! The Photoready Insta-Filter foundation is very different to to the Infallible Pro Glow, but that’s a good thing as they come in handy on different days! 😊 To find out more about both products, keeping on reading!

L’Oreal Infallible Pro-Glow Foundation

24HR ALL-DAY GLOW FOUNDATIONL’Oreal Paris Infallible Pro-Glow Foundation is enriched with Vitamin E. The hydrating formula keeps skin looking fresh all day long, while the lightweight formula offers superior bendability. This longwear, dewy, glow finish is great for normal to dry skin offering a medium coverage. SPF 15 protection. This dewy foundation shows that longwear can be anything but dull and never greasy. How to apply foundation: Shake well. Dot onto skin in rolling motion and blend for flawless coverage.

Just as a disclaimer, I haven’t tried the original L’Oreal Infallible foundation that is also in a similar looking tube (but with a red highlight on the tube instead of aqua). Both foundations however, claim the wear for 24 hours. I don’t know who would want their foundation to last for 24 hours in impeccable condition, but I assume the point they are trying to get across is that it is VERY long wearing. I’ll get onto whether it is long wearing or not in a bit 😉 but first, the texture! The foundation as a very traditional fluid texture. It’s not very thin and runny but neither is it very thick. The squeeze plastic tube packaging works very well with the foundation and it makes the product very portable and light, which I like! As per L’Oreal’s suggestion, blending into into the skin with a rolling motion leaves a streak-free and beautiful finish. You can do this easily with a dampened sponge or if applying with my fingers, I spread it out like a cream but then work the foundation into my skin with a patting motion (with my fingertips). Both application methods work fine and the foundation doesn’t go streaky. I don’t use a brush to apply foundation anymore, so I can’t comment on whether a brush (and what kind of brush) works.

The foundation is medium coverage and you can build it up a bit. I just pat a little extra foundation where I need it and it blends out seamlessly. What I looove about this foundation is that it is indeed dewey and it doesn’t look flat on the skin at all 💦 It gives your skin a gorgeous sheen without looking greasy. After about 5-6 hours it can tend to look more shiny in the t-zone, but this will depend on how much sebum your skin naturally produces. I like the added shine you get from the foundation but if it’s too much, a blotting paper works well to tone it down. I haven’t found another drugstore foundation that gives you a dewey finish without looking like grease!

Because it is dewey however, it can move around on your face if you accidentally touch or wipe your face with clothing or a tissue. Because of this, I’m not sure it would last for 24 hours on the skin in perfect condition (I wouldn’t expect it to personally, but that is the claim L’Oreal is making). Perhaps if the foundation set like Estee Lauder’s DoubleWear Light, the claim would be legit, but I’m not sure the claim holds up for Pro-Glow. When my skin isn’t seriously dry and flakey, it’s sits beautifully on the skin. When my skin is seriously parched and peeling, it does have a tendency to ‘sit on top’ of the skin looking a little unblended. I don’t fault the foundation for this however, as acne treatments (tretinoin) are seriously hard core. For regular dry to normal skin, it should work beautifully! Oily skin might find it moves around the face too much and it doesn’t provide any oil control per se.

Photo on Top: No foundation, just a bare face 😊

Photo Below: Wearing L’Oreal’s Infallible Pro-Glow Foundation in colour #202 Creamy Natural 🌟 I’m also wearing it under my eyes and have not powdered my skin. The powder you use to set the foundation will also make a difference in regards to the skin texture and glow (so you can mellow out the dewiness or amplify it further!). 

The second thing I absolutely love about this foundation (besides it’s dewey finish) is the undertone of shade #202 Creamy Natural. It is soooo wonderfully neutral, I am shocked! Drugstore foundations tends to either be really peachy/orange or pink, so finding a neutral colour can be mission impossible. Not with this range though! 🥰  There are only 6 foundation shades in the Pro-Glow line though, so I am very aware that some Beauties won’t find a perfect match for themselves (drugstore brands tend to be limited shade wise, which is a massive disadvantage). However, I do like that the last two shades, #207 Sand Beige and #208 Sun Beige do seem quite deep (especially #208). Limited, but the shades do jump a few tones up with every colour. #202 Creamy Natural isn’t the lightest shade, but one up from it. I would also say that it is just as neutral as Estee Lauder’s DoubleWear Light shade in Intensity 2.0.  

The foundation contains an SPF of 15 which is nice. I wouldn’t rely on the sunscreen in the foundation to protect my skin from UV rays alone, but together with a higher spf product (30+ or 50+) it’s a nice addition (the more the better!).

Summary

✅ Does provide medium, buildable coverage

✅ Radiant, dewey finish (without shimmer)

✅ Texture is air-light and natural looking (but it doesn’t ‘set’ on it’s own)

✅ Wears for 8 hours plus without fading or going patchy, but I haven’t tested it for 24 hours lol 🙄

✅ The price point will be great for most Beauties

✅ Shade #202 Creamy Natural is beautifully neutral!

❎ Not transfer resistant

Pro-Glow retails for $27.95 for 30ml of product (standard for foundation) but you can often get it on sale at Priceline or Chemist Warehouse, so it’s worth waiting for a promotion to try it. I think you can even pick it up at Woolworths now (a supermarket) ✌️

Revlon Photoready Insta-Filter Foundation 

Our newest flawless-finish foundation with built-in blender so you have a perfected makeup look anytime, anywhere.Our innovative formula works with your skin type and evens and smooths your skin tone, to leave you with a fresh faced, natural finish full range of high-definition shades.Features:• Medium, buildable coverage • All day wear • High-Definition Filter technology captures and transforms any light to blur and soften flaws

I had never tried a Revlon foundation before because they always seemed very heavy to me (e.g. Colorstay was known for being a little on the thick and heavy side, whilst being very long lasting and good for oily skin) and incredibly peachy toned. This foundation stood out to me after hearing some good reviews and the colour #150 Buff looks very yellow (each tube is coloured as per the shade inside or closely to it). I thought that the colour would be worth trying (hoping to wouldn’t make me look like a banana though lol….). I also figured that surely Revlon would have lots of different foundations on the lighter side of textures, since makeup has come a looooong way since the 90s and even early 2000s. Can I just say though, that because ‘Photoready’ is spelt as one word even though it is two words, this drives me crazy. I’m not generally a grammar nazi but come on 😓 I get the whole connotation to Instagram and selfies, but it’s a little silly. Anyways, back to the foundation!

The Insta-Filter foundation has unfortunately a very annoying applicator slash packaging. The foundation gets pushed up through the tube through a pump mechanism (you twist the bottom of the bottle to dispense the product) and through a sponge. The thinking is that you can use the sponge to apply and blend out the foundation. But anyone will know that an unremovable sponge means you can’t easily wash it and it will just generate bacteria. I’m not a germaphobe, but knowing how much oil your face can produce and spots, I’d rather not go there (as I’m sure most Beauties wouldn’t!). Also, I prefer to use a damp sponge for a more natural and dewey finish, so a dry sponge applicator does not appeal to me. The other issue is that the sponge just gets messy and you waste product because it gets absorbed into the sponge 🤦🏼‍♀️ facepalm I don’t know who thinks that these kind of applicators are good because I’ve never heard of anyone being a fan of them. The other issue is, that the cap has a little plastic stick that goes into the middle/hole of the sponge, to stop product from flowing out. But this doesn’t work either, because there’s always product already moving up the sponge cavity, so the product gets pushed to the top when you put the cap on 😓 So how do I dispense the product? Once twisting it up through the sponge, I just dispense it onto the back of my hand. You will lose some product thanks to the sponge, but maybe that’s why they give you 35.3g instead of your standard 30g lol 😜

Above Left: Bare faced. Above Right: Wearing Revlon’s Photoready Insta-Filter Foundation. You can see that the tone of #150 Buff is yellow (mellowing out any redness in my skin wonderfully!) it does not make me look unnatural or like a banana (as the packaging of the foundation would suggest!) 😉🌟

So how is this foundation different from the L’Oreal’s Pro-Glow? It’s still giving you medium coverage but the finish is totally different. It’s quite similar to Marc Jacobs Shameless foundation – it has a Demi-matte finish but isn’t quite as dry as the Shameless foundation (which is probably more high coverage than medium). The foundation itself is also a little more dense than Pro-Glow. I use my fingers to blend out the foundation and work it into my skin. It blends out beautifully and seamlessly (no sponge is required after all lol 😅). It’s maybe not as powdery or flat like ‘traditional’ old school formulations tended to be and maybe this is where the ‘filter’ comes into play. It is a buildable formula and does at least partly set, but you can’t feel it on your skin and that’s a major bonus! You easily get 8 hours plus wear from this foundation.

Despite Buffs very yellow tone, it’s not quite as yellow as the packaging suggests phew lol 🍌 The other shades I played with at Priceline, were definitely more on the peachy side of things and Buff was the only shade *from what I could see that had a yellow undertone. I find that to be an odd imbalance of tones but at the same time, they have 9 shade offerings in the Insta-Filter foundation line (so better than L’Oreal’s Pro-Glow offering). Does it ‘enhance’ dry patches on your skin? Not excessively no. It will certainly be a good foundation choice for oily skin types, but normal to dry skin types should still be able to work with the foundation 😊

As mentioned earlier, you get 35.3g of product for $34.95. Again, you can usually find it somewhere on sale (currently at Priceline, you can get if for half price!) at chemists (like Chemist Warehouse) and Myer.

Summary

✅ Provide medium, buildable coverage

✅ Demi-matte finish

✅ Partly sets and doesn’t transfer easily but is still light weight and natural looking

✅ Wears for 8 plus hours

❎ Terrible packaging, though I like the pump mechanism (but not the sponge!)

While Revlon’s Insta-Filter foundation is more expensive, because of different sales and promotions (like Priceline’s half price off Revlon sale) they are hard to compare price wise. I think both foundations add their own benefits to my ‘foundation wardrobe’ and I’d recommend both! The biggest downfall of drugstore makeup brands is still foundation shades and tonal varieties, but that is getting better slowly…

Neither foundation breaks me out, which is very important to add! 😅🥰

Swatches of both foundations on my face. The top swatch is L’Oreal’s Infallible Pro-Glow foundation in colour #202 Creamy Natural and below, Revlon’s Photoready Insta-Filter foundation in colour #150 Buff.

So tell me Beauties, do any of these foundations spark your interest? What is your current favourite drugstore foundation? Maybe you’ve tried something new? Let me know below!

Catch ya next time~

Beauty Bee~

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