If you were around last Winter then you most likely were involved in the L’Oreal Infallible Pro-Matte foundation hype. People went nuts for this lightweight, budget friendly, demi-matte product. I personally owned at least two tubes of it and used it on the reg. So as you can imagine, when L’Oreal announced they were making a ‘glow’ version it was game on. The Pro-Glow was set to carry the same benefits of the Pro-Matte formula; good for normal to dry skin, 24 hour wear, and 12 shades, but this time with a luminous finish to ride off of on the trending dewy makeup look.
Discover the new pro finish of longwear: up to 24 hour wear with a hydrating glow.
The Pro-Glow utilizes the same packaging as the Pro-Matte, only this time with a blue hue on the package instead of red. I find this build of tube to be useful and minimal; nothing special or fancy, but easy enough to twist off and squeeze out some product. The Pro-Glow formula is definitely a lot more watery than the matte -which can be expected. It is recommended to shake the bottle before applying, so I’ll usually do that and then squeeze a dime size of product onto my back of my hand. I then use a fluffy foundation brush to sweep the product across my face (a beauty blender would work great here as well). I find the coverage of this foundation to be definitely medium and that it applies as a light texture. Personally, this type of serum-like formula is my favorite when it comes to foundations since you can always double up on coverage if you feel like certain areas of your face needs more.
One tip is that you definitely need to set this foundation with a powder; otherwise it can be a bit too greasy feeling. I usually end up doing this anyway with my foundations but if it’s something you normally skip then it can be a deterrent to using this on a daily basis.
My biggest peeve with this foundation is shade matching. You would think that if a brand is creating the same product but in a different formula than the colors would match – wrong. Although I was normally a Shell Beige 102 in the matte formula I was no where near the same in the glow formula. Actually there wasn’t even a Shell Beige 102 that existed for glow. I’ve purchased two different shades so far (firstly 207 Sand Beige and now 205 Natural Beige) and frankly neither of them are a true match. Part of me knows I need to go back to the store to snag a lighter shade, but the other part of me dreads going back for a third time. To add to that, the glow formula definitely oxidizes a lot more than the matte one – meaning it can go orange or darker as it interacts with the air. Normally when trying out foundations I would swatch the product in store, walk around into natural light, and see how it performs. However drugstores don’t normally let you swatch or test anything out so it’s hard to find out how a color really works with your tone. To beat the system I’d recommend going at least one shade lighter than what you think is your match, just in case.
For my last note on the shade frustration, out of the 12 shades there is only one that I would consider to be light or deep on both sides. This can be extremely frustrating if your skin tone falls within that range – although L’Oreal has stated that they are coming out with more shades.
Overall, I think this is a really solid foundation once you find the right shade for you. Personally I don’t think it lives up to the Pro-Matte hype and I would normally purchase a more high-end foundation if I was looking for something glowy since the formula is hard to nail down. However, at $13 a pop this can be a really great option for an everyday “throw on and go”. Does it really last for 24 hours? Frankly, I wouldn’t ever test this out nor do I need a foundation to last for an entire day. However I do find that the Pro-Glow is fairly long lasting but I normally need to powder halfway through the day (as I do with most glowy foundations).
Have you tested this foundation out? How do you like it compared to the matte version?
UPDATE (one day later): I snagged shade 203 Nude Beige last night at the drugstore and it’s such a better match. Now with a true application I can say that I really do love this product. It smoothes out the skin and a little bit goes a long way in application purposes. Now, you only need to find your shade…
