When the Nyx Total Control Drop Foundation first came out in stores (before releasing online), I pretty much wrote it off right away; they only had like 5 of the middle shades and for some reason I was convinced they wouldn't have any more (news flash: I'm a dumb bitch what kind of foundation line starts with shade 04???). So once it was released online and I saw they had a really, really good shade range, I was interested again.

This retails for $13.99 for .43 fl oz, this is surprisingly to me as Nyx is considered "drugstore", yet this foundation is $14 and you don't even get the standard 1 fl oz? Weird. It promises "sheer to full coverage" with a matte finish. Personally I think it leaves a nice demi matte finish, and I'm not too sure about it being built up to full coverage.

The shade 01 Pale is described as a "white ivory with yellow undertones", but I opted for this because it looks like neutral/pink undertones don't start until the third or fourth shade, and I found it hard to believe those would match me. It definitely has yellow undertones, which concerned me at first; but when blended onto my face it looks pretty neutral, surprisingly. The first swatch is directly aftering dropping it onto my wrist, to show how runny and yellow it is Second is slightly blended out.

I drop this directly from the dropper onto my face, and blend it out with my sponge, I wore my face for 9 hours, priming with theSaem pore primer and setting with the Hard Candy primer mist. I used like three drops on each side of my face, and two on my forehead, which gave me sheer to light coverage.

Nyx applied on the left half

full face foundation only

After application it really evens out my skin nicely, my pores look smaller. As you can see it only slightly covers any acne I have, leaving it still visible. The night before this review I waxed my upper lip, so you can see some redness that also does not get covered. By the time I was finished with my face, my pores were visible again, and it seemed more of a satin finish.

full face of makeup done

I checked in after 4 hours, my face looked okay. There was some settling and seperating, especially on my upper lip, chin, and around my nose. It was nothing you could see unless you got real up close, but still. It was really creasing into my smile lines as well. On the bright side my face still looked demi matte/satin, not oily in the least.




I did a final check in at 9 hours. I was looking oily, but not as much as usual. The creasing, especially in my smile lines, was more intense; but nothing crazy. My pores actually looked better than they usual do around this time, which surprised me.

flattering. the creasing around my nose seems to have disappeared

Overall I give this product an 8/10. Its decent, and I'm seriously impressed by the shade and the oil+pore control, but I can't just overlook the creasing and separation issues. That being said, after further use of the product, I find that if I moisturize properly beforehand, I don't have those issues. The thing is, I sleep late most of the time, so I don't always moisturize as much as I should (example: the day of this review). I'm not sure I would repurchase this, but I'm definitely going to be reaching for it pretty often, simply because of the shade (and not needing to mix in a white foundation which takes extra time).