Pale Products and More

I was planning to place a Sephora order and then I realized it was about to be the VIB sale and THEN I realized that I'm VIB this year and not just a Beauty Insider and you know I was hype. I was sad The Ordinary was excluded from the sale, but you already know I had plenty other products on my wishlist.

So I reviewed The Cover FX Power Play Foundation here, and I said I was planning purchasing the full size....so a bitch did. This is the first full sized foundation I've bought since repurchasing the Tarte Rainforest of the Sea (which I still like, but I'm not totally as enamored with it as I once was), so its exciting! I've used it several times and I'm not loving it as much as I did? Its been looking a little dry...but maybe my skin is just a bit drier at the moment. I still love the shade so I will continue to work with it.

I also picked up two of the Ambient Lighting Powders, one in Ethereal one in Dim Light. I actually purchased Ethereal in the past, but returned it because I guilty for spending that much on a somewhat unnecessary product since I was using a different powder to set my face. But lately I'm not loving how my Laura Mercier powder is sitting on my face, so I thought I would give these a try. I bought Dim Light to try and use as a subtle glowy bronzer. I have been having a hard time finding an actual bronzer that works on my skin (I thought the Butter Bronzer worked, but it looks really orange lately), and saw someone saying they used Dim Light to bronze. I've been really loving it using it this way! It doesn't pull too orange and has the prettiest finish.

I also decided to pick up the iconic Dior Addict Lip Maximizer Plumping Gloss. I know the og shade is pink, but I picked up Beige Sunrise because I'm a sucker for nudes. It smells like minty vanilla and feels slightly tingly when you first apply. Super buttery and beautiful on, and the shade is a really nice sheer nude.

And that's actually all I purchased (how do people haul so much with this sale like I swear most people drop upwards of $300 I can't even imagine), but I did cash in some points for a little Stila Huge Extreme Lash Mascara. I've been testing it out and I really like it! It doesn't transfer to my top lid in the way my HG Maybelline Full N Soft does, but it can get a little clumpy. I wouldn't purchase a mid range/high end mascara if its not on sale though, so I'll most likely just use this one up and that will be that.

Overall it was a successful VIB sale, here's to the next one!

When I saw the announcement for this product, I wasn't that excited I'll be honest. But once I saw swatches I knew I had to at least try it out, considering how light the lightest shade looked.

The Cover Fx Power Play Foundation retails for $44 for 1.18 oz which is a little more than the standard 1 oz. It is said to be full coverage with a matte finish. A direct description taken from Sephora: "A modern matte, blurring foundation with weightless full coverage that provides sweat-proof all-day wear, long lasting shine control, environmental protection, and a finish that will not oxidize".

The shade N0 is "for fairest porcelain skin with neutral undertones". I love that Cover Fx categorizes their foundations into undertones N (neutral), P (pink), G (golden), and G+ (golden olive). I've previously tried one of their foundations in N10 which pulled extremely yellow on me, but I was still hopeful, as N0 swatched very light. On my skin it actually looks slightly more pink toned than it photographs. Once its blended though, its very neutral and as you can see, blends in very well.


I wore this for 10 hours and prepped and primed with my Smashbox Primer Water. I didn't use a powder as this sets on its own and has a matte finish. I applied it using my Eco Tools sponge, and set with Too Faced Hangover Setting Spray.

applied on left

applied on full face

It applied easily with the sponge, and did not appear patchy. It seemed like it dried quickly, so I would only apply this in sections, not all over at once. The color seemed to match really well, and it had a very soft matte finish. It covered my pores upon initial application, and evened my skintone. I did apply a very thin layer, as I was cautious of the claim of full coverage. I prefer sheer to light coverage (medium is okay), and applying a small amount with a damp sponge and not attempting to build any coverage seems to have yielded light medium coverage.

full face minus lips

After 4 hours I looked okay, pretty good for how foundations have been wearing on me lately. It had settled into my smile lines (typical) but that was the worst of it. My pores were slightly more visible, but nothing crazy. And my oil didn't seem to be coming through as much as it usually is by this point. The shade was also still looking great, no oxidization. Let's not talk about my pose, lmao, I was on break at work and trying to not get seen taking pictures in natural lighting. It does look slightly dry/textured.



At the end of my night (10 hours later) I was pleasantly surprised. I obviously didn't look great, I never will after wearing makeup all day, but I looked pretty good. Again there was (obviously) creasing in my smile lines, but there wasn't any weird texture or heaviness or any separation or oxidization. I was oily at this point, but I have been a lot more oily at the end of the night when wearing other foundations. Also my pores were visible, but not huge as they normally are at this point.



Overall this gets a 9/10 from me, in an ideal world I wish this didn't settle into my smile lines (I wish every foundation didn't but alas), and I wish it was a slightly less dry formula, but other than that I'm really happy with it! Great shade, coverage works for me, no separation/cakiness/etc etc, and decent oil control! I honestly feel like this met all of its claims, which is hard to do. I also wanted to mention I worked this day and was deployed at the drive thru window, and it was raining. That being said I definitely got some rain drops splashed on me from people's windshield wipers, lmao, and I didn't notice any like rubbing off or anything like that, so it seems to even live up to the sweat proof claim. I'm going to actually be purchasing the full size!