I was in Toronto this weekend and decided to pop by Holt Renfrew to check out Giorgio Armani’s Luminous Silk Foundation. Victoria’s Secret model Jasmine Tookes raves about it and she has the most beautiful skin so I wanted to give it a try.

This is one of many happy customer service stories I’ve had recently with Holt’s.



[PHOTOS]

I’m going to stick with the idea that I’m MAC NC45 so you have a better frame of reference.

Here’s a photo of me without makeup.

Here’s a photo of me in Shade 10 which is intended for ‘deep skin with warm undertones.’ It’s quite dark and orange on me, but I imagine it’d be perfect in the summer.

I think the lighting washed out just how orange and deep it was on my skin but hopefully you’ll be able to see a difference compared to the lighter shade. This however, would probably work on my summer skin.

We also tried Shade 9 which is intended for ‘tan to deep skin with neutral undertones.’ This shade gave me an unflattering grayness and was way to neutral for my skin, although it was a better match for the depth of my skin tone.

I left Holt’s empty handed but upon doing some research realized there’s also a shade 8.5 which is for ‘tan to deep with warm undertones.’ I ended up going back and asking her about it to which she was greatly embarrassed she hadn’t considered it. The shade wasn’t even on display for some reason so I don’t blame her for not thinking of it.

Here’s what it looks like on:

Because she was so embarrassed about making me come back (and the fact that her manager was there) she gave me a complimentary foundation brush. Based on my searches, I think this was a full sized one with a value of $54CAD. Definitely not going to complain about the 10 extra minutes of walking.

Edit: This shade is now too light for me in the winter, but is still perfect in the summer time.

[Application/Wear]

The formula is more watery than anything else I’ve ever used before so I wouldn’t exactly recommend putting it on the back of your hand. I used two full pumps for my entire face just to get a feel for the coverage, however I think I could have done with one.

Even in blending out a full pump of the product onto my forehead I didn’t feel that it looked cakey or streaky. The finish is very similar to NARS Luminous Foundation but Armani’s blends far more easily and in my opinion gives you more room for error in application.

It also had a similar formulation and finish to Maybelline’s Dream Wonder Fluid Touch Foundation. Maybelline’s a tad more matte in comparison to Armani’s aptly named ‘silk’ finish. The Maybelline collection also suffers from a narrower shade range. The only shade I have is quite ashy and needs to be mixed with a darker colour but Honey Beige 90 would be comparable to the Armani foundation in shade 9.

I applied it at 9:30AM and it looked absolutely perfect until around 6PM, only starting to break up around 8PM, after a 2 hour train ride.

Hope this was helpful!

xx

Alyssa