Oh my God! You wouldn't believe how difficult I found it to figure out a shade for myself! Especially since all the shade descriptions had neutral in them, I think that's why I never showed too much interest in this particular foundation because y'all know I ain't neutral! Every time I would look into it I'd get confused at the shades and just give up. Plus all the people that I'd consider around my skin tone range were wearing COMPLETELY different shades, from Warm Beige, Sand, Golden, Honey even Caramel, not only that but the online swatches were really unclear (who agrees with me?). In the end I picked Sand because it seemed to look the most yellowest out of all the swatches even though I was originally targeting Warm Beige, I decided a darker shade would be a safer option for my darker hyper-pigmented areas.

I've played around with Sand and I really don't know how I feel about it...seriously guys....It's strange, the first time I tried it my first impressions were like: this is way too neutral beige pink for me and it just looked plain dumb against my yellow neck. The second time I let it sit for a bit and it seemed to look like a manageable warm toned beige and I avoided scrutinising my neck too much LOL I sort of warmed to the shade, it was quite beige but in a warm bronzey way... I think... Third time I found it too peachy pinky orange but in an ashy way and my necks yellowness screamed out at me...I'm so confused...sorry guys, I can definitely clarify that the undertone may be slightly off with this one. Which way to go...? Wait... Let me give it another go now... okay... It's a warm beige neutral... and I think I like it :/ :/ :/

I've added swatches in different lightings and backgrounds because it's really hard trying to get the exact tones of the shades to reflect identically in the pictures. You can see it's pretty beige neutral compared to the very yellow Nars ADLW Stromboli. (UPDATE: New shade Golden Beige now swatched HERE)

These swatches were taken outdoors :

Shade Guide / Chart / Reference :

The texture of Born This Way is a creamy liquid type consistency, it'll run really slowly down the back of your hand. It doesn't feel overly emollient but quite thin and I think I can feel tiny micro powders between my fingers. It's quite thin and not overly creamy and I found it blended out very easily with both brushes and sponges. I first used my favourite H&M BB Cream Brush and it just glided around smoothly and sunk right in. With a sponge however I was having to use up a lot more product but it was again blending out really nicely and smoothly but absorbing some of the product and sheering out the coverage too. I find this foundation sets slightly but softly and it doesn't get patchy. I don't really suffer from dry flakes or patches but my skin has teeny tiny bumps that seem to show mainly when I have makeup on and makeup can exaggerate it but the Born This Way doesn't emphasise the texture too horribly. Even though I think this is quite a forgiving formula for textured skin I still recommend good skin prep for those with dry skin or flakes, good skincare regime / exfoliate and moisturise!

This is a very lightweight formula and it sinks in really nicely into the skin and meshes well with it. It really becomes one with the skin and feels very comfortable. You don't need a lot of product to get coverage so I suppose that's also why it feels so light. This almost reminds me of my Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation but thicker in consistency, more coverage and much more emollient and hydrating. This feels really moisturising and hydrating, bearing in mind we've been having some warm sunny days here in the UK and my skin hasn't been needing as much moisture as it usually does. A little while after application this gets quite emollient on me, I start producing my own oils and when I touch my face I can feel the emollience and dew plus I get an oily sheen imprinted on my fingers. Oily skinned people beware! As the hours went by I could start feeling the foundation on my skin because of how oily I was getting, otherwise it's pretty lightweight. I generally don't use primers, I much prefer to use a good emollient moisturiser under my base as this usually gives me my desired finish since I do have dehydrated skin. But I might consider a primer for this base as it's quite emollient and dewy on me in this weather or instead of primer perhaps a good dusting of powder to keep the oils in. I think this would be a wonderful foundation for me in normal cool British weather.

At first this has a satin - almost demi-matte finish but it soon turns very glowy and dewy on me, it's a beautiful beautiful finish. It just looks so flawless, smooth and pretty on the skin, it highlights the contours of the face slightly and makes me look a little more sculpted strangely enough. It's rather skin like for something that provides a lot of coverage but also does make you look a little done up too. It's strange for me to say this but this gives me the look and finish I expected from the Nars Sheer Glow Foundation all those many many years ago! I find after a couple of hours this can look a bit too shiny on me and it sort of loses its tolerable dewiness. I'd definitely have to set this with powder especially in this current weather. Depending on how much you apply I definitely think you can get an undetectable finish with this. This isn't super pore filling but fills them in just enough and skin appears smooth and healthy, though because of the excess dew the pores can gape open a little after a while which is nothing a little powder can't fix! Also the dew might be unflattering on bumpy textured skin so I recommend using a pore filling powder to smoothen out the skins surface.

I'd say the Too Faced Born This Way can probably give you full coverage, I used around 5 small dots on my face and got medium to almost full coverage. I've realised companies these days are really packing the pigment into the foundations and the formulas are really lightweight and this one's no exception! I have some light marks and some redness with hyperpigmentation around my mouth and this covers them sufficiently, though around my mouth and under my eyes I need to colour correct and go in with a little concealer too. Some days I have used the foundation on its own when I'm going for an uber natural light coverage, without colour correcting or concealing and it looks pretty good like that as well. But honestly speaking, I could get used to a flawless looking face like this you know!

This also builds up really nicely, it's smooth and blends effortlessly, I don't find it gets cakey or patchy at all when building layers. Like I mentioned earlier this is a somewhat forgiving formula for textured skin considering how much coverage it actually provides because more pigment in a foundation usually means more possibility of texture build up or cakiness but this foundation doesn't exaggerate them too much and because it's quite pigmented you don't need too much product on the face, I generally avoid too much product in my textured areas and use foundations sparingly there if I can help it but with this foundation a single layer is more than enough for me.

The weather will determine this of course, right now in this current weather I'll definitely need to powder within half an hour because I'll get oily but I've been wearing this now (without powdering) for over 4 hours now and the foundation hasn't moved, nor has it separated anywhere, it hasn't gotten patchy and the imperfections that needed covering are still concealed, though it is just starting to slightly sit in my lines but not a lot at all. My face is pretty much an oil slick so it obviously needs powdering but it's held up and hasn't melted off, it still looks flawless so I'm very impressed! Without powdering there is a definite risk of it transferring on to stuff very very easily but some powder will definitely lock it in. I really like how this has worn on me, this might be because of the weather but usually because my skin is dehydrated, it tends to drink up any moisture in my foundation and makes my skin look dull, patchy and dehydrated but with the Too Faced I still look flawless! As you already might have figured, I'm really liking this formula!

I haven't noticed any major oxidising with the Too Faced Born This Way but if it actually does alter from its' original tone, then that may explain my confusion with the shade...? 

Overall Thoughts

I really really like the formula of this, it's like a better version of the Nars All Day Luminous where you get coverage with very little product and a barely there feel but without the cakiness or texture build up that the ADLW can cause. With the right powder (I'm thinking Soap & Glory Kick Ass or the Urban Decay Ultra Definition Loose Powder) I can get a pretty flawless, smooth and long lasting perfected base. Typically for me it's another case of perfect formula with a not so perfect shade, but saying that this formula has won me over enough to not be so concerned about a slightly off shade!

Quick roundup (Because my reviews are so long and you can easily get lost in them) :

Pros:

- Feels lightweight

- Little goes a long way

- Really good coverage

- Can give a uber natural finish

- Makes skin look flawless

- Reasonably long lasting (on my skin)

- Blends effortlessly
- Fairly hydrating

Cons:

- A little bit unsure of undertone and match even though I do seem to like it

- Oily skinned people may want to stay wary

I hope you enjoyed this review lovelies, if you have any questions or comments to share please leave them down below. Until next time. Toodles!