We Review The Ordinary: Is Their Foundation As Amazing As Their Skin Care Products?

We Review The Ordinary: Is Their Foundation As Amazing As Their Skin Care Products?

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We have all been huge fans of The Ordinary at Friday Petite for years, with their amazing skin care products that get visible results while being some of the most affordable products on the market. The Ordinary’s ethos is focused on integrity and honesty and they offer pioneering products without the inflated prices and who can’t get on board with that right?

So when we heard they were releasing a foundation we were excited to say the least. If they could deliver a foundation as good as their skin care products then this just might be the best foundation you can buy, and I was the lucky one who was going to find out.

I’ve never really spent a great deal of money on foundation and I’ve always felt a little guilty about that as I do tend to wear make-up most days. But buying any new beauty product can be quite confusing. There is a lot of choice and a lot of big claims and if I’m totally honest, I’ve rarely noticed a difference from one foundation to the next and I will often use one mid-range foundation until it runs out and then likely move on to something else when I see a better deal. I’ve tried the more expensive products but the only difference in quality I could ever see was in the packaging rather than the foundation. Perhaps they use better ingredients but that is probably a generous assumption...

But when it comes to skin care, I had always sworn by The Ordinary, and I was yet to be let down by any of their products. So I have to say that before I tried The Ordinary’s Serum Foundation I was a little nervous. I so desperately didn’t want to be disappointed by this but at the same time the foundation only costs £5.70 which is unbelievably cheap. Was this going to be too good to be true?

The bottle is simple and light, similar to their skincare products. There is no lid, you just turn the nozzle when you want to use it, and turn it back when you’re done. I was surprised to find that the foundation was more watery in consistency than I was expecting, certainly my normal foundation was a lot thicker so I wasn’t sure how much coverage I was going to get out of this – please don’t disappoint me I thought!

I started applying the foundation to my face with my brush using the same amount of foundation I normally use and I was really surprised at how far a very small amount was going and I even had to take some of the foundation off the brush as there was much more than I needed.

To say it glided on is an understatement. It was so light and silky and yet the coverage was still really good. When I finished applying the foundation, I was left with a really lovely complexion. The colour matched me perfectly, it wasn’t quite matte but my skin had a healthy glow without any sheen. It looked incredibly natural. The rest of my make-up went on top of the foundation really nicely too and when I finished and took a good look at my face I felt that I looked really well, in a healthy and well rested kind of way. It was a small but obvious difference.  

I later found out that the gliding effect is part of The Ordinary’s unique ‘spreadability system’ designed to glide on to leave a smooth, ‘subtly perfected’, semi-matte finish that doesn’t settle into fine lines, leaving you looking fresh.

So how did The Ordinary’s foundation fair through a busy day of working from home, a daily walk and a lot of face touching (cause that’s just who I am)….

The Verdict

What I usually find throughout the day with other foundations is that my face becomes quite oily looking after a few hours and I spend a lot of time touching up with powder. When I checked my face this time after a few hours wear, the need to touch up was minimal and I still looked fresh.

By the end of the day I still looked like I’d just applied my make-up, and had I been going out after work, straight from the office (should we be allowed to do such things) all I really would have needed was a quick dab of powder and a top up of my favourite Charlotte Tilbury lipstick. This £5.70 bottle really was a game changer.

I tried to think of a downside to The Ordinary Serum Foundation, but came up short. It’s cheap, it’s simple and its delivers. It’s also not just good for the price, I’d go as far as saying it is the best foundation I have ever used.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to match my skin colour online. It comes in 21 different shades which are then further classified by undertones - ‘P’ shades stand for pink undertones, ‘R’ for red undertones, ‘N’ for neutral undertones and ‘Y’ for yellow undertones, allowing you to match your own skin perfectly.

So The Ordinary have finally managed to get me to stop foundation hopping and finally commit. I will now be using this foundation until they either stop making it (they better not), or when I decide to try a different foundation from The Ordinary.

Want To Give It A Go?

You can grab your bottle here right now from our lovely friends at Harvey Nichols.

Disclaimer: All of our reviews are independent and honest and we do not accept payment for reviews, though we may occasionally receive a small commission if a purchase is made based on our reviews. For more information please see our T&C’s or email us at hello@fridaypetite.co.uk

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