Review: Vincent Longo Liquid Canvas Dew Finish foundation

I've danced around this foundation for quite some time, and I only took the plunge this month because I heard that the Porcelain shade is lighter than MAC NW15 foundations. Turns out, it's not. And it's a damn shame, because this foundation is truly spectacular.

Swatches of Vincent Longo Dew Finish in Porcelain, Kevyn Aucoin Liquid Airbrush in 02, Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer in Sx02, and MAC Face & Body in N1 and White (50/50 mix)

As you can see from the swatches, Porcelain is darker than the MAC Face & Body mixture I use (which is an almost perfect match for my N10 skin). It's also very, very pink. While it's not a match for me, it is a great match for NW15 ladies with rosy undertones.

The foundation comes in a glass bottle with a pump. The formula is very thin and liquidy, only a bit more viscous than MAC Face & Body, and it spreads and blends in to the skin very well. A single pump was enough to cover my enter face and jaw. While the box recommends using a foundation brush for light coverage and a dry sponge for fuller coverage, I found that the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush gave me medium coverage, blending the foundation in with my fingers sheered it out more, and tapping it on with a sponge made it look extra-cakey and way too thick. This is a foundation that's best worn in a thin layer.

Be forewarned: the scent of this product is very chemical and very strong, so much so that when I first applied it, I compared the stench to paint thinner. You can't smell it when it's on your face, but when you're lifting your brush past your nose...well, let's just say that it almost makes my eyes roll back in to my head, it's so potent.

Here's how the foundation looks immediately after it's been applied with the Real Techniques brush. Again, it obviously matches my face and not my body, so it's a shade too dark, and you can get an idea of how pink it is. But perhaps the oddest thing is that, despite being a luminous foundation, and despite the fact that I moisturized earlier in the morning, this foundation applies mostly-matte and tends to accentuate any dry patches on my face.

This photo demonstrates the color difference between my face and neck, and you can see how matte this foundation initially looks on the skin.

Thankfully, Liquid Canvas Dew Finish does what most foundations do: it softens up after a few minutes. I find that most foundations look better about 15 minutes after they're applied, when they interact with the natural heat of my skin.

And this why the lack of a shade match really breaks my heart: this is a gorgeous foundation with a beautiful, radiant satin finish that provides medium coverage while still looking like skin. It doesn't transfer on to my clothes, the nosepads of my glasses, or my fingers when I press hard on my face. Despite being transfer-resistant, it's an incredibly comfortable foundation; I don't feel like my skin is suffocating when I wear it.

That being said, I will note two minor issues. First of all, this foundation has SPF15, which is normally not a high enough SPF to cause flashback in photographs. This foundation does flash back sometimes in flash photography. Also, despite being a "dewy" finish foundation, it's not particularly suited to very dry skin unless you moisturize before applying. Vincent Longo Liquid Canvas Dew Finish is probably best suited to normal, slightly oily, or slightly dry skin, not very oily or very dry folks. I didn't use powder or setting spray for these photos, just so I could capture how the foundation wears on its own, but it looks flawless on me all day if I powder my nose and use a smidge of Skindinavia setting spray.

As you can hopefully see, Dew Finish stayed radiant and beautiful on my skin without getting oily or smearing off. The only part of my face that got oily was my nose, which is incidentally the only part of my face that gets oily besides my eyelids. It only got a bit shiny after 5 hours, and it's easily fixed with a blotting paper or some powder.

Overall, this is a truly fantastic foundation if you're looking for something natural and glowy that still provides decent coverage. At $49 an ounce, it's not a cheap product, but I would invest in it regularly if I had a shade match. As an added bonus, SpaceNK.com is clearing out their Vincent Longo stock, so you can score a bottle for under $8.

Rating: 5 out of 5.