This Foundation Is The Secret To Flawless No-Makeup Makeup

Complexion

KOSAS

When we first heard about this foundation oil, opinions were divided. Surely it would be low coverage and it would move around all day? However, after hearing rave reviews of the KOSAS Tinted Face Oil, $42, our curiosity and undying love of foundation got the better of us and we decided to put it to the test. How wrong our assumptions were! Will let you in on the tea now, this foundation oil is. THE. Bomb. Even oily hunnies in the office are loving this face foundation oil, and that’s saying something! Here’s everything you need to know.

The Brand: If you’re not familiar with KOSAS, the brand was founded by LA artist and organic chemist, Sheena Yaitanes. The brand prides itself on using clean ingredients with skin-loving properties and their Tinted Face Oil is a prime example. All of their products are cruelty-free, gluten-free, and made without parabens or synthetic fragrances.

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What it is: The Tinted Face Oil is a lightweight oil formula that offers intense hydration with light to medium coverage. The oil encapsulates three types of pigment in a blend of six botanical oils, including hydrating avocado and jojoba, brightening rosehip, protecting green tea seed oil, and red raspberry, which helps to even skin tone.

What it does: The Tinted Face Oil is designed to enhance the skin’s natural glow while offering a light veil of coverage to blur imperfection and even out skin tone.

Shade range: There are 16 shades to choose from, ranging from fair to deep, however as the formula is so sheer it’s designed to cater to up to 48 skin tones.

What we liked: As soon as we applied the tinted face oil, we were impressed. We imagined the formula would move around, but the texture is like a dry oil, and consequently, it’s easily applied and isn’t messy. The formula blended out well and immediately left our skin looking glowy AF with a very natural finish. It also made us feel pretty smug, knowing that our foundation was packed with so many nourishing oils that were going to give our skin some major love all day long.

KOSAS tinted foundation oil Source: Kosas

Another major selling point to the tinted face oil is that you can customize the coverage from light (two to four drops) to medium coverage (four to six drops). Plus, while it concealed redness and uneven tone, our freckles shone through, which we loved. As you’d expect, it felt super nourishing on our skin but amazingly it didn’t feel greasy and it didn’t settle into our fine lines or pores.

Coverage tips: This foundation even converted a die-hard full-coverage foundation lover! What’s great about this oil is it evens your tone and complexion without looking heavy, but you can still use concealer to give coverage in any areas needed. For great coverage, we recommend applying six or seven drops and blending into the skin with fingers, then apply a liquid concealer (we used the Too Faced Born This Way Concealer) to under eyes and any areas that need coverage, and blend out all over using a damp makeup sponge. Set with a loose setting powder.

Application tips: Shake the bottle well before applying and add a few drops and use your fingers to blend out. Add more drops for more coverage in the areas that need it, then finish by bouncing a damp beauty blender across your skin for a flawless, streak-free canvas. If you’re only using a few drops and you don’t have oily skin, this wears beautifully without setting. However, if you have oily skin or are using more than five drops, we recommend setting with a fine loose powder (like the Huda Beauty Easy Bake Loose Powder) to keep it on lock all day.

What we didn’t like: The first day we wore the foundation, we noticed our skin looked a little shiny in photos. To counteract that midday shine, we’d recommend using a setting powder along your T-zone to mattify. We also baked our under eyes to avoid any mascara smudging. The wear was also not quite as impressive as a lot of our favorite formulas, so if you’re going from the office and straight out, you might want to reapply. We recommend choosing a different foundation for a day you want to look flawless from morning til late at night.

The verdict: This foundation is the ultimate no-makeup makeup foundation. It’s super glowy and gives surprisingly great coverage for an oil. Plus, it’s perfect for winter when our skin needs that extra hit of hydration. While we probably wouldn’t wear it for an event (although glow goals would be real), it’s definitely our new fave everyday foundation.

Shop it here, $42.

For more foundation tips, check out 19 life-changing foundation hacks.