Maybelline Fit Me Foundation Review and Swatches #230

My mom and I were discussing how much makeup has evolved over the years, when I recently received my favorite contour kit. During a school dance in her days, she noted, there was a single jar of pancake makeup that was used on ALL the girls before they went on stage – literally one shade of pinkish makeup for around twenty girls in all skin tones. Can you imagine the clownish faces ? 🙁

Thankfully, an increasing number of brands are now upping the ante with improved forms of makeup; saving cake face exclusively for the stage. During a Youtube binge a few weeks ago, I watched quite a few bloggers rave about Maybelline’s new Fit Me range that promised to neither hide your skin, nor change it, but to fit it, perfectly. What a beautiful way to cover every base makeup problem ever, right ? Most girls often complain of not finding the perfect shade in a drugstore brand, or foundation giving them a mask-like appearance. Maybelline’s Fit Me range promises to change all that.

So I went and picked up the Fit Me Matte and Poreless Foundation, read on for the review.

Flawless. Fresh, breathing, natural skin. Shade-true gel-liquid foundation. SPF 18*. New shades formulated for women of colour, with 5D Pigment Technology. It’s face makeup that fits you. No oils, no waxes, no nonsense. Natural, light to medium coverage that leaves skin the way it was meant to be. Fresh, breathing, flawless. Exclusive translucent base and lightweight pigments allow skin’s natural highs and lows to show through. New shades formulated specifically for women of color contain revolutionary 5-D pigment technology to balance your skin’s authentic tones and highlights. Available in 18 Breathable Shades. SPF 18*

What I first noticed about this range is the huge number of shades. True to the claim that they’ve included shades for women of color, there are shades ranging from Ivory to Deep which is great, because there are so many different skin tones and it’s simply unfair how many drug store brands launch 3-4 shades of foundation and expect them to suit all women.

Secondly, they have many similar shades with varying undertones which is just incredible. I’ve so often come across a foundation that’s my shade but too pink for me, since I have quite yellow skin.   The shades are numbered from 110 to 355 from lightest to deepest.

Picking my shade :

I mentioned earlier that this range has a few similar shades but with different undertones (kinda like how MAC does NC and NW maybe? ) To extrapolate, I checked out shades 230, 235 and and 310 for my skintone which is somewhere in the NC 40 range this time of the year and darkens around 3 tones in summers.

I noted that while all three shades are pretty similar, 235 was more pink-based while 230 and 310 were yellow based. I later figured that all shades ending with a “5” are pink-based while those ending with”0” are warmer. So if you’re more pink, choose a shade ending with a 5 and vice-versa 🙂

I finally chose shade 310 Sun Beige, because it seemed like a nice warm match that would suit my skin in the summers.

My thoughts on the Fit Me Foundation :

When I first tried on this foundation, I couldn’t help but notice the scent which is quite strong and a little medicinal, if you will. The scent reminds me of The Revlon Colorstay foundation that I used to use a few years ago.

Moving on, the texture is velvety in nature, quite a bit like L’oreal’s Nude Magic Foundation. It instantly blends with your skin and spreads really well. The sales assistant gave me a complimentary foundation and powder brush to go with this so I applied the product using the same. Might I just add that the brush was really soft and did a great job? Maybelline should launch their range of makeup brushes soon if they haven’t already, because this one was just as good as my Real Techniques Expert Face brush.

Coming back to the foundation, I applied a thin layer of moisturiser under this before application. The foundation went on really oily on my combination skin and looked really shiny all over, to my horror.

So I tried again, this time minus moisturiser and the product quickly set to a powder-like finish on my skin. True to it’s claim, the foundation doesn’t mask you and looks just like skin. My friend standing a few feet away from me wouldn’t believe I had foundation on !

What I like about the product :

• Extremely cost-effective for its quality. It’s currently priced at Rs. 525 and retails at 420 on some online stores
• Perfect nude finish, great if you want a foundation for the day
• Lightweight, lets your skin breathe
• Huge number of shades for all skin tones and undertones
• Sleek packaging, great for travel as well

What I’m not so sure about :

• I wouldn’t recommend this foundation if you have really oily skin. I normally use moisturiser under my foundation , but with this I just ended up looking like an oil well.
• It seemed like the product had silicones or parabens because that velvety texture let me have my doubts. The ingredient list confirmed the presence of parabens, so I wouldn’t want to wear this often
• Has a very light to medium coverage. It definitely wears off in a few hours and doesn’t last all day unless you layer with primer and mattifying powder.
• Skin starts getting oily in a while (if you have combination to oily skin like me)
• The glass packaging ! (easily breakable if you’re a clumsy girl)

In conclusion, I’d say the FIT ME foundation is a revolutionary product for everyday wear, and for cooler climates. I don’t recommend it as a summer foundation. Also, like all foundations, it’s absolutely mandatory that this matches your skin tone, or it might look like a sheer veil of the wrong color on your face 🙁 I might wear this when I’m not going to be out long, like maybe to a brunch. It’s a quite good product, what I like most though is the huge shade range, the pricing and the lightweight feel. Give this one a try!

It does give off a whitish cast owing to its SPF content in flash photography and as shown in the picture.

Here’s a picture of me wearing the Maybelline FIT ME foundation (frowning against the sunlight lol, I wanted to show you guys a picture in natural light/daylight)