I had heard of Gabriel Cosmetics, but after a few bad experiences with buying natural foundations online, I was a little skeptical at buying yet another product from a Web site where I couldn't see the colors or test the formula beforehand. Then I found out my local Whole Foods carried a selection of their products, and even better, had a 100% refund policy if I wasn't satisfied, even if I had tried the product a few times. Now, even though they had some testers out, the woman wasn't all that excited about helping me after pointing me in the right direction, so I still had to do some experimenting in terms of looking at the colors. And between my rush to finish grocery shopping and the poor lighting in the store, I did a quick formulation check on the back of my hand, grabbed the lightest two shades (pale ivory and soft beige) and hit the checkout.
At this point it's been a good 6 months since I made those purchases and I've just about used up the product, so let's talk pros and cons:
Pros:
- This may be the best formulation of natural foundation that I've tried. A lot of companies say their products are buildable, and sadly that often turns out to be a lie, especially if you are truly looking for a full coverage foundation. Yet this product absolutely is. You can so easily use a small amount and get very sheer coverage that just evens out your complexion. But pile on a bit more product and you totally and completely achieve a full coverage look.
- Even better than the fact that you can choose how much coverage you want is the consistency and finish. This stuff is like silk. Whether you are piling on a little or a lot, the foundation dries to a satin, only slightly dewy finish. Your face looks fresh and healthy, and not oily, although I still choose to powder after because I prefer a matte finish. If you have dry or normal skin and have trouble with foundations feeling tight on your face, this would be perfect for you.
- The foundation comes with natural sunscreen ingredients so you don't have to worry about using a separate sunscreen or be concerned about harmful ingredients that have snuck in.
- While definitely not cheap, at $28 for 1oz the product is totally comparable to other mid-end foundations, yet a heck of a lot less than something like the $45 you'll shell out for Chanel or NARS.
Cons:
- It wouldn't be a fair review if I didn't point out the two cons to this foundation. The first is that the packaging is glass and doesn't come with a pump. In fact not only does it not come with a pump, but despite searching, I didn't even see any options to BUY a pump (something that a company like NARS does offer). This means that I wound up using clean q-tips each day to scoop out the right amount of product, as tipping it over onto my hand inevitably had me pouring out way too much and thus wasting it.
- The color range is a bit limited, and I wound up having to mix the two shades that I purchased to get a good match (Pale Ivory was way too pale, even for my very fair skin, and the pink undertones in Soft Beige were way too pink for my more neutral skin). The line has 11 shades, which is a bit light in comparison to the 20 shades of NARS Sheer Matte or the 15 shades of Tarte's Amazonian Clay Foundation. For my next purchase, I'm tempted to try the Neutral Beige color, which says it's for light/medium skin with neutral undertones, but since I really am very fair, I'm a bit nervous that the undertones will be right but the color will be too dark. In fact the company actually carries another brand of natural makeup called ZuZu, which seems to have more options for people with light skin like me, so I may try that as well.
Overall, I am pleased with my purchase and feel like I could definitely recommend the foundation to others looking for a product that performs well and doesn't make you worried about the ingredients!
Have you tried the Gabriel Cosmetics foundation or any of their other products? If so, let me know what you think in the comments below!
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