I’ve probably mentioned a million and one times on my blog that I didn’t wear foundation for two years straight, from the start of 2013 until the start of 2015, and so I have a lot of making up to do in terms of finding the perfect foundation since I missed out on two years worth of opportunities to try out different foundations. When Charlotte Tilbury’s very hyped up Magic Foundation came out in the later half of last year, I knew that it had to be the next foundation that I tried but I wasn’t able to go to the Selfridges CT stand to get my colour matched until last month, and I thought after using the foundation for a month straight I’d tell you all what I think about it. You know, because there aren’t already hundreds of other reviews on this foundation out there already?
I can’t decide whether or not this foundation deserves the title of holy grail, and I think that if I’m questioning whether or not is is my holy grail then it probably isn’t. I do really love it though, apart from a few minor issues I have with it that are probably the reason I can’t label it a holy grail. The coverage of this is amazing and you don’t feel it just sitting on top of the skin so it doesn’t look or feel cakey despite giving a full coverage, although it does feel slightly heavier than my previous foundation, NARS All Day Luminous Weightless.
What I love about this foundation is that, while it’s not a dewy foundation as such, it provides a beautiful glow and gives the skin radiance. And we all know how much I love glowy skin (you can read my guide on how to get the perfect glowy skin complexion here) so this is a major feature of the foundation for me. I feel like it would look even better over a glowy base, such as MAC Strobe Cream – which I myself have run out of but I’m looking to get the Becca liquid Shimmering Skin Perfector as a replacement. I feel like more matte foundations make your skin look more airbrushed and ‘flawless’ than completely dewy foundations so CT Magic is the perfect middle ground, it’s not so completely matte that it makes your skin look dull but it’s not overly dewy and wet.
In terms of application, I use my Zoeva 102 Luxe Silk Finish Rose Golden v2 brush (I can’t find the rose gold v2 brush on beautybay anymore, just the original) to buff the foundation into my face and then my Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge to pat over the top to make sure everything is blended and buffed in properly and looks ‘flawless’. I don’t usually use a primer because, as I said, I’ve run out of my Strobe Cream but my moisturiser is really hydrating so it acts like a primer I guess.
My only issues with this foundation is that it sets into my fine lines. And I’m only seventeen, so I don’t even have fine lines. So it’s pretty much creating fine lines. Annoying af. It’s not extremely noticeable once I’ve done my entire full face of makeup but it does bother me because it means my forehead doesn’t look smooth. You know those wrinkle lines you get on your forehead when you raise your eyebrows? I get those when I raise my eyebrows to apply my eye makeup or do my brows, and the foundation settles in those lines and then refuses to blend out afterwards. I also have days where I feel like it just doesn’t look as good as it should do on my skin, but aside from those issues I can’t really fault it.
Of course I need to include a photo of me wearing it so you can all get an idea of how it works on my skin. I wore minimal makeup so you could really see the foundation and I didn’t wear any other face makeup aside from the foundation other than a tiny bit of NARS Laguna Bronzer to contour my cheekbones, temples, chin and nose which I had to do otherwise I’d look like the yellow moon emoji. You can see that I have a blemish on the side of my forehead at the moment which the foundation does cover, but not to the extent I’d like it to because it’s still noticeable, though not as noticeable as when I’m not wearing any foundation.
So those are my thoughts and opinions on the Charlotte Tilbury Magic Foundation. Holy grail foundation? No. But a very, very good foundation that I love? Yes. I’m still early on in my foundation discovery journey and I don’t think I’ve found the one yet, but this does an amazing job in the meantime and I’m happy to continue wearing it!
♡
Yasmin
