Revlon Colorstay 24 Hour Foundation

I am on a quest right now to find drugstore/less expensive alternatives to some of my pricier staple makeup items. I'm going to graduate school soon which means imma be poor! Why the exclamation point about being poor?? Because when staring in the face of poverty and destituteness you gotta keep a positive attitude! WOOOHOO! My favorite foundation currently is the Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation. It leaves the most gorgeous finish and is full coverage while managing to maintain the appearance and feel of a lightweight foundation. I love it buuuuuut I don't love the $45 pricetag. In comes Revlon Colorstay 24-Hour Foundation:

I have seen this foundation listed on several 'Best Foundation' lists, drugstore and overall, so I decided to give it a shot. I LOVE the fact that it comes in two formulas, a dry skin formula and a combination/oily skin formula. I noticed there was a lot of color selection with different undertones as well which is so great!
PS Whenever I say 'so great' on this blog or in person I always think of Jimmy Fallon saying 'its so GREAT' in that special voice of his...anyone else? Anyone?

Mkay back to the foundation...
I selected the color 200 Nude for myself as it seemed light enough for me (almost the lightest color they offer, ahhh yisss) and also was less yellow-toned than some of the other lighter options.
My biggest (and maybe only) issue with this product is the packaging. While the glass container feels very nice and the screw-on cap feels like it securely tightens, this jar has no pump! Which means you gotta pour this stuff out on to something before you apply it. Here is my chosen method of application:

I pour a bit of product onto the back of my hand and then using my fingers I dab it all over my face. Using a Real Techniques expert face brush, I blend and buff this stuff into my skin starting from the center of my face and T-zone and working outwards. I'm still working out exactly how much of this product I need to cover my whole face, but a dime size amount seems to do the trick. The consistency of this is pretty liquidy, though I do find this foundation to be buildable.  The coverage is medium and this foundation does a fantastic job of not caking up at all.
Let me grace all of you with a before and after pic:

I know this picture isn't going to fit between the lines of my bloggy blog but I don't care, I'm makin' it huge anyway because you need to see the details! If you look at my forehead, this foundation does NOT cover up all of my freckles. It instead diffuses the colors a bit and makes my freckles and discolored spots far more muted. You can see the muting and blending effect most pronounced on my cheeks and chin area. I like this because I actually don't like when my freckles are completely covered up...I look like a China doll when I make my freckles disappear and its a couple shades of creepy.

I've been wearing this foundation for about two weeks and it has yet to break me out so I'm thinking this is a safe foundation for me! I've been wearing the Maybelline Dream Wonder powder on top and it pairs like a dream with this foundation.  I haven't tried to push the limits and wear this foundation for a whole 24 hours, but I CAN say that it lasts for at least 12 and through a strenuous work day.
This foundation was also only about $11 at my local Bed Bath and Beyond which I find pretty reasonable for such a lovely foundation.

Overall, I really like this product and can definitely see myself repurchasing this in the future. Does it completely trump my Laura Mercier Foundation? Mmmmmm maybe not completely... the LM Foundation gives a tiny bit better coverage. I honestly don't need that much coverage from day to day, and in fact maybe I only need it for special events. This Revlon foundation is perfect for day to day wear though!

I give this foundation an A+!

xxSJ