Cover Girl truBLEND Liquid Makeup - l5 Creamy Natural and m4 Sand Beige

(Press samples.)

Cover Girl reformulated their truBLEND foundations a few months ago, making the formula lighter and thinner while improving the shade-matching potential. I never tried the original version, so I can't compare them directly.

Cover Girl truBLEND in l5 Creamy Natural and m4 Sand Beige

I was sent these two shades to try out, so the colour match is not exact, unfortunately, but it gives you an idea of the range. They are split into three groups (light, medium, deep), with a variety of undertones in each. I think Cover Girl has improved a lot in terms of their foundation colours - I remember a Clean foundation I had as a teenager that was, quite literally, pink. I looked like I had dipped my face in calamine lotion.

Thankfully the formula here is forgiving as well, despite the good coverage, so while the l5 Creamy Natural is a little too dark and cool for my skin, I can get away with it, as long as I blend well around the ears, or else it leaves a noticeable line. If you have truly neutral or olive-toned skin, this foundation might require some shade-mixing, so while it is inexpensive, you'll likely need to experiment with a few bottles to get an exact match.

Also a bit strange, the liquid pumps out with a strange streaking of white pigment, but it disappears as soon as I blend it in. It doesn't seem to alter the application in any way.

Cover Girl truBLEND in l5 Creamy Natural and m4 Sand Beige

In terms of coverage, this is a solid medium. In the picture below I applied it relatively sheerly with a moistened buffing brush, and I still got decent coverage out of it. Despite that, it still looked very skin-like to my eye, with a lot of natural glow (which if you have oilier skin, will probably translate to too much shine). While it smoothed over dry patches nicely, I found it slightly emphasized the texture around the lower part of my cheeks, where I tend to have any residual acne scarring and dilated pores. Again, probably better for drier skin.

Lasting power was really good - it didn't go cake-y or fade over the course of 8 hours, though the glow definitely turned to shine on my t-zone, and I had to use blotting papers twice for that. Despite the shine, I didn't actually get any separation or fading there either.

I definitely prefer the Ready, Set, Gorgeous foundation for my particular skin needs (video review here), but I think this is a good reformulation, and a solid drugstore option if you're looking for a glowy, natural finish foundation for normal-to-dry skin, that still provides good coverage.

Availability: All drugstores that carry Cover Girl products, as well as Wal-Mart and Target. Prices vary between 10$ CAD and 14$CAD, and the least expensive I found was at Wal-Mart.

(These items were provided by the brand/PR to be considered for review. I am a #BeautyUnited blogger. As part of my affiliation with this group, I receive products and special access to P&G events. The opinions on this blog are my own.)