Review: Tom Ford Flawless Glow Foundation and Emotionproof Concealer
If you’ve been reading my blog for a bit, you know there’s one brand that I go weak for every single time they release anything new. Yes, I’m talking about Tom Ford and I admit I’m a sucker when it comes to any of his products and it doesn’t help that they are so expensive! Anyway, it’s been a hot minute since I tried out his complexion products, so when he came out with the new Emotionproof concealer, I was ecstatic! Then, he came out with the Flawless Glow Foundation a few months after, and that was when I finally decided to get matched and try out his new products.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Tom Ford, but I definitely know that his prices are quite expensive, so I wanted to make sure that I put them to the test and make sure the price can somewhat justify the cost of the foundation. To be fair, the cost is very high regardless of how good these product are, so this is definitely going on the luxury treats list, no matter how good these products ends up being.
Overview
The Tom Ford Flawless Glow Foundation is meant to be a lightweight gel-serum foundation that has a sheer to medium buildable satin finish for a glowing look to the skin. This foundation is meant to help normal to dry skin as it is formulated with various fruit extracts that are meant to help with hydrating your skin, and the best part is it's oil and alcohol free! This foundation retails for $87 for 1 oz. and comes in 24 shades, which is pretty decent in terms of shade range for a luxury beauty brand. My shade match was 7.7 Honey. It came with a dropper bottle applicator which is pretty common for many sheer foundations lately.
The Tom Ford Emotionproof Concealer is a full-coverage waterproof concealer with a natural finish that is meant to be long-lasting and transferproof. It works well in front of cameras and hotlights or a humid day at the pool. It retails for $54 for 0.24oz and comes in 10 shades, which is the disappointing part of this concealer. It would have been nice to see more than 10 shades. I was really interested in this concealer because it is full-coverage and longwearing, while also being a satin-finish. I also like that it has a sponge tip applicator, which I prefer for my under-eye concealers. I got 8.0 Praline, although it ran a little bit lighter than I wanted it to.
Before I begin my wear test, I want to remind you that I have oily skin, which tends to get very oily in the Spring and Summer time. My skin tends to start getting oily within 4-5 hours of wearing most mattifying foundations, especially on my T-zone. Now you might be wondering, why even bother trying out this foundation when it’s a hydrating formula and has a glowy satin finish? Because I’ve been on a hunt for a weightless barely there foundation for the Summer time and I wanted to see if this one will work, if I just prime with a mattifying primer and set it with powder. Also, I really love how weightless it felt and how glowy it looked when a swatched it on the back of my hand.
first impressions
First, I want to talk about how my skin looked right after I applied my makeup. The foundation looked and felt amazing on my skin. I love the glowing finish that it gave my face! I looked like I woke up oozing natural radiance to my skin. The best part? I couldn’t even feel that I have it on at all! It evened out my skintone really well, while basically blending seamlessly into my skin. The concealer was also very beautiful and creamy for my undereyes and covered my dark under eyes well, although I had to make sure I use a correcting concealer underneath because the color was a shade too light for my skin. I liked that it almost had a dry-down and turned into a semi-matte finish. I would say if you have dry undereyes or tend to have a normal to dry skin type, you might get away with skipping the setting powder. As mentioned above, my skin normally gets oily, so I made sure to prime and set accordingly, like I normally would with any other foundation. To set my foundation I just lightly dusted Laura Mercier’s Translucent powder all over my face. I put my makeup on around 10AM on a Saturday while I was running some errands. The weather was still slowly warming up that day, and a bit humid because of the rain earlier on, but it got warmer and I was also indoors in a temperature-controlled environment for a good chunk of the day.
Wear Test
Going into this, I set my expectations pretty low on how well this foundation would hold up to my oily skin, because the formulation isn’t really ideal for my skin type, however, I was pleasantly surprise that after 3 hours of wearing it, my skin still looked very radiant even though some of my oiliness broke through around the tip of my nose (happens quite often to me), but I didn’t look like an oily mess at all, in fact far from it. My skin just looked dewy and healthy! My concealer has stayed put and still looked like how it did when I first applied it.
I did another check in and took a photo around hour 6 of wearing the foundation and concealer. I was so pleasantly surprised to see that my foundation still looked amazing! As you can see, I was definitely a bit more oily on my nose and forehead, but nothing a little bit of blotting with blotting sheets couldn’t solve. I actually left it alone, because it gave a dewy, glass-like shine to my skin, which is a look I occasionally like on me, although to some people it might be too shiny. I also like that the foundation hasn’t broken down or started fading on my skin. Sometimes, this is an issue I have with sheer foundations; they tend to fade and look like they’re about to disappear after just a few hours of wear. The concealer has not moved one bit, even after spending quite a bit of time walking out and about outside.
For my last check-in, I’ve been wearing my foundation and concealer for almost 9 hours now. As you can see, I definitely look a lot more oily, and definitely needed some blotting sheets and powder if I wanted to turn down the shine a bit. I tried to take some photos at different angles and lighting so you can see where I got very shiny. I still had decent coverage from my foundation and it did not separate at all despite how oily my face has gotten. The concealer still has not budged at all and maintained it’s semi-matte finish this entire time, despite how oily my skin has gotten. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I could have asked for a better wear test result with these two products.
More Thoughts
I tried testing the foundation again the next day, but set it with a dusting of mattifying foundation powder and it wore even better that day! Definitely had a medium coverage look that day as opposed to sheer/medium, but I expected that with the powder combo. I also didn’t end up looking as oily as I did from the end of the day before, because of this trick.
I tried out this foundation on my client who has extremely dry skin. It’s very hard for most hydrating foundations to look dewy on her because her skin just absorbs and soaks up all of it! The best part is that her skin looked dewy and plump for hours! Something that has been difficult to maintain despite all the prepping and hydrating with setting sprays I usually do on her.
A friend just told me this foundation is apparently very similar to MAC’s Waterweight Foundation, the ingredients list are super close, but this has lavender extract. I quickly compared the two on the back of my hand, and I definitely think the Tom Ford has a lot more glow to it than the MAC Waterweight. The last time I used MAC Waterweight was 2 years ago, and I remember liking it but it didn’t hold up as well on my skin and faded after 5-6 hours of wear. I will definitely do a wear test comparison very soon, and will update you on the ‘gram or post an update at the end of this post once I get around to doing that.
Final Verdict
I had a great experience wearing this foundation and I’m still amazed at how well it wore, despite being a serum-based hydrating foundation. I love the glowing look it gave my skin and how lightweight it felt on me, too! It looked beautiful on very dry skin as well, I can only imagine how well this will look on someone who has normal to dry skin. This is definitely an idea light foundation for the Summer, especially with the SPF 30 built in. Overall, this foundation held up very well especially even as a sheer foundation. I would have to give it a 4.5 out 5 stars, however, because of the price. If it was in the $50-range, it would have been a 5 out of 5, no question. I highly recommend this to anyone who has dry skin, want to look very glowy, or both. If you want to try out this foundation, definitely ask for a sample first before spending the money on it!
As for the concealer, I highly recommend it as well if you can find a shade match for your skintone. I’m equally amazed at how much it did not move at all on my undereyes. It felt very creamy on application, blended well and looked good on my undereyes! I would recommend to use an eye cream though if you tend to have dry undereyes because I can imagine it looking a bit too matte/flat on this skin type once it dries down. As much as I want to give it a 5 out of 5, I’m going to have to give it a 4.0 out of 5 because of the price and the lack of a wider shade range. It really frustrated me that there isn’t a shade in between 8.0 Praline and 9.0 Sienna, especially now that I’m a bit more tan and can’t get away with using 8.0, but 9.0 is still too dark. The worst part is now that I’m looking at the entire shade range, the colors are completely off from Tom Ford’s usual shade range and tends to run very light. There’s only 3 shades for tan to dark skintones, which needs fixing, ASAP.
I really enjoyed this wear test review and I used to do a lot more of this before, so I might start doing more in the future. I am very happy with the results as well! Would you ever try out this foundation and/or concealer? What are your thoughts about Tom Ford products in general? Let me know in the comments!
