Tinted Moisturizer

During the summer I had issues with this tinted moisturizer feeling heavy on my face because of sweat and excess oil production from my combo/oily skin, in combination with sunscreen and argan oil sitting on top of it. I gave it a break for the rest of the season until my skin started to dry up and tighten as fall/winter approached, so I decided to give this tinted moisturizer another chance. I absolutely LOVED it for winter use!

The texture of the tinted moisturizer is thicker than most typical lotions so this is difficult to spread for an even coverage and the thickness of it the formula can risk cakeyness. To counter this, I apply this in small amounts with my fingers by dotting it on my cheeks, chin, forehead, once under each eye, and whatever I have left is slicked on my T-zone where it's usually most oily. I then swirl the dots into each other thoroughly (you really need to blend), and am able to get evened-out skin. Although I had to blot my oil during the summer, during the winter I never had to blot and for the first winter in a long time, the skin on my face didn't feel tight and stayed moisturized throughout the day. I used the tinted moisturizer by itself—no primer, and no setting powder. The tinted moisturizer's lasting power isn't great as far as pigmentation, since it's sheer-to-medium coverage and it does fade eventually, but otherwise it is very emollient. Setting powder may help this last longer but again, you risk caking.

I tried this tinted moisturizer in Linen (3) and Butter (2), and found Butter to be a better match for my skin tone (light/medium) and the great thing about it being sheer is that it this shade brightened my skin tone a little bit without looking like a mismatch. Unfortunately, the tinted moisturizers in this range may just work better for light to medium shades, but since they're sheer, I'm sure medium shades will work for deeper skin tones as a brightener as well.

My only problem with this tinted moisturizer as far as packaging goes is that if product leaks outside of the opening of the tube (even if inside the cap), it does harden into a stiff gel that can be peeled off, but if it gets stuck right at the opening of the tube, squeezing the tube may not only pop out the dried moisturizer (what an oxymoron) but it would also squeeze out more excess product (or even oil, if it for any reason separates). Definitely has to be a daily-use product just to keep the tube from clogging!

Other than that, I do recommend the formula for those with dry to normal skin all year long, and possibly for combination/oily skin for winter only. I would however stay away from it if you are acne prone, though, since it does contain an ingredient (wax) that can cause breakouts.