In my quest to try out new to me drugstore foundations, I also decided to buy some by brands I have never heard of. Lumene is one of those brands. My subscribers informed me that the brand is Finnish and that in Finland this is often the first makeup brand people try. It’s like Finnish Maybelline if I understand them correctly. So I was excited to try a new to me brand and a new to me product. I decided to try this foundation now, as I wasn’t sure this would work on my super dry winter skin, but would be more of a summer product for me. Let’s see how it worked on my fair skin.
Review: Lumene Blur 16 Hr Longwear Foundation 0 Light Ivory
So I don’t know much about this brand other than that it seems to offer quite a good selection of light foundation shades. This is not your brand if you have deep skin let me tell you! But if you are fair like me, their range is one of the best ones I have seen. I did struggle to find my shade match for this foundation as I couldn’t find much information about it and swatches were not readily available. So the shade is a complete gamble. I bought mine on Notino.nl for around the €15 mark.
What does this foundation have to offer?
The Lumene Blur foundation is one I wanted to use now as this texture didn’t seem to be something I loved. Blurring foundations are often quite mattifying and this claims to blur pores and imperfections, while creating a semi-matte finish. I prefer a dewy, hydrating foundation as that simply looks better on my dry skin. So this was a bit of a gamble in terms of texture as well. It only comes in 10 shades and it’s 8 shades of nearly identical light beiges and 2 deeper shades which I am sure aren’t deep enough for more people with dark skin.
How does this foundation swatch?
When I first swatched this I instantly knew this wouldn’t work for me in the winter time. It is a pleasant texture: not too thick and not too thin, but once blended out it has a bit of a powdery look. I am used to foundations like that to not look perfect on my dry skin. They tend to cake up around my nose and just accentuate any dry patches I might have. In the summer however, I tend to be a little bit oilier (or maybe it’s just plain sweat, who knows) so if I can get away with it, it’s going to be now.
What is the shade match like?
Unfortunately the shade match isn’t perfect. It’s close, but not great. Here you can see what it looks like in my neck without blending it down. Granted, if I blend this out and apply bronzer this looks fine, but it is a touch too dark for me. Sadly the one shade down (which does exist!) claims it is a warm toned shade, which is why I picked this one as it is a neutral undertone. I feel if a shade is too dark I can correct it, if it is the wrong undertone I can’t. Again, here it also isn’t a perfect match as I find this a bit too yellow for my liking. So not only is it too dark, it is also too warm toned. Not a true neutral shade!
How does this apply to the face?
That said, once applied to the face and blended down the neck, I feel I can certainly pull off this foundation. In fact I took this with me on my most recent trip to London as I feel it has great wear time and longevity and so it makes for a great foundation if you need something that lasts! Also the packaging is a plastic squeezy tube so it’s great for packing light. I feel this covers my redness just fine and at the same time, it still looks natural. I do need to be careful with how much I apply. If I apply too much product, it tends to cake up around my nose and accentuate some of the dryness there after a few hours of wear.
My final thoughts
The Lumene Blur foundation didn’t look like something I might light at first glance. However, I feel this makes for a good summer time foundation for me. It’s not perfect so I am not sure how often I will go back to this in the future. But I really enjoy the fact that I got to try a product from a brand I hadn’t heard of and ended up liking this a lot! This is an unexpected one for me as if I were to read about this, I wouldn’t have guessed this would have worked for me as it has some claims that usually throw me off of buying a foundation. It just goes to show that it is good to venture out and just try something. Who knows?! It might just work out.
Would I recommend the Lumene Blur foundation?
This is a good one, but provided you can get your hands on this, I wouldn’t go through the effort of hunting this down. Yes it is nice, but the limited shade range makes this not a great foundation for everyone. The texture worked surprisingly well for me, but if you aren’t into a foundation like this, it may not be for you. For some people this may not be enough coverage, but others it may be too much.