Laura Mercier Flawless Fusion Ultra-Longwear Foundation

Ello ello, Leslie here! It is time for another foundation review! I love all things skin, and that includes making it look absolutely perfect (or trying my damndest) with the RIGHT foundation. So I want to try literally all of them.

The Flawless Fusion Ultra-Longwear Foundation from Laura Mercier launched in 2017 and was a favorite of some big name influencers – so of course, I had to give it a try! Let’s see how flawless and longwear this sh*t actually is (and spoiler alert – the bottle is v fragile..)

THE DEETS

Laura Mercier Flawless Fusion Ultra-Longwear Foundation, 1 oz for $48. sold through Sephora, Nordstrom, Macy’s, department stores – you can find it, trust me. Available in 20 shades – ranging from light ….to medium deep. Not a lot of range with this one.

I initially tried this as a deluxe sample through Sephora, but all they had were shades that were honestly too dark for me – so I ended up with 3N1-Buff (which I still put on mah face and did a wear test – because WHAT rules?!). At the time, I seemed impressed enough with the wear (that was almost two months ago) that when I got some gift cards for Christmas, I got the big girl size in 2N1 – Cashew.

Ok, ok. FINE. 3N1 is way too dark for me. But I am going to show you a photo down below of it on my face and I don’t look too much like Snooki so you pipe down. 

I want to point out that there are two swatches of each shade. The LEFT swatch of each was applied 15 to 20 minutes prior to taking the photo and the RIGHT swatch was applied immediately before taking the photo. Now I obviously always typically have to use shades in the lighter end of the spectrum, so I don’t know how deeper shades typically perform (do they not have the issue of deepening/ oxidizing as they dry?) But it is definitely something of note that 3N1 has almost ZERO change in appearance after drying down. But 2N1 dries down almost two full shades.

This foundation claims to be an “Ultra” long wear formula, suitable for ALL skin types:

A 15-hour, long-wearing, oil-free, and transfer-resistant liquid foundation with a matte finish and weightless, medium-to-full coverage. ..high performance, comfortable wear that’s transfer-, sweat-, humidity-, and water-resistant. The matte finish is never dull, flat, or cakey, and it minimizes imperfections. It’s ideal for all skin types, especially normal to oily.

15 hours?! 15! We’ll see about that..

As for packaging, it comes in a nice frosted glass bottle, with a very precise pump that lets you pump out a very controlled amount. The cap is kind of that rubberized velvety finish that shows finger prints really well. Not my favorite but whatevs.

The beautiful glass bottle is …very fragile. I dropped it onto our granite counter top, from no more than a couple inches and…this…

I was able to salvage most of it into a teensy tupperware – and luckily took photos of everything before destroying the FIFTY DOLLAR FOUNDATION.
So lucky for YOU, I was still able to do some wear tests.

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THE APPLICATION

As I said up top, the pump allows a very small amount of product out at a time. Which may seem annoying, but you don’t really need a lot all at once. This foundation is very thin, lightweight and easy to blend…until it starts to dry. It dries down very fast. And it dries down VERY MATTE. Once it is starting to dry you kind of need to start to go into panic mode and get everyone into their places. There was more than one occasion where I had to dampen a sponge with my Mario Badescu spray and pounce around an area to blend around/take up some caked up product to even out what had decided to set itself. I would definitely work in sections with this one – and work quickly!

I think that I like this best with a buffing brush – even though the directions say to use their sponge or your fingers. With a sponge, it is much less full coverage – I can see my freckles and any red bumps I might have right through it. And I don’t typically need or care about full coverage.

This foundation seems to be VERY dependent on what you put it on top of:

• With no smoothing primer: pores are super visible and enhanced, and there is bad settling into wrinkles. When my pores are visible after foundation, my favorite trick is to press some of my NYX Set it Don’t Fret It loose powder on the textured areas (it is truly the BEST for pores) …but everything was already so matte and makeupy looking that I really didn’t want to add any more layers.
• With no hydrating primer: everything looks INCREDIBLY dry, old, awful, terrible, omg.
• With any kind of mattifying primer (why would you need a mattifying primer Leslie? skip to “The Wear” to find dat out..): it doesn’t even stick or cover in some areas. Here’s my nose one day with Laura’s own Radiance primer (it’s the only LM primer I own) all over, and Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot primer in trouble areas – notice how the foundation is literally not sticking to my nose or that bump on the side…

No matter what I put under this though – it always looked very makeupy in person, and my texture was very enhanced. It didn’t feel makeupy – but I felt like everyone was judging my pores all day.

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THE WEAR

First documented day – back in December with 3N1. I actually remember giving this the full 15 hours! And I will have to apologize here though, because I have no idea what I put on underneath this day, but you can still see the wear n such:

3N1 Buff (I need to buy this hair color again…I believe it is Madison Reed Volterra Amethyst)

15 Hours Later – not really sure why I even got the full size a month later but HERE WE ARE.

This is 2N1 Cashew in the preferred GlamLifeGuru way. She loves this foundation and always pairs it with her Guerlain L’Or Radiance Primer & Tarte Timeless Smoothing Primer. And I just happen to have both of those! (Just a deluxe sample of the L’Or – calm down, I don’t have a $74 primer).

It does look really nice here, the two primer combo helped with application.

I mean – my blue drugstore eyeliner is still there LAURA.

And last – and I swear I only gave this so many chances because I literally can’t return it now. Unless they accept Ikea tupperware.

This day I decided to use my FAB Coconut Smoothie Priming Moisturizer to counteract some of the dry, cakey-ness, and I put a little Tarte Smoothing on my pores to help with texture and oil.

meh – and still incredibly textured. Lat lip tho! (Kat Von D Lolita II)

I’m noticing a trend – of greasy rubbed off red-nose.

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THE VERDICT

Oh Laura. What did I ever do to you. First you make me drop your glass bottle. Then you give me a drying, matte finish that somehow makes me the greasiest oil slick by the end of the day. I mean, how does one even prepare for that. How do I even compensate?

Let’s break this down claim by claim:

• 15-hour, long-wearing – that’s a negative, Bruce. close – but no.
• transfer-resistant – I will say it gets an B- for transfer resistant
• matte finish – CHECK
• weightless – CHECK CHECK
• medium-to-full coverage – hmmmm…yeah sure, this is buildable.
• sweat-, humidity-, and water-resistant – slippery slope Laura… I didn’t get to test this in the deep summer months in the south, but I can guarantee you it would not hold up if it looks like THAT in December. 
• is never dull, flat, or cakey – oh, ok. tell that to my foundation mustache.
• …and it minimizes imperfections. – TEXTURE
• It’s ideal for all skin types, especially normal to oily. – well I only have one response for that claim:

This is after wearing the foundation for 10 and a half hours. I know the 5pm car sun isn’t very forgiving, but DAMN! It was only like 40 degrees that day!

More than anything – this foundation made me oilier than sin. And for starting off so matte – its just hard to work with.

I would recommend this foundation in a film or special occasion situation only. I would not recommend it for long term wear OR up close and personal wear. You are going to want hard core silicone based smoothers underneath and you are going to want shine to the heavens highlighter on top to bring life back to the face. This is definitely not a foundation for me – in my every day, out in the real world life.

-LH

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