Shishedo: Revitalessence Skin Glow Foundation Review

Long story short - I picked this foundation up after seeing the awards it gained a short while back on Japan's cosme website. I needed a new foundation, and this seemed nice - a natural foundation which doubles as skincare? Sign me up. This foundation retails for $72AUD for 30ml in a hefty glass bottle. 

Claims: A buildable, medium-coverage skincare-active foundation that delivers luminous results that last long after makeup comes off. This serum-like foundation weightlessly glides onto skin and transforms into a glowing makeup finish that lasts for 12 hours(2). Instantly evens skin, blurs pores, and hydrates for 24 hours(3). In just 1 week, bare skin is smoother and brighter, with visibly reduced fine lines(1).

Thoughts:

I've never actually bought any Japanese foundations (sans a Kate liquid to powder one which ended up giving me acne, and I had to give away). Given my general hit rate with high end foundations and my preference for Japanese cosmetics, I was hopeful this would be a shoe in. I swatched this a few times in my skin, thought it looked alright, consulted the shade matrix, picked it up at duty free. 

The next day, I sat down to put on a full face of makeup (the way I'd usually do with my ELDW). And I stared in the mirror. Something felt, off. But what was it? It was buildable coverage, but I had no idea why it just looked strange. 

After a year of owning this foundation, I finally figured it out. An answer, I had never really considered. 

Japan utilises a lot of 2D matrixes, and Shishedo is no different, usually bright to dark (the vertical), and cool to warm (the horizontal, L-R). I picked 220, Linen, as the more neutral was too light for me, but why did it look so weird? I typically go for pink leaning foundations (ELDW - 1C1, Chanel BR22, Gucci - 150C) this shouldn't be any different. 

The answer, if you haven't guessed by now, is that Shishedo's foundations are extremely desaturated. For some reason, a 2D matrix, or really, any sort of foundation guideline (sans Estee Lauder's intricate shade system), rarely if ever include any information about desaturated, and it hit me, that a full, built up face of this foundation, just made me look extremely ashy. The reason why my full face looked strange? Because I was looking casket ready. I had originally tried to recommend this formula to a friend, but everyone I'd swatched these on, had looked strange and weirdly uncomplimentary. It finally all clicked into place. 

L-R, Chanel BR22, Shishedo 220 Linen, ELDW 1C1

To be fair, this foundation is actually, really lovely. Formula wise. While I don't think this is anywhere as long lasting as my ELDW especially in difficult weather, I think this foundation applies really beautifully in thin layers pressed into the skin - it is basically completely invisible on the skin as makeup, and only looks more lovely and beautiful the longer it wears - it looks gorgeous the longer it wears and even more skin like, and you'll definitely look dewy and healthy. Does it blur pores? Ehhh. Hydrates? Yes. Evens skintone? Kinda? However, if you have any sort of redness in the skin or discoloration, you either need a high coverage concealer, or just, not this foundation. I'd like to build this shade up, but I just cannot justify looking like a Zombie extra. I've since tried adding color fixers on this one, but to go through this much work for a high end foundation? I'm not sure it's worth it. 

I think to some extent, there's always some sort of trick to making a foundation work for you - yet at this price point I'd rather have picked up another back up bottle of my ELDW. 

Despite the near two decades I've been wearing foundations, I always had to find new favorites - my first HG was the Guerlain Lingerie de Peau (the new bottle seemed to be reformulated, and ended up looking weird and flaky). After that, it was Chanel's Ultra Le Teint Velvet (a liquid to powder which has lasted me many night outs but I had to retire due to changing skin types), and Aqua VitaLumiere (gorgeous, beautiful finish with decent wear), both which have been discontinued. Moving into Chanel's new bougie packaging, we had Ultra le Teint Fluid (high coverage although not quite as pretty in finish as the previous two, and the bottle is misery to travel with) and Les Beiges (love finish, dries down tacky, wear time is abysmal). While neither foundation was terrible, I had picked up the classic ELDW, which, was fine, but it's not the most forgiving product (especially the way I was applying it, which I've also since had to learn), and Gucci's Eternite de Beaute (which, the color is gorgeous but I genuinely think is nigh unwearable formula wise unless it's applied over the Gucci primer on me). While I've made this work, like so many other of these, I'm sad to report, this is probably not being repurchased, and but for anyone who's considering this foundation, I'm sure this is someone's HG, but one I'd probably have warned myself against purchasing had I really realized the extent of the color mismatch (and seriously look at that swatch. It's so egregiously grey especially post dry down it nearly makes me wish I picked up a NARS foundation instead despite every single shade being yellow, even the 'cool' pink toned ones).