#the abnormal beauty company

The Ordinary Coverage VS. Serum Foundation

I am SO excited to be writing this post right now. These foundations have honestly changed my life and in the off-chance that you haven’t heard about them before, then here I am to tell you all about exactly why you need them. You’re welcome. The Ordinary Foundations, like their skincare counterparts, are received with very mixed feelings in the beauty community. Some people swear by them and admire their simple ingredients and low cost structure while others question their formulation and if they actually benefit the skin as much as they’re led to believe. I, on the other, am stuck somewhere in the middle. Although I love the idea of Deciem, I haven’t done much exploring into their skincare side of things. Yes, they have all these serums with high potencies of active ingredients like Vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, glycolic acid and niacinamide for under $10 (which is absolutely crazy to me!), but I have just never been drawn to those things. I’d much rather use a serum from Clarins or Neostrata that has other ingredients in it as well that all work together to help my skin. 

But their foundations are a whole other story. I tried The Ordinary Serum Foundation (full review here) when I first went to Vancouver last year and stumbled across the Deciem store on Howe Street by chance. The Serum Foundation intrigued me so much at the time. A lightweight serum formula for only $6.70(CAD)? How could I possibly leave without it? So, without hearing much about it, I bought it on a whim. It wasn’t until I was back in Edmonton that I fell head over heels in love with it. But it wasn’t the actually formulation by itself that I loved. It was because since it was so lightweight and pale in colour, I could mix it with all my heavier, darker foundations to make a mixture of the perfect coverage, perfect shade foundation. I loved it so much that I used the entire bottle up (an accomplishment for a girl that has as many foundations as me) and I immediately set out to re-buy it. But then the whole Deciem CEO drama happened (read here for those who don’t know what happened) and all the stores shut down and the products went out of stock online. Just my luck. But then I went back to Vancouver last month and the stores had reopened and not only did I get to restock my Serum Foundation, I also picked up the Coverage Foundation to see what I thought. Again, at $6.70 (CAD), you can’t not try it out for fun!

The funny thing about Deciem foundations is that I absolutely hate the way they look on my skin on their own. In the store, I tried out the Coverage foundation on my hand and it just looked so patchy and dry and chalky. It sank into all the little lines on my hand and looked horrible. I almost didn’t buy it. But I knew I would probably regret it if I left Vancouver without it so I went back to buy it at the last second before I left the store. Before I tell you how great the Coverage Foundation actually is, let’s go through the differences between the two foundations first. It’s pretty self explanatory but the Serum Foundation is incredibly lightweight (almost water-like) with a light to medium coverage while the Coverage Foundation has a more cream-like texture with full coverage. Both foundations have a semi-matte finish without being too drying on the skin. 

So, why do I like these foundations so much? First of all, they’re the shade 1.0NS which is the lightest shade available at The Ordinary with the NS standing for Neutral with Silver Highlights. These highlights are created with natural-looking and exceptionally fine dispersions of metallic effect pigments so your skin just has this extra glow to it without looking overly dewy or sparkly. It is the prettiest effect ever. In addition, because these foundations are so fair and pale, they are actually lighter than my actual skin colour. For anyone as pale as me, I’m sure we can all agree on how hard it is to find a foundation that actually is light enough to match our skin. But this one is LIGHTER. That’s unheard of. And because it is so light, it makes it the perfect product to mix with my darker foundations so they actually match my skin! Now, as I said earlier, one of the reasons why I like the Serum Foundation so much is because when I mix it in with heavier foundations, it makes them less cakey and thick. So, then why do I like the Coverage Foundation so much? Well, it’s for the opposite reason. Now, I can mix this one in with a lighter, less coverage foundation that might be a little too dark for me to make a more full coverage foundation that matches my skin perfectly. These are the best problem solvers ever. And at only $6.70 a pop, you can buy a bunch to mix in with any foundation to get your perfect skin shade and undertone! See? Problem solved.