Revlon, I love your foundations, I really do. I’ve discovered a lot of great ones ever since I started using your makeup and I’ve been thoroughly impressed. The ColorStay whipped foundation gives my combination and rather holey-around-the-nose skin great coverage and lasts for hours. So does the Age Defying foundation. I’m in love with your PhotoReady cream blushes and think that overall, your PhotoReady range is pretty awesomesauce.

But what the *censored* is up with your foundation packaging?!

Sigh.

Recently, I had the pleasure of trying out Revlon’s latest addition their base makeup family and that’s the Nearly Naked range. The ones I tried out were the Nearly Naked foundation in 150 Nude and the pressed powder of the same range in Medium.

Formulated with weightless hollow silica pigments, the breaktrough Revlon Nearly Naked Makeup balances skin and makeup so they work together – allowing the makeup to mimic skin’s tone and texture. A blend of green tea, black tea, oatmeal and jojoba help maintain your natural glow for skin that looks naturally perfect while SPF 20 helps protect from further damage. And the best part – it truly feels as if you’re not wearing any makeup! Use alone or together with the Revlon Nearly Naked Pressed Powder for fresh, flawless skin with undetectable coverage.

Nearly Naked Makeup Broad Spectrum SPF 20

The foundation is an oil-free, light textured one and its consistency reminds me of Bourjois’ Healthy Mix Serum Gel foundation. As the name goes, the coverage is medium and doesn’t cover all of the redness around my nose nor any other blemishes on my skin. It also reminds me of Urban Decay’s NAKED foundation but I found this to be lighter in texture with slightly less coverage. In fact, I’d probably call Urban Decay’s Nearly Naked and the Revlon Naked! 😛

It goes on smoothly on the skin and blends very well. In terms of longevity, this doesn’t last me very long though. I didn’t encounter any streaking on the skin after 8-10 hours of wear (some foundations give me that after many hours of wear) but I do find that about 40-50% of it would have disappeared off my face after that many hours of wear. Like most lightweight BB creams, this gives me a “my face but better” look. It’s not heavy at all and I foresee using quite a lot of this in summer.

But – isn’t there always a but – the packaging is … *face palm*. It comes in a slim rectangular glass bottle and a plastic white cap. It doesn’t even come with a pump but a wide opening on top. Dispensing of foundation is a pain in the behind because you have to be very careful not to spill too much (I had an accident once; too much foundation was dispensed and spilled over my fingers. Thank goodness I wasn’t holding the bottle over my carpet). This is something I don’t understand of Revlon. Surely they’ve received enough feedback about their jars of foundations and big bottle mouths that just aren’t good to use when it comes to liquid foundations. I’ve yet to understand why there isn’t a pump with this.

It’s a real pity because even though I absolutely detest the packaging, the foundation itself is actually pretty good. I have no issues with it at all and enjoy having it on my skin. It doesn’t make my skin look cakey around the creases. It just gives it a nice healthy glow without it giving me an oily T-zone too soon. I like it. But the bottle’s just … *shakes fists in frustation*.

Okay Revlon, this is feedback for you. FIX THE DAMN PACKAGING! Please don’t turn people off your really good foundations with lousy packaging, I beg of you.

Okay, rant over. Let’s go on to another good item in Revlon’s Nearly Naked range, and that’s the pressed powder.

Nearly Naked Pressed Powder

This is another goodie in the range and thank goodness, the packaging is just fine. Sure it looks plasticky but it’s actually quite sturdy and I do like that it’s in a white palette. It comes with a mirror and a makeup sponge for the powder. I don’t like using makeup sponges that come with pressed powders so I kept that away and just used a makeup brush with the powder.

The powder is finely milled and isn’t gritty nor does it feel powdery. The texture of the powder is very fine and goes on almost translucent on the skin (at least, the Medium was for me). It’s silky smooth to the touch and leaves a matte finish on the skin. It’s so smooth that it feels much like certain high-end pressed powders. It doesn’t look powdery when it’s applied on the skin nor does it cake up on any skin creases once it’s been on for a longer period of time.

The foundation and pressed powder go well together for a natural, “my skin but better with oil control” look. They don’t have to be used together; each product has its good points. The only thing I can fault about the range is the no-pump, spill-easy packaging of the foundation. Other than that, I’ll give these two a thumb and a half’s up.

Revlon’s Nearly Naked foundation and pressed powder retail at AU$25.95 each and are available at selected pharmacies and departmental stores nationally.

What I like about it: Lightweight foundation, gives me a natural, “my skin but better” look; powder is very fine milled, non-cakey on the skin, good amount of SPF

What I do not like about it: Wide hole on top of the bottle making it difficult to dispense the right amount of foundation and also easy to spill.

Have you tried the Nearly Naked range before? What do you think? Yay or nay?

Note: These products were provided for editorial consideration.