It's been more than three months - three! - since I've been under a self-imposed makeup shopping ban, and I've kept my word - zero shopping! No, there's no need to applaud - fine, I'm amazing. After some rather excessive beauty hauling in Europe and Boston earlier in the year, I decided to take a spending break and focus on products I already owned and loved. To celebrate my incredible self-control and willpower (tsk tsk), I rewarded myself with a new beauty buy - the Canmake UV Silky Fit Foundation SPF30 PA++.
It was love at first swatch with this Canmake powder foundation - my boyfriend had insisted we pop inside Sasa to get some hair gel (why, oh why would he tempt me?!) and before I knew what hit me, I was paying for this baby at the checkout counter. While I am certainly not the type of person to buy products on a whim - you best believe I do my research before committing to anything - this swatched so beautifully on the back of my hand, and I was already a big fan of the brand. Canmake is a popular Japanese drugstore brand that carries an extensive range of high-quality products at affordable prices (we like the sound of that!), and their Shading Powder in 01 Danish Brown, a lovely, cool-toned bronzer, is one of my favorites for achieving that natural shadow and contour. Hello, cheekbones! The Canmake website claims this powder foundation is resistant to sweat and sebum, gives a "smooth, baby-soft finish" to the face, and has a skin-friendly formulation with no alcohol, mineral oil or perfume. Since I'm always on the lookout for bases with SPF, this seemed like a good buy at an affordable price point. Cha-ching!
The powder foundation comes in a pearlescent, blue compact case with a mirror and sponge (super travel-friendly!), with small slots at the bottom of the case for ventilation purposes for when the sponge is still wet. How thoughtful is that?! The foundation is fragrance-free, and the shade range is, again, incredibly limited with just two shades, including 01 Light Ochre for "pale skin and those who like a brightening effect", and 02 Ochre for normal complexions. I went with the darker shade, which was still too light for my complexion. Oh well, gotta work with what you got! The instructions say that you can use this foundation with the sponge either dry or wet, and specifically not to throw out the plastic film on top of the foundation. Maybe to keep the foundation from drying out? Who knows. I knew I should've kept going to Japanese classes!
I quickly found out (the hard way) that application is so important with this foundation - how you apply this and the tools you choose will make or break your face. Trying this on with the sponge both dry and wet turned into a cakey, patchy mess - like packing on cement - and even my beloved Sephora Classic Mini Multitasker Brush #45.5 was a no-go. Welcome to Cake Town! I finally took out my fluffy e.l.f Powder Brush and made the point of pushing the foundation into the skin instead of buffing. Success! The foundation is buildable to a medium coverage, but be warned that it can look cakey fast. I used a concealer brush to tap this under my eyes as concealer, which did a surprisingly okay job at hiding my dark circles.
This looks pretty good once you get the application right, but it's also super obvious that you're wearing foundation. My boyfriend, who is usually completely oblivious to my makeup, noticed as well and made sure to let me know. Thanks dude. But fear not - this is one of those foundations that looks better as the day goes on, once you let your natural oils mix with the base. It certainly did hold up in the heat as it claimed, and I wasn't nearly as shiny as I usually get in this humidity. However, the foundation faded rather unevenly throughout the day, leaving patches on my forehead and around my cheeks. Not a good look.
This looks pretty good once you get the application right, but it's also super obvious that you're wearing foundation. My boyfriend, who is usually completely oblivious to my makeup, noticed as well and made sure to let me know. Thanks dude. But fear not - this is one of those foundations that looks better as the day goes on, once you let your natural oils mix with the base. It certainly did hold up in the heat as it claimed, and I wasn't nearly as shiny as I usually get in this humidity. However, the foundation faded rather unevenly throughout the day, leaving patches on my forehead and around my cheeks. Not a good look.
Swatched | Blended out
If I could go back in time - wouldn't that be swell? - I would not buy this again. No, nope, nah, never. This just isn't the most flattering base, the application can be tricky and was a lot more work than I anticipated. If you have very oily skin, and you want something that offers sun protection and helps you stay relatively matte, then sure, you could give this a try. If you have dry, normal, even combination skin, don't even think about it! 'Cos this will be a nightmare. Overall, I would say just save your money and try your luck elsewhere!
Thankfully, this hasn't gone to complete waste - I now use this as a midday foundation topper! I dust this on in the afternoon when I need that extra coverage and to top up my SPF - it's recommended that we reapply our SPF every few hours, but of course we ain't gonna mess up our highlight and contour... so this is the perfect solution!
Hope you enjoyed this review! I'm really proud of myself for sticking it out for three months, and am officially lifting my shopping ban - let the beauty hauling commence!
