Review: L'Oreal Infallible Pro-Matte in #101 Classic Ivory

(warning! This is a long one)

Based on the preliminary results from my foundation haul post on reviewing what I had picked up recently, I decided to start with the L'Oreal Infallible Pro-Matte in #101 Classic Ivory. If you've been reading Jeweled Thumb for any length of time, you should know that I have dry skin, so I wasn't sure how this would work for me. Granted, a lot of the reviews that were coming out were getting raves from both dry skin and oily skin girls alike so I thought I'd give it a try.

The other thing you probably know already is I have pale skin, which can sometimes be an issue when finding a color match, especially at the drugstore in high end brands too sometimes). Surprisingly, #101 Classic Ivory is a fairly good match for my skin; it seems to be just neutral enough to not go yellow or pink and it doesn't oxidize on me (though your mileage may vary). Keep in mind that some of the pictures below are in extremely yellow lighting.

The L'Oreal Infallible Pro-Matte in #101 Classic Ivory retails for around $12.99 (per the L'Oreal website) but as with most drugstore products, the price may vary by store and/or location and sales and coupons may impact the price at some stores. I don't recall how much I paid, but I think it was around the $10 mark.

L'Oreal claims the following:

Achieve a matte finish that won’t fall flat with this air-light, longwearing liquid formula. Lightweight and creamy, foundation goes on smooth with a demi-matte finish that lasts up to 24 hours—hiding imperfections for a smooth, clear complexion.

The website says to "use fingers or your favorite makeup brush" to apply, but the bottle says to "smooth onto skin in rolling motion for flawless coverage" but doesn't specify a tool.

I've tried this foundation twice using various methods and neither produce the look I tend to go for. What I get is a fairly flat matte look if I attempt to build it up to cover blemishes, pigmentation or redness, and even on areas that are clear, I get a dry flaky matte look. My skin doesn't produce a lot of natural oils, but the only time it starts looking decent is around hour 5 (and only with my 2nd attempt; my first attempt was done when I was out and about and seemed to look worse and worse).

First Try 3/8/2015
My initial attempt included first washing my face with my eve lom cleansing balm and really letting it sink in, almost like a hydrating mask, before removing it with a slightly steamy muslin cloth. I patted my face dry and applied a hydrating moisturizer (Eclos Moisture Therapy Regenerative Cream - PR sample) and an oil (Palmer's Cocoa Butter Oil for Face). Then I let those sink in (see - I really tried!). I didn't use a primer because usually I don't need one after pampering my face so well. I used a moistened beauty blender to bounce the product onto my face. I was surprised that it was light in texture and I was impressed with the color match. Bounce pounce bounce pounce. I built it up to a reasonable medium coverage before putting my glasses back on and checking myself out in the mirror. No good. So then I sprayed my face with the shu uemura Depsea Water Facial Mist and waited a few seconds to see if it did anything. Not really, but I had to leave the house so I sprayed myself with my Urban Decay setting spray.

After all of that, this is what I was left with (granted, these were the worst looking areas and if you stepped back, my skin looked a little dry, but not horrible).

 chin/cheek

 chin

nose/upper lip

As I said, I had to leave the house, so I was kind of stuck with it and I think from afar it didn't look too bad, but up close, oof!

The next set of photos were after the 4 hour, post brunch with my mom and food shopping mark.

Don't mind me looking like a hot mess... (though you can see not too bad from far away)

 Nose and upper lip

In-between the brows

Not my best look.

By the end of the day, it had gotten about as worse as it was going to get and I promptly and happily removed it as it wasn't looking good and it was uncomfortable to wear.

 cheek

cheek/nose

I think that was at the 10 hour mark. So, after 5 minutes the product had pretty much sucked all the moisture from my skin and was starting to look crumbly and mask like and it just got worse from there. Pretty much everything I don't want in a foundation.

But I'm patient and willing to give it another shot. This time I literally did nothing but stayed inside my heat-controlled house.

Second Try 3/20/2015

I did the same type of cleanse with my eve lom and kept it on longer than usual and really massaged it into my face and gently exfoliated with the muslin cloth. I patted my skin dry and applied a different moisturizer, one with hyaluronic acid that I'm testing out. I let that sink in and then I used a primer (Tarte's Colored Clay CC Primer in fair - which I surprisingly like), especially on the "problem areas" from last time. To mimic the directions on the back better, I used a moistened triangular foundation sponge, which I thought would allow me to roll better than the beauty blender. This time I didn't use a setting spray.

So this is right after application. You can see I got decent coverage, but you can already see some of the dryness on my nose, but it doesn't look awful if you don't look up close.

Up close is another story. That's my chin. This is right after application.

I let it set up for awhile, hoping the hyaluronic acid would do some magic. Alas, it didn't feel that way. My skin felt unusually tight, like the foundation was sucking all of the moisture out.

Around hour 5, my skin still felt a bit tight, but not as uncomfortable as after the initial application, and it definitely looked better than my first attempt.

And from far away it looked pretty normal, right?

Up close it wasn't quite as pretty but not near as disastrous as attempt number 1.

 chin

 in-between the eyebrows, bridge of nose and nose

side of nose, cheek and blemish

So the makeup definitely looked better for my 2nd attempt, but still, I much prefer the look of my Missha BB Cream or even the Revlon makeup in the pot or even the Kat Von D makeup, as thick as it is. For a drugstore foundation that costs this much, this is too much work for me. So, apologies for the crusty face photos and the lengthy review, but unless your skin is on the normal side of dry, I wouldn't recommend this for dry girls and as long as I can find my receipt, I'm returning mine. Wanted to love, but even though it lasts forever with a primer for me, I wanted to remove it all day long. Funny enough, the best it looked was right before I removed it, after wearing it for 10 hours.


INGREDIENTS: AQUA / WATER / EAU DIMETHICONE ISODODECANE NYLON-12 ACRYLATES/POLYTRIMETHYLSILOXYMETHACRYLATE COPOLYMER SILICA BUTYLENE GLYCOL PEG-10 DIMETHICONE ISOHEXADECANE ISONONYL ISONONANOATE PENTYLENE GLYCOL SYNTHETIC FLUORPHLOGOPITE BIS-PEG/PPG-14/14 DIMETHICONE MAGNESIUM SULFATE PHENOXYETHANOL CAPRYLYL GLYCOL ACRYLATES COPOLYMER DISODIUM STEAROYL GLUTAMATE DISTEARDIMONIUM HECTORITE CALCIUM GLUCONATE PERLITE MAGNESIUM GLUCONATE TOCOPHEROL ALUMINUM HYDROXIDE [+/- MAY CONTAIN / PEUT CONTENIR CI 77891 / TITANIUM DIOXIDE CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 / IRON OXIDES ]