I was recently contacted by a site called Blanc to Noir, which sells all sorts of makeup brands including NYX, Sigma, Face Front, and Real Techniques just to name a few. There’s loads more but that’s just off the top of my head. They asked me if I’d be willing to review some products from their site, and I was excited to see they had some of the newer offerings from NYX that I was interested in trying so of course I said yes!

The first product I knew I wanted to try was the Stay Matte but not Flat Liquid Foundation. I of course went for the shade Ivory (which is the lightest shade), and the color was fine for me. Unfortunately that’s where the good things about this end! I really wanted to like this foundation. I like a matte finish (or satin, sometimes), so “matte but not flat” sounded ideal. It’s water-based & oil free so it sounded skin friendly as well.

First off, I’m not wild about the packaging. This sounds lame but I really wish the top flipped up instead of screwing off the tube. Makes it harder to lose the cap when it’s attached. ;) I drop caps all the time, and those of you who own cats know that the sound of a small plastic object dropping to the floor will cause a cat to run and dive after whatever it is. Sometimes you never see it again. :\ The tube is alright, I mean if they aren’t going to spring for a nice pump I’d rather have it be in a tube than a big open-mouthed bottle.

Dig my velcro patch holding my hair back. ;)

The texture is very liquidy, which I do not mind. It does this weird thing when you apply it though where it almost feels like lotion that lathers and spreads? Rather than feeling like it absorbs in to my skin or melds with my complexion, I felt like this foundation just spreads and sits on top of my face. The first time I applied it I used a damp sponge. The second time I used my hands to apply it and the Real Techniques buffing brush to blend. I really took my time buffing and blending the foundation, but it still just kind of sat there, emphasizing any unevenness I had on my skin.

Not a great look. :\

I didn’t particularly care for how this felt on my skin. I could feel the foundation the whole time, and my skin felt tacky to the touch, even with a little powder. More powder just made it slightly less tacky feeling and cakey. Bleh. The coverage was not full coverage as promised by the packaging either. It was odd coverage. I could still see freckles and blemishes, though it did hide some redness for a few minutes before I started getting redder from irritation. Both times I applied this foundation, I ended up removing it very shortly thereafter and applying something else because it also started to make my skin feel irritated and warm. So it would seem in addition to the foundation not looking or feeling too great, it gave me some kind of reaction. Above you can see how my skin looks kind of bumpy.

Even though I didn’t have a good experience with this foundation, I still like Blanc to Noir. They have lots of good stuff and when it arrived it came quickly and well-packaged. I believe they ship from California though so it should be pretty fast. So even if you’re not shopping for NYX you will probably find some good stuff there.

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