The Truth: Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation

"Silky, lightweight fluid foundation for seamless application. Capture the glow of perfect looking skin with luminous silk foundation, an oil free hydrating fluid with exclusive micro fil technology. Its lightweight and silky texture glides on seamlessly for an all day, buildable coverage. Find your perfect match among 21 available shades. All skin types."

Depop: @demetrizia

Price RRP: £40

Content: 30ml

Skin: All Skin Types

Coverage: Medium

Form: Liquid

Feature: Oil Free

The Backstory

First of all, thank you Google for all those facts and figures right there. With all of my purchases there is always a back story. I am massive on buying through recommendations. Growing up, I always watched reviews from some of the best makeup gurus on YouTube and Instagram. As I got older, I made a shift from lusting over guru reviews to thankfully being in a better financial position to actually splurge on these guilty pleasures every once in a while. I now find myself growing more and more detached from buying through makeup reviews to actually buying through personal recommendations from friends within my closer circle.

I fell out of love with makeup when I started working my first full-time job.

Maybe out love is a little strong, I want to better phrase that as, I spent less time caring about what makeup "look" I would create for that day. It just didn't make sense to invest in the products I was investing in before because when you're already struggling to get your hours in at night, the last thing you want to do is cut your sleep short in order to look "presentable" for work.

On the days where I did make an effort to go to work, I was back to basics with my MAC Studio Fix Liquid Foundation (NC42) as I had completely rinsed out my NARS Sheer Glow (Syracuse). Despite hating the cakiness of the studio fix foundation, I settled because, it didn't look too bad when used sparingly, and what was the point in purchasing another expensive foundation when I barely wore makeup to work anyway?

I think now would be a great time to mention that I became good friends with a girl called Grace. On a day to day basis, Grace rocked the natural look. She was naturally very beautiful and seldom needed to wear make up, if at all- but when she did, boy, she looked stunning. She always went for a very natural look when she did her makeup and never went overboard. Her skin was flawless without it, but with her foundation, it was taken to another level. Just before we pulled up to Birmingham New Street for another long day at work, she pulled out the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation and shared her secret.

Holding the product description accountable

I'm going to focus on two main areas of the description:

• "Silky and Lightweight"- YES, yes and YES! This foundation is definitely a lot lighter than the studio fix. It doesn't give the cakey feel at all. What I found was that when I apply it with a damp beauty blender it soaks into the skin beautifully. It definitely does give that real skin glow and a little goes a long way. It does wonders for making your pores look like they don't exist either. With it being a medium coverage foundation it was perfect for daytime but I found it to be extremely buildable to make for a full coverage for night time.

• "All-day, buildable"- So I've already touched on it being buildable to full coverage. Would I go as far as to boast for its durability and wear for the day? I'll give it a 6.5 out of 10 in this department. If you have naturally oily skin, its feature of being oil free definitely helps you avoid breakouts, but I must say as you get your wear out of it, it does need a lot of blotting to avoid greasiness in problem areas (T-Zone, chin etc.) What I found is that no matter how hard I tried, and even with a good setting powder, the foundation disappears and tends to break apart specifically at the nose area. Naturally, this is where I am most oily anyways and it was never the case for Grace but was definitely the case for me.

Value for Money

Like most high-end makeup products, this one doesn't come cheap. It comes at a costly £40 for 30ml of product. I bought mine in Selfridges and I believe the product retail price is the same across all department stores within the UK. The foundation pictured at the top of the post is actually one that I bought at Sephora when I went to LA. It is three shades darker than my usual shade and I bought it with the intention to wear on top of my tan. Unfortunately, my tan did not hold for that long. Surprisingly, the prices in Sephora were way more expensive than that of any UK department store. From memory, it cost me around $72 (inc. tax) which takes us to around about £50.

Would I say that you NEED this foundation? If you are the kind of person who justifies and normally spends this much on your foundation anyways, I would definitely urge you to try.

It was and still is a dream for me to use despite it not being my "go to" anymore.

It's definitely not a product I would purchase without sampling. My first piece of advice for someone who is like me and doesn't really like to spend money blind is to always get a sample pot first! This way you can try the product alongside your normal face routine and really get true testament of its wear for you. Unfortunately, the last few times I have been into Selfridges to get a tester for my mom, they told me they no longer offer tester samples so your next best bet is to have them skin match your entire face for the day and see how the wear is for you. Of course, the difficulty with this is it's not going to be accurate to how you would wear it because oftentimes, artists at concessions will be so busy that they can only allow time to apply the foundation alone until they have to move on to another customer (I can't speak for every concession, but in my experience this has been the case.)

My only other advice would be to find a genuine Depop seller who offer samples at a fraction of the price- at least that way, you are not digging too far into your pocket for a product that isn't going to be a guaranteed hit for you.

Round Up

Behind the scenes of shooting the pilot episode for Vlogglebox, I was being very self-indulgent in this lighting as it captured my foundation beautifully, if I must say so myself. This was one of my favourite looks using this foundation!

Would I recommend you try? Absolutely. Emphasis on TRY. Try before buy

Is it worth the hype? It is!

Is it worth the money? Only if you are into your makeup and like a stack of collectibles, otherwise, if you have a staple routine and don't really like to experiment, you might dwell on other products that may do the job just as good for you at a much cheaper price

Pros: Flawless, dewy, skin-like finish! Great skin tone match & extremely buildable

Cons: Gets oily & fades around the nose, transfers easily, needs a setting powder, EXPENSIVE

Rating out of 10: 8.5

I would love to hear your thoughts on this foundation if you have used it before. Is your experience of it completely different? Are there any dupes that I should know about? Let me know!