DiorSkin Star aka the ‘Selfie’ Foundation

Given the current snap-happy selfie culture it was only a matter of time ’til a brand came up with a foundation designed to make your face extra photogenic. Meet Dior’s new Diorskin Star Foundation & concealer, a pair of light-boosting products designed to recreate the perfect lighting of a photography studio while evening out color and textural imperfections.

The Diorskin Star foundation comes in 12 different shades (depending on where you live), which is their biggest colour range yet for a foundation. A lot of brands finally seem to acknowledge there’s a lot of demand for foundations that cater to more skin tones than what’s on display at the moment and I can only encourage them to invest in this current trend as I am also one of those people that has a very hard time in finding a foundation that matches my fair skin tone. Dior kindly gave me the Diorskin Star foundation in 010 to try, which is the lightest shade available. Unfortunately this is still too dark for me at the moment, but I’m having small hopes it will work for me in the summer when I have a bit more of a tan. I can and have been wearing it a lot since I got it because the colour difference is not that big, however the true problem lies in the oxidation effect that it (and every other foundation) has. It gets darker when exposed to air, which makes it lose its natural colour on me. One shade lighter would’ve been ideal.

As far as the brightening effect goes, I can indeed confirm my complexion looks more luminous when I wear the Diorskin Star foundation due to the Hollow Silica Beads, a new generation of silica beads that capture and diffuse light and recreate the luminous glow achieved with perfect lighting. My skin looks perfectly balanced, also thanks to the active ingredients of the foundation such as Immortelle Extract, Paquerette Extract and Licorice Extract, which were added to reduce shadow zones, pigment spots and redness. The fact that it has medium coverage and is super buildable also helps a lot.

As always with Dior, the packaging looks super chic. The biggest plus for me however, is the limited amount the pump dispenses, making it easier not to waste a single drop of product. A must for any foundation with that kind of price tag I’d say. I apply this with my RealTechniques Expert Face Brush. I usually put on 2 layers and touch up those places that need a bit more coverage.

Swatch

Left: Diorskin Star foundation in 010 ; Right: Diorskin Star concealer in 002

The concealer, which is designed to be blended over the top of the foundation, comes in an additional five shades. I got the shade 002 which is way to dark for me or even in combination with the 010 foundation. As far as I could tell from the swatch it looks like it has good coverage to handle dark circles, but I can’t say anything about how long wearing it is. Not shown here but also good to know: Dior has also released a ‘Backstage Pros’ Fluid Foundation Sponge’ to help women apply the product like the professionals. The soft touch sponge produces a diffuse finish, with a tear shape that provides a mix of precision points and a wide blending surface. It’s similar to the Beauty Blender only you use this one dry.

Before: no make-up ; After: wearing nothing but Diorskin Star foundation in 010

So what’s the final verdict on this foundation? My skin looks great thanks to the semi-matte finish. The problem is, it doesn’t last that long on me at all. I’m not quite sure wether my oily-combo skin is the deal breaker here, but the fact is that it only takes about an hour for the foundation to crawl into some lines. After that, my entire face becomes shinier by the hour and starts to move around a bit, resulting in a look that’s nothing like how I had made it look when I left the house in the morning. It looks a lot darker, oily and heavy in some places. I’ve tried using it with different moisturizers and I tried to set it with primer, powder and finishing spray but nothing seems to work to keep it in check. I’ll continue to try different methods until I can find a way to make it work for me, especially since so many seem to really love this foundation and have even dropped the ‘holy grail’ word. If you happen to have any tips, I’d love to hear them!

UPDATE! I finally have found a way to make the foundation work for me. I changed my routine once more and this is what I found out: I can’t use any moisturizers that have anti-ageing or promise intense hydration (in combination with SPF) when I plan on wearing the Dior Star Foundation. I can only use really light or matte moisturizers. This may result into problems with dry patches, especially around my nose, when the winter season comes but for now I can make it work this way. There’s still some minor product crawling in the lines around my mouth and eyes (maybe I smile too much), but the shiny finish doesn’t appear until the end of the day and most important of all, it stays put. YASSS!! Knowing this, I’m pretty happy with the result of the foundation and I’ll continue to wear it.

DiorSkin Star Foundation € 46
DiorSkin Star Concealer € 32
DiorSkin Star Fluid Foundation Sponge € 17

Now available at the perfumery/ beauty counter.

Disclaimer: Samples provided by PR.