Product Review: Revlon ColorStay Active Light Makeup

Oh what a glorious weekend it's been! I spent a large part of yesterday afternoon laying about on a beach. A beach! In the sun! In May! (You have to understand that coming from a land-locked province, seeing natural bodies of water is very very exciting for me)

Considering I was going to be out in the sun all day, I thought it'd be a good day to test-run Revlon's ColorStay Active foundation (with SoftFlex! And SPF 25!). When I first saw this foundation back in December last year, I really wanted to try it. Blame Kate Bosworth's fresh freckled mug on the ads. Or was it James King? Whatever. At the startling price tag of $18 CAD for a small tube though, I was hesitant to buy it.




Well, trusty Wal*Mart recently had a sale on, and I finally caved and bought it. ColorStay Active seems like the perfect beach makeup: it promises to give light sweatproof coverage and feel natural, but not rub off. The SPF 25 was also a selling point, although I doubt it really ends up as SPF 25 on your face, considering you don't usually spackle foundation on like you do sunscreen. Still, it's got the highest SPF of any foundation that I've tried.

The first thing I noticed about this foundation was that it was THICK. Surprisingly thick, especially for a product advertised as "light makeup". Despite its viscousness, it was more gel-like in texture (as opposed to creamy), and it seemed quite smooth. Spreading it on did take some effort, since you had to blend the product out quite well. The shade Sand Beige was an alright match -- it seemed a tiny bit greyish at first, but after application, it didn't seem unnatural or ghostly. I would have preferred a touch more warmth in the colour though. On the plus side, Wal*Mart had testers of all the shades hidden behind a sliding display, so that makes it much easier to find your shade.

From the product description, I was expecting the coverage to be on the light side. While certainly not a heavy foundation, the coverage is more like a light-to-medium. Girls with fantastic skin or foundation phobia might find that this is more coverage than they need in a summer foundation. However, the look of the coverage is very natural... not quite as good as the sheerer Almay Smart Shade, but close. And this stuff kicks ass at stopping oil. It gives a matte-ish finish after application, and stays that way throughout the day -- I didn't even use powder and I still looked shine-free after a day of beach-bumming. In fact, if one were to, say, get really tired and fall asleep at night without remembering to take her make up off, one would find that even after 8 hours' sleep, the foundation still wouldn't have melted off. Not that *I* would ever do such a lazy, bad thing, of course.

All in all, ColorStay Active provided good coverage, natural-looking finish, high SPF, and lightweight feel. Best of all, it's long-lasting and it kicks shine to the curb. I give this foundation an A-, and especially recommend it if you're going to be running around being all healthy and sporty, or if you anticipate having your face sprayed with some kind of liquid (amusement parks, wet t-shirt contests, and college keggers all qualify).


This review was part of Foundation Week!