Product Review: L'Oreal True Match Foundation

I recently discovered L'Oreal True Match Foundation, and it is the best foundation I have ever used. It feels great, blends perfectly with my skin, and doesn't cause breakouts.

I'm not really a "makeup person," but I also tend to get acne. So I'm often torn between the desire to keep the natural look and the desire to cover up my breakouts. Usually, when I try a foundation, it looks thick and obvious. Even the ones labeled "non-comedogenic" (meaning they won't clog pores) make my skin break out more. It's hard to make the choice between looking bad now and having worse skin later.

A few months ago I was in a CVS and passed through the makeup aisle. I wouldn't even have stopped, but I saw the L'Oreal foundation section had a tool to help determine the correct foundation shade for you. This tool is a piece of plastic with the various colors on it. You are supposed to put it over your wrist, and the color that "disappears" is your shade.

It was very helpful because foundations always look like a different color in the bottle. I've been known to stand in front of the rows of bottles and think, none of those look like me.

L'Oreal True Match Foundation is so called because it has a huge number of shade options. They are organized by the undertones of your skin: warm, neutral, or cool. Each of these categories has six shades, from lightest to darkest. This makes a total of 18 color choices. (Each shade has a pretty name, too, like "alabaster" or "classic ivory.")

I found my true match among these choices. I did this with the aid of the plastic tool; otherwise I would have chosen a different shade. The color that disappeared over my wrist was "porcelain," the lightest shade in the warm category. I was a little surprised, because the model in the advertisement above the display who had "porcelain" as her true match was Asian, and I am Caucasian.

I decided to give it a try anyway, so after buying it I went home to try it on. I was pleasantly surprised. It matched perfectly, and better than that, it didn't even look like I was wearing makeup. The foundation also felt very soft and smooth.