Last week as I was innocently scrolling down my Twitter timeline, I came across a photograph. Within the photograph, I saw something that I honestly never thought I would see from a drugstore/high street brand; foundation….for dark skin?!
*STOP THE PRESS.* *HOLD THE PHONE*. Wait a minute! Now I’ve been beauty blogging for a long time (nearly 9 years) and I believe I’ve honestly spent about 7 of those years campaigning and writing letters to nearly all the huge beauty corporations to ask about the lack of foundation shades available to Asian, mixed and most importantly, black skin. I’ve received emails from, and have had discussions with brands such as YSL, Chanel, L’Oreal, Bourjois and countless others and have been consistently told the same ‘oh we’ll consider this in the future!’ rhetoric that women of colour (who spend the most amount of money on makeup in the UK btw) have had to put up with for years.
But. Lo and behold! L’Oreal have delivered on their promise and have released a new campaign entitled #YoursTruly, featuring a host of Youtubers (I spot my girl Kaushal over there on 5N , hey girl!) and media personalities highlighting the different shades.

L’Oreal claim that their popular ‘True Match’ foundation now matches up to 98% of the UK population across all ethnicities and now have a total of 23 shades available. When I saw this campaign online at work I was like “!!!!!!!”, took an early lunch and rushed out to my nearest Boots to pick up a shade. What I’ve found is that on the rare occasion when a brand releases a darker shade, they disappear like hotcakes so it’s best to cop a few ASAP.
I picked up shade 9.C as I felt it best suited my skin tone at the time of swatching. I have warm undertones however I picked this one up as I thought the other colour would have been a bit too light for me.
The True Match foundation is a very light foundation which offers a light to medium coverage and is SPF 17. It’s USP is that it’s a super blendable foundation that provides a flawless finish. The foundation also comes with a handy pump attached, which is always a good thing.

Thoughts:

Shade & Pigmentation: With regards to the shade, I think it suits my skin perfectly, however you can see in certain areas of my face that the warm undertones of my skin do not match parts of the cool tones of the foundation (T-Zone etc). I may purchase the warmer shade and mix the too for an even finish, but I can totally rock this on it’s own too!
Coverage & Texture: The fluid is unlike any other foundation I’ve ever used before. It’a very very lightweight and has almost the same consistency as water. I guess this is where the ‘ultra blendable’  description comes into practice. The foundation gives me quite a sheer light coverage which I don’t really mind as I prefer light to medium coverage so my skin can breathe. Personally, it almost looks like I’m wearing nothing at all, which is awesome.
I do have slight hyperpigmentation on my skin that I wished the foundation could have made a tad more even, but I can allow for this as it is quite sheer. The finish is supposed to be matte, however I feel it does look a little dewy on me (bearing in mind I’m wearing a matte primer too!) and I did have to give my face a little blotting throughout the day.
I would recommend this if you’re looking for an everyday foundation or going for the natural look as it is very light and quite sheer. Longevity is quite good, lasting me on average about 7 hours before fading off. If you have combination skin, I reckon you would benefit from this formula, however if you’re more on the oily side, I would recommend using a good primer before application. One application was okay for me in this instance, however on days when I’m looking for a bit more coverage, I may apply this twice.
All in all, I’m really happy with this foundation and overall, I’m happy that L’Oreal have listened to their consumers and have made progress with inclusivity and diversity within the beauty community. Granted, only 5 shades out of the 23 are suitable for dark skin and I feel that a lot could be improved within that area, but I’m hoping that the popularity and demand they get for these shades spurs them on to create and extend their foundation lines within the future!

Do you own this foundation? What do you think?