I'm in LOVE with this foundation!!!

I have a friend who works at an Aveda salon and her skin always looks so fresh and flawless. I asked her what she uses and I was amazed that she said Aveda, I never knew Aveda had makeup! I asked her to get me 2 colors (I use #5 when I'm not-so tan, and #7 when I am lol) and they both work flawlessly. I used to use Bare Minerals for the longest time, but got so frustrated when it would slide and just fade away a couple hours into my day. Not this mineral makeup! Like other reviewers said, it can get a tad shiny by the end of the day, but a quick dab into your palette and you're done.
The sponge gives you the fullest coverage, a brush gives you bendable, medium coverage, and wet the powder for more dewy, light coverage. Use it with a concealer and it covers so beautifully. I find that I don't need a primer with this which is huge. It makes my skin feel really soft and airbrushed-looking.
Only downside is if you have any flakiness, obviously a powder will make that show. You can still use it with a regular foundation or tinted moisturizer if you have dry skin, and bonus, you'll get even fuller coverage! Overall, I love this stuff. Good for your skin, earth-friendly packaging, and great staying-power. What could be better??

Coverage: Medium - Full. This is what I know I can rely on when I'm breaking out, i.e. the past couple weeks of skin hell.

Application: The sponge can leave lines/streaks so I use a dense angled face brush to apply this to the high points of my face (mid forehead, down nose, sides of nose to upper cheekbones, above the lips, and lightly on the chin) after I've applied liquid concealer to circles and around nostrils, then use a very small dense pencil brush to conceal blemishes completely with this powder. The result is very natural and fresh regardless of how hagard looking I was previously. Super fast to do, which is great because if I'm worn out, exhausted, breaking out, and in pain, I definitely don't want to be standing in front of a mirror looking at myself to pile on makeup for 30+ min. Bonus: my skin is visibly healing.

Wear: 4-5 hours. Amazingly doesn't settle into lines! !!! It gets a little shiny and starts to go a little sheer but that's all. Unlike other higher end powder foundations I've use, this one doesn't become discoball shiny, doesn't start to itch, and doesn't slide or feel gross. Easily fixed with a blot and light reapplication. It still looked pretty good after a long day at the hospital followed by a workout followed by a run. Fixed it within a few seconds before dinner. It does last longer and stays more satin-matte if set with a finishing powder.

Prep: If you're still worried about pores and lines you could use a primer but honestly it's not necessary. Just about everything settles into my fine lines but this doesn't. I find this works well over a light moisturizer. A heavy moisturizer would cause it to break down and go shiny faster.

Amount: I've owned this foundation for a little over a year and am still on the same pan (I don't wear makeup every day, aside from lip balm and mascara). The price isn't bad at all considering the only comparable powder foundations are Fresh Face Luster, Laura Mercier Mineral Foundation, and Dolce & Gabbana powder foundation, which are all roughly double what this costs.

Flash photography: Nope. Ghost face. Use a liquid or cream without SPF. This is definitely more of a natural every day, day-time foundation.

Packaging: I LOVE refillable packaging! If only more companies did it I'd have a lot less gorgeous compacts and rose gold tubes laying around. It's so annoying to run out of a great product and have to rebuy the entire thing, packaging and all. Definitely appreciative of being able to buy the product alone sans expensive compact.

Colour selection: Meh. It does range from very pale to somewhat dark but .... the fair shades lean somewhat pink. My skin tone ranges from NW15 up to NC25, right now I'm somewhere in between and still using 01Cream since Aster is a bit too pink. Hopefully when the summer hits I'll be able to use one of the darker neutral shades. If you have golden undertones, you may have to look at MAC, LM, Bobbi Brown, or Dolce & Gabbana for a decent match.

Ingredients: Amazing. Nice clean list of ingredients. My highly reactive skin is not sensitized further by this. No itching either from drying out. This is why I prefer it to all other powder and mineral foundations.

Overall this is a godsend for sensitive skin, fine lines and all, that's freaking out in all the colours of the rainbow.

LOVE IT!

Used this for the first time today. Went on so easily with a brush and a little goes a long way! Did not feel heavy at all. Only thing I didn't like is it started to cake a bit around my nose after 5-6 hours so i may need to try to apply less in that area? Over all I loved it. I have the lightest shade called Cream

You don't even feel this foundation on. It is easily applied with a brush and you don't need a lot of time to do so. I apply it with the Prescriptive's round brush.This foundation is very natural and barely noticeable. It definitely evens out your skin tone and its difficult to detect you have it on. This foundation has not broken me out. It doesn't accentuate the flakiness either. However, I would say if you have mostly clear skin this product is a gem. If you have acne or dark discoloration it won't cover it up. You will need a concealer. I use the color Aster for my NW20 skin. The packaging sucks and I don't want to pay extra for the case - minus 1 lippie. If I wasn't such a product junkie I would stick with this foundation. At least when my skin is clearer it looks amazing. By the way if you do have large pores this will not make them appear bigger. Also, I am sure you can even cover them up using the Clinique pore refining product. However, I believe that a product is only good if it can deliver results by itself and I refuse to add additional products to make it work. Particularly since I am acne-prone. For reference: my skin is combination/oily with dry patches, large pores, breakout prone, and easily congested no matter how much I exfoliate or moisturize (Glytone lotion works for this). I also have been told by my dermatologist to only use powder foundation. For those of you with similar skin conditions I hope this helps.

This is by far my fav foundation! I am allergic to TONS of makeup (including MAC, Stila, Clinique and almost every Sephora brand I have tried- they all make me super itchy) and I had finally found Laura Mercier powder foundation, however they do not have enough colors to ever get a good match for your skin tone. I decided to give Aveda a try, and it is by far the best foundation I have ever tried! They have lots of colors to choose from, I find it cheap compared to a lot of other brands and it goes on smooth and seems to stay on very well (even on my oily skin) when I use it over some primer. The only thing I do not love about it is that you re-use the compacts and buy the makeup as a refill, and the compact is very deep and once the makeup gets low, its a bit hard to get the last bit out with the sponge and tends to make a mess. And, it is hard to find somewhere to buy it. I went to 4 salons that used Aveda products before I found one that would SELL it to me. It is still my fav and I will continue buying this stuff from the salons for sure!!! If you are having any problems with foundation definitely worth giving this a try!

This is THE BEST foundation EVER! It's so easy to apply with just a swipe. The coverage blends so well and looks fresh and dewey but not shimmer or greasy. I barely even need a concealer for my acne with this foundation because it covers so nicely. I'm so in love with it that I'm telling everyone I know. I'd be devastated if it ever was discontinued. My bare minerals can't even compare to this stuff.

Really liked at first, but I wore it over a liquid foundation. Too expensive for what you get. Then you have to buy the compact to put it in?? Please! By itself it doesn't do much. Over another makeup it works at a setting powder and looks nice, but then it gets oily on me. It's alright, nothing special for me.

This is my favorite foundation ever. You have to apply with a primer under, because if you don't it wont stay on long at all. I find that this gives a really nice natural finish, and i think it's mineral foundation, so it won't make skin break out and does not have any harsh chemicals or parabens. The coverage can be build up, and even used as a concealer. At around 20$ a compact, this is a really good foundation, but it does not last an extremely long time.

I just recently purchased this on a whim ... because of how many great reviews it has received on here, and I have to say - this will be another one of those. This will now, and hopefully forever be my HG foundation! Which I must give Aveda props for ... I have been searching for such an amazing product for many years now. It's frustrating trying to find a foundation that covers extremely well, doesn't cake, wears all day, doesn't produce shine and goes on like a dream - and this one does it all. I did read that people complained about the packaging - which I don't understand. I was advised to just use it in its plastic packing it comes with - and so far its been fine, and saved me 35$ CDN on one of their fancy compacts. Just don't throw away the sponge that comes with it (if you choose to not use it) and keep it inside the packing with the foundation so it doesn't move around and potentially crack. I will say however, that I bought the lightest shade 01cream, and in the salon it looked pretty darn good with matching my skin tone - but once I got home .. I find it to be a tad too light, which is nothing to fret about - I just had some bronzer. So once I run out of this I will probably purchase one shade darker. Definitely give this stuff a try! It's a great foundation! Good job Aveda!