Rainforest of the Sea Foundation

Many things to love! Mineral sunscreen! Unscented! Nice color range and lovely medium coverage with a semi-matte finish. Not shiny, sparkly, or greasy looking. So far, so good! I apply with fingertips. It's a beautiful product and terrific color match. My only beef with this was its consistency and application. It sets up quickly and was draggy to apply. I've found that it goes on much better and lasts all day looking completely flawless with e.l.f. hydrating primer. I am not a fan of primers, but primer made this foundation a perfect 10, IMO. It lasts all day no smudging or smearing and looks very smooth. It also washes off easily and completely at night. I have dry, sensitive skin, so it you are like me this might be a win for you, too! Oh yes, and I agree with all reviewers that the applicator eyedropper thing would be better as a pump. But the actual product is very good!

I have this in Light Sand and it is a perfect match. I am NC25, ELDW 2W2 Rattan, Chanel VA 30. I have combo skin that is very oily on nose and chin, normal to dry everywhere else. I live in the south and have used this since last summer. I love the skin-like satin finish of this foundation. It has light to medium coverage and no scent. It looks very nice on the skin, but can cling to dry patches and break up on oily parts. It only lightly covers discoloration or blemishes. I have to use a lot of concealer on spots. I can get it to last all day with a primer and good setting powder. I hate dropper packaging so much, especially this bottle bc it is so messy. I am very neat and clean with my beauty products and tried sooo hard to keep the top of this clean, but it is impossible. For that reason alone, I won't buy this again.

Update: bought a second bottle in a darker color (fair neutral) which seems to blend in perfectly. Man, I love this foundation. It feels great on the skin and looks so fresh. It is NOT full coverage; I'd say medium at best but of the ones I've used lately, including my old standard EL Double Wear and MAC Face & Body, this is totally my favorite. I received this foundation in a kit so the color was not exactly the one I'd choose (I'd go for light-medium neutral and the color I got is fair light sand, one color up from my tone and a bit warmer.) However it works and I came to like the foundation a lot. The bottle has a dropper dispenser and Tarte supplies a sponge kit (sometimes) or you can use a brush. The consistency is a creamy liquid and the finish is hydrating, buildable, not matte. Not very dewy either, just right in the middle. There are now 30 colors including deep colors so WOC can find a shade to work with their skin tone (I'm fair but wow, do I think it's pretty terrible that many lines do not include a full range of colors. We come in all shades.) The website shows two different bottle styles: one the fancy dropper button bottle and a more standard rubber bulb dropper. Not sure what you will get in future; I got the button dropper. When not on sale, the cost is about average for medium-high end foundation (forty or so US) mine came in a kit for sixty but I ended up tossing lipstick and palette as the colors were not their best for me. I love Tarte products and use them a lot and I ended up liking the foundation best of all from the set. Yes, I would repurchase this. It's comfortable to wear and I like the finish. This foundation is made in Korea. It is vegan, has 15 SPF (not a lot) and no gluten or mineral oil or phthalates or triclosan. Summary: if you like a light, buildable foundation with good ingredients in a full range of colors, I'd recommend this one highly.

I like this foundation but I wouldn't buy it again for several reasons: It is NOT water based, and it is very misleading of Tarte to advertise it as their "water foundation". It is a silicone based foundation. Check the ingredients. I see people make this common misconception all the time and waste money buying an unnecessary water based primer to work with it, when it actually works fine over silicone primers. Tarte knows damn well what they're doing is misleading but they don't care because it means this is always one of the first recommendations when people ask for a water rec. The dropper totally sucks. It doesn't pick up nearly enough product and overall it's a convoluted waste of time to use. My Bourjois Healthy Mix serum performs identically to it, but for much cheaper. If you have that foundation and it matches your skin tone, don't bother buying this one. For anyone else in NZ, you can buy Bourjois from ASOS for about 1/3 the price of buying the Tarte foundation. The Tarte foundation is much better in terms of shade range though. I wear a 51 in Bourjois and Light Sand in Tarte (when I'm NC15 in winter). I prefer the Tarte colour because it's yellower. Overall it's a good foundation, but nothing revolutionary and especially not at that price. I found it to be medium coverage satin finish (even when applied with a damp sponge) that could easily be built up to full coverage. It was neither matte nor glowy. If I used a brush to apply, this foundation didn't look very good over my nose because it made my blackheads/SF stand out. I've since switched to using Flower Beautys Light Illusion Foundation in L3 which I love way more because it lasts longer, doesn't make my nose pores look bad, looks more skinlike (despite being fuller coverage) and is waaay cheaper. I would still prefer the Flower Beauty even if it was more expensive. Please note that my overall score for it is based on product quality and not price because I really hate it when people mark a product up or down based on price because it screws up the review system. Just because it's cheap in your country doesn't mean it is elsewhere, and it's annoying when you have the cash to spend on something amazing but you can't easily find it because people marked a fantastic performing expensive product as lower than a poor performing cheap product.

Has buildable coverage with a natural finish. Doesn't look cakey at all. Definitely more on the hydrating side. It does deem to break up at end of the day however. Beautiful packaging and the dropper helps dispensing the right amount of product.

This is a really good foundation. It offers medium coverage but did not do well over my acne at all. It broke up and clung to dry patches and did little over the redness. But, the finish was nice and very natural looking. I have very fair skin and have trouble finding a match in most brands, but this was perfect. Overall really good product. I was looking for my HG, though, and this isn't it.

I am so disappointed in this foundation. Bought it, used it. It was like using the cheap stuff. Made my face break out badly. I wouldn’t buy this again. The coverage was decent. I’d take it back and ask for a refund but I don’t wanna be one of them people.

I wanted to love this foundation. I received a sample and loved the finish when I initially put it on. It's a semi-matte finish with a very natural glow. By the end of the day I had some clinging to a few dry spots, but I naturally have dry skin so I assumed it was due to the fact that I didn't use primer when I put it on. I bought the full size bottle. After wearing this multiple times with multiple primers/moisturizers, I still continue to see clinging to dry patches within hours of application. I love the finish, and typically I don't have that issue with Tarte products. My skin is very dry right now, so I plan on trying it later on when I have a bit more moisture in my skin. I don't understand the complaints about the packaging, except I assume that people don't know how to work the dropper. It's a little awkward to push the dropper in with one hand, but once you get the hang of it it's great. Very hygienic since your finger/sponge/brush is never making contact with the foundation itself. Plus the packaging is beautiful. Overall I was sad that this foundation didn't end up working out for me because it's such a great finish when you first apply it. Could be great for normal and combination girls. If you're on the drier side I would opt for the Amazonian Clay over this one.

My Shade: 22S Light Sand Other shades that work for me: TF BTW Porcelain, EL Doublewear 1N2 Ecru, MAC C1. I love a good natural, glow foundation and so was happy to try out this one. I actually found this product to be quite similar to MAC Waterweight foundation, which I love. I think the consistency of this one though is a touch less watery than the MAC, though still very watery (hence the name). I love the packaging of this one, with a dropper applicator and the purple-gold ombre lid. A little goes a long way, and you can definitely get medium coverage from this foundation. The finish is satin, not as dewy as I expected but still healthy and glowy. The best way to apply this is with a damp beauty blender. It wears well both with and without primer, though by the end of 8 hours I did notice it separating on my chin and mouth area. Asides from this, I was happy with the wear time from this product. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone who likes natural looking foundations.

Love this foundation because of its thin nature, and light to medium skin-like coverage, It reminds me of Bobbi Brown Skin (theTarte is longer lasting), and Chanel Lumiere Velvet (the Tarte is a bit more skin like). My shade is Light-Medium Honey, and my matches in other foundations are: BB Skin #4, Chanel Velvet 40, MUFE Y365, UD Naked 5. It's a satin finish on my normal skin. It's got decent pigmentation, and unlike some serum type foundations, it is forgiving on textured areas, and seems to float a bit over the skin...not sinking into pores or lines. No fragrance added, and there's a low amount of alcohol included, which may help it adhere to skin, but doesn't seem to dry it out. I use this over a tinted sunscreen, usually Elta MD Elements SPF 44, and I use probably a quarter of a dropper for my face, buffing it in with a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush. Sometimes I pop a bit of powder in my t-zone (MAC SFix in summer) Lasts the work day. It's hard to measure, because of not being able to see how much is in the dropper, so that's my only issue with this. Beautiful bottle! Definitely a natural makeup look, but one that I embrace over 50.