Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15 Review

Hey gorgeous gals,

I am ditching lipsticks for a tad bit, to review a foundation for you. I rarely get to review a foundation on IMBB, so I am super excited with this one. It is a new release from Bobbi Brown with a whole horde of promises. I think this foundation is positioned as a replacement of their Long-Wear Even Finish Foundation SPF 15. I have that foundation with me, so I should be able to give you a quick comparison between the two – towards the end of the review.

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15

Product Description:
Coverage: 
✔ Full 

Skin type: 
✔ Normal 
✔ Combination 
✔ Oily 

Finish: 
✔ Matte 
✔ Natural 

SPF: 
- SPF 15. A 16-hour wear, buildable medium to full coverage foundation with a natural, multidimensional matte finish that’s comfortable, breathable, and weightless. 
Created through a high speed cold fusion process, this ultra-silky emulsion features a perfectly balanced blend of skin-loving ingredients, oil controlling actives, and skin-true pigments—with 16-hour wear. Incredibly smooth and blendable, it glides on with a second-skin feel and multidimensional matte finish. Pigments are precisely balanced through artistry expertise to skin’s top tones and undertones to deliver the most natural-looking shade range for all skin tones. 

This skin-loving, non-acnegenic formula with marine sugar cane algae extract and natural mineral powders helps control excess oil and shine. Meanwhile, moisture-binding glycerin delivers refreshing hydration. Skin feels balanced and comfortable—never tight. Tried and tested in extreme heat and humidity, this 16-hour formula is waterproof and sweat- and humidity-resistant. The flexible coverage won’t crease or streak and stays color-true. Treated skin-true pigments suspended in an emollient gel base float on skin, reflecting light to enhance skin’s natural contours and dimension, instantly concealing redness, discoloration, and pores with full yet natural coverage. 

It is formulated without parabens, sulfates, and phthalates.
Price:
$46/INR 4750

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation all details

Ingredients:
Marine Sugar Cane: Helps control excess oil and shine.
-Glycerin: Delivers refreshing hydration.

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation ingredients

My Experience with Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15:

Packaging: The foundation comes in a frosted cylindrical glass bottle with a pump dispenser . YAY!! In this day and age, I still feel happy when my foundation comes with a pump and I don’t need to pour it like someone from the stone ages! Ok! Ok! I know people weren’t using foundations in the stone ages, but you know what I mean. And I just don’t get the stupid pipette dispensers either, especially when the foundation just doesn’t get picked up by the pipette anyway! *Cough* Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Foundation *cough* The good thing, the pump dispenser has a cap. I know – that’s supposed to be basic, right? Something to cover the nozzle!! And yet MAC hasn’t figured that out still! Anyway! So packaging is fairly standard, fuss free and efficient. The bottle comes packaging in a cardboard box with the ingredients, etc mentioned on it.

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation bottle

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation pump dispenser

Shade: There are some things peculiar – maybe “peculiar” is a wrong word – let’s say “unique” about Bobbi Brown foundations.

One, Bobbi Brown foundations run warm. While this might be an issue for cool-toned females, this is excellent news for Indian (who are mostly warm toned). A big challenge we face with the high-end brands like Guerlain, Dior, etc is that their foundations run too cool toned. Even when they say “warm” – more often than not, they are beige, but not yellow/peach toned. This results in you maybe finding a shade match but not an undertone match. Result – your foundation looks like a cask or grey on you – definitely not flattering. Since, Bobbi’s foundations run warm – you, more often than not, will find a good match here.

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation full

Two, and this is so so helpful – her foundation shades are constant across the different foundations in her range. Well, you may think – what’s the big deal? It actually is, a very big deal! The fact that her shades run constant means that if I have been matched in person to the shade “#4 Natural” in one foundation, if I want to try another foundation in Bobbi’s range, I can blindly pick up #4 Natural. This is not the case for other brands – see Girogio Armani, NARS, etc. For those brands, you need to get tested against every new product all over again because the shades differ between different ranges. The fact that the shades differ is understandable to an extent because each foundation may dry down/settle differently, some may get darker post drying, etc. And this shows incredible beauty of Bobbi’s foundations – that despite variation in textures, their labs can still manage consistent shades!!

I use the shade #4 Natural in Bobbi Brown’s earlier Long-Wear foundation and her stick foundation. I picked this up in store, so I got myself re-tested, just in case, and came home with #4 Natural still.

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation outer packaging

A brief on my skin type – I have oily skin, prone to periodic acne (or if I binge on crappy potato chips). So, I invariably have some new/old acne marks and a bit of redness. With age, I also struggle with fine lines around my eyes and dullness of skin (if I get lazy and ignore my skincare routine).

Texture: The texture of the foundation is quite creamy, and I was surprised by that. With the word “weightless,” I kind of expected the texture to be more watery. However, despite being creamy, it did not seem to feel heavy or cakey on the skin. It sat well and looked like skin instead of looking like a layer of foundation. Like most foundations, it did not seem to dry down completely. However, in no way does that mean that the foundation slips around on the face. It adheres well to the skin. For my oily skin, I definitely need to set it with powder. Maybe someone with dry skin may not need to do that. It should work across skin tones since it isn’t overly mattifying, nor is it overly glowing. It really does give the appearance of good skin. It does not accentuate dry patches nor does it start breaking down on my oily T-zone. Also, it does not settle into the fine lines on my face, which is key for someone who has more mature skin.

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15

Finish: The finish it gives is semi-matte, not the dry unnatural appearance certain matte foundations tend to give. There is a certain brightness and luminosity which appears on your face – not shine or shimmery sparkle. As the name suggests, it does look like “skin” and not something caked on!

Coverage: The brand promises full coverage with this one. The coverage it gives is somewhere between medium and full. A lot depends on your weapon of choice – meaning, the tool you use to apply the foundation, but all said and done – even with a second layer – I did not seem to get full coverage with this. It did not fully cover old acne marks or sun damage. For that, one would need to use a concealer.

Application: As I mentioned above, the method of application will influence the amount of coverage you get with this. Applied with a paddle-shaped brush, it gives higher coverage than with a blending brush like the one from Real Techniques. With a Beauty Blender, you would get lesser coverage, out of the three.

Swatch blended

Pigmentation: The foundation is quite pigmented, not surprising considering the full-coverage claim. What does pigmentation mean in terms of foundation? It means that the colour pigment is so densely packed that the colour holds true and does not get blended away (like in the case of our domestically produced BB creams). This in turn means that a little product goes a long way. A single pump of the foundation was sufficient to give me medium coverage. I did try building it up by adding half a pump more – but their wasn’t incremental difference in the result.

Lasting Power: The brand claims 16-hour wear; I could not test it for 16 hours. Testing for 16 hours would mean that I have to apply it first thing in the morning as I get up – and that’s not gonna happen!! Normally, when I apply any foundation, I get anything from 6 to 8 hours of good wear – depending on the foundation, with at least one touch-up session in between. And at the end of 10-12 hours, my foundation would get patchy, slightly muddy, maybe oxidized and quite shiny. And when I remove it, my skin feels almost like a fresh clean paper coming out! This foundation was surprising – one, I did not use a primer underneath it. Also, I did not do touch=up through the day. It did start to get slightly shiny around the 6-hour mark, but more like natural skin than actual oiliness peeping through. I did not bother to touch up. After a full day of wear – about 12 hours – the foundation looked more shiny than it did at the 6-hour mark, but it still held on pretty well. It did not get patchy or muddy. Neither had it oxidized. It could easily have gone on for a couple more hours at least – especially if I had done a bit of touch-up. I think with 1-2 touch-ups, this could well live up to the 16-hour claim.

Bobbi Brown Skin Long Wear Weightless Foundation on face

Fragrance: There is a bit of a fragrance, but nothing too bad, unless you have a very sensitive nose.

Pros of Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15:

  • Lightweight, brightens the face and adds luminosity.
  • Has SPF 15.
  • Coverage – somewhere between medium and full.
  • Semi-matte finish.
  • Good pigmentation – a little truly goes a long way.
  • Covers skin redness effectively.
  • Good wear time. Lasted for the 12 hours that I tested and would have gone longer – had I left it on.
  • It did not break me out.
  • It did not settle in the fine lines on my face.
  • Easy to dispense – bottle with pump.
  • Hygienic packaging – pump dispenser with cover.
  • Easy to store and carry.
  • Very comfortable to wear – no feeling of dryness or clinginess.

Cons of Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15:

  • Works better on prepped skin – moisturized skin.

IMBB Rating:
A 4.8/5 product.

The brand has claimed “A 16-hour wear, buildable medium to full coverage foundation with a natural, multidimensional matte finish that’s comfortable, breathable, and weightless.“ And it has delivered on the claims – which is the benchmark for a good product. As compared to their previous formulation, I feel that the nomenclature change is exactly what the difference in the 2 foundations is. The finish of this one is a more natural looking matte – more “skin” like than the previous formulation. The foundation sits well, lasts longer and photographs well. I have not checked for flash photography – but for regular photographs – I think it does a good job.
Would I Recommend Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15?
Yes.

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2 thoughts on “Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15 Review

  1. Such a lovely review. It has all the details that I can possibly want plus written very well. Thank you for such a detailed review.

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