Guerlain Parure De Lumiere Light-Diffusing Foundation Review

Hello gorgeous gals,

The one product that I hate buying is foundation. I’m never satisfied with my pick – it’s always too warm or the undertone is off or the texture doesn’t work, etc, etc, etc. To add to the woes, in India, SAs aren’t too forthcoming with foundation samples. So you have to decide based on one application – while in the store. God forbid if it ossifies after a couple of hours or worse, if it starts melting off or getting patchy. Such is life! And so the search for the HG foundation continues… One such search landed me up at the Guerlain counter – while Guerlain was still in India. I’ve always liked Guerlain foundations – they feel wonderful on the skin – liquid or powder, both. I recently reviewed the Lingerie de Peau powder foundation, which I absolutely love. Let us see if this one fell in the love or hate category.

Product Description:
Capturing light is an art. Transposing it on the skin is magical. Guerlain creates Parure de Lumière Crème, a soft and creamy delight designed like a skincare cream for the driest skin. Surprising and addictive, it’s ideal gel-cream texture becomes one with the skin in an immediate sensation of freshness. Its secret? Luminescent Water, a marine spring water that is absorbed deep within the skin to continuously hydrate it and infuse it with light. Prisma Light 360 pigments expand over the skin’s surface to recreate pure and immaculate light. The complexion glows with new radiance. Skin is velvety, sensual and perfectly even. Parure de Lumière Crème is available in four ultra-luminous shades and comes in a 26ml jar. SPF 20 – PA++ Fragrance:  Parure de Lumière Crème has a distinctive and delicate floral scent. The first peach note blended with an accord of vegetal notes is fresh and sparkling. The rose, raspberry and jasmine heart is enriched with a powdery base of balsamic, benzoin and white musk.
Price:
INR 3550

Directions For Use:
Apply to the face with fingertips, blending from the centre outwards and towards the neck until achieving the desired coverage.

Ingredients:
Hyaluronic Acid: Provides moisture retention. Bio-Fusion Micro Mesh: Fine micro-mesh that combines the complementary talents of synthetic and natural polymers. Silk and Linen Fibers and Stretch Fibers.

My Experience with Guerlain Parure De Lumiere Light-Diffusing Foundation:

Packaging:  This one is a unique packaging for a foundation. The foundation comes in a glass tub – quite like an expensive face cream. It has a screw on lid, which once removed, reveals a golden foil seal with the Guerlain logo – very luxe! Once you remove the seal, you see a plastic stopper which can be lifted out easily to access the cream foundation inside. The foundation comes housed in a Guerlain black cardboard box. Along with the foundation tub, the box also has a sealed sachet which houses the spatula, to enable you to access the cream more foundation hygienically! All good? All great? Not quite. The jar packaging is not the best in terms of hygiene. Even if I ignore it because the company has done their bit of providing the spatula – the heavy, smooth, rotund glass jar is not the best packaging – for anything. The first time I opened the cardboard box, the jar just fell out of my hand – right onto the floor. The good – it did not shatter into a million shards. However, the bottom of the glass jar did get chipped – refer pics of the flip side of the jar. Forget travelling with it, I’m perpetually scared I’m gonna break it just carrying it to my vanity. Of course, if you had a display vanity, something like this would add to the aesthetics of it, but that’s about it.

Shade:  As I have mentioned earlier and in my review of Guerlain Lingerie de Peau Powder Foundation, Guerlain’s foundation are generally amazing. The only challenge I face with them is the shade range. I’m a NC 30 in MAC. So, in their regular of shades, I am between shade 2 and 3. Not just that, the Guerlain shades have a weird undertone going – the odd numbers are warm, and the even ones are cool toned. So, 1 is warm, 2 is cool toned, 3 is warm, etc. And the numbers are subsequently darker in shade. So, I’m technically a number 2, or say a 2.5 in Guerlain (if they had a 2.5), but I don’t have a choice because 2 is wrong undertone and 3 is darker. Having said that, their odd number foundation, which is supposed to be warm toned also do not run too warm, they are neutral at best.

Thankfully, when Guerlain launched in the Asian market, they realised that there was a need for warm-toned foundations with a yellow undertone in their range and they created a whole new numbering system to cater to this market. However, much to my chagrin, the lightest shade in the range was also too dark for me. It was fairly recently that Guerlain finally launched lighter shades in their Asian market range and subsequent to that they pulled out of India! 🙁

So, the shade which suits me almost to the T, is #32 – Amber Clair / Light Amber! It’s warm, yellow toned and works well for Asian skin tones.

Texture:  This is my first experience with a cream foundation. I have combination to oily skin, so cream foundation wouldn’t have been my go-to option, but as a beauty blogger, I am allowed to try everything, at least once, right? So, even though I bought it ages ago, I didn’t even open it for quite some time because, one, ever since I dropped the jar, I was scared to touchit. And two, I was waiting for the weather to change. I though the advent of winters was the perfect time to try this cream foundation, so out it came.

The texture is smooth and creamy – just like a face cream. The first time I used it, I actually took the amount I would for my face cream and pretty much slathered it on! So obviously, it became an instant mess on my face. My review is not going to be based on that first impression!! So, now I have to kind of remind myself everytime to go a tad bit slow with this foundation and not face cream! Foundation, not face cream!

Since the texture is so much like a face cream, initially, I was extremely hesitant to use my Beauty Blender; I prefered to go in with my fingers. While that helps to warm the product and spread it nicely, I feel the finish you get is not too good. It isn’t that the finish comes out streaky, I just feel that it doesn’t sit too well. Also, when I apply it with my fingers or if I don’t use a pore-filling primer underneath, I feel that this one sinks into my pores after a couple of hours. That obviously, is less than flattering. So, rule number one – if you have pores, there is gonna be a bit of an issue with this, so you need to use a silicone pore-filling primer like the one from Smashbox or Benefit, etc.

So, after a couple of experiments with my fingers, I finally gave in and used my Beauty Blender instead, and I was pleased with the results. The foundation applied smoothly, and did not sink into the pores. However, I did feel that the coverage was slightly lesser than the time I used my fingers, but I guess, that was anyway expected with a damp BB in play. You can always go back in and add a second thin layer.

The foundation looks and feels like skin. It blends really well and easily into the skin. It sits well. It has this skin-like and yet a radiant finish. I have to set my foundation with a setting powder – one, because I have oily skin and two, just out of habit. So, while it looks lovely of the first few hours; around 4-5 hour mark, the shine becomes evident again – especially on the nose. You have to go in with a powder foundation.

I think it would look just fabulous and work really well for someone with dry skin, or in winters for even the normal skin. Imagine when someone with dry skin looks radiant and nourished and even toned, that’s what this foundation can achieve.

Coverage: The foundation is sheer to medium at best. The style of application will determine the coverage. You can go in and build up a bit, with thin layers of the product. It will provide a even canvas, but will not hide acne marks or skin pigmentation. You will need a concealer.

Longevity: Here is the challenge – especially for oily/combination skin person like me. There is no level of oil control or mattification. While the texture is amazing and looks and feels like skin, the shine comes back fairly quickly, which is not surprising considering that my skin is inherently oily and to add to it, the foundation is fairly rich and emollient.

Finish: The product has a lovely skin like finish with a radiant shine.

Fragrance: It is Guerlain. Need I say more? I do! Oh! Ok. For people who do not know the brand well – Guerlain is or rather was, a perfume house, so there is literally no product in their line without added fragrance. The foundation has a heavy fragrance. Fragrance can be a skin irritant, especially for people with sensitive skin. And you are technically putting on a fragranced product and leaving it on for pretty much the while day. So, if your skin is sensitive – or your nose – avoid this foundation.

Pros of Guerlain Parure De Lumiere Light-Diffusing Foundation:

• Beautiful luxurious vintage packaging.
• Exceptional attention to detail – as far as packaging is concerned, even the aluminium seal had the Guerlain logo on it!
• Cream foundation is rich and yet light in texture.
• Gives sheer to medium coverage depending on the applicator being used.
• Skin looks and feels like skin – there is no discernible layer of foundation on it.

Cons of Guerlain Parure De Lumiere Light-Diffusing Foundation:

• It’s Guerlain – it has fragrance. If you don’t like fragrance in your makeup – you got to skip this.
• While the packaging is vintage luxe – its not vey hygienic or practical.
• On its own, tends to sink into the pores and accentuates them. Needs a pore filling primer underneath – if you have noticeable pores on your face.

IMBB Rating:
4/5

I really really wanted this to work for me – one because it was so expensive and two because it looked so luxe. I know, wrong reasons, but, I’m being honest, I really gave it a whirl and tried different combinations with it – in term of different primers underneath it, different methods of application and different powders to set, but no, it isn’t my HG product foundation. The hunt is still on.

Having said that, I would like to re-emphasize that the foundation isn’t bad. It just isn’t the correct match for my skin needs. On someone with dry skin tone and with little to no evident pores, this will work wonderfully and be quite a saviour by giving it a moisture and brighten-ing boost – all in one go. So, i am rating the product accordingly.
Would I Recommend/Repurchase Guerlain Parure De Lumiere Light-Diffusing Foundation?
Yes, but for someone with dry skin tone.

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