Product Reviews

Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Invisimatte Blotting Powder gets awesome reviews on the Sephora website, but it was the only product from my recent Fenty Beauty purchase that I didn’t love…so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

It’s a 0.3-oz. plastic pan of non-refillable $32 pressed translucent powder (comes with a puff) for setting your foundation and/or concealer (you can also use it on bare skin to vanquish shine), and while it’s supposed to be completely undetectable on skin, unfortunately, I can totally see it.

OK, I’ll admit that I’m weird about face powder… I absolutely do not want to see it on my skin. At all. That’s why I hold MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in such high regard, because it’s the most non-powdery powder out there, IMO, regardless of how closely I peer into my mirror at it, and regardless of the lighting situation.

Sadly, I can totally see Invisimatte when I look at myself in bright sunlight, especially when I turn my head. BAM! It drives me absolutely batty. There they are, grains of powder hanging out on the little hairs on the sides of my cheeks, and don’t even pretend like you don’t also have them. 🙂 Don’t we all have a little fur there?

Bottom line, I think this is a great powder for eliminating shine and controlling oil — even better than MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural — but I REALLY wish it didn’t cling so obviously to le fuzz de peach.

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Like every face product I’ve tried from Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty makeup line so far, the Match Stix Matte Skinsticks, which are $25 cream-to-powder concealers (available in 20 shades), create a lightweight skin-perfecting makeup look.

When I use it, I think my face just looks…better. Like I’ve been drinking LOTS of water, eating spinach salads for lunch, getting enough sleep, doing burpies and forgoing all brainless TV. So, basically, clean livin’ all around. Even if someone is close enough to count your nose hairs, it still looks great. It’s as close to perfect skin as I think my skin can get.

You can see a little light bouncing off your skin when you wear this concealer. The finish looks natural, whether I wear this on its own or layer it on top of the Fenty primer or foundation.

When I set it with powder and apply it on top of primer and foundation, it sticks around for about eight hours (or five hours by itself).

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Normally, I would advise caution when hugging complete strangers, but if I ever run into Rihanna at the gym (I can totes see Riri doing squats) or TJ’s, I’m going to walk up to that lady and give her the tightest freaking bear hug. I don’t even care if her people jujitsu me and take my @ss to the floor. I’ll take that risk! Because I want to personally thank her for releasing her new Fenty foundation. I think it’s life changing. It’s really, really, REALLY good.

When I heard it would be available in 40 shades (OMG!), I was like, “OK, Riri, I’m not sure if I completely buy into the whole celebrity makeup line thing, but I SEE YOU, GURL.” And I appreciate what you did. 🙂 I mean, who releases a foundation in 40 shades? You know as well as I do how hard it is to find a perfect undertone match, especially for ladies and gents at the extreme ends of the light/dark spectrum.

Then I took it for a test run and officially leveled up to R.S.S. (Rihanna Stalker Status).

Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation is a $34 medium-to-full coverage liquid foundation that comes in a 1.08-oz. glass bottle with a pump.

Now, can I vent about my new pet peeve? I can’t stand it when foundation leaks out of a pump applicator after I use it. It happens with a lot of foundation pumps, including this one, I’m sad to say, and I’m a grumpy-grump about it because I don’t like wasting product. NOT EVEN A DROP.

Seriously, why can’t companies figure out how to stop foundation pumps from leaking?? Someone needs to solve this pressing problem and build a better mousetrap. Then, give me a fat cut of the proceeds, because y’all gonna make millions. I’m just saying.

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Rihanna’s no stranger to the makeup world. She’s collaborated on collections with MAC and was a spokesperson for CoverGirl, among other makeup endeavors, so it’s not a big surprise that she decided to bust a move and create her own makeup line.

And surprise! — it’s really good. Not to say that I didn’t expect great things from Badgal Riri (a.k.a Robin Rihanna Fenty), because I did. I just didn’t expect such an extensive line, or a line this wonderfully focused on skin. I mean, there are 40 foundation shades (!). FORTY! And they have these subtle undertone shifts, which are kind of incredible, but we’ll get to that later because I gotta stay on task…

The entire line is available right now at Sephora.

OK, let’s talk about the primer first. 🙂 It’s called Pro Filt’r Instant Retouch, and it’s $32 for a 1.08-oz. glass tube with a pump.

I saw a video of Rihanna talking about her vision for the line, and she said that she wanted to make makeup that would look like perfect skin, but not like skin that looks like it’s wearing a ton of makeup, which I can totally relate to because that’s what I’d want to do too, and that’s what I think my skin looks like when I wear this cruelty-free liquid primer (everything in the line is cruelty-free, BTW).

First, I think it smells fab (like Stella perfume). Second, the soft matte finish completely cuts down on shine without being obsessive about it, which is to say that it leaves behind a lovely, subtle radiance on my combo 40-somethin’-somethin’ skin. No pearl. Just a hint of light reflecting back at ya to keep the finish from looking flat.

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