Sometimes there’s a product that comes out that just…smart. Leave it to the problem solving geniuses from Cover FX to come out with this innovative product that is an Allure Best of Beauty Award Winner.
Enter Cover FX’s Custom Cover Drops.
What makes this product different than your run-of-the-mill foundation is that it’s not foundation at all. It’s actual pigment, and available in a surprisingly large range of shades. The idea is that you can customize your color and your coverage with just a few drops.
What it is:
Pigmented color drops that allow you to customize your color, coverage and finish depending on the base that you choose to add it to.
Ingredients:
Designed to give you a slippery base, the ingredients scream ‘cones. Those are things like silicone and dimethicone which give products like primers, the smooth appearance. This isn’t problematic unless ‘cones cause you to break out, which they do to me. There is also alcohol in here, but it’s at the bottom of the list. Absent are SPF or any skin-improving properties, so your base should include these items separately. It does include mica and silica which help to provide some sheen and brightness to a rather heavy formula.
List from Sephora’s Website: Ethyl Trisiloxane, Caprylyl Methicone, Bis-Hydroxyethoxypropyl Dimethicone, Isododecane, Dimethicone, Mica, Jojoba Esters, Triethylhexanoin, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Silica, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Wax, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, PEG-10 Dimethicone, Water, Alcohol, Acacia Decurrens Flower Wax, Polyglycerin-3. May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499).
ReadHead’s Thoughts:
Why I Bought It: I am really hard on foundations and have extremely high expectations. I have tried just about every foundation and BB cream out there. My skin is pale but with golden undertones, and redness in my cheeks. My hair color of balayaged dark roots and blonde highlights tones down some of the redness, but I need something that doesn’t wash me out. I am acne prone. and want something that will better my skin vs. just cover it up. I don’t want a mask, but I need some coverage. I don’t want matte, but don’t want to glow like an oily disco ball. I am every foundation developer’s nightmare.
The thought was that my existing BB or lotion chock full of goodies would be a good base for this, when I want more coverage.
In-Store Application: I was color-tested by a sales associate at Sephora. (Pro tip: this is no knock on them, but never trust being tested. It’s about 20% that they are correct. I blame bad lighting, the fact that you’re almost never makeup-free to start, and oxidation. Give a product 3-5 hours and daylight…you’ll see what I mean.) She took a sample of my current day cream and added 2 drops of the concentrated pigmented drops to make a skin color-like concoction that she put on me with a foundation brush. It went on pretty well and surprisingly was pretty high coverage for what I was used to.
At-Home Application: I tried this again at home and found that if you have the least bit of dryness in your skin, moisturizer is key. I put a dollop of my moisturizer and two drops directly onto it and mixed. It was pretty easy, but was somewhat messy.
Packaging: This product is a push down dropper in an opaque glass container. I really dislike it in just about every way. The pigment gets into the screw top part of the dropper. Because it’s a dropper, you have product on your hand, which gets all over, you try to dispense it, some inevitably gets on the side, and then you find random pigment blobs on your hand, on the side of the bottle…just about everywhere. I find that if the product dries out (which is likely because this will last you until the end of time) the dropper gets clogged.
Overall: This product covers imperfections like hyperpigmentation and redness really well, but I found that it fell flat for providing a smooth canvas which is suprising given the amount of ‘cones. You’ll have to work to find a base and primer perhaps that keeps this from accentuating the things you don’t want people to see if you’ve got rough texture on your skin. I would describe it as that it covers vs blurs. BUT if you can find the magic ingredients to make it work for your skin type, and don’t mind a little mess, this product would be great for just about any occasion and can be considered more economical because it will last a really long time. For me, this accentuated my large pores and looked a bit mask-like and cakey. Full disclosure I don’t wear high coverage foundation often, so that could be a part of it. I decided to keep it because it beats buying a full-coverage foundation that I’ll never use and likely won’t have as good of ingredients for a base. The idea is spot-on, but this is a one-time purchase for me.
Overall: 3/5
Packaging: 2/5
Price: $$$$$
Have you used Cover FX Custom Drops? Drop us a line in the comments.
ReadHead by Roux Atelier 