Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Foundation Hydration and Longwear

Where I got it

I saw this new launch last time I walked past the Chanel consignment in Farmers but I didn’t have time to have a play around the shades. This is their new Les Beiges formula and it comes in 13 shades with some different undertones. Chanel doesn’t have the best shade range and they are steer more towards the fair skin tones rather than deeper skin tones. This new foundation is RRP$107 from Farmers. This is also called Healthy Glow Foundation SPF25 PA++ in other countries without the “hydration and longwear”, but added SPF25.

What I got

This is the Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Foundation Hydration and Longwear in shade BD31(30ml). A natural-looking foundation that infuses the skin with the radiance of a day spent in the great outdoors. Its fine, silky texture glides over skin and forms a layer that is imperceptible to the sight and touch, like a second skin. Its combination of light-reflecting powders and pigments makes the skin’s texture appear smoother. Imperfections are diminished. The complexion is invisibly evened out, without a trace. With its adjustable coverage and longwear formula, skin glows for 12 hours.* The formula also protects skin from external aggressors such as pollution. Enriched with hydrating ingredients, it delivers a sensation of immediate comfort and hydrates skin day after day.

How I find it

From the Chanel website (AU), there are 20 shades available and I think there are up to 30 shades in the US or Europe areas. From my experience with Chanel foundations, I find their shade range on the lighter side and hardly any darker shades, they also have a lot of pink undertones or neutral undertones, hardly warm or yellow undertones. This new Les Beiges foundation is the second founation product they have to have a bigger shade range (the largest shade range for their foundation is the Ultra Le Teint).

This is taken from the Chanel website:

Find the perfect shade:
1 – Define your intensity
The intensity of your foundation precisely corresponds to your skin tone.
Helpful tip: you can refer to the tens digit of the shade numbers, with 0 being the lightest intensity and 17 being the darkest (0-1 LIGHT; 2-4 MEDIUM; 5-9 MEDIUM PLUS; 10-12 DEEP; 13-17 DEEP PLUS).

2 – Choose your undertone
The choice of undertone depends on the nuance that you would like to give your complexion.
For a natural complexion, opt for the Beige (B) undertone.
To warm up the complexion, select the Beige Doré (BD) undertone.
For a fresh and rosy complexion, pick the Beige Rosé (BR) undertone.

I usually use shade 30 for their tinted moisturiser and foundation and that is in the medium intensity and BD means I have a warmer complexion. This shade looks really natural on me.

As with all the Les Beiges products, it comes in a beige box with black accents and text. The bottle is a clear glass with the signature Chanel black lid and logo on top. It comes with a pump for dispensing, nothing too fancy or different. I use a single pump first to see what the coverage is like and I like to try on foundation first time without a primer and see how it goes. This is a medium consistency liquid foundation so it is quite easily blended with a foundation brush or a damp sponge.

The first time I try this, I went without a primer and I used the Hourglass Vanish foundation brush to apply and it just glides on effortlessly and without catching onto dry areas, pores, sides of my nose or in any fine lines. I don’t apply this close to the eye area because I naturally have a crease under my eye and no matter what I on that area, it will crease and gather, so I often do not apply any foundation or concealer there. It’s just not worth it. The finish is really natural and my skin feels hydrated and comfortable. It’s not super moisturising and it does give you enough time to blend before it dries down. My skin feels really smooth and looks really good with just one layer of foundation. I stopped with one layer because I was just heading to work and didn’t need high coverage.

You can see in the picture below, my pimples do show through and that is actually more of the shadow from the raised pimple more than the pigmentation. One layer does even out the skin tone, but if you want to cover pigmentation like these pimples or redness, you may want to do another layer. I used 1.5 pumps to cover my entire face and neck area.

On the second try, I used the Dior Backstage Face & Body Primer all over the face, and then I used 1.5 pumps of the foundation for the first layer, and then another pump focusing on my cheeks, jawline, chin and the rest over my nose. I then set it with loose translucent powder from Hourglass. It definitely provided a bit more coverage around my post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation on my jawline and cheeks, even out my skin tone and nothing sat in my pores or lines. I love the finish and texture of this foundation on my skin.

Overall

I was really excited when I saw the new Chanel foundation and that they have slightly expanded their shade range to include more undertones. Previous foundation I used from Chanel are all quite cool-toned, but I have warm undertones. I also really like the Les Beiges Tinted Moisturiser already and love how it is hydrating and provides a nice sheer coverage. I was expecting a good medium coverage foundation that is buildable.

It turns out the shade match was almost perfect and I love the coverage and finish of this foundation. Once again, Chanel reminds me that they are quality products because I recently tried a mid-ranged foundation and it was a bit disastrous to start with and I managed to make it work to look decent. This one here, I didn’t even have to try! I love the lightweight feeling on the skin, it has a nice medium coverage that doesn’t look cakey, it did not sit in my pores or gather around the sides of my nose and it lasted a good few hours before starting to fade off. You can powder over it, but it’s got a natural finish already that doesn’t really need to be set unless you have oily skin.