Laura Geller baked makeup

Where I got it

This foundation has been viral over on TikTok and I’ve seen raving reviews of it on YouTube shorts which are just recycled TikTok videos. It went viral because of how good the coverage is and it’s powder-to-cream texture. Let’s put this to the test on my combination-oily skin with post-acne scarring skin!

I heard of this brand many many years ago and thought it was such an old-fashioned formula for a foundation. Back in the day, liquid foundations and stick foundations were all the rage. Full-coverage and mattifying were popular and then came the serum foundations, ultra-lightweight, and luminous finishes. Never really do I hear about people raving about powder foundations. More about how to is powder foundation works further down, it’s actually quite interesting, but let’s get to the details of the products I bought.

The 4-piece kit I bought is USD$45.60 (discounted from $76), the website does sales and offers almost ALL THE TIME. This kit is already good value for money, if you buy these 4 items separately, it comes to $112. However, since this set is already discounted, additional discount codes don’t work on it. Just bear that in mind. International shipping rates are listed on their website, my shipping cost for this order was $9.99. I ordered on 10/10 and it arrived on 20/10.

What I got

I ordered the Daily Routine Natural Finish Kit, which comes with a Balance-N-Brighten Color Correcting Foundation in Light, a Baked Blush-N-Brighten in Tropic Hues, and a Baked Original Highlighter in French Vanilla. The kit also comes with a retractable angled kabuki brush.

You are set with this kit for a basic routine – foundation, blush, and highlighter. The foundation also doubles as a concealer (I will explain later). You can pick your foundation shade from 9 shades and I picked Light which is 3rd lightest. There are not specific undertones to choose from, but you can tell from their website photos there are warmer tones and cooler tones. However, we all know it’s difficult to pick the right shades from website photos. But I was hopeful that a medium-coverage powder foundation would be easy to work with even when the shade is a little off.

Let’s have a look at these products.

Balance-N-Brighten Color Correcting Foundation in Light (9g). This is a light to medium coverage foundation with a natural finish to brighten and even complexion. “Our iconic, weightless formula is baked for 24 hours and hand-finished in Italy, giving you the easy application of a powder with the benefits of a cream. Color-correcting swirls of pigments make shade matching a breeze! Laura Geller is proud to support the National Rosacea Society. Baked Balance-n-Brighten was the first foundation to earn a seal of approval from the National Psoriasis Foundation.” – Laurageller.com.

Ingredients (different for some shades, this is only for Golden Medium, Deep, Sand, Light, and Toffee: Mica, Talc, Dimethicone, Isopropyl Palmitate, Polysorbate 20, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Tocopherol, Centella Asiatica Extract, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Retinyl Palmitate, Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, Lauroyl Lysine, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Phenoxyethanol, Bht, Nylon-12, Tin Oxide, May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides (77491/77492/77499), Chromium Oxide Green (Ci 77288), Manganese Violet (Ci 77742).

Baked Blush-N-Brighten in Tropic Hues (4.5g). Available in 12 shades. “Created by Italian artisans and baked on terracotta tiles for 24 hours, the iconic marbleized powder delivers fresh color on all skin tones. Infused with antioxidants Centella Asiatica and White Tea Extracts, the famous formula protects your skin with anti-inflammatory properties. Get a gorgeous glow, no matter the season.” – Laurageller.com.

Ingredients: Talc, Mica, Dimethicone, Glyceryl Ethylhexanoate/Stearate/Adipate, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate, Isopropyl Mirystate, Octyldodecyl Stearyl Stearate, Isopropyl Palmitate, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Retinyl Palmitate, BHT, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Polyacrylamide, Lauroyl Lysine, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Laureth-7, Sorbitan Stearate, Polysorbate 20, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Centella Asiatica Leaf Extract, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492), Carmine (CI 75470), Red 7 (CI 15850)

Baked Original Highlighter in French Vanilla (1.8g). Our cult-favorite low glow highlighter delivers radiance to cheekbones, brightens the inner corner of the eyes, defines the cupid’s bow of the lips for a fuller-looking pout, or can be worn all over your face for a subtle luminescent finish. Baked for 24 hours on terracotta tiles, then hand-finished into silky domes of powder by Italian artisans, this brightening formula is infused with antioxidants Centella Asiatica and White Tea Extracts to protect skin — a truly all-in-one beauty solution.

Ingredients: Mica, Talc, Nylon-12, Dimethicone, Isopropyl Palmitate, Polysorbate 20, Acrylamide/Sodium Acryloyldimethyltaurate Copolymer, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate, Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate, Caprylyl Glycol, Isohexadecane, Sorbitan Stearate, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Phenoxyethanol, Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil (Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil), Tocopheryl Acetate, Polysorbate 80, Hexylene Glycol, Lauroyl Lysine, Centella Asiatica Extract, Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, Tin Oxide, Sorbitan Oleate, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Silica, Iron Oxides (Ci 77491/Ci 77492/Ci 77499), Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891).

How I find it

First of all, these products come in simple cardboard boxes and bubble-wrapped. Everything was in perfect condition with just a bit of powder dust inside the compact. Each compact has a small window on the lid to show what’s inside the compact. The mirror is too small to be useful at all for makeup application. The marbled effect of these baked powders is really beautiful.

The Balance -N-Brighten Color Correcting foundation in shade Light looks promising in terms of shade-matching. It looks to be the correct tone, with a hint of yellow in the marble. I used this with the retractable kabuki brush pulled out fully as a fluffy brush instead of a dense brush. The first few sweeps over the baked powder left me with a heap of loose powder so I started to sweep lightly to prevent all this mess. The foundation applies lightly like a powder with low coverage. The shade still looks like a good match when it is applied loosely. I decided to retract the brush halfway so it is more dense and then coverage would be higher. You can also use a precise, dense brush and use it as a concealer for spot coverage. Once I’ve achieved my desired coverage (medium), the overall finish of this baked foundation looks really natural and not cakey at all.

I wouldn’t say the finish or application was creamy or moisturising. I do have combination-oily skin so I cannot comment on how well it works on dry skin types. I do have some fine lines and texture to my skin which the foundation worked pretty well on top. It did not sink into my fine lines or enlarged pores. It did not look patchy at all. My first impression was pretty good and it stayed quite well despite applying no primer and I did not set it with anything on top. Side note, my husband did notice the foundation and he did comment that it looked quite powdery when looking at me from the side. I also noticed that the shade was darker under natural daylight, but I wanted to try it a few more times to confirm.

After a couple more days of use, I experimented with light coverage and medium coverage, with and within primer and setting mist. By using a primer, the foundation did stay on longer and the setting mist made it less “powdery”. Also after seeing the foundation in more natural daylight, I did see that the shade was a little too deep and slightly orange and brown on me. I would say it made me look more tanned instead of muddy and weird, but it is not the shade match I’m looking for in my foundations. I prefer a natural match or a slightly brighter (lighter) shade. Now I am contemplating on whether to return this and try another shade – fair or porcelain.

The Baked Blush-N-Brighten in Tropic Hues is a vibrant pinky red with a light sheen. Nothing shimmery or sparkly, but there is a light gold sheen with this beautiful shade. Highly pigmented, this baked blush only needs a light brush-over to pick up enough pigment for the tops of the cheeks. Tap off excess if you happen to pick up too much product. The longevity of this blush is as good as the baked foundation. The vibrant shade is great for summer for that naturally flushed look suitable for light to darker skin tones.

As for the low-glow highlighter, I was very intrigued with this Baked Highlighter in French Vanilla. In the pan, it looks like a really pale foundation. Without any shimmer particles, no sparkles, and no obvious sheen, you would be skeptical about how would this highlight my cheekbones. I picked the product up with a small fluffy brush and with a light sweep, my brush picked up a good amount of product. It was unexpectedly beautiful and it did brighten the area where I applied it. It was almost like a brightening translucent powder with a really beautiful glow. Don’t expect blinding dewiness under sunlight, but expect this really natural glow on the skin that is not dewy or shimmery.

This is great for mature skin and when you don’t want to bring too much attention to cheekbones and just have a natural glow like you are not wearing any makeup. This can also be used on the inner corner of the eyes or as an overall brightening finishing powder with a large fluffy brush.

The angled kabuki brush has a lid and is retractable which would be great for travelling. The other purpose for being retractable is that you can use this to control the coverage of the baked formula – you can use this for foundation, bronzer, blush, etc. The longer the bristles are exposed, the fluffier the brush is, and you get more sheer coverage. If you retract the bristles, you get dense bristles, thus higher coverage. I find that the brush isn’t dense enough to create a good medium coverage as I could with my other kabuki brushes, but the retractability and versatility are great.

As you can see in the photos below, the shade match was quite warm and deep. I would prefer something a little neutral and not as tanned-looking. The more I use it with higher coverage, the deeper than yellow tone gets on my skin. I have since been using this in light layers and only for sheer coverage.

Overall

I actually really enjoy the formula of this baked formula – foundation, blush, and highlighter. The powder is lightweight and not drying, it does build up to a good medium coverage. The tone of the blush is gorgeous and the low-glow highlighter is amazing when I’m going for that classy, no-glitter makeup look. I’m not sure how much a pan of this foundation will last me but I’ve used it a few times and I have not seen any hard-pan which I was very relieved of. Having said that, I still try to make sure my brushes are cleaned regularly to avoid touching an oily brush into the powder compact. But there is one reason I need to return the foundation and it is the shade.

I contacted Laura Geller customer service about a potential return/exchange of a product. I was asked to go through the returns process through their website. I’m unsure if it was because I am all the way in New Zealand, they processed my return as a full refund without the need to send the item back! However, after abtou 2 weeks after I have lodged by return application, I have not received a refund or an exachange yet. I will try to update here again once I get to the bottom of this.