Guerlain Tenue de Perfection

Foundations are like lingerie, essential for uplifting the feminine beauty, but finding the perfect fit can often be tricky.  So when you find a certain brand with the perfect magical formula, it’s as if you have found your inner soulmate.  For me, the secret had always been in Guerlain.

Guerlain Tenue de Perfection (literally translated means perfect control) promises to be a long-wearing foundation with an advanced formula that binds with the skin for flawless, comfortable 16-hour coverage.  To achieve this, Guerlain has incorporated silica beads to capture excess oil to keep the polymer film intact, and spherical micropowders act like a color stabilizer to ensure color doesn’t change or darken throughout the day.

Tenue de Perfection is housed in Guerlain’s signature tall glass bottle that is slightly bulbous in the center.  The foundation is dispensed in an easy-to-use pump, and the clear glass allows you to see how much product is left.

The beauty in Guerlain’s foundations has always been in the texture and comfortable wear, and Tenue de Perfection excels on both counts.  It is an easy-to-work-with liquid formula that is not too thick and creamy that requires a lot of blending, nor is it as watery as Lingerie de Peau that needs lightning fast reflexes.  A thin layer of Tenue de Perfection provides medium coverage and is slightly buildable – I like to dab some over my under-eye and corner of nose to cover up dark circles and redness.  It dries down to a velvety matte finish that looks so good I feel loose powder is optional (although a loose powder topping does extend wear).  At the same time, it doesn’t look mask-like at all, retaining a natural luminescence.

On my oily combination skin, Guerlain Tenue de Perfection lasts all day without fading or oxidizing.  The only other foundation that is similarly long-lasting is Shu Uemura’s Lightbulb foundation (briefly reviewed here), but Lightbulb is a glossier luminous finish whereas Tenue de Perfection gives a velvety matte finish.  Also, with Lightbulb, my nose starts to shine by mid-day.  Tenue de Perfection stays matte on me for most of the day, although the oil does tend to creep up by the 6-hour mark.  Regardless, this simply turns into a bit of a dewy look rather than outright shine.  I would blot and touch up with powder because I prefer a more matte finish, but I don’t feel like killing myself if I am unable to touch up at all.

Even with such amazing oil control, Tenue de Perfection feels perfectly comfortable and lightweight.  The only shortfall is the very limited shade range.  I had initially purchased 12 Rose Claire as 01 Beige Pale looked far too light when I swatched it on my arm.  However, that turned out to be much too dark on my face, and I ended up returning it for 01 Beige Pale.  It is perhaps a touch too fair on me, but it feels alright after dusting over some powder, and finishing up with blusher & bronzer.  This is an amazing formula, and I’m so in love with this so I would strongly recommend anybody with combination oily skin like mine to try it out!  Do get matched at a Guerlain counter if you can, to ensure the best shade for you!

xoxo