When I saw that Yves Saint Laurent had brought out a new matte foundation which was available in the UK and also Tati approved, it was in my online basket within seconds. I bought the YSL All Hours foundation a few weeks ago via the official YSL Beauty website in the shade B10 Porcelain. At £33.50 for 25ml it was a risky move, but thankfully their online matching tool was actually pretty accurate.
The YSL All Hours Liquid Foundation promises to give waterproof and transfer-resistant full coverage for up to 24 hours, similar to my beloved Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra Wear Foundation. As well as a foundation, the new ‘All Hours’ collection includes a primer, concealer and sponge blender. The foundation comes with a pump in a heavy frosted glass bottle. It contains SPF 20 and is available in 22 shades with B10 Porcelain being the lightest.
All Hours is surprisingly light and runny for a full-coverage matte foundation. It’s matte, but it’s far from thick or mask-like. It’s like a satin matte finish and it blends evenly with hardly any effort at all. What I love about this foundation is the naturally flawless coverage it gives all day. Full coverage matte foundations have the tendency to settle into lines or become slightly patchy on my nose and chin after several hours wear, but not All Hours. I can apply it at 7am before work and sit in front of a mirror at 6pm and my base still looks flawless, unless I’m in incredibly humid conditions. It covers blemishes, discolouration and minimises my pores whilst controlling any shine. I’ve noticed that since wearing All Hours I’ve had to reach for my powder a lot less as I don’t need as many touch-ups.
You can’t really notice that I’ve applied the foundation underneath my swatch as it’s such a good match for my skin tone. All Hours is a ‘your skin but better foundation’ which is hard to achieve with a matte formula, but YSL has ticked every box with their latest launch. It’s definitely stolen the crown from my Lancôme Tein Idole Ultra Wear as my favourite high-end foundation; I can’t find a single thing wrong with it! If you have oily skin and want to achieve a natural matte finish that lasts all day, I highly recommend visiting a YSL counter and asking for a shade match and sample of All Hours.
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