This 2-in-1 Foundation Claims It Will Stay All Day—And It Did

I wish I could say I’m one of the lucky ones when it comes to foundation—the ones who have found their soulmate and have no need to look further. I’ve been close—oh yes—but never found the one that could lock me down for life. My eye always wanders eventually.

Foundation is supposed to be reliable and steadfast, providing a blank slate upon which to build any face in the mirror. It’s the most basic and neutral detail, yet there’s so much room for error. And an error that early on means things can only go downhill. There is a fine line between too dark or light, too dry or oily, or too heavy or sheer for your skin. My skin confuses me, and I definitely don’t expect any foundation to understand it. But it sure could help me out.

I have a couple of foundations that I tend to rotate between depending on my mood when down to the wire at Sephora. So when Stila's Stay All Day Foundation came out, I was intrigued enough to give it a try. It claims to be a 12-hour wear, medium-to-full buildable coverage, matte finish foundation that comes with a creamy concealer in the lid for that something extra. To set the scene: I prefer a medium coverage that doesn’t feel heavy or look unnatural. I veer towards oily-combination skin, so I prefer mattifying foundations (but use a sheer finishing powder in case). And I cannot use anything that feels like it’s clogging my pores. Yuck. The Stila Stay All Day Foundation seemed to check those boxes, so I let my eye wander yet again. The results were worth it.

To begin, I pressed down the dish pump on the top once for about a nickel-sized amount of foundation. I used my favorite makeup sponge and began dabbing it all over my T-zone, then my cheeks and neck. Although it wasn’t a lot of product to begin with, it covered my entire face in a perfect amount of light-to-medium coverage that evened my skin tone and covered most dark spots. I used the creamy concealer under my eyes, and it worked great (my under-eye area can be a little dry, so the creaminess helped a lot). But I did still use my NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer for a couple stubborn spots on my face. I can’t help it; it’s just too good.

The finish? Perfectly smooth and even skin, a great skin color match, a mattifying finish that wasn’t dry, and a little glamorous glow. And it really did stay all day. So basically, a big hit. And that’s a lot coming from me—not many foundations work in my favor. I felt red carpet ready, even though I was just heading into work! To really test it, I wore it on the lake for a day of boating and floating that next weekend. And again, was pleasantly surprised by its natural-looking, long-lasting coverage despite the wind, water, and Southern heat. 10/10.

I’m not saying just yet if I’ve found that one foundation to permanently stop my wandering eye, but this will get my full attention for a while.