The £110 Foundation: Sisley Skinleya Anti Aging Lift Foundation Review

Sisley you may already know, is an extremely luxurious beauty brand, one that has lots of gorgeous products and one that still gives me a bit of a nervous twitch when I hear the prices.  I have their lip balm, which is amazing but also on the pricey side.

The comes along Sisley Skinleya Anti Aging Lift Foundation, their latest release – a anti-aging lifting foundation that comes with a brush and promises to hydrate, firm and even out the skin.

I’ll tell you now that this foundation costs £110 retail – I don’t mind expensive foundations, the last pricey one I bought was La Mer and I loved it but of course…it was discontinued!

Here is the packaging:

The foundation comes it a generous sized box and a foundation brush.

Now what are the benefits of this base?

This base is supposed to work for all skin types, even sensitive skin.  It is a ‘second skin’ type make up which offers coverage whilst being light, offers to tackle the signs of aging and fatigue.

It provides long wear (8 hours plus) and leaves a velvety finish.  It contains Vitamin A Palmitate  and Tourmaline microcrystals to stimulate the microcirculation.

Moisturising Benefits:

• Extract of Cherry blossom is rich in sugars, and moisturizing.
• Pro-Vitamin B5 (D-Panthenol) and Alpha-Bisabolol with softening and soothing qualities.

Anti Ageing Qualities:

• Anti-collagenase activity: extract of Alkekengi Calyx.
• Anti-elastase activity: Willow Leaf extract.
• Anti-glycation activity: Einkorn wheat.

Got all that?!

Inside the box is the foundation, info leaflet and brush:

Everything comes nicely packaged.  The foundation brush is great (more on this later) but I know, you’re thinking, it should be for the price!

The tub looks like skin cream rather than foundation – I guess that’s the point, this product is a skin care product too.

It comes in 9 Shades:

• 00 light linen
• 01 light opal
• 10 sweet petal
• 11 sweet shell
• 20 soft rose
• 30 beige
• 40 natural glow
• 50 biscuit
• 60 spicy

Note: In Japan I believe not all the shades are available, most notably the darker colours.

I chose shade 30 Beige based on the swatches I saw online…so I wasn’t sure if it would match! Beige is usually quite a neutral colour, right?!  30 Beige in person is quite an unusual hue when you look at it; it has an orange-ness to it. It reminds me of the La Mer foundation I mentioned earlier which looked so odd in the pot but was amazing on the skin.

The foundation colour does blend into my skin quite well – it doesn’t look light, it doesn’t look dark, it doesn’t look like my skintone at all in the pot but it does work somehow!

The texture of this I would describe is being like a cream-gel-jelly.  It’s quite unusual; it has a lightness to it yet it isn’t completely light textured.

I am not sure if the product is fragranced artificially; I don’t think so! But there is a scent to it; now it really reminds me of (slightly obscure reference) Chinese Bruise liquid! It’s a brown liquid which people use to apply and massage into brusies to make it disappear quickly.  It’s not horrible, just medicinal.

Back to the brush for a moment. It looks like a lot of other foundation brushes with a a looser bristle at the top where it is white.  I don’t usually like these kinds of foundations, I prefer the ones that are stubby or flat topped but this works very well with this foundation.  Also the short handle means it’s really handy to carry around.

Here is the application ‘technique’ map:

I have been wearing this foundation for a few weeks now and I’ve noticed a few things;

- It works well on my skin type which is so varied; dry, oily, sensitive, blemished – I didn’t notice it being affected too much by the different types of skin combos I have!

- My skin does look better and healthy although this can be due to other products I am using too.

- It offers good coverage even though it is sheer! It is light weight but once blended in it does cover redness, and marks. It doesn’t really cover pores.

- It lasts for most of the day although I noticed my skin redness breaking through by the end of the day, however I don’t powder over this to set it. If I did it may last even longer.

- It offers a lot of glow!

- You can’t use too much of this otherwise it does start to look thick and a bit cakey. Just a small amount is needed.

On the downside I noticed that it seems to react with anything silicone based underneath. For example when I used a serum I have which I know has a high silicone content, and also 2 separate primers that cover pores underneath it, the result was that the foundation settled on top and did that thing where it ‘balls up’ on the face (where it can be rubbed and comes off like dead skin).

I did this a few times to make sure it wasn’t just a coincidence. What a waste of product!

Here it is on my bare face anyway:

After – still need concealer with this foundation over crucial areas:

Ingredients:

Verdict:

Now don’t get me wrong – you can get some amazing foundations for less that £110 but it really depends on your own skin type and what you need from a base.

In my case, I like really high performing foundations just because I think it’s the canvas for everything else. If my skin looks smooth I can forfeit many other cosmetics!

The Sisley Skinleya Anti Aging Lift Foundation at the price range it’s at is clearly geared towards women who want to mix an element of skincare into their foundation and also have an obsession with base products like me!  I like this foundation a lot, I think it’s not a slap on and go base (in that you need to apply it properly and be careful what you use under it) but it seriously feels so light and gives a demi-matte flawless glow to the skin.

The brush is also excellent, so you could take the value of a good foundation brush off the cost of the base!

You can buy the Sisley foundation from Harrods and also on Sisley counters.

*Pr Sample