On paper, there’s a lot to like and even love about the NARS Light Reflecting Foundation. Its lightweight consistency, coupled with its buildable coverage means that even if a single application of this foundation doesn’t quite meet your needs, it’s easy to add more without leaving your skin looking cakey or heavy.
In reality, however, it fell a little short of our expectations and its high price. It blends well with a brush and/or sponge and it’s great for mature skin because it both fills fine lines and wrinkles, and reflects light away from problem areas. Yet it also left our skin looking shiny, rather than dewy.
On our oily skin, this foundation lasted all of three hours before it had melted off and areas of redness and texture were once again visible.
Over time, our skin did look noticeably brighter and healthier after regularly using this foundation and we’re willing to pay a little extra for those benefits. Yet at £39, we don’t feel the NARS Light Reflecting foundation is quite worth the money if you have oily skin.
It might be better value for dry skin, and particularly for mature skin and women going through menopause due to its hydrating and light formula, but even then £39 is a lot of money to pay.
| Boots | £39 |
| Sephora | £39 |
| Lookfantastic | £39 |
In our NARS Light Reflecting Foundation review, we test its coverage and finish as well as how it improves the appearance and health of our skin
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How we tested NARS Light Reflecting Foundation
NARS – or to give it its full name, NARSISSIST – is a makeup artist favourite.
Founded by makeup artist and photographer, François Nars, the collection launched with just 12 lipsticks back in 1994 and has since grown to be an international beauty giant.
Today it sells a huge range of mascaras, blush, foundation, eyeshadows, bronzers, powders, and much more.
Many of them have earned cult status and one of its bestselling products is the NARS Light Reflecting foundation.
Sometimes called the Light Reflecting Skincare foundation, due to the addition of popular skincare ingredients such as glycerin, citric acid, and sea water, it promises a medium, buildable coverage with a natural finish.
Over time, NARS also claims this foundation will brighten and improve your skin so that even when you’re not wearing makeup, your complexion is still glowing.
When we started our giant foundation group test over on TikTok, this foundation was one of the most requested products so it only felt right that we put it to the test properly, and over a longer period of time, for our NARS Light Reflecting foundation review.
If you don’t know about our foundation group test or want to look at the rankings then head to our best foundation page, or keep reading to discover what we really think about his iconic, and hugely popular foundation.
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mamabella | mamabella The NARS Light Reflecting foundation is one of the most expensive NARS foundations in the collection
If you include NARS’ tinted moisturiser, there are five NARS foundations to choose from. These include:
They range in price from £29 to £39 and the Light Reflecting foundation is one of the most expensive.
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mamabella | mamabella An at-a-glance look at the NARS Light Reflecting foundation
What is NARS Light Reflecting Foundation? The NARS Light Reflecting foundation offers a medium, buildable coverage with a natural finish. Its oil base is great for dry, and mature skin because it doesn’t feel too heavy or cakey and it doesn’t settle into fine lines or wrinkles as much as other more drying, or matte foundations. It contains skincare ingredients that help to protect the skin from environmental aggressors, and blue light and NARS promises its Light Reflecting Foundation will smooth the skin, and conceal blemishes, dark spots, and redness. It also helps to repair the skin’s barrier.
NARS Light Reflecting price: £39 (30ml)
Shade range: 36
Base: Oil
Coverage: Medium, buildable
Finish: Natural
Who should use NARS Light Reflecting foundation? Suitable for all skin types, including sensitive skin, but is particularly good for oily, and mature skin.
Where to buy: Lookfantastic | Boots | Sephora
NARS Light Reflecting Foundation alternatives: Revolution Miracle Cream (£18); e.l.f Holy Hydration (£12)
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For our NARS Light Reflecting foundation review, we used it as our go-to foundation for a month. This meant that anytime we put on makeup, which is about three times a week, we used the NARS Light Reflecting foundation alongside our regular makeup routine faves.
Our current routine consists of Embryollisse cream, CeraVe Repair Eye Cream, the Fenty Beauty Match Stix, and The Beauty Crop concealer. By swapping in just the NARS foundation and not changing anything else, we could identify any differences it created in terms of coverage, oiliness, finish, and more.
As part of this test, we monitored the Light Reflecting foundation’s staying power i.e how the coverage and finish lasted throughout the day, what our skin looked like in the morning versus the evening, and how easy it is to remove.
By testing this foundation for a month, and not changing anything else, we could also see what impact it had on the condition of our skin and if it caused breakouts or similar. This is particularly key with this foundation because it promises skincare benefits.
Elsewhere, we took images of our skin before applying the foundation, and after, using our smart mirror to see how well the foundation actually blurred our pores and covered imperfections and redness. This was also a good way of seeing how much it settled into our fine lines and wrinkles.
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mamabella | mamabella The NARS Light Reflecting foundation has a thin-to-medium consistency and you can see its oiliness in this close-up image
We took NARS’ online Matchmaker foundation match quiz and were recommended the shade Vienna. As the image and videos below show, this shade is a little on the dark, and orange side for our skin tone but isn’t miles away from our natural colouring and would make a great summer foundation.
It has a thin consistency that feels lightweight on the skin and, as a result, it doesn’t take long to blend into the skin and look natural. This is largely due to its oil base.
We like to apply our foundation with a stippling foundation brush before melting it into the skin with a beauty blender. However, due to the thinner consistency of this foundation, this did cause brush marks and streaks that we had to correct with the sponge.
This is common with thinner foundations and isn’t a unique issue with the NARS Light Reflecting version, but it is worth mentioning.
Coverage-wise, this foundation errs on the more sheer side of medium. It’s not as transparent as the sheer foundations we’ve tried in the past, but it’s not far off.
The benefit of this is that the foundation provides a skin-like, natural finish. It also helps fill fine lines and wrinkles and gives an overall youthful appearance.
The downside is that if you have redness and an uneven skin tone like ours, it doesn’t quite balance it as much as we’d like, and the thin consistency tends to enhance, not soften our skin’s natural texture.
We’re also not huge fans of how this foundation looks on our skin. Rather than looking dewy or light-reflecting, it left our complexion looking and feeling oily and almost greasy.
The TikTok video below shows a before and after comparison of the NARS Light Reflecting foundation and how it reacts to light. It’s part of our wider foundation group testing process.
@victoria_woolly_web I mean it certainly does reflect ✨light✨. I think it looks more oily than dewy so is not a great one for me but it feels really nice on the skin #fyp #fypシ #viral #mamabella #foundationtest #foundations #foundationreview #foundation #bestfoundation #bestfoundationuk #bestfoundationever #bestfoundationforoilyskin #bestfoundationformatureskin #nars #narsissist #narscosmetics ♬ Fly Away – Wes Nelson
We have naturally oily skin so we’re not surprised that an oil-based foundation would cause this effect, but it’s worth bearing in mind. It’s also worth noting that if you have dry skin, this foundation has all the components to make it look fresh and dewy.
Due to the fact it has an oily base, and we have oily skin, the foundation slid off our skin within hours. Even with powder, and setting spray.
Again, it will likely hold better on dry skin but we were disappointed with how poor our skin looked at the end of the day with this foundation.
The still image below shows how the NARS foundation looks before and after application, and how it photographs on the skin.
mamabella | mamabella How our skin looked before and after using the NARS Light Reflecting Foundation
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On paper, there’s a lot to like and even love about the NARS Light Reflecting Foundation. Its lightweight consistency, coupled with its buildable coverage means that even if a single application of this foundation doesn’t quite meet your needs, it’s easy to add more without leaving your skin looking cakey or heavy.
In reality, however, it fell a little short of our expectations and its high price. It blends well with a brush and/or sponge and it’s great for mature skin because it both fills fine lines and wrinkles, and reflects light away from problem areas. Yet it also left our skin looking shiny, rather than dewy.
On our oily skin, this foundation lasted all of three hours before it had melted off and areas of redness and texture were once again visible.
Over time, our skin did look noticeably brighter and healthier after regularly using this foundation and we’re willing to pay a little extra for those benefits. Yet at £39, we don’t feel the NARS Light Reflecting foundation is quite worth the money if you have oily skin.
It might be better value for dry skin, and particularly mature skin. As well as for women going through menopause due to its hydrating and light formula, but even then £39 is a lot of money to pay and we’re not sure we can recommend you do so.
Buy now from Sephora
@victoria_woolly_web “Where’s NARS?” Is the question I get *all* the time when I post videos of the spreadsheet so here it is – well the Light Reflection version at least #fyp #foryoupage #foundations #foundationreview #beautyblogger #foruyou #makeuptiktok @NARS Cosmetics ♬ Sunroof – Nicky Youre & dazy
There are a couple of ingredients in the NARS Light Reflecting Foundation that go someway towards justifying its high price, its consistency, and its finish.
The main ones being antioxidants in the form of cocoa seed and turmeric root extracts, and tocopherol. Antioxidants help protect the skin from environmental damage and pollution. Turmeric additionally helps brighten the skin, when used over time, and is great for soothing irritated skin.
It also contains an ingredient called Hydroxyphenyl Propamidobenzoic Acid, which also has soothing properties, and glycerin. Glycerin is a skin-identical ingredient that helps keep the skin hydrated and is linked with promoting good, overall skin health.
These ingredients combined give the NARS Light Reflecting Foundation a number of skincare benefits and, with regular use, can help improve how your skin looks even when you’re not wearing this foundation. They’re also what makes them so great for both mature skin, as well as dry skin that’s easily irritated.
Buy now from Sephora
The following list of ingredients is taken from the INCI Decoder website. You can hover over each ingredient to find out more about it.
The numbers next to each ingredient represent its Irritation Rating (the number to the left of the comma), and then Comedogenic Rating (to the right of the comma).
Both ratings are scored out of five and the higher the number, the higher the chance of it causing irritation, or comedones (spots). Green means it has a low rating so is less likely to cause problems. Yellow and red numbers represent high ratings and are more likely to cause problems.
sii|h 0 0, Synthetic Wax emo|vc, Sodium Chloride vc, Ophiopogon Japonicus Root Extract, Ascophyllum Nodosum Extract, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Extract aox, Curcuma Longa (Turmeric) Root Extract 
aox|so|sb|perf, Silybum Marianum Fruit Extract, Aluminum Hydroxide emo|h|vc, Magnesium Chloride vc, Sodium Dilauramidoglutamide Lysine h|emu, Tocopherol aox 0–3 0–3, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate emo, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Pentylene Glycol solv|h, Hydroxyphenyl Propamidobenzoic Acid so, Ascorbyl Palmitate 
aox 0 2, Citric Acid buff, Sea Water/Maris Aqua/Eau De Mer h|solv, Trisodium EDTA chel, Barium Sulfate col, Alumina vc|abrasive/scrub, Chlorphenesin pres|amic, Phenoxyethanol pres, Potassium Sorbate presHover the mouse / tap over an ingredient for short explanation. Read more on INCIDecoder.
Victoria is founder and editor-in-chief of mamabella, freelance journalist and Mum. She has a passion for empowering people to feel beautiful whatever their age, size, skin type and budget
