How are you, everyone?

I'm back from holiday and back on the blog with a new review of a Swiss luxury brand: La Prairie. This is actually the first La Prairie product I've tried and am really excited because I keep hearing amazing things about their foundations.

The review of today is about their new foundation, called La Prairie Essence-in-foundation. This is a cushion foundation. No wait, not exactly. Instead of a foundation-soaked sponge, the foundation is delivered via a pump dispenser covered in a mesh netting. This is also different from a mesh cushion where the cushion foundation is covered by a net. Here it's really delievered via a pump and each pump gives enough product to create a thin layer on the skin. For my face, I need about 2 pumps.

Also included is a refill with an additional puff.

What sets it apart, in addition to the special delivery system, is its ingredient list. This foundation is infused with 

What I find really nice is the amount of interesting ingredients (underlined in the picture below). Caviar water and caviar extract are pretty high in the ingredient list and not at the very end of it, i.e. they're present in decent amount. Then you get many botanical extracts, glycoproteins and a peptide, lots of antioxidants and skin-repairing ingredients. Present are also sunscreens; as you know I don't care about sunscreen in makeup as I find it more efficient to use a separate sunscreen.

In terms of application, it's easy to use it and it applies beautifully on the skin. Coverage is medium, you can easily layer it - it does layer nicely. Finish is natural dewy and it feels quite emollient. Maybe if you have oily skin, it can be a bit too emollient for you, at least in summer.

I was honestly quite impressed with the finish and how it looks on the skin. It really looks as your skin as if you weren't wearing any foundation, your skin but more beautiful, more even. I have normal to slighly combo skin and on me it lasts all day. I haven't used during super hot days because I find it a bit too emollient for that but on colder days it doesn't separate or look uneven at the end of the day. I didn't notice any oxidation either.
An additional point: it's fragranced, on the medium-side. It doesn't bother me but if you're sensitive to fragrance, note this.

Something that bothered me a bit is the compact itself. The puff actually sits direclty on top of the mesh as there is no separator. This means that the compact can get dirty quite easily. That's not a huge issue as it's easy to clean with a tissue but I wanted to mention it. I would have preferred a separator between the mesh and the puff.

Overall this is a beautiful foundation. It looks amazing on the skin. It looks like your skin but better and you can't tell you're wearing a foundation, it looks flawless. It covers redness and small blemishes as coverage is medium. I like the pump dispenser. It delivers the right amount to get a thin and even layer on the skin. Ingredients are pretty impressive (I'm actually impressed) and do bring skincare benefits. The main con is the price as it's pretty expensive. If you have the budget though, that's a gorgeous foundation.

Purchase info

La Prairie products can be purchased from Marionnaud, Globus, Jelmoli in Switzerland. The Essence-in-foundation retails for about 229 CHF.

*PR Samples*