Lifestyle

This Cult-Status Foundation Is The Only Thing That Will Save Your Oily Skin

by Izabella Zaydenberg
Susana Ramirez

I've never had “good” skin.

As a teenager, my skin was oily and acne-prone with dry spots on my cheeks. As I got older, all those blemishes eventually moved on, undoubtedly to haunt another teenager's gross face. I was safe, but the oiliness was here to stay.

I've done everything to defeat my oily skin, but I've yet to find a formula that works. Everything is either too drying or causes breakouts.

The hardest thing about having oily skin, however, is finding a great foundation to combat it. I've tried everything under the sun — low end, high end, absurdly expensive — but literally nothing ever worked until I came across this foundation several years ago.

NARS Sheer Glow Foundation, $47, Sephora 

At the time, I was new to NARS, so when a sample of Sheer Glow landed on my desk, I didn't get the hoopla. Sure, it's a pretty foundation in a pretty bottle with a $45 price tag, but who cares? I took it home and forgot I had it.

About two years ago, I was grabbing drinks with a makeup artist friend and couldn't help but notice how pristine her skin looked. When I asked about it, she said it was a mixture of MAC Studio Fix and NARS Sheer Glow.

MAC Studio Fix Foundation, $25, Nordstrom 

Seeing as MAC foundations have always broken me out, I was more intrigued by NARS. Could fairy princess skin really be within that glass bottle I had stashed somewhere in my apartment?

At that point, the bottle had been in my collection for a good three or so years and was kind of separated and gross, so I went out to Sephora to get another. I tore that sh*t open the moment I got home, grabbed my BeautyBlender and emerged with skin that looked like a glorious, dewy ray of sunshine.

BeautyBlender, $20, Sephora 

I can't really explain what makes it so good. Maybe it's because Sheer Glow doesn't draw attention to my acne scarring or dry spots. It just glides over my skin, dries immediately after application and doesn't crease or slide off halfway through the day. It also helps that the bottle is a minimalist's dream.

I've used it nearly every day for the past two years and I'm not looking back. I have backups of the stuff in my collection just in case NARS ever discontinues it (if so, the brand will have a outraged beauty writer to answer to).

It's my job to try out new makeup, play with formulas and almost never use the same thing twice. While my makeup routine changes nearly daily now to make room for the influx of new stuff, the one product that has remained a constant has been NARS Sheer Glow.

Look, this isn't just a love letter to NARS -- although I do like the brand. This foundation just makes me feel confident. My color match shade, Deauville, blends into my skin so seamlessly that it's impossible to tell where my made-up skin starts and ends.

Sheer Glow makes my pores appear smaller and my skin dewy and radiant. It still looks like my skin, just a more Karlie Kloss-like than normal.

And really, that's all any oily-skinned girl wants.