I'm super excited about today's post, you guys. I mean, if I had written this post one week ago, this foundation would have been part of my top 10 favourite makeup products of 2016, but now it'll just have to wait for 2017's recap. Let's dive into my Clinique Superbalanced Silk foundation review!
Clinique Superbalanced Silk is a new foundation by Clinique (duh), launched last September. I see it as Clinique's answer to Guerlain's Lingerie de Peau or Gorgio Armani's Luminous Silk foundations: a foundation that offers a natural, medium coverage yet with an almost photoshopped silky finish that enhances rather than masks your complexion. In addition, these foundation are very lightweight and comfortable to wear, and kind to combination skin (anywhere from slightly dry to slightly oily).
Clinique's Superbalanced Silk comes in a matte glass bottle without a pump, which takes some getting used to, but my regular foundation has a similar bottle, so I don't mind. Superbalanced Silk offers SPF15 and claims to moisturize the skin where necessary while absorbing excess oils. The foundation truly glides on thanks to that silicone feel that is so good at smoothing over imperfections like silk, meaning you only need a small amount of product. It also comes in a wide range of 20 foundation shades - score!
Since I'm such a fair lady (lulz), I was sent over the two lightest shades for reviewing purposes, along with their stylish, lucite foundation brush.
Clinique Superbalanced Silk's shade selection really is beautiful, and I was excited to see that the two palest shades (01 Silk Porcelain and 02 Silk Shell) are truly light. So often the lightest shade in a foundation just doesn't work for me when my skin is winter-pale like it is right now. My sister is even paler than I am - she uses Revlon Colorstay in 110 Ivory, for reference - and 01 Silk Porcelain matched her Snowwhite complexion perfectly!
I feel like 01 and 02 are very close to each other, but 01 is a bit lighter and more pink-neutral while 02 leans more beige. Both are suited to very fair, neutral skintones. It's hard to photograph foundation colours, but I hope it shows that these colours have some "life" to them: not a flat, greyish or sallow pale shade, but a more healthy tone. Also, these arm swatches already show how surprisingly pigmented these are for lightweight, medium coverage foundations.
This becomes only more apparent when applied to my face.
On the left, my bare, moisturized skin. On the right, Clinique Superbalanced Silk in 02 Silk Shell with a drop of 01 Silk Porcelain, applied with the foundation brush and finished with a sponge to build up coverage where necessary. No under-eye concealer yet, so my dark circles are still there, but how beautiful is that semi-matte coverage? I feel like my skin just looks soft and luminous like velvet - or silk, obviously. And I can't stress enough how nicely this applies: I only need, like, three peas-worth of product to do my entire face, it spreads out like silk and is very easily buildable to higher coverage where needed. It looks best when applied with a damp makeup sponge.
In addition, I am pretty sure that I have never found a better colour match in any foundation. 02 Silk Shell is my holy grail foundation shade, for sure. Just look at how well my face matches my neck now!
And this is what the foundation looks like in a fully finished look, including under eye concealer and a bit of setting powder. Slightly more matte than before the powder, but I find that Superbalanced Silk needs that powder to get a longer period of flawless wear out of it. Like Guerlain's Lingerie de Peau, this foundation becomes slightly dewier/glowier on me as the hours go by, but I'm happy to say that it does not start slipping or moving around like Lingerie de Peau does, especially when you use setting powder. Superbalanced Silk is just a beautiful, natural everyday foundation that is super easy to apply and will make your skin look phenomenal all day.
In short, I have a new HG daily foundation. I have fallen in love with how light the formula of Clinique's Superbalanced Silk is, how easy to apply and how perfect it matches my skin tone. In short, Clinique Superbalanced Silk SPF15 earns its name: it delivers a beautifully balanced product that works well for slightly dry, slightly oily or combination skin, and feels light despite providing SPF protection and surprisingly nice coverage. No complaints!
Clinique Superbalanced Silk is available at Clinique counters, at Inno and at Clinique's own website. 6 shades will be available at all Clinique counters, while 14 shades (mostly the lightest and darkest) will only be available at Inno or online. The foundation retails at about €25-30, which makes it a very affordable high end foundation.
Review made in collaboration with Clinique - but all opinions are my own.
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