Beauty on a Budget: Covergirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 Foundation

This all-in-one delivers on its promises

By Lauren Kelly, Graphics Manager

After my bottle of too-expensive and also too-dark-for-winter Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation ran out, I knew it was time to find something more affordable and lighter to get me through the next few seasons. I walked into Shoppers Drug Mart with a list of my needs: Full coverage, long-wear, and cheap. After some help from the cosmetician and some checking of online reviews, I decided on Covergirl’s Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 Foundation.

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with it. As a 3-in-1, the foundation promises to act as primer, foundation, and concealer, so I decided to test it without wearing a primer. After 12 hours of wear, I still had very little shine, and the foundation hadn’t worn off at all. I will admit that it wasn’t a heavy activity day, but regardless of my activity levels I am usually quicker than most to become oily. The coverage was solid—I could still see some faint marks of acne scars, but any redness was gone, and my skin looked much more even. With a heavier hand in these problem areas, I’m sure that they would have disappeared.

I only had one issue with it: Although the foundation, which I tried in Ivory, went on looking fairly warm-neutral and close to my neck colour, by the time I was in natural light an hour later my face looked significantly pinker than my neck. I’m not sure if it was due to oxidization, which a primer might have fixed, but I was disappointed to see that the colour was clearly not right for me. That’s always a risk with foundations, and is why buying ones you can sample beforehand or have the clerk test on your skin is the best way to go. The range of colours is decent, and the 14 available shades will cover most skin tones, including a few shades for people with darker skin. Just make sure to ask for consultation on the tone of the foundation, so you don’t end up with something too warm or too cool.

If it matched me better, this would easily be my new go-to foundation, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly. In addition to what I discussed above, it also includes SPF 20 and it comes in a glass bottle complete with a pump, which is sorely missing on rivals such as Maybelline’s Fit Me line. You can buy it at Shoppers Drug Mart and London Drugs for about $12.99, and their frequent sales could see you getting it for even cheaper. At that price, this is a steal, and definitely worth a look the next time you hit the bottom of your foundation bottle.