First impression: Cover Girl Clean Fresh Skin Milk Nourishing Foundation

It's been a hot minute since I've written a first impression, so when I put this foundation on today, I figured it was the perfect opportunity!

The foundation in question is the Cover Girl Clean Fresh Skin Milk Nourishing Foundation with coconut milk and aloe extract. I picked it up at Target this weekend after I had heard some good things about the Clean Fresh line.

Let me start by saying if you have sensitive skin or any sensitivity at all to aloe, skip this one. When I first put it on, I had some stinging around my top lip area for some reason. I don't have sensitive skin and no allergy to aloe so I have no idea what that was about.

Moving on from that, my overall first impression was that I was REALLY unimpressed.

I picked this up in hopes of finding a dupe for my two light coverage favorites -- the Urban Decay Naked Skin One and Done Hybrid Complexion Perfector and the bareMinerals Complexion Recue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream. 

Let's just say for the time being, I was not successful.

At first application, the foundation looked nice. It was very light but evened out my skin tone and gave me a glowy complexion. It was off to a good start. I will say I did need to use a LOT of product to get my desired look, even though I really don't need a lot of coverage. But the formula is a lot more watery than I'm used to.

Next was the concealer. At first application, it looked fine and meshed well with the foundation. No big issues here.

However, once I powdered, everything went down hill. 

I use a very light powder just to set everything and I try to just lightly press the brush down and now drag it all over the place, especially when I'm using a lighter base. But man, oh, man did that just destroy any hopes of my face looking good today.

Please excuse my ungroomed eyebrows LOL.

On powder application, the foundation just completely crumbled and caked. I went from glowy goddess to looking like I just took an eraser to my face -- shavings and all. There were little rolls of foundation everywhere. I was able to mostly knock them off with a brush but it was just a Band-Aid and they kept showing up as I applied my bronzer and blush. OOF.

Also my under eyes creased horribly. I'm not sure if this was a result of the concealer itself along with the foundation or the powder. But it also caked in other areas, especially where I had any dry skin.

Applying bronzer and blush was a nightmare. It just lifted the foundation completely off and left it looking blotchy. I was thankfully able to fix it with some TLC, but it took me sooo much longer than normal. 

After I set with spray, I got back a little bit of the glow, but it's still a cakey, dry mess. Let's just say I'm thankful I am A) wearing a mask and B) no one will be coming close enough to me to notice.

My main takeaways

My first impression was pretty bad. I will say that there is a possibility that this foundation could be really nice on its own and not set with powders. I'm really antsy about not setting because I don't like the way it feels on my skin, but I will give it a shot with cream products! But I will definitely say this is one of those products that does not play well with others. 

Also it's a foundation, not a tinted moisturizer, and does not have SPF, so I can't even demote it to sunscreen, which is unfortunate. 

I'm pretty disappointed because I had heard some good things about the line and $10 is a great price, but definitely not what I was looking for.

Also, I later noticed it made me break out! I do not have acne prone skin at this point in my life, so I'm just thinking maybe this formula wasn't for me.

One more note: I chose the color Medium, which wound up being the right shade for me, even though it looked kind of dark in the tube. So keep that in mind if you do decide to give this a shot.

Have you tried this foundation or anything else from the line? Let me know in the comments.

XO, Briana