YSL All Hours Encre de Peau Foundation and All Hours Concealer Review

YSL Beauty launched their new All Hours Encre de Peau Foundation (S$98) as well as the companion concealer earlier this month to a flurry of excitement in the beauty community.

This is touted as being long-wear, high coverage, weightless, luminous matte, and skin-tone/texture perfecting. Sounds like a dream.

I have to preface this by saying that when they launched the original Le Teint Encre de Peau around 2015, I rushed to snap up a bottle in Sephora while on holiday in the US. And I didn't like it. I just didn't. By the time it launched here in Asia and the beauty community started buzzing about it I was already over it.

I find volatile-oil foundations to be very hit and miss.

They feel incredibly good to the touch because of that ultra-slippery dry-oil silicone feel, and blend out like a dream. Perfect for impulse shoppers. But more often than not, whether they work on your skin depends very much on whether the specific blend of silicones and volatile oils plays nice with your skin type and skincare products. If not, they look good for awhile and then "suddenly" seem to break down after a few hours, even on non-oily skins.

The new All Hours Encre de Peau, happily, is NOT one of those slippery dry-oil foundation formulas. Because of that, they could also (thank god) put it in a hygienic pump bottle.

The formula:

All Hours Encre de Peau has a light lotion texture that is not slippery but also not creamy; it is quite thin and doesn't feel like it would have much coverage but despite that, it did surprise me by covering a lot of what I needed it to cover. There is a moderately-strong fragrance which I personally find quite fresh and pleasant, but if you are sensitive to smells or only use fragrance-free products, be aware of this.

The formula is silicone-based and does contain alcohol, which helps evaporate other volatile components, keep the fluid fresh-feeling, and helps the liquid to dry down and set. This isn't a super-fast setting foundation, and you will have time to blend and work it into the skin for 2-5 minutes (in my experience) before it really locks on. There are also a few plant extracts to condition the skin but I wouldn't consider it anywhere close to a serum foundation. Just a nice plus, since this has a high price-tag.

The first thing that surprised me when I received my bottle of B20 was how pale it looked. I posted a picture on IG story a couple of weeks back showing how my B20 All Hours foundation was a total different shade from my B20 Le Teint Touche Eclat. Not a big deal, but definitely try it out on your face/jaw/neck instead of blind-buying based on your usual shade.

Texture correction:

I was immediately impressed by the “poreless” finish it gave. I wore it on one side of my face and that side looked positively filtered. The best thing is it doesn't sit on top of your skin looking like makeup, unless you really layer it on thick.

One layer smoothed and blended out, looks pretty invisible. The one thing it is not able to hide is flakiness. Which is understandable for all matte foundations. This formula is not drying on my dry areas, but it's also not moist enough to hide flaky bits, so just be aware if you have dry areas from acne medication or recovering blemishes.

Color correction:

The foundation is very light in texture. So light that I didn't think it had much coverage. However, I was again surprised by how it managed to even out my skin tone without looking like a full coverage mask.

In the image below, I just applied one sheer layer to the left side of my face (right side of image) and did not prime or powder. It didn't look like makeup. Just like I had mysteriously erased 5 years of hyper-pigmentation.

Wear test:

I wore this out several times in 32-34 degree Celsius heat. Through 80-90% humidity, sweat, oil, then dry air-conditioning, it held up without turning orange or breaking down. I did get shiny after a few hours but when I blotted the shine off with a sheet of tissue, my foundation wasn't patchy or broken down. It looked pretty much freshly applied again.

This wins major points with me because many heavier long-wear foundations like Kat von D Lock-It or Urban Decay All Nighter look heavy and mask-like but STILL go patchy, cakey, and cling around pores after a few hours of heat and sweat. The worst thing is they are like matte liquid lipsticks; they cling so well that you can't easily "repair the damage" after that.

All Hours feels fresh and skin-like, doesn't break down as much on me, and doesn't need emergency repair work after lunch.

Comparisons:

If you like foundations like the updated Diorskin Forever, NARS All Day Weightless Luminous, and Shiseido Synchro Skin, Maybelline Fit Me Matte and Poreless or Shu Uemura Petal Skin, you might want to give this one a try. I find they all give that "clean dry skin" effect paired with decent medium coverage, and hold up well on me through humidity with minimal oxidation. The YSL just has a slightly finer texture than the Dior, and more coverage than the NARS and Shiseido.

Petal Skin is higher coverage but slightly less long-wearing.

I do want to also give the All Hours Concealer a shout-out because I feel it's a bit overlooked since all the buzz is on the foundation. This formula is bomb.

It's got a silky texture comparable to Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer, with great coverage and this ability to meld and blend seamlessly in with the rest of your makeup. The foundation will correct some flaws, but that concealer is the icing on the cake.

before after shot comparing bare skin, All Hours foundation, and All Hours concealer

All in all, I am very impressed by All Hours Encre de Peau. Maybe the best testament to this is the fact that I went out and bought a second bottle myself despite getting one bottle for review already, just so I could get a perfect shade match. 

Color run very light in this range so I picked up a BD30 (BD is the slightly more yellow-toned shade series, while B is neutral). I'm usually a MAC NC20/25 or C2 and my original Le Teint Encre de Peau shade was BD15.