Review: Dior Nude Air Serum Foundation

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I’m nearly finished with my Dior Nude Air Serum Foundation, so uh, I guess I should go ahead and review it. It’s taking a long time because I had a really hard time deciding how I feel about it.

Packaging

True to the name, this ‘serum foundation’ is very, very runny and the eyedropper is probably the best possible delivery system. The bottle is short, hefty and simple. I want to like the packaging, but the sad fact is it’s pretty bad at keeping the product inside the bottle. I cleaned it up a bit for the first photo, but you can still see a little bit of product seeping out around the top of the dropper and the bottom edge of the lid. The seals just aren’t tight enough to keep the foundation from creeping out the edges when you shake it up. It’s not really a huge problem at home, but traveling with it was a mistake I only made once. Foundation eeeeeeverywhere.

Color

I wear the shade 020 Light Beige, the second lightest shade. I’m usually near the middle of most foundation ranges (Chanel B30, YSL B30-40) and there are only 8 shades in this one. So what this is telling me is that the palest among us might not be able to find a match in this range. It does come in a couple of reasonably deep shades though, which is nice. With the limited number of color options, obviously there’s not a huge variety of undertones – fine enough for us neutral folk, maybe not as much if you lean heavily to warm or cool.

Formula

Ahh, this is where the internal struggle comes in! In general, I really like it. It’s lightweight, medium coverage and has a nice natural finish. It doesn’t set too fast so application is easy. It blends easily with no streakiness – I like a round buffing brush or blending sponge the best for it.

And yet.

Usually, it wears really well throughout the day. It doesn’t really control oil but doesn’t get too shiny or slide off. But hoo boy, when I changed acne medications and went through a major dry-skin period, this was not my favorite, that’s for sure. I can’t blame the foundation since nothing works for all skin, but on extra-dry/dehydrated skin things got pretty ugly. For one, it shows off every flake and dry patch there is. The corners of my nose and mouth looked like I hadn’t seen water in months. It also doesn’t wear well when my skin is especially dry – all the moisture gets soaked out of it and leaves a patchy, powdery mess. I ended up having to shelve it until I got my skincare under control. Now that it’s back to normal, Nude Air has gone back to being my everyday foundation.

In short: It can look amazing, but since it’s really finicky about skin type and has a small color range I don’t think it’s for everyone. I highly recommend trying a sample before buying.

Diorskin Nude Air Serum Foundation ($53) is available at sephora.com and nordstrom.com