BECCA Ultimate Coverage Complexion Crème in Sand and Cashmere

I was looking for something at ulta.com to bump my purchase up to the free shipping threshold, and came upon the sample set from BECCA.  Featuring a travel sized Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal and two Ultimate Coverage Complexion Crème samples in Sand and Cashmere, I figured why not?  The travel sized Shimmering Skin Perfector is regularly priced at $19, so there's a bit of savings in there as well.

The Ultimate Coverage Complexion Crème line from Becca is a full coverage foundation that features a balance of 21% pure pigment and 22% water to conceal imperfections, redness, hyperpigmentation and the like with a lightweight cream. 

It's definitely got the pigment thing down and does a good job of covering the above mentioned issues without looking overly cakey or obvious.  I say overly, because anytime you are dealing with lots of pigmentation, it's a fine line between coverage and the dreaded mask like effect.  On the plus side, I found it easy to apply with a brush, although there was a bit of pore settling that needed more careful smoothing out. 

Opal Shimmering Skin Perfector

The finish is semi-matte, and I also experimented combining the Opal Illuminating Skin Perfector with the foundation as well.  I've done comparisons of the powder vs. cream versions before, which you can see here.

Wearing Cashmere with Sand as a concealer

Cashmere (neutral beige, neutral undertones) was the better match for my complexion, but I did use Sand (pale beige, yellow/golden undertones) as a concealer in the above picture.  Wear time was a respectable 8 hours on my oily skin before breakdown was starting to be an issue. 

Cashmere + Sand + Opal blended

Above is a blend of Cashmere, Sand and Opal together.  I would probably go with a slightly smaller dab of Opal next time (I used a healthy pea sized amount), as I felt like I need to powder my face to tone down the shimmer a bit.  Final thoughts:  I like the foundation, but not sure I like it enough to spend $44 for it.  On days I need more coverage it's definitely a good option, but I feel like Revlon's Colorstay Whipped Creme (review here) is a good full coverage option for my oily skin, at about 1/4 of the cost.