Rouge Underground Airbrush Mist Foundation; Review & Swatches of Shades

Rouge Underground Airbrush Mist Spray Foundation
(by Luminesse Airbrush Makeup)
New for Fall 2014
Price: $29 for 2 ounces
(About $14.50 per ounce)

CRUELTY FREE!

Rouge Underground is a brand new line of products that are manufactured by the makers of Airbrush Makeup Sensation- Luminess. Because so many fans of Luminess don't want to spend couple hundred bucks on foundation, Luminess has released their more user friendly Rouge Underground Airbrush Mist Spray Foundation which features an aerosol can type delivery system.


If you've never heard of Luminess you obviously don't watch late night infomercials and are probably a more productive human being than I am. Luminess is the latest as-seen-on-tv foundation system, a place where BareMinerals started more than ten years ago.

Airbrush foundation isn't a new concept but it's becoming a more discussed one as we venture into this new highly pixel-ated, high definition world of ours. Some people who try it absolutely love it and some people think that it's a a waste of time. If you're not sure where your opinion will fall keep reading & I'll help you decide if airbrush makeup & aerosol foundations are right for you!

Luminess calls the Rouge Underground AirMist Foundation a "pro series foundation which delivers a natural finish and up to ten hour wear." For the most part, Air Mist is capable of matching these claims with results, but it's not glitch free or effortless and you need to know exactly what to expect.

Air Mist is housed in an aerosol-type spray can. Unlike foundations like Mally's Effortless Perfect Airbrush Mousse Foundation which is an aerated formula designed to be sprayed onto your hand or applicator and then applied to your face, the Rouge Underground AirMist is more like the Dior's SkinFinish AirFlash or the new Pur Minerals Veil Fluid Spray Foundation in that it's designed to be sprayed directly onto your face.

If you've ever used spray paint you should have a good idea of what to expect from Rouge's Air Mist. It is of the utmost importance that you shake vigorously an thoroughly for at least a minute in order to ensure an even application.

If you fail to thoroughly mix the pigments (even a few times), you;ll end up spraying too much of the emollients and/or pigments. The ratio won't be right, and may affect Air Mist's performance after future applications.

When it comes to the actual spraying of Air Mist, it's something that takes a little bit of practice (just like spray paint.) Your best bet is to just do it quickly and evenly. Don't pause & panic or lightly depress the button or it may not be even. As long as you work fast you should be o.k. but you may find you need to blend your foundation out with a brush afterwards- at least until you perfect your spraying technique.

The skills needed to apply the classic Luminess Airbrushing system are not exactly the same as the ones you'll need to use the Air Mist Foundation. It's pretty much the same as the difference between airbrushing and spray painting.

Airbrushing is almost easier and is more of a game of timing and learning how much to apply and how long you should hold the gun.

With the Air Mist makeup, you need to add a physical element and figure out how hard to hold the button down while perfecting the timing aspect. It's not impossible by any means, it's just different.

I am an awful spray painter. I always have been. My husband on the other hand is a fabulous one so I enlisted his help in applying Air Mist and he did a fantastic job. It's unlikely that I would endure that daily, but for comparison purposes it was very helpful!

Assuming you know what you're getting into with the application process, the formula of Air Mist Spray Foundation itself is an interesting one. Luminess offers several foundation finishes for their airbrush makeup and none of them come with a "natural finish" description so I can't really make a comparison there.

I usually hate the term "natural" in regards to foundation finishes because it's so subjective and varies from person to person (oily skin natural may be dewy where as dry skin natural may be matte), but in this case, Natural is a pretty accurate description for the "in between" type finish of Air Mist.

It's not exceptionally matte but it's not overly shiny either. There are trace amounts of sparkles in the foundation which present themselves once the foundation begins to fade but aren't all that noticeable on your face.

Once Sprayed, the Air Mist foundation is kind of slippery in an emollient kind of way. The texture initially feels like BareMinerals Bareskin Foundation before it dries so those with oily skin will want to keep that in mind and use a primer.

One of the advantages of using a Spray or Airbrush foundation is the fact that you can generally achieve fuller coverage without looking like you're wearing makeup. The problem with this is that you need to have a good shade match for this to work and that's going to be a problem for quite a few people.

Rouge Underground released 5 shades initially which range from light to tan. The lightest shade has very strong pink undertones while the second shade has very strong yellow undertones and is actually lighter than the first shade.

The darkest shade presented a challenge for me as I'm pretty sure that someone had already sprayed most of the pigment out of the tester at Ulta so I could only get a "watered down" swatch. Once these shades are blended out they all neutralize quite a bit so don't let the initial swatches scare you, it's just something to keep in mind if you're trying to find your shade.

As for an actual comparison of performance from the Luminess Airbrush Foundation System vs the Luminess Rouge Underground Spray Air Mist Foundation, I've only have Luminess applied a handful of times so I'm not qualified to make the comparison, BUT, I've recruited the Assistant Manager of my local Ulta who has the Luminess System and she will be doing an extensive comparison with me in the near future so stay tuned!

Luminess took an interesting approach by launching an entire line of non-airbrush complexion products.

While it's something they absolutely had to do to meet consumer demand I find it curious that they didn't just launch it under the Luminess name instead of the Rouge Underground name. I think the new name will confuse alot of people who are familiar with Luminess and that's too bad because while there are some quirks, Rouge Underground Foundation is definitely one to consider if you're seeking a spray foundation!

Has anyone tried it yet? What are your thoughts compared to Luminess?

*AirMist Spray Foundation is also a very suitable Cruelty Free dupe for Dior SkinFinish AirFlash.*

Rouge Underground Air Mist Spray Foundation
Swatches of Shades
Shade 1, Shade 2, Shade 3, Shade 4,
(By Luminess Airbrush Makeup)

Rouge Underground
Air Mist Spray Foundation
Swatches of Shades
Shade 1, Shade 2, Shade 3, Shade 4,
(By Luminess Airbrush Makeup)