Marc Jacobs Genius Gel Super-Charged Foundation Review

Hello hello!

I'm back =D After a grueling week of classes, quizzes, lab, and case presentation... cannot be any happier that the weekend is finally here! I feel like I had been too relaxed since third year started, so even though this week wasn't so bad, it was still a hard kick in the butt for me XD I think it's mainly because of my group case presentation yesterday, but our group did a really good job so I am in a super super good mood now ^_^ I was basically eating sleeping and breathing on the case for an entire week, so after hearing the how positively the professors respond to/agree on our medical decisions, it was SUCH. A. HIGH. Okay I'm sounding like a freak. I'll talk a little bit more about my case at the end of this post, but let me get started on the review for now :)



**image credit goes to Sephora.com!

Okay so I don't own this foundation, but I did get some samples from Sephora :D


One on the right is 22 Bisque Light, one on the left is 26 Bisque Medium. Inside Sephora under its terrible lighting, I couldn't really tell which one would work better for me, they both looked like they could work so I got samples for both shades. It turns out 22 Bisque Light is more suitable for my MAC NC20 complexion, because it's more neutral/yellow. I noticed later that 26 Bisque Medium has a little red undertone.


Sorry for the inconsistent lighting... the way my window is positioned it's really hard to find the best lighting.




See what I mean about 22 is more neutral/yellow, and 26 is more red? I haven't tried 26 on my face but I honestly think it wouldn't be so different since it's not too red. I think both shades can work for me.








This is probably the most true to color swatch.



Face application. I had to take my foundation off and took the application pics again because when I took them in the morning, it was too dark to see anything, so that's why my makeup is already done in these pics.




Application on half face.

Shade used here is 22 Bisque Light.


Upon blending this foundation into my face with my fingers, it reminded me simultaneously Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation and Giorgio Armani Maestro foundation?? I'm not exactly sure why, I feel like it's as if someone added a tiny tiny drop of GA Maestro foundation into the Chanel VA foundation and then try to blend that out. It's weird because the texture of Marc Jacobs foundation is more like a gel and nothing like the GA and Chanel one, but there is definitely a silicone feel to it when you rub it in. Not as heavily silicone-y as GA, so I guess I would say imagine the Chanel VA with a more silicone feel??? Am I even making any sense?? Haha.

Half face application.

Applied with fingers. As you can see, coverage is sheer.


The coverage kind of reminds me of my TonyMoly CC cream, but slightly better (or maybe because my skin has been relatively even these days).


Honestly... for days like this when my skin tone is pretty even, I feel like this foundation almost makes no difference to my skin. I mean yes it does enhance it, but I don't find it necessary. I just cleaned out my blackheads too so I was unable to see if it can actually cover them up -_- may come back to update this.


Full face effect:









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These were taken before I took the foundation off, after about 2-3 hours of wear:

No oxidation.











As you can see, after 2-3 hours of wear, it got a little bit shinier, which is normal/expected, but still holding up pretty well!

So my overall thoughts?

I have to say I wasn't expecting much from this foundation because I generally have no luck with gel formulation because of my combination skin (example of gel foundation: Chantecaille Future skin foundation). But I'd say think about this foundation as a silicone-gel foundation? I was surprised at how well it held up. With Chantecaille, it started fading and breaking down and got so patchy on my skin, but not with this foundation!

I really like the finish of this foundation, but in general I'm a sucker for any foundation that makes my skin look glowy. And I do think this foundation still looks pretty good at the end of the day (I didn't powder my face at all while I was testing it out). The coverage is sheer to light... which, I guess if your skin is great, you might like it. But with that said, some days when my skin is truly in great condition (when I have minimal redness), I feel like this foundation is redundant and I'd rather go bare faced to give my skin a break lol. As for the smell, I was so surprised that it doesn't smell like anything! I thought they're gonna put in some Marc Jacob signature smell or something XD Givenchy foundations all have this gorgeous scent to it, and Chanel foundations all have a rosy scent too, so I don't know, but I was surprised, haha. Not a bad thing though! Most of the time I prefer my skincare/makeup to be free of fragrance.

I feel like foundations these days are so well-formulated, it's impossible to pick a favorite one anymore LOL. I do love the gorgeous finish/glow/radiance it gives, but I will not be purchasing the full bottle, because if I want to spend so much money, I'd really like to have something with higher coverage for the days I need it. For people who have great skin to begin with and just want something to even out redness/add glow to your complexion, I do recommend looking into it!

That's all, I hope this review is somewhat helpful. I feel like I didn't say much, makes me sound so dispassionate lol, but I do like it. Just don't feel the I-HAVE-TO-HAVE-THIS urge lol!!


Okay now, for those who are actually interested in my academic life XD if you're not feel free to skip this paragraph, since it has nothing to do with the foundation!

So even though it was just a case preparation, I found it so much more stressful than preparing for exams. Our case assignment was on how we're gonna manage the poorly controlled pain in an elderly Asian patient who has stage 4 breast cancer, post-hip surgery. In a nutshell, we have to identify what kind of pain it is (nociceptive? inflammation? neuropathic), assess severity, and decide the best therapeutic regimen for her. And for each therapeutic agent, we have to consider how it's metabolized (believe it or not, your race actually influences how your body metabolizes medication due to different genetic make-up), how it's eliminated (because patient might not have enough kidney/liver function), dosing, drug-drug interactions, comorbidities, toxicities, contraindications, does it have active metabolite?...... blah blah blah blah blah... filter through all the available medication and come up with the most appropriate for this specific patient. And of course we have to develop a plan to monitor how effective the medications are and some most common toxicities that we should look out for.  And of course there are always discrepancies between drug databases vs. actual clinical observations; for example:

Drug database: all opioids can cause respiratory depression even when used at recommended doses.
Professor: in real practice you never see respiratory depression unless it's an overdose. Respiratory depression is always dose-related!

Lol, but seriously, how are we gonna know since we have like close to zero clinical experience? So we had to comb through guidelines, lectures, and any clinical teachings and a ton of literature reading to come up with a plan. One thing they are teach us in school is that we cannot rely on textbooks/databases. You always have to look for literature/guidelines for more clinical information. Our group kept going over every little detail because we want to make sure we cover everything, but at the same time we have to determine what is the most relevant and most important information. I won't bore you guys with the details, but I'm really starting to appreciate the magnitude of the practice of pharmacy.

Hope you guys have a fantastic weekend, and as usual, thanks for taking the time to read my blog ^_^



<3 Frances