There hasn’t been a good silicone free product launch in a long time that I’ve been excited about…. until this! Pacifica is a drugstore brand sold at ULTA and they just launched 30 shades in their new foundation! I was able to swatch some of them with the testers at ULTA and find my perfect shade. They did something very different in their shades where they named the darkest shade #1 and it counts up to the lightest shade #40. They have cool tones and warm tones and I put a star next to my shade below:
Claims and Ingredients
This foundation doesn’t appear to be marketed towards oily skin… (And if you’ve never been here, Hi, I’m Rica and I have oily skin with hormonal acne) but not many things that are silicone free are unfortunately. It does claim to last all day and not clog pores.
” This formula is free of silicone, parabens, phthalates, talc, BHA, BHT, petroleum and drying alcohols (and a huge list of other things your skin doesn’t love).”
It is free of many bad offenders so let’s look at the ingredients: (Ingredients taken from ULTA.com)
Aqua, Squalane, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate, Propanediol, Glycerin, Isostearic Acid, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Boron Nitride, Sodium Chloride, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Hyaluronic Acid, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Water, Iris Pallida Leaf Cell Extract, Ascophyllum Nodosum (Brown Seaweed) Extract, Rosa Domascena Leaf Cell Extract, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Phytic Acid, Jojoba Esters, Parfum (natural), Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin. May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77492, CI 77491, CI 77499), Mica, Silica.
Perfume is one of the last 3 ingredients (which is good). And it appears that this is a truly water based formula. Many hydrating ingredients… so I really hope this lasts on my OILY skin.
Primer and Foundation First Impression
So along with the Foundation, I decided to pick up the primer
This is the Pacifica Cherry Matte Mattifying Primer
Sold on ULTA
Sold on Amazon
Another Silicone Free product. I have to be honest and open about my biases though… I HATE primers… My skin is just too oily and ends up mixing with the primer and lifting my foundation up off my face. I feel like primers are meant for slightly oily people and not for people who could cook an oil with the grease that comes off their face (aka me). Primers that other beauty gurus consistently RAVE about just ruin my make up and I do better with a good moisturizer and leaving the primer step out of my regular routine.
Putting on the product…
The primer smelled a little bit like cherries mixed with a hint of glue. Not offensive but… interesting. It was VERY watery (so don’t squeeze the tube too hard), and it left a slightly tacky feeling to my face, and decided to put in on half of my face to see if it would really do anything for me compared to the nonprimed side.
Trying the Foundation….
The Pacifica Alight Clean Foundation
Sold at ULTA
Sold on Amazon
Compared to the primer the Foundation is more thick. I blended it in with a sponge from Ecotools which is a great Beauty Blender Dupe, which honestly took a little elbow grease (Do people use that phrase anymore? It means it was difficult to blend). Eventually it looked well blended… But I noticed some things right away, let’s take a magnified look at my skin.
BEFORE Foundation
AFTER Foundation
The Foundation had a strong medium coverage, and looked a little more even in the picture above as it was the side I had the primer. Now let’s look at the side without the primer….
Let’s get closer to my face than anyone ever wanted to see. This is the side without primer. Ignore my excess hairs and black heads. I’m a mammal, and I apologize.
I circled the areas in red that were concerning… Again you have to be pretty close to my face to even notice these things, but without primer the foundation caked into my eye crease, the side of my nose, and the drier parts of my face next to my mouth (where I use stronger acne products). I’m being overly critical because this is how it’s looking at the beginning.. but it does have some moisturizing ingredients so maybe it’ll look better as the day goes on (If my oily skin does not destroy it) I don’t think that the foundation accentuated my acne scars, but a it’s not doing anything nice for them either.
The positives were that the foundation felt very lightweight on my face, and is less tacky on the side I put the primer. After about 20 minutes I felt like I could feel the non-primed side more than the primed side. I don’t wear foundation on a daily basis anymore so I prefer feeling nothing on my skin whenever possible.
So let’s see how this foundation lasts!
4 Hour Check in
Primed side of my face 
Close up of the nonprimed side 
Awkward, cross eyed close up of my face so you can see the difference under the glasses pads between my eyes. Primed side is doing pretty good!
At 4 hours in my skin looks pretty good. Unfortunately the nonprimed side didn’t look any better over time. With my oils coming through, the side of my nose looks even cakier. The area next to my mouth looks like its breaking apart more as well. You know… I’m actually more impressed with this primer than the foundation. I know I said I dont believe in primers because they never do anything for me… but this one is special. So far I think this foundation isn’t meant for my oily skin. I’m gonna blot a little and see how long I can keep this on my face.
8 Hour Check in
So the Foundation is mostly worn off… but it wasn’t itchy on my skin after my oils came through so it’s definitely silicone free and lightweight. I just don’t think this is meant for oily skin =(. The primer however? Is my new boyfriend. I love it. I’m eating my words. After playing with the primer a little more I ONLY like it under my glasses and T zone. I can definitely feel the tacky sensation on my skin with the primer (which I don’t really like). If you have normal/dry skin please let me know what you think of this drug store foundation. I’ll stick to using this as a spot conceal under my light weight powder foundations…
UPDATE June 7th 2019:
My favorite way to use this foundation is sparingly under my eyes and onto my cheeks where I have the most imperfections and setting it with IT cosmetics CC+ powder with a big fluffy brush. It feels much lighter and doesn’t cake up. Also doesn’t break me out!
Stay Happy and Healthy all!
-RicaIsHungry
******FULL DISCLOSURE: This are my personal experiences and thoughts. I am not being paid by the brand or the company to review this product or talk about any claims. This product was not sent to me. Links in this post are a part of the amazon affiliates program.*******
RicaIsHungry 