Last week an order from ColourPop arrived. It was small as far as ColourPop orders go, all I picked up was the All That Palette and the Pretty Fresh Hyaluronic Tinted Moisturizer. I’ve heard amazing things about the pretty fresh line. It’s supposed to be great for an easy no-makeup makeup look, which is perfect for my daily life – even more so now that we’re all basically under house arrest 😅
After the Nyx Bare With Me Tinted Skin Veil was an absolute flop I wanted to find a tinted moisturizer style product that looked a little nicer on my skin and actually matched my skin tone! ColourPop has a great shade selection on their site. They’re one of the only brands that has a true match for my fair-yellow skin tone!
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Hyaluronic Tinted Moisturizer Review
The Colourpop Pretty Fresh Hyaluronic Tinted Moisturizer retails for $14USD and contains 1.45 fl oz of product. It’s one of their more expensive complexion products – The No Filter Liquid and Stick Foundations retail at $12 and $10 respectively.
I wasn’t a fan of the liquid No Filter foundation. It’s cakey, doesn’t blend well and clings to dry patches. The stick foundation is much better!
The ColourPop Pretty Fresh line sounded like it would be perfect for dry skin. The formula is meant to be lightweight, oil free and contains Hyaluronic Acid and Coconut Water for hydration.
Packaging
The Pretty Fresh Hyaluronic Tinted Moisturizer comes in a plastic tube with a pump. It initially took me around 30 pumps to get any product to come out of the tube, but after that it was easy to use. The bottle is actually fairly large. It will probably take me a long time to get through it.
Application
I usually use a sponge to blend out my foundations, but I found a sponge would soak up too much product and then get clogged from the moisturizer. It’s really hard to wash out! What I’ve been doing lately is spreading out the product with a brush and then blending with my fingers.
Hydration
Personally I would never use this ColourPop Tinted Moisturizer as a moisturizer alone. I absolutely need to layer it with a proper moisturizer for my skin type. It’s nice that this tinted moisturizer has some hyaluronic acid to help retain moisture, but I don’t find that it provides enough hydration for my extra dry skin type.
I’ve been layering with my Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gel Cream and an SPF.
Coverage
Tinted moisturizers are usually pretty light coverage, Pretty Fresh included. It is possible to add on a second layer but I found that I could feel the product on my face the more I layered it. My blemishes are still very visible when I use this product. If you suffer from a lot of acne you might prefer to use a higher coverage foundation.
I took a photo in my car wearing the Pretty Fresh Tinted Moisturizer and my acne and pores are clearly visible. I expected the acne to still show through, but I wasn’t expecting how obvious my pores would be. I don’t normally have issues with my pores so it was weird that they were almost accentuated by this formula.
Wearing Pretty Fresh as my base. No Editing
Finish
Okay so the ColourPop Pretty Fresh Hyaluronic Tinted Moisturizer is tacky on the skin. Even literal hours later my face was still sticky to the touch. It does leave your skin looking slightly dewy, but I don’t think the tackiness is actually conducive to blending makeup on top.
I had a hard time getting my bronzer to blend on top of this hyaluronic tinted moisturizer. It wanted to grip to different spots, and wouldn’t move smoothly across my skin. In the end I don’t think that my makeup looked bad, but the Nyx Tinted Skin Veil gives me a much smoother end result.
I’ve used other light coverage foundations that make my skin look dewy & smooth like the NARS Sheer Glow Foundation on the luxury end of things, and the Maybelline Hydrate & Smooth Foundation on the drugstore range. I much prefer the look of an actual foundation vs. a tinted moisturizer. The It Cosmetics CC+ Cream is also a favourite of mine that does everything that Pretty Fresh is supposed to, only it looks way better. I’m just not sold on the way ColourPop Pretty Fresh makes my skin look :S
Have you tried the Pretty Fresh Hyaluronic Tinted Moisturizer?
Unfortunately I rate this product a 2.5/5. It’s not awful but my skin doesn’t look great with it on, and I thought the whole purpose of a tinted moisturizer was to add a barely there coverage that looks natural. My skin looks cakey, and I look older when I wear it :S Not a fan!
Hmm, I find IT Cosmetics very cakey, thick, and unnatural, so maybe this will work well for me. I was hoping to find out what shade you used because we have similar coloring.
Author
Hello! Thank you so much for reading & commenting. The shade I have here is Light 6W. Hope this works for you if you decide to try it!
Oh no! I hate products that accentuate pores and/or texture. I totally see what you mean about how it looks on your skin. 😱 Not a fan either now!
Author
I don’t know why it doesn’t work for me, I actually threw this out a week ago! Why waste time on something that just isn’t working? It’s too bad, I had heard a lot of good things about it 🙁
My sister got one of these and loved it, so I ended up getting my own. I like it when I wear a moisturizer and a hydrating primer. If not, I feel like my skin feels dry after a bit of wear. I usually put it on with my hands, and I think it looks good when I put a lil concealer on the parts that need more coverage and I use cream products. I’m sad to hear that you didn’t have a good time with this product! Great review Cleia xxx
Melina | http://www.melinaelisa.com
Author
I’m glad that it’s worked out for both you & your sister! I don’t know why it didn’t work out for me at all, I read so many positive reviews before purchasing. Oh well! Thanks for reading! x
It’s a shame that this product didn’t work out for you but I’m actually quite surprised as I’ve only ever heard wonderful things about this tinted moisturiser. Skin products are such a personal thing, though, and no one product is ever going to work for everyone. I guess the one plus is that it isn’t really expensive, so hopefully you don’t feel like you’ve wasted too much. Have you ever tried the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer? I love it and although I have normal/oily skin, I think this would be great for dry skin too as it’s very hydrating.
Author
I was surprised too! When it first came out I read a ton of positive reviews, so I’m not sure why I had such a bad experience. I will keep using it so I’m not wasting product, so it’s not absolutely awful or else I would throw it out.
I haven’t tried the Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer, I’d love to try it if it’s hydrating! Thank you for the recommendation x
Yikes, 2.5/5 is not good! I’ve been wanting to try this, but online colour matching has stopped me. And now after reading this review, I don’t really want to buy it anymore!
Author
I heard so many good things about this before I bought it, so I don’t know why I had such a bad experience. I think there are people who actually liked it a lot, so I hope this review doesn’t scare people away.
But yeah it really didn’t work for me at all! I can’t recommend based on my experience alone :S
Aww such a shame this didn’t work out as well as you hoped! How did it match with your skin tone, apologies if I missed that in the post? Your photography in this post is beautiful xx
Author
Oh yes, it matched pretty well! I did go for a shade a little bit darker than I usually did, just because I planned to wear it in the summer. It was slightly more orange than my usual yellow shades but it looked fine after blending. Thanks Chanelle! x
Darn, that sucks! I was very intrigued by this launch since I’m a tinted moisturizer devotee, but I’ll be skipping it. I’m still on the hunt myself for an affordable tinted moisturizer that’s really good.
Author
I’ve heard really good things about it from other people who have tried it, so I don’t know why my experience was so particularly bad haha. I’m glad it’s working for other people!