Hi, everyone. Welcome back. I feel like I haven't done a video in a little while now. I may or may not have choked water all over my MacBook Air and I really rely on that thing. But I do have a video today. I'm going to be doing a review and demonstration of the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer. Now you may or may not have heard of this product. It's either a concealer or a foundation depending on how you apply it. So I'm sure that many of you out there are looking at this tiny pot and thinking, how on earth could that constitute a foundation, like I'll be purchasing that every month? No. I should preface this review with one statement. This will be quite possibly the most pigmented base product that you'd ever encounter. You need like a pin head size amount to conceal a blemish, or a few rice grains worth to create a completely flawless foundation base. So it is really really pigmented.

But it's not limited to you know high coverage application. You can sheer it out to almost nothing. Now I've made this sound like God's gift to man. Some people will love this and some will hate it. And that's the purpose of this review to make that distinction. So I'm going to chat now about the details and the specifics about the product but if you're more interested in the demonstration, I'm going to try pop a little bubble here and let you know what time frame I perform that demonstration. You can fast forward at your own leisure. Right, so let's talk about some initial things that you might notice about this product. Yes, it's a very small pot. It is 18 grams. And the product inside is a thick creamy consistency. So if I tip it upside down, it's not going anywhere. Now despite the fact that it's thick, it's not waxy like a lip balm or some other pot style concealers you may have tried.

Now shade wise, the shades range from Essex 01 which is quite pail. It's a NC10 or so, all the way to Essex 16 which is quite deep. It's a chocolatey shade. Now between these two extremes, we have a variety of dips obviously. We would hope so, and also a variety of tones, undertones. So neutral, warm, cool, even olive, which is fantastic. Now if you're looking to find a match to the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer, I'm going to be posting a rough guideline on my blog. Now I stress ‘rough guideline'. Please don't rush out and purchase based on that information. It was a chart that I derived from talking to lots of people and reading lots of reviews but there is always some room for human error and other discrepancy. So do your research, google, and contact me if you're really struggling. I will try to push you in the right direction.

Right, let's talk about application. If you're planning to use this product as a concealer, which is my preferred method. This is my holy grail concealer. I went there. Then I prefer to take something like a fine tip brush, so perhaps an eyeliner brush, and picking up a pin head's worth of product, dab on to the blemish and blend with the warm finger. In terms of under eye concealing, I don't like the Kevyn Aucoin for that purpose. I feel as though it always look a bit heavy and sometimes cakey and if you have any fine lines around your eyes, I think that this would really emphasize it. That being said, lots of people do use this around the eyes and love it. So you might each may vary on that point. If you plan on using this as a foundation, there are a few ways you can go about it. You can take a saturated beauty blender and again picking up a very small amount of product, slowly build coverage in to the skin.

Now if you prefer tools such as powder brushes, stippling brushes, then I would strongly recommend mixing this product with something else. So maybe your favorite moisturizer or a primer that suits your skin type or even an illuminating product. Now the reason I make this suggestion is the Kevyn Aucoin doesn't have much slip alone. So if you mix it with something else, you'll find that it maneuvers much better on the skin and it spreads easily and you have a much nicer finish. So who is this product ideal for? Number one, I'd say make up artists. I think the versatility of this product would make a great addition to any kit. If you have skin prone to flakiness, I would really hesitate to recommend this to you because it's so densely pigmented. It has the tendency to catch on flakes and emphasize that sort of texture. So if you mix this with an emollient moisturizer, you might have a different experience. It's hard to say.

If you have dry skin, I'd say mix this with an illuminating product to stop it from looking too flat. But otherwise, I think it would mesh well with dry skin types. If you have oily skin, mix this with the matte primer. I think that that would really enhance longevity and the finish on your skin. Now if you have acne prone skin, this product does have a horrible oil in it. Now I'm not insinuating that oils are catastrophic on all acne prone skin types. But it is worth to mention. It's not oil free so read your ingredient list. Finally, if you are a slap and dash kind of person, you know, you want a five-minute face, you rub it on and leave the house, this product is going to really frustrate you. It requires a little bit more effort blending, a little bit more time mixing, and it's not a five-minute face sort of product. Maybe more of a special event thing for people like that.

Okay, so quick overview of everything I've said. The Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer is really what you make it. The coverage can range from super high coverage to quite sheer depending on how you mix it. It can be dewy finish or it can have a matte finish depending on what you mix it with. So it's quite hard to talk about those points. However, if you're using this product alone, the coverage is like wow, like really high and the finish is about satin. So I hope that I've covered all the points. If I haven't, let me know in the comment section below. Let's go straight to the demonstration.

For the purpose of today's demonstration, I have my beautiful best friend, Elena.

[Elena says hi.]

Now prior to filming, I primed and moisturized Elena's skin with the Embryolisse Lait Crème Concentrate. And we also spoke about color. Could you quickly describe your shade.

Elena: I'm an NC30 in MAC terms.
Karima: In MAC terminology, yeah.

Elena: Generally. Sometimes I'm a little bit darker.

Karima: Okay, and your skin type briefly.

Elena: I'm combination. I tend to be a little bit oily around my nose.

Karima: Fantastic!

So today, I'll be using the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer in 6. And this is about an NC25 to NC 30 in MAC terminology and it has quite a strong yellow undertone. We're going to start off by using this product as a foundation. So I'm using a q-tip to dispense a little bit of product on the back of my hand. I'm mainly using this for hygiene purposes since it's a pot and I'm not going to mix with anything today. I'm just going to go straight ahead with the beauty blender and get cracking. So I'm picking up a little bit of product on my beauty blender which is very saturated right now. And I'm going to start building coverage on Elena's skin. So I'm using a dabbing and rolling motion. This is pretty standard practice with the beauty blender. But it's also a helpful hint when using this product as it helps blend the product and also melt it in to the skin.

So I've started off really slow. You can always go back in for more. With this product, it's really about thin layers and building coverage as oppose to starting with a lot of product. Next, we're going to use this product as a pinpoint concealer. So I'm not using underneath the eyes. As I said earlier, I'm not a huge fan of the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer for that purpose but I do love it for pin point concealing. So the brush that I'm using is the Chanel #24 and I believe this is actually an eye shadow brush. It's very fine and also very soft, so fantastic for minor imperfections. So I'm going to take a very small amount of product on this brush like literally a little bit of residue is all that you would require. Using a dotting and scribbling motion and placing that on to any marks, you can go ahead and blend that a little bit more with a warm finger. That completes our Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer demonstration. I am now going to pass the mirror to Elena and see what she thinks of the final look.

Elena: I like the finish. I noticed that a lot of the redness that's usually around my nose is gone. A few spots as well that I have, it's covered really well. And I've used high coverage foundations in the past, a lot of the time they can look really cakey whereas with this one, I can barely notice that it's there. I'm very happy with it. It's good.

Karima: You like the finish. Oh wonderful. Thank you very much for coming in, Elena. We'll see you guys next time. B-bye.

Elena: Bye.