Chanel Water Fresh Tint: One in a million
Skin tints are continuing to have a huge moment in the beauty world, as we seek to portray that elusive #model-off-duty, #no-filter, #your-skin-but-better. The goal is to look put together but not too “done”, like you’re main-lining litres of water on the daily, attending spin-classes, and guzzling sipping green super-food smoothies. Also, like you have the time (and money, let’s be honest) for good skincare and the confidence to eschew full coverage foundation. On a good skin day, this easy to get behind; on a red-faced blemish-dotted skin day, not so much. Enter the skin tint, and of particular interest the Chanel Les Beiges Water Fresh Tint.
For those not wanting to pack on full coverage formulas, skin tints are a nice compromise—these typically offer a hint of colour to even things out and a healthy, hydrated glow. Tints let your natural skin shine though, but add a little something…hard to define but also hard to find! Chanel has executed this impeccably with their Les Beiges Water Fresh Tint.
Background
Chanel launched Les Beiges Water Fresh Tint in 2019, and it’s been on my radar ever since. In my never-ending quest for the ultimate no-makeup, undetectable, your-skin-but-better base, I’ve tried countless products and formulations with varying success. Make Up Forever reformulated my beloved Face and Body Foundation in 2015, and I’ve not yet found anything quite able to replace it. I’m extremely particular about the way products sit on my skin, anything settling, flaking, cracking or separating is a deal breaker and I’d actually rather wear no base product than one that doesn’t meet my criteria. If you’re looking for a light coverage base product that’s hydrating, fungal-acne safe and wears beautifully, then read on!
Water Fresh Tint: Description and Technology
Chanel describes their Water Fresh Tint as:
“A light to medium coverage foundation with a gel texture and pigmented micro-droplets that create a radiant bare-skin effect and healthy-looking glow”.
Chanel’s patented MicroFluidic Technology suspends tiny micro-droplets of pigment in a water-based gel matrix featuring tamarind extract along with other hydrating ingredients. The result is a fresh, moist hydrator with a hint of colour. Think glowing, diffused, angelic, lit-from-within; wear it on your yacht in Mykonos, wear it to the Met Gala, wear it to your wedding…you get the picture.
Claims
Let’s just get this out of the way…this is not a full coverage foundation. Chanel indicates their Water Tint will provide a “bare-skin effect” and in my opinion that’s exactly what it does. Versatile enough to be used as an all over wash of colour, applied to key points of the face to highlight and shade, or even as a glowing primer base for higher coverage foundations, this stuff is a multi-tasking superstar. Many of the less-glowing reviews I’ve read point to non-existent, ultra-sheer coverage as the main disappointment, but this product was never intended or marketed as a full coverage base so I’m not sure where that misalignment is coming from. It’s sheer, it’s barely there, it’s like a gossamer veil…enough said.
Chanel Water Fresh Tint Ingredients
I’d like to excitedly point out that this Chanel Water Fresh Tint is FUNGAL ACNE SAFE…yes, yes it is. You can check it at Sezia.co; at the time of this writing in July 2023, the Chanel Water Fresh Tint contains no fungal acne (malassezia) triggers. If that’s something important to you, then you know how difficult it is to find base products that comply.
AQUA, HYDROGENATED POLYDECENE, GLYCERIN, METHYL GLUCETH-20, PENTYLENE GLYCOL, DIGLYCERIN, OCTYLDODECANOL, CITRUS AURANTIUM AMARA (BITTER ORANGE) FLOWER EXTRACT, CHLORPHENESIN, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, CARBOMER, POLYHYDROXYSTEARIC ACID, DISTEARDIMONIUM HECTORITE, POLYGLYCERIN-3, TAMARINDUS INDICA SEED GUM, TRISODIUM ETHYLENEDIAMINE DISUCCINATE, ALUMINUM HYDROXIDE, PROPYLENE CARBONATE, AMODIMETHICONE, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, SODIUM LAUROYL GLUTAMATE, ALCALIGENES POLYSACCHARIDES, PARFUM (FRAGRANCE, LYSINE, GLUCOSE, MAGNESIUM CHLORIDE, [+ / – (MAY CONTAIN), CI 77007 (ULTRAMARINES), CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (IRON OXIDES), CI 77891 (TITANIUM DIOXIDE), MICA, IL60B-I
Details
Size, Price and Where to Procure
The Chanel Water Fresh Tint comes in two sizes: a standard 30 mL retailing for $85 CAD and a travel sized 15 mL retailing for $62 CAD. The standard size comes with a small, soft applicator brush.
In Canada, Water-Fresh Tint can be purchased as Holt Renfrew, Shopper Drug Mart or directly through Chanel’s Canadian Website.
Water Fresh Tint Shades
There are 8 shades to choose from, I purchased mine in light-medium. The shade range is very “stretchy” because the coverage is so forgiving; I will probably go down to the light shade in winter, but with summer in full effect this light-medium is perfect for my NC20-ish skin. The swatch below looks much darker and more orange toned than it appears on my face, and it blends out in a miraculously tone-adaptive way.
Application
Chanel recommends applying this to the back of your hand, blending the gel and pigment droplets together with a brush and then applying to your face. That method works fine, but fingers are my tool of choice with this one. The only applicator I wouldn’t recommend is a sponge / beauty blender, as it would absorb too much product.
Wear Test and Impressions
The Water Fresh Tint wears phenomenally well, checking all the boxes on my extremely particular criteria list:
- It lasts a full day without requiring touchups—if a base product needs to be constantly patted, blotted, spritzed or powdered to maintain it’s desired effect, that’s just too high maintenance for me. I want to know that my skin looks the same at a mid-day check-in as it did at 6am post-application.
- It plays well with my ride-or-die skin care and other makeup. I wear this over Skinceuticals CE Ferulic, a few drops of pure vegetable glycerine, SkinFx Barrier Restoring Gel Cream, and La Roche-Posay Anthelios UVMune 400 Invisible Fluid Fragrance-Free SPF50+ or La Roche-Posay Anthelios UVMune 400 Hydrating Cream Fragrance-Free SPF50+. I get a smooth and even application with fingers or brush, and no pilling whatsoever. Bronzers, blush and highlighter apply effortlessly on top, which allows the Water Fresh Tint to be used as a simple low maintenance daily look or glammed up by layering with other complexion products.
- It fades in an undetectably elegant way, evenly and subtly across the skin canvas. There is ZERO breaking-up or separation, flaking, collecting in fine lines or patchiness. One of my favourite things about this foundation is that it does not highlight dry patches AT ALL. Even as the day progresses, it manages to somehow continually hydrate and even out skin tone, glossing over any flakes or dryness. I attribute this characteristic to the gel texture, subtle pigmentation, and key hydrating ingredients
- It’s not transfer proof, but it’s also not moving around my face and smearing across anything that touches it (phone, fingers, hair, boyfriend’s aggressively bushy beard and moustache). Seriously though, what foundation is “transfer-proof” and 24-hour wearing (and do I actually want something that tenacious on my face??); unless you’re willing to Papier-mâché your skin into a mask with powder-baking and setting spray, any foundation that’s meant to look natural and skin-like will have a little transfer. No big deal, and actually helps with “don’t touch your face!” which is a plus for acne-prone skin anyway.
- It doesn’t oxidize. At all.
- The shade range is comprehensive and forgiving. Light-medium will carry me through spring, summer and into fall, likely only requiring a drop down to light for the palest of winter months.
- It doesn’t break me out! Hallelujah!
- It doesn’t irritate my sensitive rosacea-prone skin. I’ve had so many products check, check, check my list above, yet after a week of daily wear leave me with a red, burning, angry rosacea flare. My skin loves the Water Fresh Tint.
Summary and Rating
Chanel Les Beiges Water Fresh Tint is truly a unicorn base product. It manages to even skin-tone in an effortless and elegant way, and delivers comfortable all-day hydration in a composition that nurtures and respects sensitive, acne-prone skin. I predict this will be in my empties and repurchases for a long time to come, and I hope this post has helped you decide if you might love Chanel Les Beiges Water Fresh Tint as well!
Rating: 10/10
xoxo Stay Beautiful!