Beauty Monday – Smashbox Sheer Focus Tinted Moisturizer

Beauty Monday is a weekly feature focusing on green beauty, paraben-free skincare, makeup, and the beauty industry and marketing.

During this year’s Sephora Friends and Family sale, I decided to try the Smashbox Sheer Focus Tinted Moisturizer – Karley of The Chic and Green Blog had raved about it and the reviews on both Sephora and Makeupalley were glowing.

I emailed Karley to ask her about shades because she is pale like me. She let me know that the Fair is more like what you would expect Light to be. Fair in makeup is generally a very pale pinky shade, while Light is more of a neutral yellower shade. I tend to prefer Light because the slight yellow usually helps tone out redness. Fair is usually a closer match, but does not do as much camouflaging.

So I ordered the Sheer Focus in Fair — it’s very close to the Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturizer in Light in terms of color, and the texture reminds me of the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer (the regular one, not the oil free). Unlike the LM one though, the Sheer Focus is completely paraben-free, oil-free and fragrance-free. It’s easy to apply and really give you a “your skin but better” look. It feels very nice to apply, and I like that it has SPF. I am still working with it to see how buildable it is, but I am definitely very pleased with it, especially because the ingredients are top notch and without parabens.