Kat Von D Foundation Review

I decided to try Kat Von D’s Lock It Tattoo Foundation out of curiosity. I was scoping out foundations on Sephora.com looking for something very full coverage and came across it there Part of what piqued my curiosity about it aside from it supposedly providing full coverage, was that it’s supposed to be able to cover one’s tattoos. While I haven’t tried to cover up my tattoos with it yet, I was definitely drawn to the idea of a foundation doubling as a tattoo camouflage. The overwhelmingly positive reviews on Sephora.com also played a factor in my decision to try this foundation.

I took a trip into my local Sephora to get color matched for this KVD foundation. Sephora has this new foundation shade matching system called Color IQ. It wasn’t able to find an exact match for in the Lock It foundation, which basically just means that the KVD line doesn’t have a shade that is a perfect match for me. Color IQ uses pictures of your skin tone and then pulls up the foundations Sephora carries that has an exact shade match for you. I was determined to try it, so the salesperson and I swatched a few close ones and 52 was close enough.

She did warn me right up front that Lock It is very thick, possibly even the thickest foundation that Sephora carries, and it is definitely that. This foundation can also definitely be built to full coverage. As thick as it is, I was expecting it to be seriously full coverage straight out of the gate, but I did still have to use more than one layer in a few areas. For those of you who don’t have blemishes or sun damage or whatnot, you won’t need much of this foundation if you decide it’s for you. A little does go a long way, but it does need to be blended quickly as it dries fast. It’s also somewhat difficult to blend, perhaps because it’s so thick, but if you can move quickly, this foundation will give you the medium to full coverage you want.

Now I know that the mention of a thick foundation brings concerns about how heavy the foundation will feel on. True story, you can feel Lock It on your face, but I’ve been wearing and trying liquid foundations for twenty years and almost all of them feel heavy compared to powder and mineral foundations. In my opinion, Lock It doesn’t feel any heavier than any other liquid foundation out there. To some extent the weight of the foundation will depend on how much you put on.

This foundation is very long lasting and wears well. I have combination skin and I didn’t notice much oiliness after many hours of wear, at least nothing beyond the occasional powder touch up.

I did notice a few issues that I wasn’t incredibly impressed with, but they were minor quibbles when compared against my needs and wants in a foundation. What I want in a foundation may be different than what others do so please keep in mind what I find major or minor issues may not be so for someone else. That said, this foundation did cling to dry patches on the skin. Fortunately for me, I don’t have that problem except around my nose a little bit. For someone with dry skin, this issue of Lock It may be a bigger issue. It also faded on my nose and around my eyebrows rather quickly, but I have experienced this with virtually every foundation I’ve ever tried.

Lock It also separates and gathers in areas. Around the eyebrows is especially problematic for this. While wearing this, if someone looked closely at my eyebrows you can see where the foundation has gathered a bit. It’s a little frustrating because no matter what I’ve tried or how quickly I’ve tried to blend it out, it still does this. I’ve even tried three or four different primers to see if any of those would affect the way this foundation blends and stays in place and didn’t notice much of a difference in how the foundation wore.

For me, the issues with Lock It are minor. I need and want full coverage in a foundation and one that won’t break my face out more. Lock It did not break my face out more, which surprised the heck out of me because most liquid foundations have made my face worse by the end of a day’s wear. This side effect ultimately turned me to mineral foundations for a long time. Usually, I used liquid foundations for special events and pictures only. It was a breath of fresh air for me to find a liquid foundation that didn’t break my face out more.

Overall, this is a great foundation, but it does have issues so know what are and are not deal breakers in a foundation. It can be built to full coverage, it lasts many hours, didn’t cause breakouts (for me anyway), and it doesn’t feel any heavier than any other liquid foundation. I would recommend it if the minor issues with it aren’t deal breakers for you.