A Venture into Tinted Moisturizers: Review of theBalm BalmShelter Tinted Moisturizer

I've never tried a tinted moisturizer before, this one was my first. And I really like theBalm's products, as some of you who have been reading my blog for a while may know. Everything I've tried from them, I've loved. And that is definitely saying something. So I figured if I was going to try a tinted moisturizer, it should be from a brand whose products  I consistently find work well for me. I got this off Hautelook during their theBalm sale.

I ordered the shade light/medium, since that's generally an awesome match for me in terms of foundation and face products. Here's some initial pictures:

Definitely a generous amount of product! The Laura Mercier TM (Tinted Moisturizer) only comes with 1.5oz, whereas this one comes with 2.15oz! And the Laura Mercier one is $42, so it's $28 an ounce for the Laura Mercier one, but theBalm's version is $25, so it's only $11.11 an ounce! More product for much cheaper, which I quite like!

The opening was covered by foil, which is nice. It ensures that no product got lost in transit. I got a bit confused at first, when product wasn't coming out, until the brilliant idea occurred to me that they might have blocked off the opening. -.-

When I did manage to open the product, I squeezed some onto my finger and my first thought was "Nice, I ordered the right color!" Light/medium products are generally a great color match for me since they tend to have yellow undertones, which I have. Good thing I got my shade match, since Hautelook doesn't accept returns. :P

Arm swatch

Blended out

As you can see, it's an awesome shade match! You can barely tell I'm wearing anything.

Anyway, it blends fabulously. It's a really light, and doesn't feel pore-clogging or heavy when I apply it, which I expected since it's a TM. It blends easily, and has decent coverage. I would say this has light coverage - it doesn't make any blemishes I might have as unnoticeable as a foundation, but the coverage is buildable and this can be built for some pretty decent coverage. Its' coverage is not as much as my Revlon Colorstay foundation (obviously), but pretty nice, especially for it not having a heavy texture at all. In fact, the texture is very light and smooth.

I apply this with my fingers, personally. I'm lazy and hate washing my brushes, so I just wash my hands before I apply this. My face stays fairly matte throughout the day as long as I apply powder on top, although this is not normally an issue for me, so I can't speak for how this would fare on oilier skin types.

I don't break out easily, but I'm still happy to say this has not broken me out (I was a bit worried since some  people on MakeupAlley, a great resource by the way, reported this broke them out quite badly). So that's good news. It doesn't leave my skin looking totally matte until I set it with powder - it has a bit of a glow to it.

Rating: 5/5

Overall, this was a great start to my journey into tinted moisturizers - enough so that I won't be searching for a new one until this one runs out. And based off the generous amount of product I received, I don't think I'll be running out any time soon!

Oh, also. I'm going to do a giveaway once I get to 50 followers, I'm plotting what the prize will be. :) So keep a lookout for that!

What's your favorite tinted moisturizer? Do you prefer tinted moisturizers or foundation?