Kat von D - Lock-It Tattoo Foundation

 As soon as I heard about Kat von D adding a foundation to her line at Sephora, I was chomping at the bit to try it out. When it was added on to the Sephora site, I spent ages pouring over the swatches trying to find a good colour match. I chose Lock-It Tattoo foundation in Light 42.

Firstly, the packaging is nothing short of stunning, as with the rest of the KVD line. The box is embellished with the rose design that appears on other items from the line.


Open up the box & sleek bottle with a pump is revealed. Again, the rose design is featured on the actual bottle. It's not a plain, glass bottle, but a sturdy plastic.

Lock-It Tattoo foundation claims to be transfer-resistant, oil-free, full coverage & long-lasting (up to 24 hours!).

I've been wearing this for about two weeks or so now. Upon application, it tends to have a slightly sticky feel if you touch it, but that settles after a few minutes. The coverage, whilst not quite as high as Illamasqua's Rich Liquid foundation, is immense. One pump will cover your whole face with ease. I tend to use another tiny pump to cover up any areas that may need extra coverage, but I can happily skip concealer whilst using Lock-It Tattoo foundation.

It applies best with a brush, even my Beauty Blender tends to soak a little too much product up & a brush gives a much better look. Despite this being a full-coverage foundation, it really doesn't look at all heavy or cakey, nor does it feel heavy. I use my OCC Skin primer underneath & the two work well together, neither giving a heavy feeling.
Yes, it's matte, but not like MAC's Studio Fix Fluid, this is not a drying foundation at all. I used SFF for some time, loved the coverage but had to move on because I couldn't get a good colour match & it gave me dry patches on my forehead. Lock-It has a slight glow to it, even though it's a matte finish, which looks better than a flat, dry matte.

Wear-time is absolutely fantastic. The longest I had this on is for 13 hours, and it hadn't budged in the slightest. I completely forgot to blot during that time, and could have done with it, but it wasn't a horrendous oily mess. The lack of blotting aside, Lock-it looked almost as good as it did upon initial application, no fading, separating or any sign that it had done a heavy day's duty. It also held up incredibly well to the hot, sticky, dance-the-night-away task.

There is a slight scent to this foundation, if you're familiar with MAC SFF, the scent is a little like that, only less so. It's not too bad & becomes something you don't notice after a couple of minutes.

The colour match - well, that was pretty much going to be a trial & error thing for me. Luckily, Light 42 turned out to be a pretty good guess. It's pale, I'd say a slight bit lighter than Illamasqua's Skin Base in 03. Tone-wise, it seems pretty neutral, it's not quite as yellow-toned as most foundations I use, but it's not overly pink-toned, either.

Light 42 - No flash

Light 42 - With flash

I did think it was a tad too pale for me at first, but it blends in well with my forehead & neck. I have quite pink cheeks on some days, so it looked a bit paler than I usually am because it covered all of the pink.

Would I buy this again? I absolutely would. Although I love trying new foundations, this has quickly become my favourite out of all of the bottles in my stash. It really does tick all of the right boxes for me.