Beautyblender Launched 32 Shades of Foundation

Beautyblender, the brand that brought us the original pink egg-shaped makeup sponge loved by all, is launching its first-ever makeup product: foundation.

The Bounce Liquid Whip Long Wear Foundation ($32), available at Sephora on July 24, has a lightweight but full coverage formula that's meant to last up to 24 hours. It blends seamlessly and gives a perfecting veil that blurs over any imperfections. From what I found, using it made my skin look like skin, not skin slathered with makeup.

Beautyblender founder and longtime makeup artist Rea Ann Silva says creating this foundation took about a year and a half, although she had the idea for it even before the blender came along. "It was like birthing a child. Like getting pregnant and spending months and months imagining and testing through your fingers and your face, and trying to make it as good as my dreams," she told ELLE.com,"I wanted a product that was longwear but not thick and mask-y. I wanted something that'd be buildable and had potential for looking natural."

The packaging is also worth noting: The front of the bottle is actually a concave-like palette so you can easily mix face oils, luminizers, and other products with your foundation—with, say a Beautyblender.

There are 32 shades in the foundation range. Silva says her personal experience played a role in trying to create a diverse collection. "As a professional makeup artist of over 20 years working with all different skin tones and ethnicities, a lot of times I'm left to my own devices mixing different brands, different formulas, just to get a tone," she said. "I'm so happy about it, especially being a Latina woman of color. This new heightened awareness is allowing these brands to get more options. I think it's amazing."

While 32 shades sounds impressive, when news and images of the line leaked on social media, the responses were not all complimentary. In the comments section of the beauty news Instagram Trendmood1's post of a screenshot from a Beautyblender video, @han_vanslyke responded, "The expansion of undertones is amazing, until it gets to people that have a lot of pigmentation. Did you get lazy when it came to the undertones of men/women of color." Meanwhile, @mikhaila.lambert directly addressed the brand, "@beautyblender wow out of 32 u have seven shades for all POC