I love Armani's original Maestro Foundation. It's the only foundation I've ever bought a second bottle of. While it has so many positives, weightless feel and buildable skin like coverage without being cakey, it does hate dry areas. I saw this new Maestro Glow foundation and thought it sounded great.
Per Armani's website: "Introducing Giorgio Armani’s newest liquid foundation.The Invisible Glow Revolution.
Bi-phase nourishing makeup. Sheer glow finish. Maestro Glow is the first bi-phase makeup elixir. True skincare oils infused with pure pigments. Nourishing comfort, lasting glow. Each drop perfects the complexion. It is inspired by Maestro Fluid in its lightness and silkiness, and gives an instant and lasting glow due to the pigments and oil blend. These oils make the texture comfortable, easy to apply, and nourishing for women with drier skin." The retail is $64 for a 1 fl oz jar, it's the same price and size as the regular Maestro Foundation.
Compared to the original Maestro foundation this has the same dropper style glass bottle, it has a shimmery overspray versus the matte finish of the regular Maestro bottle. You need to shake this well before applying like the original. It has a similar light weight texture but it's sheerer in coverage, it's light coverage. It's also really moisturizing and borderline greasy. It feels oily on application and stays pretty dewy. It does dry down a little but not much. The oils in this one stay around unlike the original. I didn't really notice the shimmer particles in the Maestro Glow foundation, either on my face or when swatched. The glow comes more from the hydrating oils aspect but there is a faint very fine shimmer to it. If you try to go above light coverage it gets greasier.
I tested the Maestro Glow on half my face and the other half with Luminous Silk. The Maestro Glow is more dewy, hydrating and feels greasier, the Luminous Silk actually felt like a normal foundation in comparison. I say this because I find Luminous Silk hydrating and slightly greasy compared to a lot of foundations. There is better coverage with Luminous Silk than the Maestro Glow.
Comparing all three: Maestro Original, Maestro Glow and Luminous Silk, the Maestro Glow is the sheerest of the bunch and the most greasy feeling. Luminous Silk is the next most hydrating and both Luminous Silk and the original Maestro have a similar medium coverage level. They both can built up more in areas where it's needed without adding the extra oil like this new Maestro Glow. After testing this I would stay away from it if you have oily or even combination skin, it will be too much for you. I'm not even sure it's really for normal skin, dry skin definitely. I would also think about the climate you live in, here in humid Texas might not be the best choice for you, but in dry Montana it can be nice in the winter even on normal skin. I took this with me a few weeks ago from Texas to Montana, on my normal to dry winter skin it was much better in Montana than here at home in Texas where I felt like a grease ball with it. There is double the sunscreen in this version as well, SPF 30 versus SPF 15 in the regular Maestro. Honestly, I think sunscreen in foundation is a joke anyway, you have to apply more foundation than you need coverage wise to get that SPF coverage level. And with this oily foundation that would be a disaster.
I grabbed the same shade I wear in the regular Maestro foundation, 5.5. Per Nordstrom: "Shade 5.5: medium skin with neutral undertones". It worked great for me as a NC 25. It's darker and more golden/warm than the regular Maestro foundation. I notice it lightens up a tad when you start to rub it in, so don't freak when you first drop it onto your skin. The Maestro Glow is lighter than Luminous Silk 5.5. Even though all three look different on my arm they work for me once sheered out and applied on my face.
Overall, the new Maestro Glow is good for dry skin that only needs sheer coverage. I did notice it settled a bit into my fine lines and pores on my cheeks. It seems to emphasize these areas on me. If you look closely at the comparison swatches below, you'll see you can see my very fine peach fuzz forearm hairs more in the Maestro Glow swatch, you don't notice it as much in the other two. So it emphasized the faint hairs I have on my inner forearm which I can't even feel or see in normal light. Maestro Original and Luminous Silk don't settle into the pores on my cheeks like this one does.
Swatches: Top Maestro 5.5, Bottom Maestro Glow 5.5:
Top to Bottom: Armani Maestro 5.5, Maestro Glow 5.5, Luminous Silk 5.5:
Same order as above sheered out:
