This Silky New Foundation Is Too Good to Gatekeep

You may not know Carisa Janes by name, but there’s a good chance you’ve fallen in love with her products. As the founder and CEO of Hourglass Cosmetics, her impact on the beauty industry is undeniable—and now she’s proving once again why she’s a force. Today, Janes debuts Outside In, a new beauty brand that merges luxury with high-performance formulas. The standout of the launch is Silk Serum Foundation ($64), a formula that blurs, diffuses and captures light while delivering skin-loving ingredients such as niacinamide and hyaluronic acid.

The term hybrid gets tossed around a lot in beauty, but the Silk Serum Foundation aims to deliver on all fronts. It boasts the benefits of a serum with the coverage of a foundation, making it an especially great option for dry or mature skin—or for anyone dealing with dehydration, like I do. Intrigued by the ingredient list and texture, I had the chance to test it ahead of its launch. Read on for my honest review of Outside In’s Silk Serum Foundation.

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Benefits of the Outside In Silk Serum Foundation

When it comes to trying a new foundation, several factors come to mind. Coverage is easily at the top of the list for me, followed by finish, longevity and comfort. I’ve also noticed that shifts in my skin can make each of these qualities feel different day to day. Many people now look for skin-care benefits in their makeup—often mixing their foundation with a face cream or milky essence—so finding a formula that gets the balance right matters. The Silk Serum Foundation does exactly that. It’s packed with skin-loving ingredients yet provides weightless coverage. The consistency is fluid and smooth, just like a high-performance face serum. With key ingredients such as niacinamide and hyaluronic acid, it helps strengthen and condition the skin while giving it a radiant glow.

The formula is also made for buildable coverage, made easy with the dropper applicator, and uses light-diffusing powders to blur imperfections. These powders are suspended throughout the formula and contribute to the Silk Serum Foundation’s secret weapon: its self-setting light technology. The result is a weightless feel and soft-focus finish that refines pores and texture. The full lineup includes 25 soft shades based on standard undertones.

How to Use It

Everyone has their preferred application method, but the brand advises against using beauty sponges with this foundation. Unlike other foundations, this formula is truly serum-like and needs to be applied as such. To ensure you’re getting the most with each drop, they suggest lightly shaking the bottle, then dispensing a few drops onto the face before blending out with the accompanying brush or your fingers.

My Experience

As a fan of Hourglass’ cult-favorite complexion products, I was eager to see how Janes’ newest baby performed. Would it provide enough coverage, and could it really be self-setting without making me look dry? Come winter, I prefer a soft-matte finish, but my days of setting my foundation are long behind me. Fortunately, the Silk Serum Foundation lived up to its name—and the quality Janes is known for.

I used four drops for medium coverage and applied them directly to my face. To my surprise, the drops didn’t immediately run down my cheeks and blended in like butter with my foundation brush. The finish was naturally radiant, and my skin wasn’t tacky—it was smooth. But the real star was the comfort. I enjoy a full beat as much as the next person, but layers of makeup typically still feel like layers of makeup hours later. With this foundation, I barely felt it on my skin, and it didn’t cling to my dehydrated patches or emphasize texture.

The beauty of Outside In’s Silk Serum foundation lies in its hybrid format—a product that performs at a high level for both skin and makeup needs while delivering a soft, natural finish.