,As you may know Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) has released stick foundations! I'm super excited about this because everything that ABH puts out, I know has taken years in the making and honestly I can remember nearly two years ago seeing Norvina asking about formulation preferences and what have you, from their customers. Which I think is what makes their company so brilliant is that: they do their research, they're meticulous, and they have a strong social media presence where they interact with their customers and ask their opinions and also listen to their requests/concerns. I've always truly admired that and they are constantly trying to put out the best products possible and I don't think their has ever been a product I didn't like from them to be honest. This is no different. These released on Thursday, they are $25 each, there are 30 shades 4 will be coming in September, they will be in store toward the end of August. These are targeted for more oily/combination skin. I totally agree, because it's a drier formula. Although, I have normal skin and this works just fine for me. I would say it's a medium coverage and build-able coverage. So it could easily be full coverage if that's what you wanted. My honest first thoughts of this (this isn't sponsored in any way btw), is it's unlike any stick foundation I have. Most stick foundations are very dewy, heavy, and super full coverage which can be cakey. The MUFE Ultra HD foundation stick, which is also great, is very dewy on me and can sometimes feel a bit heavy on my skin. I have shade Ivory, and this is super light weight you don't feel like anything is on your skin. I buff it in with a flat top kabuki just because that's what gives me the best coverage and a damp sponge tends to sheer out foundations on me. So that's why I prefer the kabuki brush for this. The finish is a satin finish in my opinion. Also these are being marketed for cream highlight and cream contour sticks as well. Which I totally understand because of the formula and how light weight and not over powering they are. I used it the first day with no primer, and no setting spray because I wanted to see how long lasting the foundation was on it's own and what it done without extra reinforcement. It got slightly dewy not bad, just a bit, but it's humid and hot here in TN so I think that was why. It didn't seem to break up at all and my highlight, contour, and blush stayed in place and also didn't oxidize as the day went on. Nor did they get patchy. I'm thoroughly impressed. I finally took it off after 8 hours, when I washed my face, and it was still in tact. It had gotten a little more dewy but again I didn't have any primer, setting spray, nothing on to help this stay to its actual finish. So I think that this would be really awesome for oily skin types when using a primer or setting spray, or both. Here I'm wearing shade Ivory. I tend to like foundations that are more yellow based and this is a great neutral-warm based foundation for me. I'm also pretty dang pale right now too so I'm loving the shade range they have. There are shades that are even lighter than this. They have the palest shades to a great selection of deep shades. They will be available in Macy's, Dillards, Sephora, and Ulta stores. They are available now on the ABH website.
0 Comments
Recently I got the chance to try some Studio Gear products. I got to try the Dual Identity Mineral Wet and Dry Foundation, Revitalizing Day Serum, and a #3 Domed Foundatrion Brush.
Lets just start breaking this down: The Mineral Foundation can be used 4 ways. As a powder foundation buffed in with a kabuki/buffing brush. It can be mixed with the Revitalizing Serum to make it a hydrating serum style foundation, or it can be mixed with your own everyday moisturizer. It's also suggested to use with the Day Lotion SPF 15 from Studio Gear to make it a cream foundation or a cream contour if you get a darker shade. You can use it as a Mattifying finishing powder, and then also as a contour powder with the darker shades. This , like I said, can be applied with a brush dry or it can be applied with a damp beauty sponge as well, for a bit more coverage. It can be layered to give you even more coverage as well. There are 8 shades. I have shade Bisque, which is the lightest shade. The foundation runs for $28. They also have a "subscribe and save" option, where you save 10% and it get's delivered every 30 days. Using this, I was blown away with how much coverage just the "dry" powder has by itself, without layering it, using a damp sponge, or mixing it with the serum. What I also love is that while they do serve up great tools to use with their products, you don't have to have special Studio Gear tools to use this like some companies. It helps I'm sure, but if money is a concern then you can use your kabuki brush or sponge that you already own with this product. Here is the link toStudio Gear's YouTube video on how you can use this foundation. I'm gonna go ahead and copy and paste the ingredients for you, so that it's easier right off the bat. This is straight from the company. Not tested on animals Ingredients: Boron Nitride, Zinc Oxide, Zinc Stearate, Populus Tremuloides Bark Extract, Dimethicone, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Lonicera Caprifolium (Honeysuckle) Flower Extract, Sorbic Acid, Water/Aqua, Lonicera Japonica (Honeysuckle) Flower Extract, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopherol, Honey Extract, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Benzoate. MAY CONTAIN: Mica (CI 77019), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491), Iron Oxides (CI 77492), Iron Oxides (CI 77499) Chromium Oxide Greens (CI 77288), Manganese Violet (CI 77742). TALC FREE FRAGRANCE FREE PARABEN FREE The Revitalizing Day Serum can be used to mix the foundation and turn it into a liquid/serum foundation. It's also recommended to be applied alone over your moisturizer. It packs a punch to it from just a skin care point of view alone, with some awesome ingredients that, once again, I'm just going to tell copy straight from the website:
The #3 Domed Brush is the softest brush that I own. I kid you not. This brush, I was not excited about at first because the handle was a bit longer than what I like. That doesn't even phase me now, because the brush is THAT GOOD. This brush retails for $40. Currently they have 27 brushes and 3 brush sets. I would absolutely LOVE to own every single brush they have, because I'm so impressed with this brush. When you get the chance, try some of their brushes. You will not be let down unless you actually want unicorn hair and angel kisses for brushes. This brush is said to work specifically well as a buffing brush for liquid foundations. It's domed shape will make it more useful as a "buffing" technique instead of a "stippling" technique like flat top kabuki brushes are good for, Now lets talk a bit about the brand: Studio Gear, which has been around for a while, is known for their brushes. At least that's what I've always known them for. For good reason, they are amazing. They are so amazing in fact, that there is a "lifetime product guarantee" and everything from basic to advanced is covered underneath that policy from what I understand. Which for a company to go ahead and say "listen we promise our brushes will be so amazing, that if something goes wrong we'll replace it no matter if you got it 3 weeks ago or 10 years ago" that speaks VOLUMES to me. This company has "full collection of professional makeup brushes, revolutionizing complexion formulas, and a wide selection of color products for the eyes, cheeks, and lips". With a reasonable, what I like to call "mid-line" price point, these don't break the bank so that's always a plus. Studio Gear was designed with "MUA's in mind" and I think that they accomplished that. With sleek packaging and quality products how can you go wrong? Their motto is "Modern, Classic, Confident", and I feel they exude that, from packaging to quality it's never a question of "trend" or what's popular right now exactly, it's a "staple" concept if you will. I look at them and I think "these are staple products, that I will gladly use today, tomorrow, and keep purchasing years down the road". So basically they live up to their motto in my book. Here is the link to the Dual Identity Wet and Dry Mineral Foundation. $28 Here is the link to the Revitalizing Day Serum. $40 Here is the link to the #3 Domed Foundation Brush. $40 This post is powered by Brand Backer. This foundation is new from Urban Decay. It's from the Fall 2016 line. It's not available in stores just yet. It is available on the UD website now. I will link it here. I've been using this for a few days. I got the shade 1.0 because I like yellow bases in my foundation. So here's how I think the shades seem to work: If you like a somewhat yellow base like me get the shades that end in .0. So 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and so on. 1.0 is the lightest shade in the yellow bases. If you like a bit more of a pink base then get the shades that end in .5. So .5, 1.5, 2.5 and so on. ,5 is the lightest shade in the entire line. There are 24 shades all together. It's a pretty nice range of colors that would fit the palest skin tones and some darker complexions. My shade is actually a bit paler than I am and I'm quite pale at the moment, so I probably could've went to 2.0. The packaging is sick. I mean look at it. It claims to be "waterproof, long wear, and oil free". Which I feel that's probably true. I had some on my hand and I had to scrub it HARD to get it off. Plus it felt like it took a lot to remove it from my face as well. The first day I used this I applied my usual moisturizer which is light weight, a smoothing primer, and then I applied the foundation with a flat top kabuki. Which used more product and made it even fuller coverage on. It also didn't work well with the brush. It really made my skin look dry, it seemed harder to buff out and looked kinda cakey. After it set for a few minutes it looked really nice. It felt fine. After about 5 or 6 hours I noticed one slightly dewy area and then some places where it looked like it was breaking up around dry patches. So I touched it up and it looked even worse. Super dry. Again after it has set for a few minutes it looked better. I used dewy sprays and everything to help the skin from looking so dry but then again it's waterproof so thus that didn't work. The next day I had a better game plan. I used a heavy moisturizer, no primer and a damp sponge to apply it. WORKED SO WELL! FOR THE WIN! It didn't look dry, it required less product and it didn't look cakey. So I'm 100% on board with this, just not for using a brush. Now maybe if you have super super oily skin then that would be the way to go for you, using a brush because the oil from your skin won't let it look cakey and it won't cling to dry patches obviously. This was the day I used the Kabuki brush. It looks super full coverage in my opinion although it didn't seem to mirror the dry-ness in pictures or on camera at all. Just when I looked in the mirror. It lasted 10 hours which is when I took it off so I think it would've went even longer. Here I used it with a damp sponge and heavy moisturizer. In my opinion it looks more natural and more like "skin". This lasted about 6 hours before I noticed it was starting to get dewy on me and need to be touched up.
I have normal skin, I don't have oily skin or anything that makes me dewy but it's friggin hot in Tennessee kids. So I was outside a lot this day and heat and foundation just don't like each other. So for my dry and normal girls that want a high powdered long lasting foundation use this with a heavy moisturizer and damp beauty sponge. For my oily and combination ladies I still say start with a damp sponge and if you're still super oily try a kabuki brush. Lately I'm sure you've heard people in the makeup community talking about the L'Oreal Pro Glow Foundation. It's kinda hard to find but I got mine off Ulta. So this is coming off the heels of their super popular and well loved Pro Matte foundation. It's $12.99 and comes in 12 shades. The good thing about drugstore foundation is that there is usually a sale or a coupon you can use. When I bought mine it was buy one get one 50% off. Ulta always has a code for their "drugstore" stuff if you spend $15 you get $3.50 off or that's how mine worked. It used to be $10 but they bumped it up to $15 it seems. You ain't fooling no one Ulta we see you. The code out right now that does actually work on a $10 purchase supposedly is "308920". I think the L'Oreal site has coupons you can print off, and check your local papers or Walgreens for coupons as well. Also while ordering online be sure to use Ebates and get you some cash back for your purchase. I got shade 204 which is the 4th shade but still pretty light but works really well. I actually prefer lighter shades because I know I can use bronzer to make them match my neck but I can keep the center of my face lighter, if that makes sense. It's a medium coverage foundation. It wears really well, it has a nice finish, it's not overly luminous. It says the finish is actually radiant. It's not overly dewy, it's just slightly dewy in my opinion. So I feel like it's a really nice finish that a lot of skin types can wear and it's not heavy on the face which most medium coverage foundations aren't. I don't feel as if it's super transferable or like it's just sitting on top of the skin. I actually wore it with a oil mattifying primer the first day because it was 96 degrees and I was going to be outside for several hours in full face makeup and it didn't get dewy AT ALL. That's my first tip: wear a primer. Any primer, just something. I've used a mattifying one and a smoothing one and they both worked great. I tried it with no primer, and it didn't seem to work as well. Here's the swatch of shade 202. It's actually much more neutral based and not as warm as this picture. I swatched it quite heavy so that it would be more opaque. Which I feel like this could be built up for more coverage IF you wanted more. This picture is of me with nothing on at all on the top left, then bottom left it's the Pro Glow Foundation by itself, and finally the big picture is full makeup including concealer under the eyes. The primer I used with this was a smoothing one. It left my skin a bit more luminous than the mattifying primer I'd used a few days before. Even though it is more luminous, I don't find that I have to powder it or use oil absorbing sheets to get rid of any excess oil. That is AWESOME. I'd also like to say this does oxidize a bit. It come out as more of a yellow based foundation and then oxidizes into a neutral cooler toned base. Normally I don't like cooler toned bases but this is a neutral one that doesn't pull pink so I'm actually fine with this. I didn't build the coverage on this I just left it as is on the first application and I applied it with a flat top kabuki from Sigma. I wouldn't use a damp sponge with this personally ONLY because I think it would sheer it out even more by adding in more moisture so I don't feel like that would be the way to go. Then again it's all personal preference so do whatever you like. There are no rules. I do powder my face with this by using the Algenist Color Correcting powder. Not a ton, just a dusting on my face with a big fluffy brush. I do this so that my bronzer goes on smoother and doesn't get patchy. I find that it's kinda needful with this foundation. This was the first day I wore it. It was 96 degrees out and I had to go to a birthday party that was going to be outside mainly. I used MUFE Mattifying primer and UD All Nighter setting spray. It was pretty matte the entire day and it stayed on really really well. It looked amazing as well. This picture I used the MUFE Smoothing Primer and no setting spray or highlight. Just powder and bronzer an blush. It still stayed on really well. It's supposed to be 24 hour wear but come on, who wears foundation for 24 hours solid????? Not many. So that's that. I really like this foundation. It's not something I'm gonna use when I'm having a bad skin day but it is a lovely foundation when you want to look a bit more natural. So I find for summer it's really pleasant because it just adds to the glow the skin already has in the summer. Alright settle in, I'm about to tell you about an awesome product. Get your popcorn and Cherry Coke or whatever your poison is and relax. This beauty above is the new powder from Algenist. It's a color correcting setting powder basically. I got this purely on a whim. I didn't really expect much, I'm not a huge fan of pressed powders, but this is awesome. I wanted to try it just from all the claims it had and just to see if it could actually color correct. However, when reading the description it was basically a powder for everyone and skin tone, that made your skin look better instead of correcting major discolorations. Which makes more sense. It claims to: "This lightweight finishing powder for all skintones enhances the look of foundation, or bare skin, in any light. AlgaCorrecting complex plus an algae-derived ingredient combine for glowing, luminous-looking skin, while optical diffusers blur the appearance of pores and fine lines and wrinkles—visibly smoothing skin. Perfect for on-the-go touch ups, Color Correcting Finishing Powder absorbs excess oil and keeps skin looking fresh and radiant all day." That is from the Sephora site. So upon reading that I was actually really intrigued. Plus it looks very cool. I got this and the packaging was super sleek and nice. It was heavy it closes magnetically and it's just feels very well made and sturdy so I loved that. It's simple yes, but it's nice.
When you swatch it you don't see much of anything and it doesn't feel like it's crazy soft or anything more than a pressed powder until you put this on. I'm here to tell you that, I am not a person who likes pressed powder and I only use powder under my eyes in general. I don't set my face with powder or anything.....until now. This absolutely makes your skin look smoother. I am not kidding, this is by far the BEST powder I have ever used that has made such a difference. I was getting compliments all day on how NICE and smooth my SKIN looked. Not my "makeup" looked good, people were actually noticing my skin looking really smooth, almost airbrushed. Now there are little specs of shimmer or glitter in it by no means is it shimmery like a highlighter but you do see a few specs from time to time. Some people don't like that, personally it doesn't bother me because it just makes my skin look more radiant. My under eye area especially was so smooth, no lines, no creasing in the concealer or anything. It really made a difference on me. Of course not every pore was gone or line removed but my skin looked BETTER. It may be different for you, but for me it's my go to powder and I put it all over my face. So that my entire face looks airbrushed. I love this powder I can not stress it enough. It's $38 and worth every penny in my opinion of course if you didn't like it you could always return it. I want you to realize though that this isn't gonna be a major color corrector for you. It's not going to cancel out your sallow skin, redness, dark circle, etc, all that much. Maybe it will some but what this powder does is ENHANCES the overall look of your skin. Not even your makeup really but your skin. It's makes your skin look like it's smoother, tighter, healthier, glowing, so on so forth. Below are some pictures of the first day I used it. I had nothing else on except foundation and winged liner obviously. Cause I wanted to see what this could do. In the close up you should see some of the small sparkles I mentioned earlier. Not entirely noticeable. Not like "oh you have glitter on your face". Not to me anyway. So hopefully this might be a holy grail powder for you as well. I'll leave the link to it here. Remember to use Ebates and get some cash back on your online purchases. Here are some promos for Sephora right now, for purchases over $25 or $35. Promo Code: LETSMASK choose 1 of 4 face masks Promo Code: YUZAYUZA for new Korean brand liquid lotion Promo Code: GETGLOSSY for deluxe sample lipgloss Promo Code: BRAZILLIANCE for deluxe sample of Tarte self tanner Sorry for two foundation reviews back to back but I had to talk about this foundation right here. The Milani Conceal + Perfect 2 in 1 Foundation + Concealer. So like the title says it's a concealer and foundation which basically translates to: it's highly pigmented, and full coverage. The shade I have is 01 Creamy Vanilla, it's the lightest shade in the line. It's not light though it's actually about 2 shades darker than what I would prefer. Now in the summer when I'm more tan it will be good but it's just not a light shade. So for my fair girls out there I'm sorry but right now there doesn't seem to be a shade that's geared for "fair" complected skin. This is $9.99 and there are 14 shades. I had to order mine online because no where around me carries Milani. This is the shade 01 Creamy Vanilla. As you can see it's very warm. I thoroughly love yellow based foundations but this is a touch darker yellow than I like. None the less though it can work for my skin with a little blending and that is what really matters. As you can see it's very pigmented and full coverage. The top two pictures is no makeup obviously, also no primer, no moisturizer and so on. The bottom two pictures are of the Milani foundation, underneath that is Make Up For Ever Smoothing Primer, there is some Becca Under Eye Brightening Corrector but no concealer or anything else....obviously....again. So from this point I am incredibly pleased. I honestly am impressed with how this looks. I do use concealer to brighten up the under eye area but this really is great coverage and I feel like lots of blemishes and pigment issues could be covered by this foundation. This is me wearing the Milani foundation. I wore it for 3 days. Applied different ways, with a sponge, with a kabuki brush, without primer, with primer, with dewy setting sprays and with no setting sprays.
I find that with primer and a non luminous setting spray is the best option if you are gonna be super active that day or have combination-oily skin. Wearing it on it's own without any extra staying power like primer or setting sprays it may require some touch ups. I wore it for about 4 hours and was outside with my husband planting flowers, not sweating, and it required a lot of touching up before going out to eat. Then when I came home 2 hours later I noted that it wouldn't have hurt to touch it up again. Today I wore it with a smoothing primer, not a super strength primer and it stayed on much better but I also was less active today mainly just working and swatching so there's that. I have normal skin. Sometimes it's normal-dry, sometimes it's normal-combination. The warmer it gets the more dewy I get naturally. I at first thought that by the coverage of this it was similar to the Marc Jacobs Re(Marc)able Foundation Concentrate only this being more luminous where MJ is definitely matte. It's not because the Marc Jacobs stays on for a very long time. That does not mean this is not a good foundation. It's a great foundation, and personally I feel like it's the best drugstore foundation available as far as coverage. I wish the shade range included some lighter colors, so hopefully they'll expand. I think the price is really good, especially with the rising prices at the drugstore these days that are usually over $12 everytime. I'm very pleased with this and will continue to use this until I'm too oily not to in the dead of summer. Pretty sure you can find this on Amazon and obviously Milani website. Hopefully it's easily accessible at a drugstore near you. Recently Josie Maran released a new foundation called Vibrancy Argan Oil Foundation Fluid. I have mine in the shade "Dynamic" which is the lightest shade and it is very very light. The line has 14 shades and it looks to be pretty wide spread from palest of pale to deeper skin tones. It's 1 oz and $45. It has 100% pure Argan Oil in it which I would expect no less coming from Josie Maran and it's medium to full coverage. I think it's a little more full coverage than medium which I was very pleased about. According to Sephora.com "Like a fresh squeezed juice, Vibrancy utilizes a revolutionary cold-pressed process that preserves the powerful, hand-selected ingredients for the freshest, most effective skin care foundation. Vibrancy energizes your skin with the essential nutrients it craves and is designed to interact and adapt to the movements of your skin with delicate fluidity for a radiant, dimensional finish." Which sounds amazing and like something you WANT to put on your face. It's lightweight on the skin and gives the skin some luminosity. I wouldn't say it's a dewy foundation or anything but you have a very healthy look about you. I was concerned wearing this at first because I thought it would slide right off but it held up really well. I gave it the ultimate test with no primer and no setting spray and it done a really good job. I only had to powder it some before doing my bronzer and blush just to make sure it wouldn't get patch on me but I fell asleep in it for 2 hours and I woke up and it looks really good still. This is the swatch of Dynamic above. As you can see it is quite pale. It's actually lighter than most of my concealers except one and that is my Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Concealer in Y21. Which is the other swatch. Make Up For Ever concealer being on the top and Vibrancy on the bottom. Here I am wearing it on two separate days . I have on some bronzer, blush and highlight. The shade Dynamic worked out fine but I actually could probably wear up to Cosmic. Which is the 3rd shade in the line. I don't mind super light foundations though because they're so easy to wear by just adding in some bronzer and you don't really have to highlight or anything because it kinda does the job for you. Bottom line, I really like this. I will probably by a different shade in it. I'm very impressed by it and its a "healthier" foundation for your skin than some that are out there with all the nutrients it provides the skin. I feel like dry all the way to combination could wear this. I don't know for sure but I'm normal to dry and it did really well with my skin so I would try it at Sephora or request a sample maybe and see if it does well with your skin. This is the Marc Jacobs Re(Marc)able Full Cover Foundation Concentrate. It comes in 22 shades and it's .75 oz for $55. This screams elegance with it's frosted glass and simplicity. Under the cap is a silver twist off cap which reveals a wand. That is the only thing I don't like about the foundation. I understand its purpose because you need very little foundation. A pump would give too much foundation and be wasteful. I really really love this foundation. It's VERY full coverage and matte. Whenever "Concentrate" is in the name you know it's gonna be full blown, industrial strength, and high coverage. I got shade 14 Ivory Medium. I use this with a beauty sponge either a Real Techniques or Beauty Blender. It makes it less matte and more natural looking. However, using a brush is plausible if you moisturized very well or used a hydrating setting spray. If you are an oily girl I think it'd be a dream foundation for you, if you didn't have a lot of texture like flakiness. If you're dry you'll want to moisturize heavily, definitely use a damp sponge and maybe even a hydrating spray like MAC Fix+ or Mario Badescue Rose Water, Evian spray, etc. If you're oily I think you could use this on it's own with a brush and maybe a setting spray like UD All Nighter Spray if you needed a little extra staying power. I like that this is matte instead of luminous, there are so many luminous foundations out there. While I love luminous foundation it's nice to have a matte one to throw in the mix. This is the wand it's like a little ball on the end which is awkward but easy to dot on your face. This is the swatch of 14 Ivory Medium. It looks a bit dark on my arm, but blended out it's a great color. I love the shade range too if you do happen to get your wrong color there is usually about 2 more shades that would work for you if not more. This was the first time I wore it. I was having some texture that day as you can kinda see in the photo. I have normal skin but I have issues with my pores and little bumps here and there. So I used a setting spray that was very hydrating when I was done and that helped tremendously. It stays on really really well. It's supposed to be 24 hour wear but all I can say is it lasted a long time on me. I also used a flat top kabuki and really had to work it in a lot to get it even. So I knew the next day I was gonna change it up. I deep cleansed later that night and exfoliated really really well and laid the moisturizer to my face the night before and the next morning. This was the next day. I used a Real Techniques sponge damp to apply it. I used very little powder as I didn't need much. I still set it with a hydrating spray but not a super dewy one. I used the Rose Water spray from Mario Badescue. It went on great and looked amazing. I still had little spots of bumps around my nose but you can't win them all.
In my opinion, this is a great foundation. You need very little so I think it will last a long time. It is pricey but my theory is I'd rather put my money in the base of my makeup like skincare, foundation, and concealer and then choose cheaper options for everything else if I have to. If you're skin doesn't look it's best then you're makeup doesn't look it's best. Not saying this is gonna change your life but finding the best foundation for your skin type and tone is the first step in having a natural and flawless look. So for some of you this might very well be YOUR foundation. Try it and see. Also if you're ordering from Sephora don't forget to use Ebates to get 4%-8% cash back. Benefit has released a new "Porefessional", don't worry the original is still available as the two are very different and made to work with one another. This one being a mattifying gel and the original being a "primer". You are to apply the Matte Rescue before primer. This is water based which I really like. I don't care for the original Porefessional (primer) it just didn't help pro long my foundation and slipped right off my face. This does what it says it will do though. I really do like it. It's great for you oily gals. I think it's a good concept as well to make the skin matte with one product and then use a smoothing/pore filling primer on top for the best application possible for your foundation. I apply it with a brush and not my fingers though because it tends to ball up if I rub it too much. So test it out to see how to best apply it for yourself. The first time was a disaster the other times I got the hang of it. I use it with a smoothing primer or blurring primer not necessarily the Porefessional but things with similar texture. This is $28 for 1.60 oz. at Sephora. The OG Porefessional is .75 oz for $31. You can also buy this at Ulta, they were offering free gifts with a purchase of a Benefit product. I don't know if that offer still stands though, it should tell you if you get a free gift with purchase though.
The swatches above is Dew the Hoola on the left and Shy Beam Dandelion on the right. So Shy Beam Dandelion is on the top of the cheek bones, center of the nose and forehead. Warm Soul from MAC is the blush, and Dew the Hoola is on the sides of the forehead and areas where I contour or bronze typically like under the blush application and sides of the nose.
If you're interested in getting these from Sephora or Ulta be sure to use Ebates and get you some cash back. Here we have the Becca Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation. This is the newest foundation from Becca. I talked briefly about it in my post about "new products and spring launches". I wasn't exactly excited when I seen this or the other "serum like" foundations that are coming out. I prefer foundations with fuller coverage. UNTIL I saw Samantha from Batalash and Wayne Goss both talk about this product. It looked beautiful and it looked like it had more coverage than I originally thought. Plus it applied easily and beautifully on their skin so I had to try it. It has 8 shades, it's 1 oz, and $44. The shades are not necessarily geared toward the color of your skin but as to how easily you burn from the sun or tan. Which I think is a cool concept. So this is shade "Light", it works well with my skin tone. This is also 32% water. First off, the only thing I don't really care for is this is a dropper bottle situation. I prefer a pump or even an open top. None the less that's just a minor issue. This is a truly gorgeous foundation. It really is luminous. It's thin but it has surprisingly good coverage for being such a thin consistency. I was really worried it would be very sheer coverage and not apply well it actually applies great on it's own! It has more coverage than you would think and even then you can build it up if you want to. I have other "luminous" foundations that apply normal and basically get "dewy" as the day goes on. This is luminous directly. Right off the bat it has a healthy glow and not overly dewy. I have a small video on how I apply this here. As I mentioned before this is over 30% water, I find most of my primers I've tried don't work with this. I have not tried the Becca Backlight Primer though so it might possibly work, I don't know. Basically for me this works best without any primer on. It goes on easily, looks the way it's supposed to, and doesn't get patchy. I find with the primers I used that it doesn't go on as smooth and it looks very patchy and takes more time blending. Looking at the ingredient list though the second ingredient "Dimethicone" which is a common ingredient in primers that give them that "silky" feel. Which makes me wonder if primer is that necessary at all as far as a "smoothing" effect at least. You have to shake this really well (as you should be doing with all your foundations), then you twist the cap and the button pops up, which is neat. You press the button to fill the dropper while its in the bottle and press the button again to put it on the brush or whatever applicator you choose. I use a kabuki brush with this to stipple it on for higher coverage. I use about two drops on the first application. You can build from there. This has decent wear. I wore it from 12-7 on my birthday. It didn't get more dewy as the day went on it stayed the same amount of luminous. It did wear off some as the day went on but that was to be expected. I don't think this would be the best for oily skin types. I'm normal skin, so I think normal to dry and maybe even combination skin could use this and really like it. If you have problematic skin then you might need a good amount of concealer cause I'm not sure this would cover large breakouts. If you just have some/minor redness or minor discoloration I think you'd be surprised at how much this would cover, and it can be built up so bear that in mind. This is one of those times though that I encourage you very much to get a sample or try it on at Sephora because it is a different type of foundation and some of you will not like the serum style, lighter coverage foundation. This is the swatch of "Light" on my hand. It's a bit warmer and darker than I wanted but it works out just fine, once it's blended in. I'm trying to show this in natural light. Hopefully, even from the swatch you can see the luminosity. The picture above is just foundation, light blush applied on the cheek bones (Kat Von D: Hansel+Gretel), some highlight on tops of the cheek bone and nose, and concealer and setting powder under the eyes. No other powder on the face, no contour.
The picture below is only the foundation with very little under eye concealer and some mascara and Benefit Gimme Brow. You can buy this at Sephora, they had a code for VIB and VIB Rouge members that gave you 10% off it *should* be "VB36CB" if it still works. Don't forget to use Ebates and get some cash back for your purchase. |
ErinI'm from Tennessee. I'm a makeup and skincare lover. I have always enjoyed creating looks but I love to help people with product knowledge and application even more. I've been able to start blogging and do these things I love because God has seen fit to bless me with the opportunity. Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me! Categories
All
Archives
January 2022
|