Saturday, June 26, 2010

Foundation Woes +

I am pale and pink. "But Jeweled Thumb, I'm sure you can find plenty of foundation matches" as they look at my profile picture and wondering if I've been smoking crack. That ladies and gentlemen (?) is bad lighting and flash photography. In this particular picture, I am wearing custom blend foundation by the sadly discontinued Prescriptives line. Which to me is worth its weight in gold. You see, the lightest shade in practically every line is too yellow for me (including Px). It may be workable and not appear so bad, but it irks me that it takes so much effort to find a good foundation match. I don't agree with makeup artists that say, oh yeah, yellow is great because it counteracts red. Well, this is all well and good but what if your face is splotchy like mine? It's not all red! So in the spots where it isn't red, it looks like I have yellow smears on my face, like a 5 year old playing in mommy's makeup: not attractive.

Anyway, since I can't get my cold grubby fingers on anymore custom blend, I'm left with trying to find new foundations that work for me. And while some of the ones I've tried are decent (Exuviance which I'm nearly done with but is a bit too drying or MUFE mat velvet+ which is again too drying), it certainly doesn't help that my combo yet seemingly bone dry skin holds onto foundation like I haven't been feeding it and creates those lovely ugly flaky patches.

Anyway, enough rambling. I'm going to review some of the foundations that I've been trying out lately.
Apply this velvety confection when you want to hide imperfections and create a perfectly smooth canvas.


Tarte Peach & Cream oil-free liquid powder mineral foundation SPF 20 in Fair - So amazing in theory. I bought this one of their recent sales though the retail price is $35. A decent amount of SPF, a cute rubbery purple tube (what? packaging matters!) but this foundation was all wrong. Since it's liquid to powder it feels really dry on my skin. And fair? Hahaha. This isn't fair.

Do you see the line? Nuff said.
I am wearing clothing here. My tank just slipped off my narrow shoulders!
Maybelline Instant Age Rewind in #1 Porcelain Ivory - I picked this up on sale before they changed the packaging and the shade range numbers. Mine doesn't have the metallic sheen. Anyway, this was less yellow than the Tarte and matched better but wasn't perfect.To me it looks a bit worse in the photo but definitely looked better in real life.
See, stripe #2 (and tank strap!)

Neither of these foundations are bad, per say and they probably don't look as bad as they are in person as my camera has a habit of washing things out, but try comparing the face to my shoulder which is my true pasty color, notice a minor difference?


And I want the fairy tale, dammit. I want a foundation to blend seamlessly into my face and just look like I have perfect skin! Also, these both caked up around my dry patches (well that would be most of my face) and I actually had to mix the Tarte with my moisturizer so it would actually blend.

Still seeking WSF* for long walks on the beach, lunch dates and more.

* white single foundation

3 comments:

Heather said...

Have you tried foundations from any independent companies? I don't wear foundation, but I know people love the selections from Meow Cosmetics. They seem to have a huge selection and cater to a lot of different skin types. Plus they sell samples.

Unknown said...

I think we might have a very similar complexion i too am pale and very pink (though less pink in areas). I haven't found a perfect match yet but a few come close :)

Gosh X-ceptional wear foundation in porcelain -
This is very light and not yellow toned at all. I'd say it was probably more 'neutral' than pink but that works in my favour to neutralise my pinker parts and work perfectly with my more neutral parts. It's quite heavy coverage but doesn't feel heavy at all.

NYX foundation in LM01 Pale -
This is probably the closest to my actual skin tone as it is actually slightly pink toned rather than yellow or neutral (the first one i've found!). I'd say it was medium coverage and buildable.

And i also agree with Heather, you should try some indie companies. Meow in particular have about a million different colours including loads of different tones like pink, cool, neutral etc :)

Jeweled Thumb said...

@Heather: I tend to prefer liquid foundations only because my skin tends to be on the drier side. I've tried a few e-tailer mineral foundations and I have to heavily moisturize before applying the product and sometimes it's just not worth the effort. Sorry, the truth comes out about my laziness!

@Lillian: Yes! We should create a pale pink club because cosmetic companies seem to think everyone who is pale is yellow or wants to look yellow! I wish I could get GOSH but it's a no go in the states however, I think I might pick up the NYX - I prefer liquid foundations so let's hoping that's a good match! Thank you for the recs. =)

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