Foundation Review: The Search Continues!

I just read the post before the one I just put up, and realized I promised a foundation review and never put it up.

Well... this past summer I tried mineral foundations. I tried Pur (available at Ulta) and Bare Minerals (available and Sephora, Ulta, Bare Minerals stores and probably other places too). Bare Minerals did not live up to its hype. I mean, it was good and stuff, but didn't really stay put the whole time. I bought the starter/trial size kit which gives you their mineral foundation in original and matte, the mineral veil and the bronzer/blusher thingy called warmth. I could have told them that I would never want the "original" foundation and would almost inevitably always want the matte, but whatevs. I liked the matte a lot, it was more effective for my oily skin in this humid-ass city. I liked the mineral veil too, but there wasn't enough of it in the trial kit to cover going through both the matte and original foundations. The "warmth" was good, but I'm so red naturally that I barely needed any of it, so I have tons left. In the end, I was impressed, it mostly stayed put. But the shit's so expensive that I thought I could probably do better doing my regular summer routine (primer, concealer, powder). All in all, I'll recommend it, but only if you feel like spending the money.

The other mineral foundation I tried was PurMinerals 4-in-1 pressed mineral makeup in Blush Medium. I'd read some reviews online of PurMinerals and they seemed much more positive than the stuff about BareMinerals. People were saying it worked as well, if not better and was much more economical. Yeah, stuff was still $37. The saleslady at Ulta recommended that I get the full size of just the foundation instead of spending more on the starter kit, since the foundation is 4-in-1. I had bought the PurMinerals primer already, since I was anticipating trying this, so I was all set. I liked that it was pressed, it felt like less of the product got wasted on the way from the container to my face. It comes with a sponge, that I used only rarely when I had dark circles or something like that. Sponges = bad, they spread bacteria. I had quit using it when the weather got colder, but I've recently come back (after I had a series of breakouts and wanted to put less crap on my face) and discovered I like it again. I dunno, I'm still not thrilled. I do like that it comes in a ton of shades (many more than BareMinerals) and they have different shades not just for light/dark, but for yellow/pink/olive as well. Which made my Scottish ruddiness happy. The shade I picked in the summer is a hair too dark for my untanned winter face, but I blend it down on my neck and all's well, no orange foundation lines. It stays put when I layer it over Dr. Brandt's Pores-No-More and provides pretty good coverage.

In the end though... my search for perfect foundation continues. I recently discovered that Urban Decay makes a few sprays that are highly recommended on Sephora for keeping makeup on oily skin, so I'm going to have to check them out. I also heard about Skindinavia makeup setting sprays. My youtube makeup guru xsparkage also says you should be using a translucent powder as well as a regular powder. Fantastic. More things to spend money on and layer on my skin! Ha ha. Happy New Year everyone!!

Personalized Face Charts

So, I saw this video and thought it was a fantastic idea. Especially since right now I'm trying to plan the perfect NYE makeup scheme. I found the site that Leesha (the girl in the video who's my favorite YouTube guru) recommended. Here it is. I took a photo with my webcam. It took several tries to get it right. Then I right-clicked and saved the picture (you don't have to pay for the full size one, just swipe the preview) then dropped it in Photoshop, played with the levels a bit, cropped it and then erased all the excess crud from my face. You want just an outline of everything. I even had to pretty much put in my waterline because it didn't turn out in the picture. If you don't have photoshop, uh.. I dunno. Use other photoediting software? Beg me (or someone else with photoshop) to do it?

Tips for taking the photo:

• If you have a Mac and use your iSight camera, turn the flash off (instead of clicking the camera button to take the picture, hit CMD+SHIFT+T to take it without flash)
• The video says no makeup, I tried that a few times and couldn't get my lips to show up well. So i grabbed a light colored eyeliner (L'Oreal Kohl eyeliner in Cloud) and just lightly traced the top of my lip and the bottom. Just enough to provide contrast between my skin and my lips. I tried it before I washed off my eyeliner and mascara and the results weren't super successful either, so I washed it off and my eyes came out better.
  
• Do not make any kind of face or pose in anyway. Just look straight at the camera and deadpan.
  
• Do not be surprised if you discover a biological flaw you didn't notice before. I just discovered that my left eyelid is larger than my right. Ha! Probably because my eyes are funny shaped due to my astigmatism.

Here are my results:
Original photo. Lovely isn't it.








Exported image from that website








Final image after cropping, erasing and playing with the contrast settings. I also filled in my eyebrows for shits and giggles. And not very well.

I was going to make the product chart too, but eh. I'm going to print it on 8.5x11 card stock, which I have around somewhere. If you print, you shouldn't print on regular printer paper, some kind of heavier cardstock is required. But I wouldn't think that 90# watercolor paper (as stated in the video) is all that necessary. You could do 65# or 67# vellum bristol (which you can probably buy by the sheet at your local kinkos, or whatever cover weight they happen to have in white) Pretty much just make sure its a heavier-than-normal paper and that its as white as you can possibly get.

Happy New Year everybody! I will do my best to post more. I have two companion looks coming up and a few reviews. And I always say that, and then never post. But I'll try to do better in the new year.