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Tag Archives: foundation
DuWop Foundation of Youth lightweight anti-ageing foundation
I have to hand it to DuWop: they have some fabulous product names, don’t they? This foundation of theirs, for instance, is called Foundation of Youth, and that makes me want to run out and buy it RIGHT NOW. Must not allow my head to be turned by marketing, must not allow my head to be turned by marketing…
The product itself sounds pretty good too, it has to be said. As the name suggests, this aims to disguise some of the signs of ageing, mostly by using anti-oxidants to plump out fine lines. You’ll also notice that the tube comes with its own brush applicator, just like Yves Saint Laurent’s Radiant Touch. I loved the brush applicator on the YSL foundation at first, but after a couple of weeks of use, found myself going back to applying it with my fingers: it was just too tricky to get the right amount of product onto the brush, and I’d always end up with too much or too little, which makes me suspect a regular foundation brush is probably better for me than one that’s attached to the bottle. (Easier to clean, too.)
If you want to find out for yourself, though, this is $38 direct from DuWop.
Dollface Reviews: Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation
I’ve been meaning to write a review of Illamasqua’s Rich Liquid Foundation for ages now, but haven’t gotten round to it because, to be completely honest, I keep changing my mind about it. I think ultimately it’s one of those products people will either love or hate, and for me, it’s been a bit of both.
I’ve been using this foundation for about a month now, and as I said in my swatch post, I’m having to mix two different colours (RF120 and RF105) to get the right shade. This is probably the biggest drawback for me, although I’m told Illamasqua are aware of the issues with the existing shades, and are working on bringing out more, so hopefully the perfect shade will be created at some point in the future!
So, on with the review, and I’m going to start with the positives: the coverage. As the name suggests, this is a heavy-coverage foundation, in a rich, creamy formula. And, as such, it really does deliver: this covers freckles, blemishes, dark circles, you name it. I haven’t had to use a concealer with it for blemishes etc, although I have been using an under-eye concealer, because I feel the foundation is too heavy for that area. It has a tendency to crease around the eyes after a few hours, and as the skin around my eyes can be dry, it also clings to the dry patches and makes them look worse.
The skin on the rest of my face is fairly normal, and I had no issues with the foundation there: in fact, I was really pleased with it. The finish is matt (I haven’t been using powder with it because I don’t think it’s needed) and flawless, and although I know some reviewers have found it difficult to blend, I haven’t had issues there either. I’ve been applying it with a foundation brush, and although it is thick, I find it goes on smoothly and blends quite easily. A little goes a long way, too, so although it’s expensive, it will last a long time. After about four weeks of use, it hasn’t made me break out, either, which was something I’d worried about before buying it.
So far, so good, then. Such heavy coverage isn’t without its drawbacks, though. Although I find the foundation easy to apply and blend, it’s also very easy to apply too much of it, and if you’re not very careful, it can start to look caked-on. When I first bought this, there were a couple of occasions where I applied my makeup in my bedroom, as usual, and then walked into the brighter light of the bathroom, glanced in the mirror and immediately reached for my cleanser to wash it all off again because in the harsh light of day, it looked drag-queen esque. This isn’t entirely the foundation’s fault, obviously: it requires a light hand on the application, a very small amount of product, and I’ve also heard a couple of people recommend applying it with a sponge rather than a brush. (I’ve run out of sponges, so I haven’t tried this yet!)
As well as the dryness around my eyes, I’m also prone to the occasional touch of dryness around the nose and mouth, particularly when I’m stressed. When this happened, I had to abandon Illamasqua for a couple of days because even with the best efforts of my moisturizer and primer, it would still cling to the dry patches and be very visible. Mixing it with moisturiser may help here, but I’d prefer it to work right out of the box – or bottle, rather.
Ultimately, while I like this foundation, and LOVE the coverage it provides, it’s a lot of work to use and isn’t really a foundation you can put on in a hurry. It requires careful application, a good primer, and even then it’s not great on dry skin, so for me will probably be a product I’ll use on special occasions /good skin days rather than on a day-to-day basis.
If you want to try it our for yourself, it’s £19.50 and available direct from Illamasqua, although, as I noted in my swatch post, I really recommend visiting a counter first to choose your shade!
Foundation for pale skin: Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation swatches – RF105 and RF120
Before my unexpected beauty blogging hiatus, I promised you a review of Illanmasuqa’s Rich Liquid Foundation, which I’ve been using for a couple of weeks now. Well, that’ll be along soon, but first of all, knowing how difficult my fellow palefaces find choosing the right shade of foundation, I thought I’d quickly show you some swatches of the two shades I’m using – RF105 and RF120.
These are the second and third palest shades Illamasqa do – or so I thought when I ordered them, anyway. I’ve since read that RF135 may be paler than the RF120 I bought, so that may be worth bearing in mind too. The very palest shade – RF100 – is a stark white that’s basically only going to be of use for editorial or theatrical purposes. The next shade up – RF105 – also appears to fall into that category at first glance, although it does have a pinkish tinge to it. It’s far too pale for even me to wear on its own, but I actually think a shade like this is really useful to have if you tend to have problems buying foundation, because it can be mixed with other, darker shades, allowing you to dial almost any foundation down to your shade. I’ve used it almost daily since I got it, and this is because the RF120, which I’d assumed would be more or less the perfect colour for me, is actually quite a bit too dark. It’s billed as a pink-toned, pale base, but I found it a little more yellowish than I’d been expecting, and too dark for me to wear it on its own. Here are both of the shades blended in a little:
Lancôme ‘Ôscillation Powerfoundation’ Micro-Vibratin Polishing Mineral Make-up
Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later, didn’t it? I mean, we’ve had vibrating mascaras for aaaaggges now, so it was long past time to move onto the next thing in makeup, and it looks like that “next thing” is… vibrating foundation. Yes, vibrating foundation.
This is Lancome’s ‘Ôscillation Powerfoundation’. It’s a mineral,powder formula, and it comes with it’s own sponge applicator, which vibrates. Now, I use mineral foundation from time to time, and when I do, I have to tie and old towel around my neck because I am absolutely incapable of applying it – or any kind of loose powder, really – without getting it all over my clothes, and anything else that happens to be in the vicinity. Personally, then, I’d be even more concerned about this than I was about vibrating mascara wands, when they first came out. As it turned out, though, the mascara turned out to be no messier than normal mascara, so hopefully that’ll be the case here, too. Indeed, Lancome claim this is “never messy”, although it’s possible they didn’t have me in mind when they wrote that.
So: why do we need our mineral foundation to vibrate? According to Lancome, it’s because the vibrating applicator will massage our skin and gently distribute the product over it, allowing “7,000 micro-vibrations per minute” to ”break down the featherweight mineral powder for seamless blendability.”
Hmm. I don’t know. I’m super-fussy about how my foundation is applied. Put it this way: I wouldn’t normally allow another HUMAN to apply it for me, so I still have my doubts about allowing a machine to do it. The product itself sounds nice, though: the foundation promises 14-hour wear, contains SPF 21 and claims to give you “newborn skin”. I could be persuaded. Could you, though? If you could, this costs $48 and you can buy it at Nordstrom, amongst other places.
Max Factor Pan Stik Foundation
Pan Stik! It’s the makeup your mother used to wear! Well, it’s certainly the makeup MY mother used to wear, away: I’ve heard her mention it often enough! I actually had no idea this was still made, and I have even less of an idea what it’ll be like to use – the name alone conjures up images of caked-on foundation, although I’m assuming the formula has been modernised at some point in the product’s long history. It claims to give a “soft, dewy finish” with maximum coverage, comes in four different shades and only costs £3.31 from Amazon, so at least it won’t cost too much to find out if it lives up to those claims.
Max Factor Second Skin Foundation
A second skin. Doesn’t that sound nice? You could pull it on over your first one on those Bad Face Days we all get from time to time (maybe I’m just speaking for myself here?) and all would be right with the world – or with your face at least.
Well, Max Factor’s new foundation claims to do something a little bit like that. The formula is designed to be virtually undetectable once its on, but to provide coverage that makes you look “naturally” perfect. Sounds almost too good to be true, but it gets better: the liquid formula also contains “multi tonal pigments” which will synchronise naturally with your skin, giving that “undetectable” finish.
As I said, it sounds almost too good to be true, but at least at £13.99 per bottle, it won’t cost too much to find out if it actually does what it says on the tin bottle.
Max Factor Second Skin Foundation, £13.99 at Boots
Revlon Beyond Natural Skin Matching Makeup now available in Light/Medium
For those of us who can never seem to find the perfect foundation to match our skin, Revlon’s beyond Natural Skin Matching Makeup claims to be the answer to our dreams, in that IT does the colour matching for you. So no more lurking around beauty counters trying to apply foundation to your jawline, then. Phew!
Instead, what you get is a choice of five basic shades, each of which goes on white and, upon contact with your skin, changes colour to match it. (I have to admit, the fact that you still have to choose a shade disappointed me a little, because when I first heard about this, I assumed it was made of magic, with one colour working for absolutely everyone. But apparently not.) Sounds pretty cool, and it’s had some good reviews since it launched last December, although most reviewers seem to agree that it’s more of a tinted moisturiser than a foundation.
If you’ve yet to give it a try, there’s now one more shade to choose from: the addition of the Light/Medium makeup to the lineup brings the colour choice available up to five. I’m now really curious about this: has anyone actually tried it?
Revlon Beyond Natural Skin Matching Makeup:
£9.78 at Superdrug
$12.99 at Drugstore.com
New foundations from NARS: Sheer Glow & Sheer Matt
No, this isn't a mind-bending game of Spot the Difference, these two foundations really do look exactly the same. They're not, though: one is called Sheer Glow and the other is called Sheer Matt. I'm just going to assume you DON'T need me to explain what makes them different from each other, OK?
Both are new releases from NARS, and both contain the the NARS Exclusive Complexion Brightening Formula, which leaves your skin looking luminous, soft, and flawless, with easily -build-able coverage. The only difference (oh, OK, I'll tell you) is that one will create a matt finish, while the other will leave you with a soft "glow".
They're both $42 at Nordstrom. Which one would you get?
La Mer introduces The Treatment Powder Foundation SPF 15
Fans of La Mer's famous – and pricey – skin treatments, will no doubt love this: it's called The Treatment Powder Foundation, and it uses gemstones (they don't say which ones, unfortunately) to "smooth away imperfections" and "reveal a naturally flawless finish. La Mer’s potent skincare benefits leave skin looking luminous."
The foundation promises to deliver medium to heavy coverage, and, as with most things La Mer, is fairly expensive, at $95. It's available from May at select Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, and www.lamer.com
Dollface Reviews: Dainty Doll foundation by Nicola Roberts and Jelly Pong Pong – makeup for pale people!
Well, it certainly took me long enough, but I finally got round to buying some of the Dainty Doll/Nicola Roberts foundation I've been meaning to try since it launched, and as we've been having something of a Girls Aloud theme here at Dollface this week, I figured now was as good a time as any to review it.
For those who've never heard of it, Dainty Doll is the makeup line developed by Jelly Pong Pong in conjunction with Nicola Roberts – a.k.a. "The Red Haired One from Girls Aloud" – and it's made specifically for people who, like Nicola, are paler than pale.
As a fellow redhead, my colouring is fairly similar to Nicola's, so I was keen to try this. It arrived from ASOS.com earlier this week, and the first drawback was apparent as soon as I opened the package: it's small. Yes, "Dainty" is the right word for this line, because the pot of foundation was smaller than I expected, but that aside, what did I think of it? Look under the jump to find out!
