4 Foundations and a BB Cream

By Johanna over at One Girl's Thoughts on Life

I didn't start wearing foundation regularly until probably my last year of high school, I used concealer for spots etc but I don't recall getting up in the morning and 'putting my face on' while I was wearing a school uniform.

Firstly let me explain my skin. I am very fair but I can have quite patchy skin in the areas around my nose and chin which can become quite red, something I like to even out. My skin is sun sensitive so wearing products which contain SPF is important to me. I have very oily skin which responds negatively to oily products so I usually go for an oil free option although this has calmed down in the last few years so I am not as concerned about this as I was when I was in my early twenties. I don't like to use products that contain alcohol or strip my skin down because in the long run this just makes parts of my face really oily an other parts really dry. This also gives me sore skin. I go for gentle products so that when I wear make up my skin is a clean and an even slate to work with which wont react to my makeup.

My first foundation was by Revlon and I wore this for a few years. It had great coverage for when my skin broke out or needed to be evened out. When I started using this product it was very affordable. I seem to recall shelling out less that $30 for a bottle of this stuff and in Australia I would wait for it to go on sale at the Giant Chemist which would bring it down to $20. It then crept up in price and the last  bottle I purchased (a few years ago) cost me over $60. As my skin changed from teenager's skin and calmed down a bit I found this product too thick and also found that all the shades of this foundation are pink based and I needed something with a little bit more yellow in it to match my skin colour better.

So I then moved on to Sheer Cover. I started wearing this over a long hot summer and because it is a mineralised foundation it was very lightweight. The concealer that came with the foundation was awesome and I continued to order that after I stopped using the foundation. I loved this product for during the summer when my skin was a little more tanned but in winter I needed something with better coverage to cover my red areas. I also found the ordering system frustrating. I didn't want to be committed to a new supply every few months so each time I wanted a new foundation I had to join up, place my order, wait for it to arrive and then cancel my membership so that I wouldn't keep getting sent new ones and getting charged. You also get two shades of sheer cover so you can blend your own colour but I only wanted the light one. All and all, too frustrating.

Next up was MAC. I had my make-up done for a work event and liked the foundation so I purchased it. I wore this for about 6 months and it worked well for me. I still sometimes use this if I am going out for the evening and want something a little heavier. It is quite a matte finish and does shift during the day. I didn't like that I had to touch up if I wanted it to last from morning until bedtime and i'm not crazy about the smell of this foundation. At $60 per bottle this was quite similar to the Revlon foundation but with a much wider range of shades.

I was then gifted a bag full of make-up/beauty items for Christmas a year ago. Inside I found a BB cream from Korea that I just fell in love with. I have tried the Garnier BB cream and found it very thin and more like a tinted moisturiser so I was dubious when I gave this one a shot. This one is put out by a company called Missha and the cream is SPF 25. I wore this all through winter and loved it. It only comes in two shades so I wear the darker of the two but can only wear this during the colder months when my skin is at it's lightest. Once summer arrived I needed something a little darker so that I didn't have a ghost face. I have been purchasing this BB cream from Ebay for around $20 each time (plus postage). Definitely a product I will continue to repurchase.

Most recently I started to use my favourite of all - Estee Lauder's double wear foundation. This stuff is amazing. I was introduced to this by the make-up artist who did my sister's wedding. She did a great job and I liked the foundation so much that I purchased it afterwards.  It is the most expensive of the lot but I find that per application I use a smaller amount than all of the foundations above. I use a cotton bud to pick up the product and dab a spot on my forehead, each side of my nose and my chin and then using my fingers I blend this out. I was told at the make-up counter to 'start in the middle of your face and work your way outwards, like a flower'.  This product cost me $80 but retails at Farmers for cheaper when they are having a make-up sale. My favourite features of this foundation are  the range of shades and that it lasts all day long, and then some more. It is very long wearing but isn't thick and chalky. I'll certainly be using this whole bottle.