Not that I spend that long doing my make up everyday anyway, but I do find it tiresome applying liquid foundation sometimes, I always get it everywhere, and then you got rewash your hands, then you touch your top and you get foundation everywhere, you get my drift.
Stick foundation sounded like a blessing – I liked the sound of three; Becca’s, Laura Mercier and Shiseido’s. I already have Shiseido stick foundation OC40 (slightly too light on me) and I cannot stand the scent (sort of flowery-sweet) Shiseido put into their bases. I have only been using their Hydro Power Compact because I love it so, but I can barely tolerate the smell. (MAQUillage Creamy Compact foundation is amazing, by the way and has no scent).
Anyway, Becca is expensive in the UK, and I got a bit confused by the skin colour chart, plus the customer services never got back to me with advice, so Laura Mercier is was.
The little powder is Secret Brightening Powder, which it for under the eye area, or anywhere that needs some brightening. I go the one for medium skins, so it blends nicely and doesnt appear chalky on my NC35 skin.
When ripping the protective plastic, be careful, my dears;
Tut. It was really stuck on though. Hmph.
I bought it in Natural, choosing a shade over the net is always difficult. The next one up on Laura Mercier’s website is medium, but on the Strawberrynet website (with quite accurate photos) it looked like Natural is darker than Medium…go figure.
The foundation has a SPF 15 and as a light to medium coverage.
I quite like the chubby stick, although I am not into Laura Mercier packaging. I have so far found the texture to be pretty dry – it drags a little on the skin and doesn’t glide on as well the the Shiseido stick.
The coverage is good on areas on redness, althought a had some bit of discolouration it didn’t seem to cover without a few layers. The colour match was good, so it wasn’t to hard to blend it. Because my skin is dry at this time of year, it lasted fine, but would have needed some topping up (if I could be bothered) after four hours or so.
This was £30.00 (eek).
The Secret Brightening Powder is light, and blends really well, not leaving the racoon effect. I really liked this product and it would be a good one to use on top of your under eye concealer since it won’t dull any reflective concealer you have used.
You get a small pot for £15.00.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hmmm, yes, I can see that Becca would be tempted to jack up the price in ‘rip-off Britain’, although they did have a 20% off code in the US and UK a while back. You’re not missing anything, though; the stick foundation/tinted moisturizer were middling, at best.
This page can be helpful in finding the right shade sometimes:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/chiaxx/
foundation.html
I actually actually also preferred creme foundation (less messy) until I bought my beauty blender sponges. They’re great in that they keep my fingers clean and don’t streak like foundation brushes. I did review on them a little while back.
I’m not sure if BB is available in the UK, but it’s worth a try.
For the longest time, I used creme concealer in place of liquid foundation, but recently I’ve discovered a new liquid foundation by Maybelline that’s changed my mind. The ‘Mineral Power’ line just came out here in the States, but hopefully it will reach your shores soon (16 shades and testers at most drugstores)!
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Hey Mandypandy -
See I tried the Becca Pencils & a palette of theirs – LOVELY! But they recommend like, 4 stages to their base application at £30 a pop is £120. Eek. Forget that.
Mineral Makeup isn’t that big in the UK – apart from BE I can’t think of mainstream suppliers of mineral makeup but I am quite fond of it although I need to try more out before I find my ideal formula!
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Don’t worry, drugstore mineral makeup rarely (if ever) has actual minerals in it; it does seem a bit ludicrous that it’s called ‘Mineral Power’ when the only minerals I could find were Titanium Dioxide and Iron Oxides (after a laundry list of chemicals). Still, this is good because regular MMU is powdery, dry and makes my skin itch. My sister uses Bare Minerals and I can’t fathom the idea of paying $65 a month for MMU.
I’ll try to post the review of MP ASAP; this is one drugstore product to watch out for!
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