Category: Beauty

Some Background Information To Keep In Mind

I am in my early 40s, and my skin type is dry, sensitive, and eczema-prone. I look for medium to full coverage because I have darkness around my mouth and forehead, and the occasional acne scar I want to cover. I often don’t take the time to spot conceal, so I want my foundation to do most of the heavy lifting around my face. I occasionally try lighter coverage products, but they aren’t my preference.

Creasing will happen, especially as we age and expression lines and wrinkles deepen. I’ve talked about this in most of my concealer reviews and a dedicated post about makeup creasing, but everything will eventually settle into lines. When the pigment starts collecting in the lines so much that I can see it from a distance, I consider that a deal breaker.  You may be surprised that I need to powder some foundations despite having dry skin. Sometimes, that is for better longevity and others to tone down an overly luminous finish. I use both a moisturizing serum and a heavy oil-based moisturizer, so that does come into play with how foundations perform. Keeping that in mind, you may be able to get better longevity or need less powder if you use a gel cream or silicone-based moisturizer. You may also have varying results if you use primer, which I don’t.

I have a warm olive, medium-deep skin tone (sometimes medium or tan, depending on the shade range). For shade reference, my best matches are NARS Natural Radiant Longwear Tahoe and Estee Lauder Double Wear 4W4 Hazel.

I decided not to even attempt to do this in a ranking style like I did with concealers. There are so many variations on formula, finish, and coverage that it didn’t feel like I could make sense of it that way. I have embedded a Google Sheet with the prices, shade range, notes, etc.  I have also linked to reviews and swatches that you can click on for further information if I have it.

One last note on the terminology I used for finishes other than matte formulas. I think the terms natural and satin are used interchangeably, so that is how I list them. To me, a natural/satin finish looks slightly drier than my moisturized skin and lacks the more smooth/blurred look of a matte finish. A radiant finish looks like freshly moisturized skin, and a luminous/dewy finish looks wet and sometimes oily.

Click the continue reading link to see the spreadsheet.

Continue reading “Foundation Round-Up (Dry, 40+ Skin)” →

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**Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Pressed Powder – Peach ($53, 8g)

When freshly applied, the Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Pressed Powder is mattifying without being dry-looking and blurring. As you can imagine, that impressed me.  However, I always end up with a shiny nose after about 3 hours. I have dry skin, and in the winter, it gets very dry.  In the summer, I can get slightly normal through the t-zone; I’m mostly dry, though.  My point is that I get shiny after a few hours, regardless of the season. So, for the mattified blurred effect of this powder to only last for 3 hours is baffling. I just can’t imagine who this is mattifying, but there are a lot of good reviews on it. The only thing I can think of is that it’s one of those instances where it’s drying me out so much that it’s making my skin overproduce oil.  The other issue I have is that despite its lack of longevity, it still feels dry and tight on my skin.

Continue reading “Makeup Fails (Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Pressed Powder and Smashbox Photo Finish Intensify 24 Hour Shadow Primer)” →

Here in the Boston area, fall weather can be all over the place, and this year has been no exception. Monday morning, when I checked the weather, it was 27 degrees. On the other hand, we’ve had days in the 70s and 80s. So, on one of those glorious warm and sunny days, I decided to dust off my Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation and concealer. My 41-year-old, dry, eczema-prone skin can no longer tolerate this matte formula when temperatures are low. The last time I wore it was in the winter, and it was no surprise, but it was uncomfortable to wear. So, I took full advantage of the warm weather to wear it again and see if I could even still use it. I’ll give you a rundown of the makeup look and other favorite products I used and link to full reviews in the headings if I have one. I’ll also mention if these items are still favorites. Let’s get into it. 🙂

IMPORTANT NOTE: I just want to quickly point out that the Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation is very matte in person, but the pictures below were taken in front of a large window on a sunny day. The light coming from the window makes it look like a natural finish, but I can assure you it is matte.

Continue reading “Revisiting Some Old Makeup Favorites” →

Depending on how long you’ve been visiting my website, you may remember when I talked about the Armani Beauty Lip Power Longwear Satin Lipstick ($45) in the shade 400. It was over 2 years ago, but I did not have a good experience and labeled it a failure. I purchased the Shade 400 as part of a set while I was on a trip to Las Vegas. There is an Outlet called the Luxury Beauty Store, and it carries brands that fall under the L’oreal Group. I’m mentioning this because I started to wonder if the set I bought was old stock, considering that it was at an outlet store. It is common for outlets to carry overstock and discontinued products, so the items can be older. I saw a lot of people raving about these lipsticks, and the hype got to me. So, I purchased the Armani Lip Power in shade 107 Sensual in October last year to find out if my experience with shade 400 was a fluke. Long story short: the performance of shade 107 is much better, but I stand by my opinion that the formula is slightly drying.

This blog uses affiliate links (marked with **).  I may earn a small commission when you purchase through links on my site.  Learn more here.

Continue reading “Armani Beauty Lip Power Longwear Satin Lipstick 107 Sensual (Swatch)” →

I’m back with more from Pat McGrath’s Holiday Collection. When I posted about the Luminous Legends Dawn Divinity 5-pan Palette earlier this month, I decided to leave out the duos. At the time, I wasn’t sure how I felt about their performance and wanted to give them more of a chance before I talked about them. Compared to the eyeshadows in the Dawn Divinity Palette, the texture of the Celestial Jade Duo ($25) and Petallic Passion Duo ($25) is looser and chunkier. However, the shade Twilight Topaz is an exception and feels similar to the duos. I prefer a more traditional smooth metallic texture, and since I don’t use glitter glue or a wet brush for application, I wanted to take my time and give these a fair shot. Now that I’ve had a good opportunity to use them and see how they wear, I wanted to share my thoughts and some swatches.

Continue reading “Pat McGrath Luminous Legends Eye Shadow Duos (Celestial Jade, Petallic Passion Swatches)” →

This blog uses affiliate links (marked with **).  I may earn a small commission when you purchase through links on my site.  Learn more here.

Milani promises that the **Gilded Mini Eyeshadow Palettes ($10.99) will have major color payoff, buttery high-intensity shadows, minimal fallout, and a seamless blend. While I don’t agree that these eyeshadows are buttery or have major payoff, I can agree that they have minimal fallout and are easy to blend. Despite getting a little carried away with the marketing claims, I think these are good eyeshadows that perform well for me. Whiskey Business is an all-matte palette, and It’s All Rose has 3 mattes and 3 shimmers. 

Overall, the mattes are a little dry, loosely pressed, and powdery (not too messy though). The mattes in the It’s All Rose Palette are a little creamier than those in the Whisky Business Palette. However, you aren’t likely to notice that difference when using them with a brush.  Although the shimmers in It’s All Rose aren’t as powdery as the mattes, all of the shades benefit from a slight tap over the pan to dust off excess powder before applying them to the eyes. This minimizes fallout, but it does not sacrifice much pigment. However, the shades still need building, especially if you are close to my skin tone (NARS Tahoe/Estee Lauder 4W4) or darker. The shimmers have a translucent quality that doesn’t necessarily keep them from showing up, but it does leave me wanting more pigment. I wouldn’t say these lack pigment, but more pigmented options exist.

Continue reading “Milani Gilded Mini Eyeshadow Palettes Whiskey Business and It’s All Rose (swatches)” →