Here are all the reasons I hear from many women about why they don’t wear foundation:
- It feels and looks like a mask on my face
- It feels thick on my skin, I hate the feeling
- It looks cakey on my skin
- It makes me look worse, not better
This then begs the question, what can be wrong when it comes to your foundation, and most importantly, how do you fix it?
Problem: Too much product has been applied to the skin, resulting in a thick, heavy, suffocating feeling.
Solution: You’ve got to keep your application of foundation whisper-thin, only use the absolute bare amount necessary (A Foundation Brush is a game changer to controlling how much product you apply and how expertly it’s blended out).
Problem: The wrong shade of foundation has been chosen, making you look ghostly pale, or oddly tan.
Solution: You need to have the proper shade of foundation, no if and’s or but’s about it. And trying to do this in a drugstore aisle reading a name on a bottle, or in a poorly lit indoor space, can be almost impossible. You need to have the shades swatched (ie, sampled), on your jawline to see which is the shade for you. And how do you know when it’s the shade? It should virtually disappear into the skin and subtly harmonize all the various shades of your skin into one more uniform, consistent, tone. (For perfect medium coverage my absolute fav foundation is my Flawless Finish liquid foundation).
Problem: When the product looks cakey on the skin there can be two potential culprits at play - the first is the condition of your skin. If your skin is very dry and rough, foundation won’t want to play nicely; sticking and looking patchy. And the second potential culprit is the type of foundation being used may be too dry or heavy for your skin such as a very matte finish liquid or a heavy cream texture.
Solution: For dry rough skin the immediate quick fix is lots of moisturizer to help soften things up. And long term develop a skincare routine to keep your skin its most smooth and glowing (who doesn’t want that regardless!). And as for the type of foundation, liquid foundations, in my opinion, are the best bet for the smoothest, most natural-looking finish. If you’ve got quite dry skin and are after a very light coverage check out my BB Cream, it’s part foundation part moisturizer and all things marvellous.
When you’ve got your foundation properly dialled in here’s what it does for you:
- Somewhat paradoxically, your overall look is less “made up” (ie busy looking) even though you have that small extra bit of makeup on because there’s less overall colour variation happening throughout your entire complexion.
- Gives your other creamy makeup products (cream blush, illuminating lotions, liquid shadows) something to blend into.
- Allows your powder makeup (eyeshadows, contour powders, powder blush, powder highlighters) to grab ahold of something, it creates adherence.
- Produces that consistent, creamy look to your skin that reads as health, vibrancy and beauty.
