Alright y’all. Let’s talk foundation. My entire life I have always been pink. I was not blessed with the gene that many of my friends have to not immediately fry when left out in the sun…for all of 3 minutes.
So number one for everyone living in hot weather - sunscreen, sunscreen, suncreeeeeen. Say it with me, sun-screen! Cannot emphasize how important this is for just even going to get your mail. Put it in your hair too, I had to remind my northern girlfriends when they came down, heat protectant in your hair is important so you don’t fry. End of my PSA - Back to our scheduled foundation talk:
I have found myself always using matte everything, since I’m a millennial, natural moisturizing was my enemy. St Ives apricot face scrub terrorized us all, and I scrubbed my face off with it every day. That being said I love that product, I still use it sparingly now, I don’t care, it smells great and like nostalgia from when I didn’t have to pay taxes.
My go to everyday is Estée Lauder’s double wear. The entire line is great honestly. I know a lot of people see it as “grandmas make up,” but realistically the foundation does not leave your face. (We’ll get into the double wear line and their color pallet in a later post) Now proper skin prep is always needed. Go through your skin care routine and use their pink bottle for primer it’s the dewy/glowy one. (Specific I know sorry. I’ll update this promise.) This lasts me all day in the heat, doesn’t oxidize, and comes in a lot of shades. Forewarned, it absolutely needs a translucent powder over it after. It can get tacky on your face. But, I think all foundations need a translucent powder if you’re using a liquid foundation. It just makes it more comfortable on your face and helps it last longer.
My personal rule of thumb is to use primers and powders within the same brand. Ie: foundation is from NARS use their setting and primers. Normally products are formulated together which makes them work better.
I say this with the urgency to use caution though you may find something that works amazingly and not in the same brand. Milks new primer is great under my Estée Lauder but not under my glossier foundation. Which is just the name of the game is trying everything out. And I drove myself crazy doing this so you don’t have to!
If you’re a natural finish type of person. Which I was not until I was a recently converted glossier girl. (Im so late to this being trendy but who cares.) If your skin is super dry, I highly recommend NARS, their foundation is hydrating, gives a light weight natural finish, and is more cool toned friendly than other brands. For cool toned people, some brands may lean in too much on the pink undertone, and it changed the shade. NARS has it figured out. Their foundation was a dead ringer for my skin tone, the color match was perfect but sadly, I am oily as all hell. It slipped right off my face and my cousin benefited from my purchase since we’re pretty close in skin tone. The natural finish product that did work for me though was glossier. The formula is light weight and if you use it with their primer, it absolutely lasts all day without the need for a touch up. I will say their setting powder doesn’t last too long so try a tried and true powder you love. For me that’s fenty the powder press, or mac. Macs powder is sweat proof and won’t fail you it’s a classic.
Also recently tried Cover Fxs line since it was half off. And because I have what I lovingly call “fish brain” (shiney so we bought it) I purchased the whole foundation line. Honest opinions its a great dupe for the esteé lauder double wear. The coverage was insanely good, I almost thought it wasn’t a shade match due to how full coverage it was. All of the red in my face was just gone in seconds.