It’s foundation extravaganza time!!

Yup, I bought a couple of my lemmings and have actually put most of them to the test already. Here’s a quick rundown. And i’ll try to give a more in-depth review in the future, if I feel like it, coz I’ve only done a couple days with each foundation.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Makeup

OMG, this is like hands down the most fabulous foundation in the world! It offers full coverage that doesn’t cake, controls oil very well and it has a shade that’s a perfect match to my skin tone! I love it so much that during my Bangkok holiday, I saw fit to bring only this foundation and no other alternative. It covers all my red spots and my awful dark under-eyes, and works wonders hiding the pores around my nose (those are the most prominent because I have a lot of pitted scars in that area and they accentuate pores so horribly!) I love that it wears a good 7-8 hours before I see it thinning on the oil on my nose. It never thins around my cheeks, chin and forehead, and that’s a feat coz I have really oily skin! When I retouch, I only have to blot around my nose and apply a bit of powder and the foundation looks as fresh as if i had just put it on. It’s also the most affordable in this list, coming at around $56 (SGD); it’s about the same price as my MAC foundation. The only down side that I found was the bottle. WTF no dispenser pump? That sucks. But beyond that, the foundation wins and has progressed to being my HG.

Diorskin Forever Haute Perfection Makeup

I bought this on a whim because Sephora at Marina Bay Sands didn’t have my shade of the MUFE HD and I was so disappointed that I had to pick up something to mollify myself. I’m on the fence with how much I like this foundation. On the one hand, it has pretty good coverage and feels ok and lightweight on the skin. It covers my eyebags flawlessly and overall looks really good, PLUS, the bottle has a pump dispenser. On the other hand, it’s expensive at $75 and, on occasion, I’ve found it cakes on my cheekbones, and that’s an odd place for foundation to cake. I suspect that might have been because of the face powder I used for retouching (Fanny Serrano Cake Foundation. Yup, I set my liquid foundation with powder foundation, and retouch with it too! LOL) This foundation is about half a shade lighter than my natural skin tone, and it’s slightly pinker, although it still has warm undertones. Nowadays, when I use it, I mix it with a bit of MAC Studio Sculpt at NC37 (way darker and yellower than my actual tone) or Revlon Colorstay. And that’s both for obtaining the right shade and to prevent the caking. I’ve been successful so far, but because this is so pricy, I would never wear it on a daily basis, and especially not when I’m just going off to work.

Lancome Maqui-Blanc Miracle

There’s nothing miraculous about this foundation wtf! When I was buying it, I asked for the fullest coverage foundation for Lancome, and this watered down crap was what I got! Don’t get me wrong: this foundation isn’t so bad if you were looking for light to medium coverage that shows a lot of your natural color (and blemishes!) under it. Maybe if I had flawless, even skin, this would have been a go-to. As it is, it isn’t full coverage enough to hide my little red capillaries around my nose. I need to use a concealer under it, and in the morning, I’m always in a hurry and simply don’t have time to play around with concealer when I could just reach for a foundation with better coverage. The oil control for this isn’t all that good either: it lasted maybe 4 hours before I could see that I had a budding pimple smack on the middle of my nose. This ain’t cheap either: it retails for $75, and I really would have wished for something that had better coverage and oil control for that amount of money.

NARS Sheer Glow Foundation

I bought this when I was in Bangkok. At Duty Free, it’s 1400BHT, and at the retail stores in malls, it’s 1650BHT. Pricing isn’t so bad - I thought it’s cheaper there than it is in Manila (this is over P3000 in Manila) and if I were to convert the retail price in Bangkok to SGD, it would have come out at around $68, all in all not a bad price for a really amazing foundation! I’ve been using it for 3 days and I absolutely love it: it’s good a good medium coverage that, when mixed with either Revlon Colorstay or MAC Studio Sculpt, yields a very good full face that covers all my blemishes (including my currently red nose that really lights up like Rudolph because of the zit) The slight creamy glow makes me look like I have awesomely healthy skin, and if I wanted the glow to go away, all I needed was a matte finish powder foundation for setting. Again, this doesn’t have a pump nozzle and that’s always a down side for me, because I just find that pouring foundation from the bottle mouth is messy business and almost always makes me use more than what I need. I found that I have a couple red spots ( dunno yet if these are zits or whatever) around my forehead and chin after 3 days of using this. I haven’t really changed anything in my routine  except for the foundation (and a change in the sponge brand I’m using), so this might actually be the one giving me the spots. But the spots are almost unnoticeable even without makeup, so I still might give this foundation a chance before I convince myself that I’m allergic. :p It’s really really nice, after all, and I really really wanted this for a very long time.

And that is it! I’m not reviewing the MUFE HD Foundation yet, since I haven’t tried it. I’ve just picked it up last night and I want the three little red spots on my face to go away first before I try another new foundation, so I’ll save that one for another day :) 

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