Foundation | Beauty and Fashion Tech

Makeup Forever Duo Mat Powder Foundation

Makeup Forever Powder Foundation is my new favorite! I have been looking for some time for the perfect pressed mineral makeup foundation. Then I branched out into looking at powder foundation in general, without focusing on whether they were classified as “mineral makeup.” That is when I found MAKE UP FOR EVER Duo Mat Powder Foundation.

Makeup Forever has really been impressing me lately and their duo mat foundation is the best pressed powder foundation that I have tried yet. I liked Amazing Cosmetics Mineral Foundation (link is to previous review) quite a bit, but Makeup Forever tops it for three reasons: First, it covers better. Second, it wears longer. Third, the included applicator is actually pretty good. I highly recommend Makeup Forever powder foundation for melasma sufferers and can pretty much guarantee that it will appear on my year-end best products list.

Makeup Forever Duo Mat Foundation comes packaged in a mirrored compact with a sponge applicator. Coverage from this foundation when applied with the sponge applicator is medium to full. Use a brush for a more sheer look. Because this powder foundation covers very well, it is perfect for those with melasma, hyperpigmentation, or redness, who have difficult areas to conceal. It is also oil free, and I have had no problems with it on my acne prone skin. In fact, as discussed below, I particularly recommend this one for people with oily skin becasue it contains mattifiers.

The look from Makeup Forever Duo Mat Foundation is also nicely matte. I often get annoyed with mineral foundations because mineral makeup tends to be on the shiny and shimmery side, especially if it contains bismuth—an ingredient that can also cause skin irritation in some people. Makeup Forever Duo Mat Foundation is not just oil and bismuth free, it also contains ingredients to absorb oil and sebum to retain a matte look. However, the product does not feel drying, thanks to an anti-dehydrating agent. Those with oily skin will likely appreciate this powder foundation the most, but it certainly would be wearable by those with normal and even dry skin, especially if a moisturizer was applied first. People with dry skin would likely be happier with a liquid or cream foundation though.

Makeup Forever powder foundation is not streaky and wears most of the day for me without needing reapplication. Frankly, it is the best powder foundation that I have tried yet and I imagine it will be hard to find one that beats it. It gets excellent reviews online at Sephora as well.

You can find Makeup Forever at Sephora stores for $32. I bought mine in the store. If you shop online, the color names are pretty accurate (e.g. my ivory is a standard ivory), but the shade swatches there look pinker than the actual product is. Sephora does take returns of open products if you order online and end up with the wrong shade.

Note, this article uses affiliate links, for more please see my disclosure page.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Revlon New Complexion One Step Foundation

Awhile back I was in Vegas and realized that I had left my makeup bag sitting at home. Now, a girl can’t be in Vegas without makeup, so I popped into a CVS and grabbed a few items to get me through the trip and purposely picked out things I had not tried before so that I could review them.

For foundation, I grabbed Revlon New Complexion One Step Oil Free Makeup With SPF 15. This is a cream to powder type of foundation. The foundation comes in a compact that flips up to expose an included sponge applicator—something else I needed since I left mine at home! Overall, the Revlon New Complexion Foundation wore fairly well. It wasn’t the best I have ever tried, but I liked it fine. Coverage was medium, and it stayed put for most of the day. I didn’t experience any breakouts or serious issues with it. Mostly, the color wasn’t perfect. What I hate about shopping for drugstore products is the general inability to test the times in the store.

At $12, the price is OK. I don’t know if I would buy the Revlon foundation again, but it certainly was perfectly serviceable, and I liked that it came with a sponge applicator, which is always good when traveling.

Popularity: 1% [?]

L’Oreal True Match Roller Foundation

Makeup companies are always looking for new ways to get you to spend your money. Lately it seems like applicator gimmicks are all the rage. Just look at all of the various vibrating mascaras out there! Anyway, L’Oreal has a new foundation with a new roller applicator: L’Oreal True Match Roller Foundation. It has been in Europe for a while and has just recently arrived in the United States. I saw a TV commercial for it and was curious, so I picked one up at Walgreens to do a review, where it appears to be pretty popular—I got one of the last few left and was lucky that they had my shade.

The L’Oreal Roller Foundation is a pressed cream foundation. The applicator is a foam brush on a roller. The idea is that you roll the brush over the foundation and then onto your face, which L’Oreal claims will create a streak free airbrushed look. However, that wasn’t exactly the case for me.

The first time that I used it, I found that the foundation went on a bit streaky and I had to smooth it out with my fingers. I also thought that the roller brush was difficult to use under the eyes and around the nose. The second time that I used it, I put a lot less on the brush and had less streaks, but didn’t get very good coverage that way. In both instances though, once I smoothed out a few areas and put on some tinted powder over the foundation, things looked OK. Not spectacular, but OK. Coverage is on the sheer side.

The upshot is that I am not particularly impressed with the L’Oreal True Match Roller Makeup. You can get a better look using a standard makeup sponge as an applicator and, at $14 for the foundation, I didn’t think the quality was worth the price. Basically, there are better drugstore foundations for less. For example, I love Sally Hansen Natural Beauty (link is to previous review). However, there is one upside to the product that will keep me using it on occasion. I like the idea of the applicator being included in the case for travel, since I tend to prefer to not have used makeup sponges floating around in my makeup case. So I’ll save it for that.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Purely Cosmetics Mineral Foundation

Looking for bismuth free, high quality mineral makeup? Purely Cosmetics is the place to go. I gave several of the foundations a try and found that I got the some of the best coverage and overall look from them that I have ever gotten from a lose powder mineral foundation. The foundations are also actually pure. There are no irritants in them, and in particular, there is no bismuth—an ingredient that is present in a large number of mineral foundations, including many that use words such as “pure” in their name or advertising.

Pure Mineral Foundation provides smooth coverage with some decent oil absorption—it is recommended for normal to oily skin types. I tried the version with silk powder added, which made for great oil absorption, plus some extra sun protection. I sometimes get a bit shiny by the end of the day with some mineral makeup brands, but not with this foundation. Coverage was also lovely. The foundation goes on smooth, sits nicely on the skin, and is buildable. I added extra to cover areas of melasma and pigmentation with great success. The foundation lasted all day.

Purely Cosmetics Skin Smoothing Foundation contains silk for hydration, silica to blur fine lines, jojoba, and boron to reduce pore visibility. It is not recommended for very oily skin. It wore pretty much the same for me as the Pure Mineral foundation and had bit silkier feeling to it. It happened that my skin was being rather oily when testing it though, so the Pure Mineral Foundation worked better for me because it absorbed the oil better, although the skin smoothing foundation still worked pretty darn well for me.

Another Item I really liked was the Silk and Pearl Primer. This interesting powder primer does a bang up job at absorbing oil. I played with it both by using it with mineral makeup and, despite its marketing as a primer, with using it on top of liquid foundation. It worked well for both. Purely Cosmetics also has an interesting looking finishing powder, but I didn’t give that one a try.

Purely Cosmetics also has a nice line of brushes (the flat top foundation brush works great), brush covers ( a great travel accessory), eye shadows, and more. I will discuss the eye shadows in a later review. All products are affordable and of better quality than a number of more expensive brands. Starter kits and samples are also available. I highly recommend them!

Popularity: 2% [?]

M.A.C Cosmetics Well Defined Collection

MAC has a pretty good new foundation and concealer out as part of their Well Defined collection. The Studio Sculpt foundation incorporates silicone, which I particularly like. It also includes SPF 15. In addition, the collection has a full coverage Studio Sculpt concealer.

From the company literature:

Well-Defined brings to life over two years of work backstage in the lab to perfect our newest foundation and concealer. Studio Sculpt SPF 15 Foundation is a rich, luxurious Cream Foundation in tube. This lush uniquely textured foundation delivers ultimate hydration while instantly revitalizing dull and dry skin. Smooth and even application yields a medium buildable coverage with a natural-satin finish. It’s paired with Studio Sculpt Concealer, which provides full-coverage that never becomes dry and cakey with a gel-based cream formula slips onto skin, effortlessly hiding imperfections.

Look for the MAC Well Defined collection beginning February 7, 2009. Also, don’t forget that the Hello Kitty collection will be available shortly after that (I’m saving all of my monthly cosmetics budget for that one!)

Popularity: 2% [?]

Etude House BB Magic Cream SPF 30 and Foundation Review

Update! Look for Etude House, especially the BB Magic Cream on COSME-DE.COM. There isn’t a lot there, but there but there are a couple of COSME-DE.COM (who also usually has free shipping) shopping boxes at the end of this post, along with a few Amazon links.

Etude House is a South Korean cosmetics brand that sells out of stores fashioned as adorable princess type houses. If you are able to get it at regular price, the Etude House line is one of the best bets out there for very affordable quality. Unfortunately, however, it is pretty hard to get Etude House outside of Korea and a few other Asian countries. You can purchase the brand from several excellent Ebay sellers, but will have to pay a markup. I actually think it is still of such quality that it is worth that markup, but still, it would be nice to be able to get their items at a better price.

I recently gave a number of Etude House items a try. Today’s review looks at the popular Etude House BB Magic Cream and their foundation.

Etude House Magic Cream is essentially a makeup primer. The BB in Magic Cream stands for blemish balm, which is meant as a soothing treatment balm that also covers redness and blemishes, but it is not really an acne treatment. The Blemish Balm is lightly tinted so as to provide a bit of coverage and evening of the skin tone, but it also provides a good base for foundation. Overall, this is one of the better and more interesting makeup primers that I have used. I provides a nice base, and I particularly find that it works well as a light primer for mineral makeup or powder foundations. Between the tint in the blemish balm and that in the makeup, it covers my areas of redness and melasma very well without making me look way too overly made up.

Etude House’s regular Blemish Balm formulation is a bit on the oily side. I have had no problems with it breaking me out, but if you have oily skin, you might prefer one of their formulations for that skin type. The added SPF 30 to the product is a big bonus, and actually is what I think makes it seem initially oily because the oily feeling goes away after it absorbs.

There are a couple of downsides to the Etude House Magic Cream. First, it has a pump tube, which I really don’t care for all that much. Those tend to either break or they leave too much unused product when the tube gets low. Second, although labeled as a blemish balm, Magic Cream doesn’t really conceal quite enough to be used alone. It is better as an overall tinted base for foundation or powder unless you want particularly sheer coverage. Etude House does make a heavier blemish Etudbalm though that covers more.

Etude House Dream On Foundation is wonderful stuff and is my new favorite in the area of liquid foundations. Etude House foundation has a moisturizing feel to it, but it is not at all oily. I wear it just fine on my currently oily skin. It sits on the skin quite well, without sinking into pores, which makes me wonder if it has some silicone in it—something that I love in a foundation. Because they are in Korean, I can’t read the ingredients to tell, but it feels like it does. Coverage is sheer-medium. Use the blemish balm under it, or a mineral powder over it for a bit more coverage. Use it alone for the most natural look if you are lucky (I’m not so lucky) and don’t have pigmentation to cover.

Right now Ebay is one way to get Etude House outside of a few Asian countries, but Cosme-De, linked above can be a good option. They also are a great source for asian beauty products in general.On Ebay, I have purchased from both iabsolutefashions and rumistyle. Both gave great service and included some samples with my package, which was nice.

I will be reviewing more Etude House makeup items in the future as I purchased quite a bit in order to maximize on shipping costs. So far, I love everything that I have ordered!

At Amazon:

ETUDE HOUSE BB Magic Cream
ETUDE HOUSE VIP Dear Darling Lips PK007

Another Update: Also look at Etude House USA for items. They are rather new and I have not purchased from them, but they seem to have a decent selection.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Prescriptives Flawless Skin Makeup

I am big fan of Prescriptives Makeup and their huge range of shades. If you have not previously been color typed by them, head over to a Prescriptives counter and try them out. The people there can match you with the perfect shade of foundation.

Prescriptives Flawless Skin Total Protection Makeup is one of my favorites. This foundation contains ingredients to protect against environmental skin damage and has SPF 15 sunscreen. It is also oil free.

I really like the feel of Prescriptives Flawless Skin makeup. It is light, and although oil free, it does not feel dry. Coverage is in the medium range. This is one of my preferred foundations for days when I think I will get a bit of sun and still need to be fairly made up.

Shop for Prescriptives Makeup