1. I have dry skin, like the sahara desert dry.
2. I have pale skin with a neutral undertone.
3. I get breakouts so need coverage.
Reason number one means I can't really wear powder of any kind on my face - this includes blush and highlighter. If I do I end up looking like a lizard shedding it's skin. The powder just clings to the dry patches and highlights them. Reason number two means that finding a colour that works can be tricky. Not only do I have pale skin but I have a neutral undertone, I have found that most liquid foundations have light shades but the lightest shades have pink undertones for those beautiful English rose skin types. This means that I either need to blend the foundation down my neck or try and search out another brand. The third reason is sort of tied to reason one. High coverage often means matte. Like the powder I can't do matte foundation because it clings to the dry patches on my skin. Over the past few years I have experimented with four different foundations from three different brands, two high end and two drugstore.
My foundation journey started at the Clinique counter, they were offering a colour match service so I thought I wouldn't have to worry about the pale skin thing because the assistant would match me. However, when getting colour matched I would think about the time of year you go. I happened to go in August, after England had been experiencing a heat wave of sorts. Now I don't really tan much, for two reasons, I slather myself in sunscreen and I am part Irish so I usually just burn. Having said this I was obviously more tan than I usually am because the shade that I was matched to worked for about a month and then Autumn arrived and I went back to being pale and I can no longer use that foundation unless I am auditioning for the part in Girls Aloud the musical. The Foundation I was matched to was the Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer in colour 1: Linen.
It goes on well and smooths out beautufully. It covers blemishes and evens out skintone which was pretty much everything I was looking for. Unfortunatly, when I went back for the lighter shade it has a pink undertone and doesn't work for my skin colour. I thought about buying it anyway and mixing it with Linen but at £25 a pop that was a step too far. Back to the drawing board.
In the search for a better option I saw Kathleen Lights review the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum. She said that it worked wonders for her dry skin and even left her skin looking dewy. So off I popped down to the drugstore and bought the lightest shade there which was, 51: Light Vanilla.
When I used this foundation I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing, it was amazing, it went on like satin, and didn't cling to any dry patches, it was great, however, its a light to medium coverage at best, this meant that as long as I don't have any severe breakouts this was the perfect everyday foundation for me. It matched my skin tone and was £10.99 less than half the price of the Clinique! Sorted!
Shortly after this however, I moved to a different part off the country and my skin started breaking out. I don't know whether it was a different water type or the fact I was more inland with no access to fresh coastal air but it was like I was 15 again and the Bourjois just wasn't cutting it. Back to square one.
It was at this point that Urban Decay came out with thier All Nighter foundation. Tipped as a fuller than full coverage foundation that would cover anything. Off I toddled down to the department store. When I swatched the All Nighter the first thing I noticed was that it had a very matte finish. This wasn't going to work, I could tell just by the way it was drying on my hand that I would end up looking scaley. Now, while I was at the Urban Decay counter I looked at the Naked Skin foundation.
This had more of a demi-matte finish but still had great coverage so I went for shade 1 because as usual the lightest shade 0.5 had a very pink undertone. This foundation cost me £28.50. Here is the issue, while the foundation wears well and looks great I can't afford to have this as my everyday foundation, so where to next? Back I trotted to the drugstore.
I looked at the many stands, I swatched until I had no space left on my arm (FYI: if you are testing for a colour match best to swatch on your neck or chest as you want your face to match the colour of your neck). Some foundations initially looked great but then oxidised and went very dark, or they were good coverage but matte, I was getting lost in a quagmire of foundation. It was then I went back to Bourjois and I noticed that next to the Healthy Mix Serum was the Healthy Mix Foundation.
This was said to be fuller coverage than the serum, the shades were exactly the same as the serum which meant no swatching, and it had a semi matte finish! Hurrah I found it. My everyday foundation, at £9.99 it was very affordable.
So this is wear I ended up, for my everyday breakout skin days I have the Healthy Mix Foundation, if I don't need to cover any spots I use the serum to even out my skin tone, and for special nights out I go with the Urban Decay Naked Skin.
As always I hope this has helped you in your search, should you have any hints or tips you would like to share please comment below.
P.S. The YouTuber Thataylaa is the go to beauty blogger for all things foundation, she has reviewed everything pretty much so if you want to see a range of foundations she is your girl, click on the picture to go to her page.
