Make up Forever Mat Velvet + Matifying Foundation

Make Up Forever Mat Velvet + Matifying Foundation

 

Best. Foundation. Ever!!!!  I LOVE this foundation!!!!  Next to my acne my biggest problem with foundation is finding the correct shade because I'm very fair but often lightest shade is too light and the next shade is too dark. Its SO frustrating!  Alas I've found something that works perfectly!

 

(Photo from Sephora.com)

 

Product Details

 

* $ Retails for 36 and Sephora and Sephora.com is the exclusive retailer of it.

* 16 Shades available

* Full Coverage

* Water Resistant

 

Why I love it (and I think you will too)

 Match is perfect.  If you've been reading my blog (or if you view my pics) you'll see matching my skin is hard to do. I was matched as the 3rd shade which 25 warm ivory for pink undertones. I was skeptical at first because I'm never the third shade and only once have I been the second (Urban Decay Naked Skin I wear 1.0 which is the second shade---My review here).  Anyway I couldn't be more wrong, I honestly feel like this is the most naturally looking make up I've worn yet.  Its more like enhanced skin, I love it blend in so well that it doesn't scream "I'm wearing make up."

 

Long Wearing.  I have very oily skin.  To really test out the water resistant claim (in my mind if they are claiming water resistance my oily skin shouldn't melt it off my skin) I haven't been wearing primer with it.  I've been putting it on before work and taking it off almost 12 hour later and while I can tell it has worn off some,  for the most part its still there.  The key here is that I have to take it off, most foundation is almost complexly gone from my skin (without primer and even with if its a super long day) by the end of the day.   To make sure by fluke my skin hasn't magically gotten less oily I wore two different foundations without primer and noticed my skin is still oily. In fact I was rather disgusted at how bad my skin looked by the end of the day.

 

Full Coverage.   As you'll see in my before pictures I have a lot of redness, marks, and acne on my skin.  I am blown away with the coverage of this foundation.  With a very small amount (about the size of a pea) of product I'm able to cover up almost everything.  Best part is even though it covers up a lot it still looks natural.  If I want a really flawless look I use some of their long wear concealer (I'll make a separate post about it later).

 

Enough of my excited babbling lets look at some comparison pics.

Comparisons

 

Sorry for all of the goofy faces I'm making.  Also I know the lighting varies a good bit but hopefully you can still see the amount of coverage.  All of these pics are with the foundation only, no powder or concealer.

 

These are taken after trying the foundation for a couple of weeks.  My skin is really freaking out in these which isn't cool but does help to show the coverage off better .

 

 

Full Face Pics

Again with some pretty ridiculous expressions. I'm not very good at taking the selfies lol.  All of these are my finished out the door look so I have added some finishing powder and blush but no concealer.

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

This foundation is my holy grail because not only does it match my skin perfectly but it stays on all day.  Really I couldn't ask for anything else of my foundation.  I think if you decide to try it you'll love it as well. I would love to hear other opinions.

 

 

Thanks for reading

 

~Em

 

 

 

 

 



 



Too Faced Air-Buffed BB Creme Complete Coverage Makeup

Too Faced Air-Buffed BB Creme

I admit when I first heard about it I was excited (I've been on a bit of a BB kick lately and I already love Too Faced ) but I wasn't so sure after hearing others opinions on it.  I ended up going to Ulta last week to check it out, even the Ulta employee (I so wish I could remember her name so it would sound more personal but still not sure I would use it for privacy reasons) that helped me did not like it upon first impression.  She had tried it with the brush it comes with and wasn't impressed with how it applied.  She put on me with a regular foundation brush and we were both pleasantly surprised at the coverage.  

Too Faced's Claim:

The first complete coverage Beauty Balm that evens skin tone and banishes imperfections with an air-buffed second skin finish.   They claim five benefits:

* Perfects

*Mattifies

*Primes

*Moisturizes

*Protects with SPF 20

How it compares to their claim:

As you've probably gathered from my babble above despite some negative reviews  of others, I really like it.   As you'll see below my skin is pretty uneven from acne/blemish scares and it does blur out/even out these areas well.   As mentioned in most of my posts I do have very oily skin so the priming quality is very important to me.  I've been wearing this everyday since I got it last week and I have not had any trouble with oil on my skin.  Some of my days are pretty long such as on Tuesday I put on Makeup around 7 am and take it off around 10 PM, and I'm pleased to say I did not have an oily areas.  I would dare say my skin was better than when I wear a primer under my foundation instead of the BB (I do wear foundation over this).

I'm not really sure how I feel about the brush being attached to the package but I suppose it makes it easier to carry around.  

 The brush is tiny, as hopefully the photo shows.  I usually use one of my other foundation brushes to apply it.    I have taken it on the go a few times (sometimes I put on makeup at work after gym) and the brush does okay in a pinch.  If I do use the brush I use my fingers in conjunction with it to make sure I get it blended in well.

 Its about the same texture as a foundation that's been pressed (eh maybe that's not the right word) into a compact).  My shade is snow glow--Porcelain skin with pin undertones and once I can say its the perfect shade match for me.  The other BBs I have tried (I'll review them soon) have been a bit orange (they still blended okay, but honestly I think it helps when match is already accurate without a ton of blending).

 As mentioned in their claim it starts off as a liquid and turns into powder.  This finger swatch shows how light its is.  I can't even begin to say how excited I am that this does not have the typical yellow tint.

Comparisons

Left side is before/Right is after on all pics below

I took a ton of pictures because I wanted to really show off how well it works.  Note that is a BB so it was never intended to provide full coverage but I do think it accomplishes the goal of evening out skin tone while priming for foundation.

The full face comparison doesn't show as much as I would like (I still need to learn how to use lighting properly) so I have several side views to help show what I'm talking bout coverage wise.   Even though this picture isn't the best I think you can see that overall my skin is evened out and redness is much less noticeable.

As you can see I have a good amount of redness/marks from my acne.  This BB doesn't complete hid these imperfections but it definitely takes the attention from them while evening out my overall skin.

 
Extreme close up to demonstrate how it camouflages redness/acne marks

Notice the redness near my check in the before and how its not as noticable in the after pic .  Also my skin is really broken out near my chin, I feel like it takes some of the attention away from these blemishes.

 Extreme close up to show redness/acne.  This is not full coverage so I would use a foundation over it, but I do think it takes away from my imperfections.

Ignore my goofy smile, but I wanted to include a full face picture. I totally forgot my lip gloss :(.   If you take anything at all from all my babbling know that it evens out skin well while camouflaging redness.  If you do not have acne/or as serve as mine it will work for you even better.

Sorry for the lighting (I feel like I"m always having to say that :( ) but I wanted to include a full face picture.  I know its a little zoomed out (hence all my close up side shots) but I think you can see overall the improvement of my skin.  Side note my hair is getting really long.  I'm totally in love with my Chi I got for Christmas--makes straightening my hair so much easier.

 Bottom Line

This BB is my new must have for my makeup routine.  I just love how flawless (okay maybe not flawless but much improved) my skin looks using this.  To finish off my face I add foundation (usually Urban Decay Naked Skin (its my favorite) , and little bit of loose powder (Bare Minerals Mineral veil) .  I really could skip the powder but I'm used to using it to give me a bit more coverage and to finish off my overall look.  I did wear the BB only one day to test how well it combats oil and I was very impressed.  I have also gone several days with the BB and foundation, with no powder. To be honest less is more for me with makeup routine during the week (I admit I sleep to the last minute).

I'll hush now and say this in conclusion:  Go out to your local makeup counter and give this a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed (Once you figure out how you want to apply it tool wise).


Thanks for reading,

Em :)