I want to be a foundation-wearer

In the past year I’ve become increasingly infatuated with bases. As I tend to go for a very minimal, yet chic and polished makeup look on a day-to-day basis, an effortlessly flawless base has been my quest. I don’t think I have ever, in all my years of makeup wearing, purchased a foundation. I’ve gone through lots and lots of tinted moisturizers, and now the BB and CC creams. Also, ViviannaDoesMakeup (my “favourite” beauty blog and youtube channel) is foundation-obsessed, and it seems there’s nothing in the world a good foundation can’t solve.

However, whenever I have tried foundations in the past I feel they CONSISTENTLY cling to dry patches, and generally do not feel good on my skin. I recently went into Sephora to give the Nars Sheer Glow a go (not clean….I know, I know), and it did not look good, at all, on my skin. I switched to their tinted moisturizer et voilà – much better. So does this indicate that I should give up and stick to the lesser coverage of tinted moisturizers forever? Or press on, trying to find the proper formulation and use in conjunction with a primer to eliminate it looking like obvious foundation? I JUST WANT GLOWY, DEWEY, EVEN, FLAWLESS SKIN!

The following are the ones I’ve had my eyes on and have been sitting on my wish list for awhile – two are from “unclean” brands, two are from “clean” brands, and two are from “semi-clean,” or sometimes greenwashed clean brands. I should note that while my proclivities are towards clean/non-toxic makeup and body care products, I’m NOT a purist and if a conventional brand performs better than anything I can find in the natural community, I’ll make some allowances, if it’s really worth it to me.

1. Nars Sheer Glow Foundation ($45): All the rage on many a youtube channel, I love everything Nars – the aesthetic, and product performance, gets me EVERY.TIME.

2. Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua ($45): Another darling of the blogosphere and youtube, this seems to be many people’s absolute favorite everyday foundation – a water-based formula with a dewey finish.

3. Studio 78 Paris Chameleon Foundation ($52): Studio 78 is a beautiful, high-end, all-natural, non-toxic makeup brand. I’m a tremendous devotee of their bronzer, and their concealer is waiting patiently for me in a beauteabar.com shopping cart.

4. Kjaer Weis Cream Foundation ($68): The cadillac of this wish list, it is a f***ing expensive foundation. A luxury green beauty brand with gorgeous metal packaging and perfect ingredients, if money were no object this would already be mine. Yet I find creams to be a little high maintenance, requiring a brush, and often times a beauty blender to get even, flawless coverage. On a day to day basis, this is why I don’t reach for my RMS Un-Coverup more. I need to be able to just slap on and go!

5. Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage Foundation ($38): Reasonably priced, great shade range, and excellent reviews, this seems to be my best pragmatic bet to actually try. A Sephora sample is likely on the horizon.

6. bareMinerals Bareskin Pure Brightening Serum Foundation ($29): The most reasonably priced of the bunch, Sona Gasparian mentioned this in her most recent YouTube video. The ingredient list looks decent, it’s a water-based formula, and seems like a good bet. However, the reviews on it are mixed, and it looks like there’s a bit of a learning curve to learn how to apply for best results.

In my dream world, I’d have all of these (muahaha), but in reality I’ll probably get some samples of the ones I can and TRY to make them look good on my very dry skin. Can one even be foundation obsessed without owning any foundations?

*Photos are not my own – gleaned from google images