The First Things I Learned About Foundation

Foundation to me was always this thing that “wasn’t necessary” in makeup. It was an optional extra that was the difference between someone who hated her face and loved her face. (Hence why I always used loose powder, probably.) Foundation, I used to believe, is what you used to “hide” your face. My understanding now is that it acts more as a base than a cover.

Hence its name, no doubt.

There are many different types of foundation: liquid (likely the most common), cream, mousse and powder. There are probably more that I haven’t found yet, but these seem to be the more popular ones.

There are also different coverages you can get with foundation: sheer, light, medium, and full.

There are different finishes: matte, satin, and something called “dewy” (I have as yet not been able to discern what that is meant to mean).

And, of course, there are different colors.

So, right away, there are decisions to make! What kind of coverage do you want? What type of foundation will you like? What kind of finish will suit your skintype? What does a finish even mean? How do I even put this shit on?Intimidated? I was! But eventually I figured out that foundation is used to even out your skintone and help blend away any blemishes or redness or spots, etc. Ideally, it’s not meant to COVER your face, but to blend INTO it. Okay, that seems cool… but I still had no idea what was ideal for me.

So I decided to just go with a product recommended by a source that was recommended by a friend.

MakeupGeek is a great online resource for tips and reviews on makeup. I do have some criticisms but she does strike me as an honest and talented makeup artist… and it was her Top Ten Best Foundations list that got me hooked.

Thanks to that, I chose the Revlon Colorstay because of the price and the fact that it was “For Oily/Combination Skin” whacked on the bottle. So, hey, a few decisions have already been made for me, woohoo. Plus, liquid being the most common, it’s hard to go wrong.

My mistake? MakeupGeek is based in the US, so the prices listed on her website are all based on American retail prices. So while Revlon is very cheap there (retailing at $12.99), it’s a whopping $37.95 here in Australia (and the exchange rate is practically 1:1 right now). WHAT. THE. SHIT.

But the sales assistant at the pharmacy I went to very helpfully demonstrated how to apply it and also showed me how to determine whether or not it suited my color.

So, under her instruction, I managed to pick the right shade pretty much right away. I asked her how much I should use, and she said, rather candidly, “as little as it takes to get the look you want, so you’ll have to figure that out yourself.”

And so I bought that ridiculously priced bottle of makeup and have been using it ever since, and have managed to figure out what’s worked for me… and it works beautifully. But I got lucky. As I was soon to learn, it could have all gone pear-shaped if I had not coincidentally decided on the perfect starter product.

TIPS AND TRICKS

The sales assistant’s beginner tips for choosing the right foundation for your skintone are:

1. Grab three different shades approximate to what you think your skintone  is.
2. Apply some of each onto the skin near your jawline, just above your neck.
3. Check how these look under good lighting (if there are any lighted mirrors nearby, use them) and, if you can, all the different lighting in the store.
4. The shade of foundation that disappears under all that lighting is the one that’ll suit you best. 

You don’t really need to worry about finishes if you’re just a beginner (or at least this is what I’ve told myself to feel more competent), but I did eventually find out what those terms mean and I’ll talk more about them later on!