Word "on the street" (wig-tip to Morgan & Ezzie) is that queens are switching to Ben Nye's foundation, which is engineered for TV and studio work. Myself, I decided to trailblaze...mostly because I don't know where to buy Ben Nye foundation here in the burbs of Kitchener/Waterloo. Frankly I'm sick of hunting around for foundation, I'd rather pay more in exchange for convenience.
So I started talking to Cosmeticians. "What's the hot new product?" I asked. They've all said "Cover FX," a Canadian company that specializes in foundation made for women who've accidentally fallen into threshing machines. It's heavy-duty stuff. It covers everything. It's freaking expensive.
So I wandered over to the "big" local drug store and waited to be served. The woman ahead of me was desperate to look y0ung, and the cosmetician was selling her on Neostrata. She was saying all sorts of bullcrap about how natural it was, etc., and I stood there thinking "only a moron would buy into this spiel."
Half an hour -- and one spiel -- later, I found myself paying $171 for the Cover FX foundation, the setting powder, the prep lotion (isn't it a DEFECT if a foundation REQUIRES a prep lotion?), and a $40 brush that I thought was worth about $5, but apparently it's made out of goats. And goats are cool. So there you go.
Tonight was my first "trial run" with the Cover FX. I can definitely say that the stuff is amazing under normal lighting. It takes a bit to get the hang of it -- and your face has to be SPOTLESS before you start applying it -- but once it's on it STAYS ON. Still, don't believe them when they say you don't need to powder afterwards...right now (hours later) I'm a bit shiny around the nose.
What works for me:
- Wash your face, wash it, then wash it again.
- Apply the prep lotion. You don't need much.
- Swipe your $40 goat hair brush twice over the cream foundation
- Apply to your face. Keep doing this until your face is covered.
- Take a foundation sponge and mush it in ONLY where you see problems. This is for those parts of your face that you really want to cover.
- Apply the setting powder. Again, not much is necessary.
- If you can still see stuff you don't want to see, don't be afraid to put on more foundation and more powder. It blends right in.
- Contour and colour so you look like a human being again.
There are problems. It doesn't REALLY conceal the under-eye discoleration that I get from poor diet, lack of sleep, and general worry-wartiness. And it's also very light...I mean, it IS my natural skin colour -- so the cosmetician did a wonderful job matching it -- but my natural skin colour is Casper the Ghost.
It's also untried under harsh lighting. Most makeups simply disappear under a spotlight or natural sunlight. But everybody tonight told me that I looked wonderful (would they say otherwise?) and the close-up pictures actually look BETTER than usual, so maybe I'm on to a good thing...
3 comments:
You might want tp try using clown white under the eyes before using the foundation to minimize discolouration. As an alternative becuase you are so pale and "real girl" makeup seems to work, there are a number of corrective colours you can buy at the drugstore in creme form. In regards to washing out under stage light, you might have to up your contour. You might want to get another shade of the foundation and contour at that point too (although I jumped a bit at your total price - goats or no goats)
"Make-up mask" is what the trashy white girls have who could only affor the oil based Cover Girl foundation, which would match the true colour of your neck and shoulders - if your natural skin undertone was orange. Make-up mask, for me, is perpetually associated with bad hair, jewelery bought at those island kioks in malls, elastisized jeans, and too tight fitting synthetic tops with mustard stains on them. With running shoes.
PS. You should use a yellow toned concealer stick for the under eye area, which combates the blue tones of tired eyes.
Aha, fortunately I DO have my old Mac under-eye concealer, which is definitely yellow toned. I didn't try it tonight because I wanted to see if I needed it or not.
I'm also thinking of using a slightly darker (and cheaper) loose powder, with or without the setting powder, to try and get some colour back. Time to experiment!
I've always sort of sucked at subtle contouring, I wish there were a book on it...a book like "The Eyebrow!"
Sadly I don't have much of a choice when it comes to "Make Up Mask." I really DO need the mask, but at the very least I can get a mask that looks more natural and polished, which the Cover FX seems to accomplish.
Thank goodness I don't own any mustard!
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