At its very center my life is a never-ending attempt to look as good as possible for as long a time as possible, meanwhile fighting to hold the effects of aging at bay.
Actually that's not my life at all, I'm only kidding, but it's a substantial part of my WEEKENDS. So here's what I've learned recently.
As I've said before I have really greasy skin, and this is a problem because I wear CoverFX cream-based makeup with a heavy coating of powder. Oils are constantly seeping through the foundation around my T-zone, spreading and puddling to such an extent that migrating waterfowl occasionally get trapped on my nose and die. A tragedy for everybody.
One method of controlling this "puddling" is to constantly apply powder to the affected areas. In the past I have used a large foundation brush, but this causes the now-oily cream foundation to smear off as well, resulting in gradually-worsening Picasso-face.
After getting equally bad results from a thin, stiff eyeshadow brush -- which smeared off the cream AND didn't blend the powder -- I tried out a Quo "All Over Shadow" brush. This is an extremely soft, puffy, rounded brush about the size of the nail on your middle finger, and it applies foundation with enough strength to make it stick, but not so much to scrape off the cream foundation or keep the powder from blending. Wonderful!
But none of this stops my second problem. After a few hours "in face," the jolly "smile lines" around my eyes become engraved into the cream foundation, giving me a decidedly un-jolly "Kabuki" look. Re-powdering makes the problem worse, and putting additional cream over the creases does nothing useful whatsoever.
Victoria Parks to the rescue! During our Paris adventure she recommended using a damp sponge to smooth out those lines. I finally tried it after coming home from the Guelph Pride party and...wow! Creases-be-gone! Get a wedge-shaped cosmetic sponge, put a bit of water on it, squeeze it out so it's almost dry, and then lightly wipe the creases away.
This might take some fine-tuning, since applying powder afterwards brings the creases back immediately. Back to the lab, Frankenmuffy...there must be a solution.
6 comments:
What kind of moisturizer do you use before you apply makeup? That may be part of the problem you're having. I find that I can no longer wear a lot of shiny makeup because 1) I also have oily skin and 2) it definitely brings out the fine lines on my face.
I used to use a moisturizing prep lotion, but it seemed to make my face even oilier, and didn't have any real effect on the area around my eyes.
So all this is happening without a moisturizer. And no matter how much I dry or tone before applying makeup, the oil bubbles out anyway.
you need to use a sealer. it might help.
I did try a sealer on Saturday night and it helped the oiliness a bit...though it had no effect on the eye-creases.
There is this lotion from Mary Kay that helps to absorb oil. I can't think of what it is called right now, but it's amazing. And no animal testing! I'm sure others have similar products but MK stuff is very reasonably priced.
Also, you might try blotting papers as those absorb oil but not makeup.
The thing about most of these products is that they weren't made for pancake makeup. But I'm willing to try anything, no matter how many times they turn out not to work "as advertised!"
Blotting papers it is. Plus I have some barrier stuff that I haven't used on the non-nose area of my T-Zone (it sure didn't help my nose).
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