Longwear Foundation

Last month I put Revlon Colorstay (oily/combo) as one of my favorites for the month. I still think it's a good foundation, but for some reason November became foundation month for me and I've tried out 4! different liquid foundations this month. This blog though is going to be comparing Almay TLC and MAC Pro Longwear foundations to Colorstay because they are all labeled as longwear foundations.

Oh, real quick about my skin type: fair, redness in cheeks, acne prone, and combo-oily to oily.

Revlon Colorstay (oily/combo): I talked about this a bit in my last Favorites blog, so I'll just run by this real quick. Revlon claims this foundation "Looks and feels fresh all day," "Oil free--shine control," "Natural, flawless look," and "transfer-resistant." Well, I think I've said this before, but nothing looks and feels fresh all day on my face unless I touch up at least 2x, but I've gotten used to that, so that didn't bother me. It definitely stays though and doesn't transfer, however, the nice coverage I get in the morning, doesn't last until evening. It handles oil pretty well. Some liquid foundations look awful anywhere oil is coming in on your face but this doesn't. I can sit for 4 hours (max) and not worry about looking like an oil slick (after that though, I have to touch up). This tends to get cakey around any dry spots I have which is usually my chin and eyebrows. Feels light(ish) when applied and blends easily.

Almay TLC: This is definitely longwear, but shows makes dry spots stand out more than Colorstay. It's thicker than Colorstay, but still blends easily. This claims that it looks "freshly applied all day" (not so much. after 5 hours it was looking pretty bad) and "won't rub off" (this is true, unless I was trying to rub it off my face). It's oil free, but I looked oily on my cheeks after a couple hours. I put this on one side of my face and Colorstay on the other, and they looked pretty much the same. The only difference was that Colorstay wasn't as drying and lasted longer.

MAC Pro Longwear: I had such high hopes for this. I thought this foundation was the one. It's much runnier than the other two and blends a lot easier. It felt very light, had a great number of color choices, and provided a good amount of coverage (much more than Colorstay or TLC) without feeling heavy. BUT...it dried out my skin bad enough that after four days of wearing it by skin was really dry and flaky (yet somehow still oily) and required over a week to get back to normal :(. I couldn't believe how drying this was, especially since my skin is so oily. Maybe this would be good for people with super super oily skin, but if you have anything near combo to dry, stay away.

So Colorstay is still my foundation of choice at the moment. There are still a couple of other ones I want to try, but if none of them work, I'm giving up for a while on going on a foundation break.

Has anyone else tried any of these foundations? What did you think about them?

Happiness is....a haircut!

I've struggled with wanting long hair my whole life, even though I know short hair is more my style. Not only does it look better, but it suits my personality. I got my hair cut really short in January, and then I started letting it grow out. And I hated it, but I kept thinking, as soon as it's long, it'll be worth it. Um, no. No way. When my hair gets even to shoulder length, it just hangs, unless I'm willing to spend at least 10 min blow drying it every day, plus the time it takes to style it. I finally called it quites two weeks ago, and I couldn't be happier. I went into the salon and got it cut into a bob/pixie style. It looks and feels so much lighter, and it's not a struggle to get it to have some volume, because the top layers are short enough they create their own volume! It honestly takes me 3 min to blow dry my hair. That's it! And when I'm done, all I have to do is run a brush through it a couple times, and I'm out the door. I think it's silly that I convince myself if I grow my hair out, I'll suddenly have thick full hair because long or short, my hair is always going to be fine. I don't know why, but short hair makes me feel more flirty and adventurous...anyway, I'm really happy to be back to short hair! :)

If you have one, what's your signature hair style and why?

What I Found

I wrote this over a year ago for a women writers class, and while it's posted on my other blog, I think it fits for this blog as well....

Around 2001 my mother tells me I’m a woman now. No more white socks with lace and Mary Janes—now I’m expected to wear nylons and high heels to church. As I get ready Sunday morning and look into the mirror hanging on the back of my bedroom door, I frown. Why do I feel like I’m missing something?

Around 2002 I start high school. The girls in all my classes paint their nails, wear makeup, and fashionable clothes. I buy my first copy of Seventeen Magazine and all the models in there are beautiful. When I point this out to Mom she scoffs and says they aren’t real. “Of course they’re real, I’m looking right at them.” It doesn’t matter, I’m still not allowed to wear makeup. This frustrates me. “Every other girl at school is allowed to wear makeup.” She agrees to let me paint my nails but that’s it. I also decide to start growing out my hair to look like the models in my magazine.

Around 2003 I finally wear makeup for the first time. Eyeliner and mascara. My friend helps me do it right before I take my school picture and Mom nearly has a heart attack two months later when the pictures come in the mail. After that I wear eyeliner and mascara religiously—sometimes I even reapply these items multiple times a day. In the bathroom at school I look at my reflection and once again I can’t help but feel like I’m missing something.Around 2004 short hair is hot again. Women who are cutting their hair are making a power statement so I chop mine off, the hair that took me nearly two years to grow out, and dye it blond. This marks the first, but definitely not the last time, I color my hair. The hair stylist exclaims and gushes over how nice I look with this cut and color, yet I frown when I look into the mirror in the salon. Why do I feel like something is missing?

Around 2005 fashion and makeup magazines have become my new bible. Pages of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Seventeen clutter my bedroom floor and walls as I try to sort through the images I should look like.

Around 2006 I finally graduate high school. So far my hair has worn blond, brown and red masks, as well as green, pink, and orange. I’ve finally gotten the hang of eye shadow, and luckily, I’ve learned how to tune down the amount of eyeliner I wear. Blush was hard to figure out. Pink, coral, peach? Bright or soft? Matte or shimmer? And if blush wasn’t hard enough to learn how to apply, according to the industry, I need foundation and concealer too! I won’t bore you with the details of how many I had to try to find my “perfect” match.

Around 2007 my bibles are kept centered on the nightstand in my bedroom. I’ve gotten to the point where I won’t leave my house, even to go to the grocery store, without applying makeup first. I’m too embarrassed to talk to anyone without checking my makeup, but everyone else does it so it’s not that big of deal is it?

Around 2008 I no longer enjoy my mornings because my beauty routine has been come my main focus. I wash and condition my hair, shave my legs, wash my face, and apply ample amounts of lotion to every body part. My nails are always kept trimmed and painted, and before I walk out of the house I have to put on a mask of foundation, concealer, blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, lipstick, and lip gloss. I check myself out in the mirror by the front door one last time before stepping outside and it upsets me that I still can’t figure out what I’m missing.

Around 2009 I showered and dressed this morning, but I didn’t touch any makeup. My nail polish is left alone in a dresser draw and that forty dollar moisturizer is lying at the bottom of my trashcan. I look in the mirror and tell myself out loud, “I think I’ve found what I was looking for.”

I stumbled upon this a few days ago, going through my old work and realized that as much as I love makeup and beauty products (and believe me I love them!) it's nice to be reminded of what's truly important.

I hope you all remember to take care of your inner beauty as much as you do your outer beauty! Cheers!

October Favorites (and Sept)

I know I didn't post a September Favorites Blog last month, but I had the picture ready, my camera and computer just weren't getting along. So the picture above was technically intended for September, but I used these products all of October too, so this is a double favorites blog.

1. OPI Just a Little Rosti at This: Beautiful dark fall red color! Fall colors are my favorite in makeup and nail polish, so I'm excited to be rocking darker colors again! By the way, both these nail colors are a cream finish.

2. OPI Ski Teal We Drop: Dark teal color. I especially love wearing this on my finger nails because the color is different and eye catching.

3. Salley Hansen Diamond Shine Base and Top Coat: I've been looking for a new base and top coat because the one I usually use from Salley Hansen gets very thick and goopy fast. I never finish an entire bottle of it. This one however, is thin and dries very quickly, but I don't think it makes my nail polish last as long. I still like it though more than the other one. I really like putting it on my bare nails when I don't have time for a full mani or pedi--it makes my nails look very clean and shiny, but in a realistic way.

4. Benefit Dandelion: How could I have lived this long without ever trying this product? I thought it would be too pink for my skin, but it's a very subtle pink color that comes out more of a glow on my face. I've been using it as a highlighter rather than a blush because it is rather shimmery, and I don't like a lot of shimmer on the apples of my cheeks, but it's pretty on top of my cheek bones, bridge of my nose, and blended into my temples. Sometimes I use it under my brow, but never in the corner of my eye because it is too pink when used there. One thing I don't like about it--the powder is really soft. It gets dints in it easily and when I sweep my brush over it, even very lightly, I get way to much product. Does anyone else have this problem? My Benefit Hoola doesn't do this. I dunno, weird.

5. MAC lipglass in Best of Breed: I already did a post on this gloss and I'm still loving it. It's a muted blue toned gloss with shimmer in it. It's fun to wear. I find that I wear it mostly when I leave the rest of my face bare. Note: do not wear this if your lips are dry or flaky...not pretty.

6. Revlon Colorstay for combo/oily skin in Ivory 110: I'm not exactly sure what I want to say about this foundation, mainly because I just started using a new foundation that I absolutely love, but I want to give that time before I post about it. I do like Colorstay though. I got it in August and have been using it up until 3 days ago. I know I tend to be anti liquid foundation, mainly because of my oily skin; I've tried a number of liquid foundations that claim they have a matte finish, and are long lasting, and help prevent your skin from looking like an oil slick halfway through the day, but none of them have ever really delivered. So I just decided to give up on liquid and stick with powder.

I tried Colorstay after seeing a couple reviews on it on YouTube, and it was on sale for $8 at the drugstore, so I figured, why not? I was really impressed with it. It evens out my skin tone without being heavy. I actually gave up undereye concealer when I started using this, because it completely covered my dark circles. Actually, the only time I use concealer now is when I have a zit. This is pink toned and I tend to lean towards yellow toned foundations because my skin has red undertones, but the color looks pretty natural on my face. (I actually didn't realize how pink it was until I got my new foundation which has a yellow base.) I think I would give this foundation a 7 out of 10. yes, it covered well, and for the first few hours my skin looked great (especially if it's cool, if it's hot, all bets are off), but then oil would be an issue and you could see the foundation on my face, especially on my cheeks near my nose. Also, if you have any dry spots on your face, this foundation makes them stick out. But I do like it more than most liquid foundations I've use, and it lasts for a good part of the day. I plan on switching between this and my new one this month and then I'll get back to you.

What products have you been loving this fall so far?