Foundational issues

It seems like I’ve been on a never-ending quest for the perfect foundation. In the past my holy grail foundation was Chanel’s Mat Lumiere however it was discontinued. Supposedly mat foundations are for those with oily skin, people with oil issues with their skin, which I don’t really have per se, however I like the mat look.

Regardless of whether it was “right” or not Mat Lumiere did look good on me and it still looked exceptional even after a long day.

Chanel said that the replacement of Mat Lumiere is the new formulation of Perfection Lumiere. Perfection Lumiere I think has been around for a while. It existed simultaneously with Mat Lumiere in the past, but then as Mat Lumiere was being discontinued I heard from Chanel artists that Perfection Lumiere was being reformulated, or perhaps it was only that Chanel was changing the color labeling scheme for it. I know at one point I couldn’t get samples of Perfection Lumiere even because the artists told me that they had sent back all existing samples to Chanel and were waiting for those with the new formulation/color labelling scheme.

Anyhow I did again try Perfection Lumiere lately in both the 30 and 20 shades. 20 is usually what artists say is my match straight away when I ask them, but I sort of liked the darker, more tanned look of 30. Last week I had a makeover and the artist used 30 on me. In addition to that makeover, I’ve used the samples I’ve had and I can say I like Perfection Lumiere.

Today I had an appointment at Dior and let the artist decide what to use on my skin. For the base she used Capture Totale Multi-Perfection UV Base and on top of it Diorskin Nude fluid foundation in color 020. The 0 at the end indicates a neutral undertone. 1 would indicate warm, and 2 cool. I think it matches me well. I am highly impressed with this foundation. Its a smooth, glowy, healty, and natural look. It goes on the skin smoothly and does not exaggerate creases.

One other product of Dior’s which I got recently and am absolutely loving is Diorsnow BB Creme with SPF 50. This product is amazing. The coverage is superlative. The look on my skin is great. As a sunblock one would want to use it evenly over the entire face/decollete. However if I just want to use it to enhance my complexion I can just touch it on around areas like the T zone. It looks flawless. You cannot really tell that there’s anything on yet the coverage is great.

Diorsnow BB creme is turning out to be one of my all-time favorite cosmetic products. Every time I use it I’m amazed at how awesome it is.

What am I going to do about foundation? I just bought a bottle of Chanel Perfection Lumiere a few days ago but have not opened it yet. I also bought one of MAC Pro Longwear foundation in NC25 which is unopened. I’m thinking about returning them both and just getting the Diorskin Nude.

I’ve reached a point where I want to simplify my makeup. If you saw my apartment you would see hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars worth of products. But I would like to keep things simple. Especially when travelling its nice to have a simple routine and a core set of products to use.

My favorite eyeliner is Chanel’s Stylo Yeux Waterproof in black. This is like the first thing I apply in the morning after cleansing/toning/moisturizing. Even if I’m not “wearing makeup” or whatever during a day, I will still line at least the inner lid with this eyeliner. The technique is to line the inner upper lid but outside the water line. When lining the inner lid there’s a tendency to line along the water line, right at the base of the lashes. For the lower eye this may be desired. Often the lower waterline is lined with a highlighting shade to make the eyes pop. But I find for the upper lid its better to line just outside of it for a better look. Just enough of the freshly-applied eyeliner will migrate onto the lower lid and it creates a really nice but not too heavy look. To me its a very clean, Chanel look.

This eyeliner is amazing once its on. It will withstand just about anything. I just read a blog post somewhere about dealing with makeup in super hot weather where one is sweating, hair frizzes, and things tend to melt. The Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof will not run. I take showers with it and my eyes can be soaked and, as long as I’m not wearing any mascara, when I come out my eyes look identical to before. Its a testament to a lot of excellent cosmetic products these days, not just this eyeliner, that many of them will hold up excellently even after a shower. This is true even for finishing products like bronzers, blushes, and highlighers. One would think that because they are layered on top that they would run or melt or whatever, but this usually is not the case as long as the skin is not smudged while wet and allowed to air dry or very, very gently patted with a special face towel.

Chanel has just come out with some “Stylo Eyeshadow” eyeshadow pencils which are really nice. I have the golden colored one and will probably get the other colors in the collection as well. They kind of reming me of the Chanel Illusion D’Ombre “Illusion of Shadow” gel eyeshadows which I really love, yet are more liquidy. When applying there’s a 30-60 second window when they can be brushed to smooth out and spread. Like the D’Ombre eyeshadow gels they look great on their own or as a base for more colors. As a lot of the powder eyeshadow palletes I get from Chanel tend to apply weakly, I often use these on top of something like the Stylo or the D’Ombre for more intensity.

I will close off here with one other makeup item I have really come to love, which is the Dior Contour lipliner pencil in shade 223. The name for this shade is Sparkling Beige but it just matches the color of my lips perfectly and if I only just use lipliner sans lipstick or gloss they still look good.

It was a couple of the really sweet artist guys at Dior who kind of drove into me the necessity of paying attention to liplining and I’m glad they did. With my makeup routines it would always seem like after doing everything else and tending to every other part of my face, I always sort of petered out when I got to my lips and would just lazily put on some lipstick or gloss. But no! I can never forget this one guy telling me how he hates when people just throw on lipgloss. He’s right. Lips are an important part of beauty and to overlook them is like a sin.

I guess I avoided doing anything with my lips because I don’t have much of an upper lip and so it was an avoidance kind of thing. But that’s all the more reason why I should be diligent and take the time and care to use a good liner.

One last thing – Chanel is going to be jumping on the “BB” bandwagon soon I’ve been told and they will be coming out with a “CC” creme which will be interesting to see.

It is the superior and often superlative characteristics of advanced cosmetics which, even though I’m into healthy and natural products, is one major reason why I seek out the best cosmetics available on the market regardless of “health” status. Modern cosmetics which are well designed have properties which are amazing. I’ve tried many natural lines and quite frankly they simply did not come close to comparing with professional lines like Chanel or Dior. The chemistry behind cosmetics and personal care products is extremely advanced.

Of course I love natural skin. But honestly makeup is so fun and I’m actually glad that I have an excuse to wear it every day as part of my profession 🙂 Wearing makup is an innocuous form of self love. For those who critizice it being non-ecological or whatever, I say this: if you took all the makup in my collection and put it all together in one jar, it would actually be only a small abount, definitely less than probably one kilogram. Yet how much pleasure I derive out of that one kilogram of waxes, emollients, moisturizers, color pigments, and other compounds is disproportionally far greater to the physical amount.

How much enjoyment could anyone have out of less than one kilogram of anything? All makeup is is some chemicals like waxes, emollients, etc. along with pigments. For just that tiny amount of mostly inert stuff there’s a lot of fun and happiness.

One reads the ingredient labels from cosmetics and perhaps the chemical names sound scary, but many of the chemicals are just synthetic, designer compounds with wax-like or or emollient properties which have very specific properties when applied to skin.

There are actually cool laboratories in places like Japan where they create these designer chemical ingredients, often is relatively small, carefully made batches which is why they can sometimes be so expenisve. The cosmetics designers in places like France are constantly testing and experimenting with new compounds for their product designs. Perhaps its a testament to human development that we no longer just smudge ochre on our skin or kohl on our eyes, but now have these specially designed compounds with amazing properties.