I was running super low on my current foundation in rotation and needed to stock up. So I thought, why not try something new. Its the Holidays and loads of events are coming up. Not to mention the zillion pictures of myself I shall be guilty of oversharing. And I also had a coupon from Sephora which was expiring soon.
I had two foundations on my mind: NARS SHEER GLOW and MAKE UP FOREVER ULTRA HD FOUNDATION . I always have a long list when it comes to my Foundation. To begin with I have super dry skin withe even drier patches all round. So i don't need a foundation which dries me out further and clings to those dry patches. Secondly, being a blogger I do have a lot of my pictures taken at all times, for many posts. And some of it do include flash photography, coz lets face it, all restaurants don't have the most flattering of lighting. My foundation needs to be one which does not have a flashback in photographs. So no SPFs and Titanium Dioxide in the product list.
I was helped in store by the lovely Make Up Artist Rachel. She was such a sweetheart. She listened through my long list of what I want in a foundation. She suggested that we skip NARS Sheer Glow and opt for MAKE UP FOREVER ULTRA HD FOUNDATION as that would fit my bill more perfectly. Seemed fair enough.
Now was the time for a Color Match. I always tell everyone, how crucial this step is in make up. I have seen so many people, going around with an absolute wrong shade of foundation. I am used to Artists color matching along the jaw line. Rachel told me that an even more effective way is to match it on the neck . I have a very warm undertone, and sometimes brands suck in catering to our undertone. Rachel picked out three shades and applied the product in stripes along my neck. When she asked me to look in the mirror, I could only see two shades, as the third shade was the perfect match, so it was not even showing . Bingo. Did I mention, that I had chosen to wear turtle neck that day and my daughter wanted to apply some blue eye shadow on my cheeks, as Rachel tried to color match me. Thanks Rachel for being so patient with us. That's how Moms go for Make Up shopping with their daughters. She matched me to Shade Number 153(Y405 ) in Golden Honey. Make Up Forever had recently reformulated their foundation formula and created it for being photographed in 4K which is the next generation of HD. Hence the HD foundation is now called Ultra HD. They have also changed their shade numbers so its 153 according to the older shade guide and Y405 according to teh new shade guide, where Y stands for YELLOW or Warm undertone. I checked later on that this foundation is one of the winners of the Allure Beauty Awards of 2015.The foundation has a medium coverage and can be built up. It dries to a satin matte finish which I am not kidding looks like your skin. I used a flat foundation brush to apply the product. It comes with a pump which makes it a lot easier to dispense. I would say it looks much darker in the bottle than it actually looks on skin. I am used to using a damp Beauty Blender over the foundation on my face to give it a nice airbrushed finish. But for this foundation, I did not even need that. It just blends beautifully even with a flat foundation brush.
I picked up my new brand new foundation but needed to pick up something more to be able to redeem my coupon. Rather than opting for skin care like a sheet mask or something, I decided to venture into a territory i have never ever walked. It might sound strange to all of you, as you'll know me as a Make up Junkie. But I have never used Brow Products in general.
I went looking for Rachel again to help me out. We started off with URBAN DECAY BROW BEATER MICROFINE BROW PENCIL AND BRUSH. We tried a couple of shades, but one was too warm and one was too cool. My daughter reached out for the KEVYN AUCOIN PRECISION BROW PENCIL Which Rachel added was another choice.
But I wanted to try out the ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS BROW WIZ. We tried a few colors and finally settled on the color Granite. I know everyone on the Internet raves about this cult product. For a bro newbie, this seemed to be the perfect choice. I liked that it did not make my brows look too made up like the gels have a tendency to do. And the spoolie at the end of the pen, helped in distributing the color. As it was my first time using a brow product, I had my inhibitions for sure. But Rachel showed how to use the product properly. She used short feathery strokes mimicking the direction of growth of the brow hair. Then she used the spoolie and combed the brow upwards and then sideways, to distribute the color properly.
As far as First Impressions go, I am quite satisfied with these new products. But I need to use them for some time more and see how they turn out to be.
POST UPDATED:
I had used this foundation for the first time during an evening event and the pictures came out great. When I first used this product during the day, thats when I realised that the color was a mismatch, despite my initial thoughts. Its always necessary to test out a foundation in sunlight, to see if its an accurate match. The color was a lot darker than my skin tone, and my neck was standing out much lighter. I was almost looking orange like an Oompa Loompa. SO i went back to Sephora and told them the problem. There was a different lady helping me this time, and she matched me again. This time to Y365 (123)- Desert . From the initial so called match of Y450, jumping up high to Y365. As much as you should respect the opinion of the In STore Beauty Expert, never forget to cross check it yourself in sunshine or do the flash test with a camera. I took some selfies with the next round of color matching with the same foundation. This is a better match as I have used it quite frequently and am happy with the results.
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