Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Mineral vs liquid foundation

Yesterday when I blogged about my recent passion for bronzing, I decided to go back to my old liquid foundation from Inglot since it is a bit darker and more yellow toned than my everyday mineral foundation from Coastal Scents. And I can honestly say that... I absolutely hate the liquid foundation.

Last year, I used to use liquid foundation on an everyday basis. Yes, I never got a right shade because my skin is so pale. Yes, the application took quite a lot of time, but I got used to it and I liked the finish it gave to my skin. Yes, I started looking shiny after a couple of hours and by the end of the day it was practically gone, but I just blamed my super oily skin and kept going with it.

Then last Christmas, when shopping for a nice present for my mum, who has sensitive, allergic skin prone to redness, I came across a starter kit by Bare Minerals. I decided to buy it for my mum and then awaited her opinion about it. She wasn't too thrilled, to be honest (but she never is about make-up), though I already got hooked on the theme and researched possible options for myself.


I finally decided to order something comparable to a starter kit from Coastal Scents, because I'd been also lemming their palettes and brushes. The kit came with Honey Matt foundation in Honey Fair 1.2 and Honey Light, both very good shades for me as it turned out. When I ripped the package open, run to the mirror, happily applied it and turned to my fiance for his opinion, he calmly stated that I just looked less pink than usual. However, to me, it was much more than that. My face looked quite glowy but not shiny, the shade perfectly matched the warm undertones in my skin, and all the imperfections I wanted to hide were gone thanks to very decent coverage. But most importantly, I felt that my skin was really clean, like there was actually nothing sitting on top of it. It took a while to learn how to apply it, but then the process was much shorter than putting on liquid foundation. After a couple of days using the mineral foundation, I haven't noticed any breakouts or other allergic reactions or excessive dryness that some people seem to have.

This said, I am not a fan of everything mineral. While the pigmentation of a mineral blusher or bronzer is very good, I think it takes more time to apply them, they're more messy and more difficult to control. The same goes for mineral eyeshadows or loose pigments, I simply prefer pressed eyeshadows for easier and faster application.

It's funny how you get used to good things so quickly. In fact, I totally forgot how it felt to use liquid foundation and I only realized how much pain it was when I used it again yesterday. The worst of it was this feeling of having a layer of gunk on your face, yuck. I don't think I'll be coming back to using liquid any time soon. 

What is your experience with using mineral foundation?

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