Foundation Comparisons

I have been meaning to do a foundation comparison for ages I just had to wait until I had time to focus on doing lots of swatches & removing makeup to then reapply, time-consuming & quite uncomfortable after a while – stinging eyes is an understatement!

To keep this review consistent & fair I used the same face wash, remover wipes, moisturiser, brush & brush cleaner on every single application. The brush choice was very difficult for me as I have a lot of face brushes now but I am not sure if it is just me but I find only some brushes suit certain foundations & cannot be used universally to get that same finish every time, well that is what I tend to find personally. The only brush I know that will give a fantastic finish on all my face products is the Real Techniques buffing brush, I love the brush so much I have 3 of them.

I have got a drawer full of foundations I have an awful lot I have not tried yet but I do have a few on the go so the ones I have chosen are the Daniel Sandler Invisible Radiance in beige which I recently reviewed separately here – http://bit.ly/NeCMU1, Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick in shade sand, L’Oreal True Match in shade golden vanilla & L’Oreal Nude Magique in porcelain. I love all of these foundations in different ways so firstly I just want to put out there I may have niggles with these but I do like them there is no hate here.

I have literally just remembered that with exception to the Daniel Sandler face swatch below the rest of the images are half a face done, I completely forgot I had done that. So looking at the images it is the left side which is made up, doh! Good job I remembered.

Daniel Sandler, Bobbi Brown, L’Oreal True Match, L’Oreal Nude Magique

So first up I had put a no makeup picture up to show you what my skin looks like on a day-to-day bases. Sometimes I get redness around my cheeks & chin but at the moment things seem to be OK. My skin tone is not very even I have noticed as I get older my complexion is changing, I have oily / combination skin, constantly have dark circles which are always my challenge to cover!

First up is the amazing Daniel Sandler Invisible Radiance, it has taken me a long time to form some kind of opinion about this. I was never comfortable with quite how radiant it is, I was concerned that my skin would look shiny & oily but the more I have been using it lately the more comfortable I have become & the more grateful I have been for that radiance because on a bad day you just need that extra boost with your skin.

The coverage is medium, I always pile on way to much as I liked to look as flawless as possible but the downside to that with this product is it does feel a little bit wet on the face like you are waiting for it to settle & dry in place a bit. Because I have an oily t-zone I powder this area & under my eyes, I do find you can see the powder over this foundation & it easily moves it but maybe I need to try out a different setting powder. I always have to wear a concealer with this foundation as it doesn’t quite cover my dark circles but I do like this product & the finish. I would definitely buy this again.

I came across the foundation stick last April, I decided one day that I would travel to a John Lewis store with a view to look at the Bobbi Brown counter & ended up getting a makeup & buying quite a bit but ssssh that is our secret! I had seen the foundation stick in action on QVCUK so I already knew that I wanted to try this out & I am glad I got someone to colour match for me. This was the first time I had ever had someone advise me what shade I should be using, I was matched as Sand & Warm Sand which I was really shocked about as I tend to automatically buy the lighter shades so for me this was a surprise that I would not be your typical porcelain.

The product was applied on me using the Bobbi Brown face brush which I naturally purchased at a later date but I do try to use the Real Techniques buffing brush. I haven’t quite mastered this foundation yet because I am pretty heavy-handed with my foundations I know for a fact I put too much of this on as you can see my brush strokes so this is definitely one for me where it is a less is more situation so I am going to use a different brush going forward & will probably just use it to even out my skin tone in areas that require it rather than use as a full face foundation. There is a very slight radiance / healthy glow with this product though looking at my photo I don’t think it is obvious that I am wearing anything so I may use this as part of a no make up make up review & try my hand at lightly applying this. I do like this product but I tend to find I need to set this especially on my t-zone.

I am pretty sure I purchased the True Match because there was so much hype about this last year. I have since purchased what I think is my correct shade but I did colour match this myself last summer & you could not see the swatch so this particular shade Golden Vanilla should be fine for this summer but for now it is a little too dark for me but having said that I do like the finish, it seems to blend in pretty well.  I would probably call this a medium coverage but to be fair I have not tried to build this up yet but I think during the summer months I will just be using a light coverage anyway it certainly does not look sexy having foundation melting on your face!

I like the finish of this foundation it doesn’t cover the darkness under my eye but I don’t tend to expect a foundation to do that anymore I have given up on that quest.

I love this foundation! I am so pleased I read reviews on this & picked this baby up, I even picked up a spare! The first few times I have used this I have had no issues at all but I am wondering whether my current problem is using the buffing brush as I am beginning to find I can see my brush strokes but I am also thinking I am putting too much product on in one go, I may try my fingers going forward & let it melt into the skin. Anyway I adore the finish of this, it is a really lovely satin look, I feel it gives my skin a nice natural healthy glow to it, I love the way it evens out my skin tone without too much effort & I find this is a really foundation to apply.

It is quite a bizarre texture & a nightmare to have on the back of your hand, I tend to put my product on my hand & use it as a palette which works for all my foundations apart from this one as it is so watery & runs away literally. Although it does not fully cover my dark eyes it definitely evens the skin tone out & takes the edge off the darkness. This is definitely going to be a go to foundation during the summer as it is so lightweight I can never feel it on my skin.

I hope you liked the post guys, I will probably do a more high-end post similar to this at some point but I like the fact that two of these are reasonably priced foundations that are really great in my eyes.

I would love to hear what your favourite foundations / face products are? x