Left Behind #2: Bare Skin

Note: This is an old entry reposted from my old blog called Boudoir Angel on Tumblr. I'm reposting all of these old entries because I plan to delete my old blog and consolidate everything to this one. Some posts may have its text updated and/or reformatted slightly according to the platform change.

These are the products that were left after I decided to do my year-end clean up. Who knew I had so many products? I certainly didn't. <.<

I've learned you're meant to use make-up bases and all but I figured what works for Lauren Luke ought to work for me, especially in this tropical heat. So at the time I originally posted this, I simply used my M.A.C. Strobe Cream (1) to provide a bit of moisture and smoothing underneath my powder or foundation.

Along with the Strobe Cream, I would use the Myra Daily Sun Protect for a bit of SPF or on occasion, use just either the Myra VitaGlow (2), or Maybelline Clear Smooth Minerals BB Cream (3). They're both quite light though as you can see from the swatches (4).

This face powder was my go-to staple for years. It's the Maybelline Clear Smooth Extra in Honey. My grandmother taught me to use face powders when I was nine (I know...a bit of early development there, haha) but I'm really rather lazy and I often had the tendency to put too much of it on so it only became detrimental to my skin condition and eventually I just stopped using it.

It took a while for me to get back to using powders, mainly so it could sop up the icky oils on my T-zone. I applied it as thinly as I could manage to with my unpractised hand, only to have to completely busted when we went into theatre and I had to lay on the foundation thickly.

Enter my mother's staple, the Max Factor Creme Puff 2-way cake foundation in Nouveau Beige.

Never had my skin been so face to face Photoshopped as when we were involved in that production. Never had my skin been so white either, hahaha! Truth is that it matches my skin quite well but as part of my character creation, I applied it as thick as it would go to make my face look far lighter than the rest of me.

Eventually, after getting addicted to Lauren Luke's make-up tutorials, I thought to explore M.A.C. Cosmetics. Frankly, I don't use enough make-up to warrant keeping so many products on hand but at the time, I 'd expected we'd be in production for a good long while and I figured grabbing some good quality items would be great.

Enter this last powder, my M.A.C. Studio Fix Powder + Foundation in NC42. A thin layer of this baby covered my flaws like magic and I was hooked.

Before using this product, I didn't believe I needed multiple shades of powder. After all, I live in the tropics where sunlight barely ever left us. And then summer came and I remembered that even the heat of the air can and will cause burns...or at least tanning.

I haven't bought a second shade of Studio Fix yet but eventually, when all the other products I have are gone, I will likely end up grabbing an NC43 compact as well, just so I have a "warm weather colour" and a "cold weather colour."

This, The Face Shop's Baked Shimmer in Apricot Nuance, I consider to be one of my best trial products ever.

"Trial" not because I got it for free to try out--really, I'm not as devoted a make-up geek as that to receive notice from companies, much less receive freebies to try and review--but because I saw it, I thought it was cute, so I thought I'd try it out.

As I mentioned in this product review entry, it is far more pigmented than I expected for a shimmer brick, and I can use it in so many different ways it's ridiculous. And while the pigment fades over time, leaving just the shimmer, applying it sparingly gives just enough liveliness to the face that I still say it's worth the effort putting the product on in the first place.




Originally posted as Boudoir Angel on Tumblr, 23 January 2011