Review: Make Up For Ever HD Foundation +Powder, Eshiko Face Powder, & Smashbox BB Cream

I've been trying to find something for full coverage and people keep talking about Make Up For Ever's HD Foundation. Today, I spent a good hour in Sephora trying to match foundation colors (and testing other brands as well). I finally settled on #117.

Make Up For Ever HD Foundation

COLOR: The color looks to be ever so slightly too light and yellow at first (I am NW15-20). However, after giving it time to settle, the color darkens (good for NC20). Initially I thought the color being off wasn't too bad, especially for photos, but irl it looks terrible because the tone is not right.

COVERAGE: Medium. It didn't cover everything, but for a photo it will work.

TEXTURE: Blends nicely and leaves you with a matte finish.

PROS: I love how it smoothed out my pores. It's as if someone took the blur tool to my face.

CONS: Drying to my dry skin. As time passed, the makeup started showing the flakes.

I will have to return this because at $42 it cannot just sit around here. It does have my desired coverage effect, so I wish MUFE would come out with one for dry skin.

Make Up For Ever HD Powder


I have heard so much about this powder, and today I finally got the travel sized 5g to try out. It was $16 I believe, which is a lot more reasonable to try out products. I am really loving the travel sized products Sephora is offering. Some things you just want to try, and some you don't use as much of and buying the full sized is burdensome. I want to snag Benefit's High Beam travel set next ($12).

I packed the product on, and found that I did notice it smoothing out the makeup. The dry flakes of skin that were starting to show due to the HD foundation appeared a bit more blurred. This powder does lighten skin a bit. I can see how those flash photo mishaps would be glaring on those with darker skin tones. With this product you must take care to really blend the product well. I missed a couple spots in my photo.

This is a product that drys out skin and produces a matte effect, so those of us with dry skin might have to moisturize heavily. I'm not sure I want to continue using this powder because of my dry skin, but I'll hold onto it for a bit longer.

Eshiko Face Powder


I reviewed Eshiko before, but now I get to compare it against MUFE's HD powder. Again, I packed the powder on. There was not much improvement in the appearance of my makeup. In fact, I think this powder made things worse with this foundation. Areas started clumping together and it was quite unsightly. Perhaps it would fare better with a powder foundation. It did feel a little less drying than the MUFE HD powder- I'm assuming it's because it is more finely milled.

Applied on left side of face means that it is on the left side when you look at it (Left side of pic). It looked a bit too dark, so I tried using Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream in No.13 as a highlight.

BEFORE:

Smashbox Camera Ready BB Cream-Light

I'm really glad the sales associate took note of my skin shade while giving me the sample. However, it's still too dark for me. When he gave me the sample he said, "And the BB, you just pat *gestures* around your eyes, use as a primer or your foundation". 

COLOR: Too dark for me, maybe good for a NC20-25?

COVERAGE: Medium

TEXTURE: Easy to Blend, but drying on top. It has a certain sticking quality that is good as a primer.

Imo, it's already pretty heavy coverage-wise. Putting foundation on top of this is a bit strange to me. You'll likely end up breaking out more.

Fresh Sugar Lip Tint Treatment- Passion

You already know how much I love this from my review of the Rose one. Well, the Rose kind of melted and fell apart (don't leave in your car). So I went to Sephora and picked me up the full sized Passion. It has a good amount of color without going overboard. I can apply this in the church bathroom without fear of the old ladies judging me.

Recap of Before and After:

As a side note, I took a color vision test. Turns out I can perfectly distinguish hues (that's no mistakes!). It's kind of fun, try it. http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?pageid=77&lang=en

I also tried the L'oreal Age Perfect Advanced Skin Repair Serum that came in the Allure magazine (yes, they still send me these). It has that translucent color every serum has, and smells a bit like sweet potatoes o_O. My dry skin is left feeling non-dry and a little more touchable. Hmm, not bad. No idea if the age repair part actually works or not.

Review: Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15

Have you checked out the Free Things I'm Giving Away?

The first time I came to know about this product was through the many Birchbloggers raving about their box find. Needless to say, my eyes lit up with envy. These solid tubes of balm just seemed to have a certain exclusive high class feel to them. At $22, I'd say it's nowhere near Chapstick level.

Although the price tag kept me away, I couldn't help but want to try them out at least. Went to Sephora and had absolutely no idea how to open them! Turns out it's a twist cap -___- figures. If you've been to a store where they let you test products, then you know stuff generally looks gross. The mushed up balm mess I saw was no exception (I didn't try it).

So when I saw that this year Sephora's birthday gift was a mini duo set of this balm, I ran around screaming YAYAYAYYAYAY!!! THANK YOU SEPHORA!! I should also say here that you shouldn't be shy to walk into Sephora and only pick up the birthday gift. I was that self conscious person who didn't want to just take the gift without buying anything. Take the gift. You just walk up to their cash register and present them with the birthday card they mail you. The birthday gifts are set aside separately and labeled as such.

They're really cute. Left my hand in there for general size reference.

O.M.G. EVERYONE needs to go our right now and get this if you have chapped lips. It's hard to tell, but in the pictures I purposely left my lips dry, chapped, and peeling to test the effect of this lip treatment. Within minutes I had soft, supple lips (I DARE you to kiss me!). This lip balm treatment is the best that I've ever tried. It works better than Vaseline.

It has no taste (I don't eat my lip products, but some of you do so I tasted it just for you =D), is very emollient, and smells faintly of vanilla.

My previous favorite was a Pangea Organics Lavender Lip Balm. That one works nicely as well but is half the retail price of the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment. The Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment is a very thick balm, so if thick balms aren't your thing, then the Pangea Organics Lip Balm would be better suited to you.

I love the tint of color that the Rose one gives, and now I want the Passion one as well haha. I've never finished a stick of balm ever, so these mini sized ones are perfect (wish they'd make minis of the other colors). I keep the brown one at home, and the Rose one in my purse for those on the go touch ups.

EDIT: See swatch of Passion HERE.

Tried it before? Which tint color do you use?