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.

Lipliners: Sephora Red vs L'oreal Crayon Petite

Well, with red lipsticks you have to have red lipliners. I originally got the L'oreal at my drugstore, but decided to also pick up the sephora one when I ordered (to make $50 for free shipping).

The L'oreal, true to it's name, smells like a crayon. It bothers me a bit. This is an automatic lipliner and the color goes on smoothly with no problems. It feels a tidge "stickier" at first but that goes away.

The Sephora Red lipliner is a cute 3". People have expressed how upset they were that it's a brick red as opposed to just a red. Well, I've taken a picture, and see for yourself, which is the brick here?! This lipliner glides on very smoothly with non of the slight stickiness I experienced with the L'oreal. And it doesn't smell like crayons.

They're both relatively easy to remove- although not so easy that they would come off all the time on you. The L'oreal costed me about $8, and the Sephora, $3. I can tell you that I'll be putting the Sephora under my lipsticks. I prefer to keep my lipsticks on the more neutral side, and the L'oreal just takes it too far over to the warm side. It made my MUFE Artist Intense Lipstick in #44, a slight cooler toned lipstick turn obviously warm colored. Which confused me and led me to believe that I didn't like the lipstick as much as I actually do.

I wanted to check to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, so here's the comparison of the two lipsticks layered on top of the two lipliners. Sure enough, just a leeetle bit more brick with the L'oreal.

Nude Lipsticks

So I didn't really want a nude lipstick nor did I see the use in one. I like having pink lips and thought I wouldn't want to change that. Well, that is until I had a heavy eye look and decided to also use blush,...and then just realized that my pigmented lips were too much and needed toning down.

Thus, I poked around all over the internet to find a decent drugstore nude lipstick. Drugstore because I know it won't be using it often, so I really just wanted something cheap for the occasional. I came across three that were mentioned a lot, Revlon's Nude Attitude, and L'oreal's Fairest Nude, and Rimmel's Airy Fairy. When I got to my Rite Aid, they didn't have any Rimmel there, so that was out, even though it seemed like a favorite. I was browsing all along the L'oreal racks and the entire line that they called Nude would not be anything near what I consider nude. I think of nude as kind of a skin tone color, maybe just a bit more pink or brown to distinguish it from your skin, but just barely. The colors there were all way too dark!! At least 3 shades darker than my skin. So I poked around and I think I also saw the Fairest Nude, but that looked a bit too much like a pink lipstick to me (if I remember correctly). I found this one called Golden Splendor, which is a yellow pink, I would kind of describe it as being like a dusty rose, but lighter.

Then I went to the Revlon section and found the Nude Attitude. Let me tell you, Nude Attitude and Golden Splendor look like the exact same shade. The only difference is that Nude Attitude is matte, and Golden Splendor is shimmery. So I thought I might as well as buy them both and see what I liked better.

I didn't want a lipstick that was too matte, because a nude matte sometimes looks a bit funny, but I wasn't sure that the Golden Splendor would have enough coverage. My lips are pretty pigmented and they need a lot of coverage.

Then right before I left, a found a similar color, but one that was a bit more pink, just a hint, but also shimmery. It's called Champagne Ice, also by Revlon. So I decided to pick that up too.

And now for the individual reviews/ breakdown.

L'OREAL GOLDEN SPLENDOR:

I tried this color on first and was sorely disappointed. I picked it up because I thought the shimmer would add a little somethin something to the lip, but it has absolutely horrid coverage and is very shimmery. It's a sheer lipstick really, but very Golden and shiny, so I guess in that way it does block out the natural color X_X. The texture is very creamy, it slides around and I doubt the last will be that long, although I can't say for sure because I haven't tested it for longevity yet at this point. It actually has a pleasant gentle smell, I noticed that.

REVLON NUDE ATTITUDE:

From the reviews, people didn't like Nude Attitude as much, it was ok for a quick fix, but eventually they all move on, so I wasn't really expecting much from it at all. I tried this on after the Golden Splendor and was pleased that it gave slightly more coverage than the L'oreal Golden Splendor. The only thing that had me..eh on it was that although this is a matte lipstick, its still very creamy. While you might think this is a good thing, it's too creamy. The product slips and slides and ends up in the cracks, so you end up with a strange milky look on your lips with the lipstick concentrated in the cracks. Kind of unflattering. I would say definitely layer gloss over it to help diffuse it.

I didn't try the Revlon Champage Ice because I was thinking that I might like to return it, there's just no sense in me keeping all these lippies when I won't get around to using them all. I have to say though, I wish I had opened this instead of using the Golden Splendor first. I think it would've been a much better color. The formula for the Revlon seems to provide more coverage, so it would've probably worked better than the Golden Spendor. If I had to do it over, I would just have tried on the two Revlon ones first.

Should I find the Rimmel then I will try it. Meanwhile I think I'll try giving the Golden Splendor to a friend. She likes Nude lipsticks and well, I figured, it's the least I can do after she gave me the Revlon Infatuation. Granted, mine cost more, but better her using it than just sitting in my basket to die.


CLICK TO ENLARGE.

Top, Revlon Nude Attitude. Bottom left: Revlon Champagne Ice. Right: Golden Splendor

Left: L'oreal Golden Spendor, Right: Revlon Nude Attitude

Nude Attitude on the left, normal lips on the right

Nude Attitude with Golden Splendor Layered on top on the left, Normal Lips on the right

Nude attitude on the left, Golden Splendor on the right.

Concealers: L'oreal and Sonia Kashuk

I must admit, I'm a very brand loyal person. When I find something that works I stick with it, and I have absolutely no desire to look at other options. So you can be sure that when I decided to change from my L'oreal liquid concealer that I was unsatisfied with something.

I've been using this particular type of concealer for about 3 years. Wow, that's a long time when I think about it. I actually managed to finish one or two of them. I have two tubes of the thing now because I lost one of them for a while. Before I never really cared since I only had a spot or two to cover. Now though, I'm breaking out all over the place and require quite a bit of product to cover. That's when I noticed that the liquid tends to show up all the cracks in my often dry skin. Highly unflattering. I should mention that I never use moisturizer, which could be part of the problem, but even when I do results are about the same.

Thus I decided to change to a wax/ stick type of concealer, one that was thicker and wouldn't enter every single crack. I tried a tidge bit of my mom's Neutragena one, but I found that to be a bit to oily for my tastes, or my skin. It would probably come right off. I also want to mention that the L'oreal one tends to dry skin a bit, so it would be good for people with oily skin.

I was poking around target and decided to give Sonia Kashuk a try since my friend had said that their concealer quad was really good. I will say, I'm not blown away or anything, but I am satisfied because just as I had anticipated, it doesn't soak into every crack, and justs lays on top, so the dry flaking skin is less noticeable. Strange though, how when I went there were only 4 shades that seemed relatively close to each other. What about the people who were much lighter or darker than my skin tone? that doesn't seem right.

Anyhow, I've included pics. The darker L'oreal used to be lighter, but as you can see, it oxidizes a lot. I think it started out being an exact match to my skin upon first application. The lighter one was even lighter before, but I found it too light for my skin so I added some of the darker one to darken it a shade. The coverage looks good here, but on areas with dry skin it looks horrible.

While you may be saying to yourself, "Hey, the Sonia Kashuk one looks cakey and horrible", you should also know that I slapped a LOT of product on this time, normally i wouldn't use so much, and I would use moisturizer which DOES make a difference. It actually looks better in real life. The coverage is so much more smoother looking. Still, you can see how it's a bit too yellow for my skin. I might have done better getting #20, but at the time it was hard for me to tell because of the cap- it's burry and foggy so the colors are a bit different.

Despite this, I would say I don't regret buying the Sonia Kashuk, but I'm not entirely sure I'd buy it again. I'll still be on the lookout for a better concealer.

Oh, and the Light L'oreal isn't actually that light and different from my skin, it's the flash of the camera that makes it look that way.