Sunday, December 04, 2011

The Three Amigas

three amigas

I'm not much of a make up girl. On most days, I'd wear mascara and lipbalm and that's it but recently, especially this year I've been trying out more and more makeup that is minimal and easy. My aim was to find : function, ease.

At the beginning of the year, I sat down for a MAC makeover and you know how when you're at the department store and they put the make up on you and it's fantastic? Then you get home and you're like, I can't do this every day and what the hell? Why doesn't it blend?
With MAC, I found I needed WAY more time to get it looking nice and the mineral foundation that I bought, made my face oily and it came off quite easily. I started using it less and less. The mineral foundation did not provide that great of a coverage and so I needed to use the MAC concealer.

Then, I bought the BENEFIT primer that I've heard SO much about and on the urge of the sales lady, also bought the POREfessional minimizer. These are GREAT prep to the foundation phase. The primer not only smells insanely nice but it keeps the make up on for so much longer. The POREfessional minimizes the look of my pores and it created this smooth and non oily surface for my foundation. The other week,one of my co workers went to try foundations at Chanel and was given a sample in a shade much darker than what she would use. So I took it home and had a good. I didn't have much expectation but oh my lord, have you tried Chanel's Vitalumiere Aqua? It's spendy but TOTALLY worth it. It's thin and it doesn't feel like you've got anything on. I went onto MAKEUPALLEY and checked reviews, the reviews doesn't lie. After using it for 3 days (just the sample packet), I was hooked.
Seriously, if you're in the market for a foundation, try this one out.

FYI: I found this combo worked for my skin. I only need medium coverage, to cover my sun spots and blood veins running across my cheeks from previous sun damage!

9 comments:

thisgoodhearth@blogspot.com said...

I thought you'd show a picture of your face with the foundation on.

charinthecity said...

If you want to feel gorgeous with minimum effort... try NARS's paradise trio (it's a limited edition) blush/bronzer/highlighter. A very nice makeup artist gave me the tip for doing my own makeup and I love it... gives you a healthy complexion and cheekbones even without foundation. You'll need to invest in a few makeup brushes but totally worth it! The name of the blush cracks me up, too. It's an infamous one called 'Orgasm'.

Unknown said...

Does it give quite good coverage? Brushes cost more than the cosmetics themselves but i've got a few from MAC and they're great. ahaha never had to put on a blush before but the NARS one sounds promising!
haha

charinthecity said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
charinthecity said...

NARs is famous for high pigment content, the makeup artist shook quite a bit off the brush before applying it but I just run my brush very lightly across the blush palette. I never used blush before either but I love it now. It won't be a replacement for foundation but I like its effect enough to use it as an everyday routine, it's quick and easy. I like Clinique and Topshop brushes (Topshop ones a good buy
http://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=&catalogId=33057&storeId=12556&productId=3561253&langId=-1&sort_field=Relevance&categoryId=218518&parent_categoryId=208495&pageSize=20 and you have shipping to Aus). Clinique ones sometimes come with their 'bonus time' sets which you get free with two purchases.

NARS trio: http://www.narscosmetics.co.uk/color/blush-and-bronzers/blush-bronzer-trio.html

Used it as I did my own wedding makeup, now hooked on it.

Anonymous said...

I use both the 'that gal' primer and the porefessional, and love love love them for when I'm doing a full face!

For an everyday look, I'm addicted to Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer. I've been using it for 4 years, daily, and there is nothing else like it! It's light like a moisturizer, and you can wait for one layer to dry, and layer it a bit thicker for places you need more coverage. This with NARS laguna bronzer for contouring (it gives you a real tan look, instead of the orange-y look a lot of other bronzers give you), and tarte mascara, you have a 5 minute face at your fingertips!

I'm constantly on the lookout for makeup that works on real people, and it's great to see you posting about this :)

teresa said...

I LOVE Chanel foundations. At the moment I'm actually using Lancome Teint Miracle, which is probably my HG, but also recently bought Chanel's Perfection Lumiere which is awesome for my oily skin. I found that Vitalumiere Aqua was a little too slick on me, but the feel of it is really light, like you say!

Funny, I've just come to realise that for someone who doesn't wear much makeup (I probably put it on twice a week), I sure do own a lot of it...

Have you read Into The Gloss? Such an awesome blog.

teresa said...

Ooh and Strawberrynet is great for slightly discounted brand cosmetics! E.g. my Lancome foundation is $86NZD at the shops, but about $55 depending on the exchange rate at the website.

Unknown said...

thanks for the feedback! make up is such an expensive research experiment eh! plus all the reviews are hard to gauge because you never know how much the reviewer actually NEED make up and therefore it's how to gauge what would work for you!
@teresa, i know right, strawberry is a godsent! try products at department store and then go back and look on strawberry!
i will have to check up on NARS one of these days.