Foundation or No Foundation?

Today I am going to really go out there on a limb and talk about my Foundation Aversion.  Having started wearing makeup in the late sixties/early seventies, my original choice of foundation was between Cover Girl liquid (which kind of smelled like Noxema facial cleanser) and some sort of Bonnie Bell glop in a tube, picked up from the local 'dimestore'.  Sound familiar?  Of course, in those days, there were usually a few zits to cover up, and I recall spending time each morning trying to make sure that no one could see the little Clusters of Delight that I had woken up with on that particular morning. First I daubed a bit of the liquid foundation on, and then I powdered it over with some Cover Girl pressed powder.  I am pretty sure that I fooled no one, but lots of the girls were in the same boat back then, and we all just kind of looked the other way and hoped that OUR skin didn't look as bad as HER skin (but it probably did), and that was that.

Well, since those days, I have discovered something:  unless you absolutely need foundation to cover up a real disfigurement on your skin, you are probably better off without it.  Yes.  Really.  With very few exceptions, I have come to believe that wearing a foundation all over your face adds years to your 'look', and I'm pretty sure that if you are already an Old Broad, you do NOT want years added to your 'look'!  My opinion on this subject was firmly cemented several years back, when my oldest daughter (then in her late twenties) came over one day wearing a full face of foundation.  OMG, it made HER look older, and, believe me, this girl (now in her early thirties and mama of two) can usually pass for at least ten years younger than she really is.  No lie.  She herself came to the very same conclusion as I did:  Ix-Nay on the Oundation-Fay if you want to slash a few years from your countenance. 

Foundation likes nothing better than to seek out each and every line on your face, hunker down, and scream out, "Look at ME!  Look what I found!"  And, while you might want SOME parts of your face to be screaming, "Look at ME!", your fine lines and wrinkles are NOT those parts. (Hint:  lips and eyes are good!)

I am not saying that you don't need to cover a few little things (like dark circles and minor blemishes/red spots), but I AM saying that you don't need to cover your entire face with foundation.  Many makeup artists have been a fan of this particular approach for years now, and it has served me quite well, too.  Here is what you can do:

Using a brush or your ring finger, take your favorite concealer (my current one is Mally Cancellation Concealer, which can be found on the QVC website - www.qvc.com) and pat it gently where you see darkness under your eye.  I start at the inner corner of my eye and go up as well as down, because I have darkness above the inner corner.  I also do not apply undereye concealer further than the middle of my undereye.  Most people do not have darkness under the entire eye.  It is concentrated at the inner corners.  When you go totally under the eye, from inner corner to outer corner, you are calling more attention to the crows-feet that are most likely lurking at the outer corners, and we are trying to avoid calling attention to lines, remember?  :)

I love my Smashbox Precision Concealer Brush for initial application of the concealer, and I stand looking at my bathroom mirror to apply it.  I find that I can't do a really great job of applying makeup without the use of TWO mirrors - the large, 'regular' bathroom mirror over the sink, and my lit, 10x magnifying mirror.  The large mirror is good to check your look from a 'distance', and the magnifying mirror helps with the blending and close work.  After I have applied the initial amount of concealer (using the brush and looking into the large mirror while applying it), I put down the brush and peer into the 10x magnifying mirror, and use my ring finger to gently press (or mush) the concealer into the skin to blend.  Blending is VERY important.  We don't want telltale lines anywhere, and using a finger to blend lets the warmth of your body work the concealer into the skin well.  Stand up and look in the large mirror again.  Just applying undereye concealer should brighten up your face considerably.  Well, at least that's what it does for me!  LOL

Next, we move on to any small imperfections/spots.  I have a few of those, and to cover them up, I use my Bare Escentuals Well Rested.  If you are a warm skintone, you might like this very much - it's very 'yellow' and matches my skintone perfectly.  If you are a cool skintone, you would do better with one of the Bisque Multi-tasking Face products - there is the original Bisque, Summer Bisque, Honey Bisque, Dark Bisque, and Deep Bisque, so you should be able to find one that matches your skintone well.  I use my Bare Escentuals Precision Concealer brush, a handy dandy little thing, and press a small bit of my Well Rested right onto the spot I want to hide, and then I press again with my finger to blend well.  If you have matched your skintone, these powders will melt right into your own skin and look very natural.  They have pretty decent staying power, and I rarely touch up my face during the day, except for the lips. 

Even though you may have skipped covering your entire face with foundation, you might still like to try a Primer.  (Probably should have started with this, since you apply the primer after your moisturizer but before any makeup, but, oh, well, that's the way Old Brains seem to work these days!)  Primers kind of soften your look, and your skin feels amazingly smooth when you apply them.  I have tried a sampling of various primers out there, including Mally's Perfect Prep Primer Glow, Laura Geller's Face Spackle (in the original formula), Prime Time by Bare Escentuals (in several different formulations, including Original, Neutralizing, and Brightening), and the Smashbox offering (not pictured below).

The Bare Escentuals products are nice, and even my twentysomething youngest daughter likes the Neutralizing formula.  Mally's product gives you a smattering of sparklies, and I know that many of you are not fond of sparklies, so hers might not be for you, although I think that hers might make my skin feel the absolute smoothest when I apply it.  There are so many primers out there now, I suggest that you get over to your local Ulta or Sephora and try a few on your hand to see what you think.

Skin looks best when the natural luminosity can shine through, and foundation covers this up.  Take a deep breath, leave the foundation in the drawer, and see what happens.  You might be surprised!