Hello!

I've often debated wether or not to have a beauty blog. After all, this isn't what I do for a living, therefor my opinion has no greater merit than anyone else's. I've always been quite interested in makeup, but the more creative aspect - something I've been exposed to so much in art school and through work at fashion shoots. However, in the past year and a half or so, I've found myself being far more informed on the subject than your random girl on the street.

I've never had perfect skin, but for reasons beyond my control or understanding, about a year and a half ago, it took a turn for the worse and when I looked to makeup for help, I realized what I needed wasn't there. I'm still not convinced it is, and if it is, it's very well hidden! But. I'm on a personal mission to find the perfect foundation routine – products and formulas – for myself and anyone else who's found themselves facing the same kind of issues as me.

Basically, I would categorize my issues as followed: 1) finding foundation, or a mixture of several, for very pale skin; 2) one that would provide significant coverage to deal with acne, scars and hyper- pigmentation; 3) a lighter alternative for when my skin has begun to heal and 4) a formula that works for dehydrated oily/combination skin (because that's what I have naturally) as well as for dry skin (because that's what you'll most likely have for the duration of your medical skin treatment course). This search will also include concealers, powders and tools – basically, everything one would need to achieve as flawless a complexion as possible, when dealing with the sort of issues that I am.

Not that I set out to learn about this, but one thing leads to another and I'm afraid this simply could not have been helped. The other subject I will be writing about is my slow but steady acquisition of truly fine beauty tools and accessories. Oh I'm an absolute sucker for high quality performance and gorgeous product design! Sadly, I can't get everything in one go, which is making me a very impatient bunny, but it's also a good thing. I've put a lot of careful research and planning into each purchase, so for someone who may share my aesthetic for beautiful, expensive things, but needs help making a decision about “the one”, perhaps this will be a helpful guide =).

Finally, the reason I did decide to start this, comes from one of my favourite blogs – Sweet Makeup Temptations. The reason my journey started at all was because of Lisa Eldridge, who I knew about from the “10 Years Younger” show. I had an upcoming photo shoot and had a vague idea of what I wanted. I knew I'd seen it somewhere, sometime... But that's not good enough. Usually I try to find images as close as I can to the look I want done the day of the shoot, to give to the makeup artist as inspiration. Rather than looking up “winged eyeliner”, I google my favourite makeup artists and see what treasures I find. However, at the time, my only favourite artist was Pat McGrath and I wasn't finding what I wanted. So I suddenly remembered about Lisa, looked her up and was pleased to see she had a very nice website of her own with tons of images of her editorial work. I found a photograph of exactly what I wanted and lost myself in her work for hours and hours. And hours more when I realized she had a youtube channel! Thus, my education began.

Well, that's not entirely true. I've had studio makeup training by Katrin Sangla, who is widely considered to be the best makeup artist in the country (Estonia, I don't think I mentioned where I'm from) – she's the on call artist for the First Lady, she's been in every magazine, done every fashion show and has been in charge of Max Factor in the region for years and years (so much so, she did the makeup for the new MF campaign with Gwyneth Paltrow), and a 20^th century hair and makeup course (we studied makeup and grooming by the decade, both theory and application – at the end of each day we left looking like flappers, pinups, disco divas etc until we ran out of decades, it was amazing!) at Tallinn City Theater with another brilliant, renowned artist - Anu Konze (she can do both – hair and makeup). Both absolutely fantastic experiences, especially when I think back of myself as a teenager going through fashion magazines, with my favorite fashion spreads always having these two women behind the look – Katrin's makeup and Anu's hair styling.

Anyway, that is how I got my foundation knowledge and that's what's made directing a shoot so much easier – I know exactly what I want and how to technically achieve it, just short of having the technique myself. I love working closely with the glam-squad and it's so good to have someone there who can take a fresh look, give a second opinion and say when there needs to be more blush, highlighter, contouring or mascara, if it's not going to show up on camera.

But it's Lisa's channel, and others I've discovered since, that have continued my education. My top 3 videos of hers are: 1) how to cover acne (duh); 2) foundation for very pale skin (I learned SO much from that one!); and 3) her favourite brushes. I got sucked right into that one. I never really gravitated towards wanting brushes because I thought they were too expensive (you'll laugh when you read later what I considered “expensive”) and the ones I had were all disappointing, so why bother with another trinket if I can do the same with my hands or whatever sponge, puff or mini brush that already comes with the product. The more I watched her apply makeup, the more I was intrigued by the brushes, the more I researched them. That's how I ended up on Sweet Makeup Temptations. I was looking up the Rolls Royce of brushes – the Suqqu powder brush. At the time, there was very little information on rare, not easily accessible Japanese brushes, but there they all were on that blog, in superb, up close and personal detail, for anyone sharing the passion to look at, ask questions and receive first hand advice. I for one am extremely grateful for and humbled by it – these are not things that you can go out, look at and touch just anywhere, and not everyone who has such a collection will want or care to share it with others, after all.

But what finally inspired me to chronicle my own makeup adventures, were a couple of back and forth comments on said blog. I got some lovely feedback and advice, which made me think – you know what, I'm constantly learning something new and trying to do something about my own particular makeup need anyway, maybe there's someone out there who's in the same boat, and even if I don't have the answers, I will have tried and failed at something they were considering, so they'll know to avoid it, whatever it is.

In conclusion, an illustration. I was advised to check out Guerlain's Parure Gold in Rose Naturel 13 as a possible, decent match for my skin tone. I realized I'd never looked at Guerlain's foundations at all, so I was very excited to check it out. My department store didn't have Parure Gold, but they had a couple of others and I tried two with the lightest shades in the range. Et voila! I swatched the Parure De Lumiere in 02 Beige Clair and Lingerie De Peau in 01 Beige Pale on the inside of my arm (my neck is about the same shade, even lighter, and that's what I really have to match, as my face is a couple of shades darker and has quite a bit of overall redness – matching that is useless, it will look like my head belongs to a foreign body), and what these represent is what every other luxury and drugstore/high street brand represent in terms of shade range. This is what the lightest shades offered by most brands (besides more professional, makeup artist brands), regardless of price point, look like on me. And for years I had no choice, because walking around with an orange face seemed like the lesser evil than having my blemishes on full display.

Guerlain Parure De Lumiere in 02 Beige Clair and Lingerie De Peau in 01 Beige Pale in artificial lighting

Guerlain Parure De Lumiere in 02 Beige Clair and Lingerie De Peau in 01 Beige Pale in natural daylight

But no more! My quest to find a solution that works has been ongoing and I feel like I'm very close to finding it. I'll admit, for a while I got extremely obsessed with finding THE shade or a means of mixing it, and completely disregarded the other qualities that go into a foundation – the coverage, finish and composition, as in, wether or not it's even suitable for your skin type. This was a huge mistake. Now I'm considering all of those factors and will refuse to compromise! This will be such a labor of love, and if it helps anyone else in any way, I will be happy to share =).