Holy grail, super pale foundation hunt vol. 2

I found myself glancing at my current foundations, including ones I've meant to talk about for a while (ahem, a year), and realised I was actually running dangerously low. So, If I don't stop the EF procrastinating, soon, there won't be anything left to show.

I made a point, nay, my mission, to try and get a hold of as many samples of foundations not available to me here during my trip to the US last year, as possible. Ok, I'm exaggerating, getting too many samples is a recipe for disaster, but there were the couple cult foundations that could possibly suit my ghostly skin, that I simply had to investigate.

As I was returning my Laura Mercier foundation to Nordstrom, the one that had successfully made a Transatlantic trip, twice, I got their oil free tinted moisturizer to try, which was way too dark and orange, as well as the Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation in Alabaster (00).

During a separate run to Sephora, I was drawn in by the Marc Jacobs counter. I'd never heard of his line as being an option for the milky skinned, but there they were, the Genius Gel and Re(marc)able foundations in Ivory Light 10. Oh-mer-gawd. Like Anna Karenina and Vronskiy, the attraction was unreasonable, law-defying and fantastic. Fair, bagey-yellow... Resisting was useless. Since I didn't know anything about his foundations, which skin type for which foundation etc, I asked for a sample of both.

Long story short, the Genius Gel and Bobby Brown Skin behaved almost identically on my skin. Next to no coverage, they settled in lines and pores forming white dots and left a film-like layer of grease on my skin. Not a pretty look. The shade match was pretty much useless taking into account the near indistinguishable coverage and they felt uncomfortable, tight and a bit suffocating on the skin. So that's three foundations down, three to go.

Let's go back in time to a few weeks before my trip. I found myself on a ferry standing in front of the L'Oréal counter. Weird, I know. But something had intrigued me. I have a particular disdain for drugstore brands because of how much more expensive they are here than in the US, UK etc. They're never the steal I know they are in other countries with a bigger market, while luxury/department store brands tend to have a more level price point everywhere in the world. Secondly, the complexion products always start at the third, fourth or fifth lightest shade! It's absurd! The foundations always look like putting liquid bronzer all over my face... Until now that is.

I knew they must make lighter shades, but I'd never seen them in the wild. Here in front of me however, was the L'Oréal True Match foundation in 1R/1C Rose Ivory. It wasn't cheap by any means, but the bottle had a pump and the shade was promising. I could tell it leaned really pink, but I thought if it is sheer, it wouldn't matter, or if it's a nice formula, I could mix it with something green or yellow. I won't hold you to ransom: I love this stuff.

It's the best foundation, to date, that I have tried, straight out of the bottle. Let me elaborate. It's not a perfect shade match, but it's passable. Pale skin is often darker on the face than the rest of the body. It's also more thin and red, which is why many counters mistakingly want to sell me pink/orange foundation, not seeing that from the neck down my skin is quite yellow. 1R/1C really suits SOME of the areas on my face.

It's easy to apply with fingers, brush or a sponge (decreasing in difficulty in that order). It has a satin finish on me, but it does get super greasy even after powdering about halfway through the day. I'd say it has light-medium coverage, leaning towards light on me, because my oily skin dissolves the formula more rapidly than someone with normal or dry skin.

So to recap, the shade match is just on the verge of being okay for me, the formula gets greasy, not dewy, GREASY, on me, and oh, the packaging is a tad flimsy (thin, hollow feeling plastics, and the labels are held on by a pretty bad glue), but I still love it! So much so, that a little research led me to discover there is an even lighter shade in the range, and it has a yellow undertone!

I was on a mission to find it in the US, and find it I did! I struck gold, or well, L'Oréal, in a Massachusetts Walmart, where I found the shade W1 Porcelain, for about 9$. The US packaging is pretty basic, the foundation comes in a small glass bottle with a metal lid, no pump, no stopper, nothing. But, whatever, it's the product that counts.

The shade W1 is a perfect match for me, however, it suffers from what every single pale foundation seems to. I don't know if the white powder particles aren't milled as finely or what, but W1, while a better match than 1R/1C, doesn't look as good on the skin. It too suffers from settling into lines and pores leaving white dots, and in general is much harder to blend than the pink, darker shade. It also leaves more to be desired in terms of wear as the day progresses, and ends up looking much like the above mentioned Bobbi Brown and Marc. I can make it work, but it requires effort I don't always possess in the morning, so while on paper the 1R/1C is weaker, I tend to reach for it most days and hope no one is examining me with a microscope and thinking, oh her foundation doesn't 100% match her neck, you know? It's flawed, but it's easy and effortless, which is why my bottle is almost done, and will most definitely be replaced by a new one next month.

The L'Oréal foundations are the two out of six that I own and use daily, which leaves just one, the Marc Jacobs Re(marc)able, to still talk about. Honestly, it was glorious. Amazing colour match and coverage, good wear, it got „dotty“, but it wasn't as noticeable with the higher coverage. Why don't I own it? Well, a) I don't like the packaging, it has a frosted glass bottle with a dropper (rolling my eyes...), b) it's expensive, and c) I'd just bought two full size foundations, bringing the total to 5 in my rotation, so something had to give.

I'm not sure if I want to re-purchase the W1 True Match when it's gone, even though I kind of like mixing it with 1R/1C. I'm traveling to New York in the fall, and I can't say for sure wether I will or will not get the Re(marc)able, either. I went through a rather disastrous phase with my skin, which still isn't fully recovered, last winter/spring, hell, summer too, and it's partly why I haven't contributed to this blog in a while.

When something hurts and is out of order, you just want to use products that work. You don't care about the latest, greatest and shiniest, you don't want to have all the things, just the ones that work. My makeup has been very paired down and honestly, the desire to try new things has slumped, I don't want to look for certain products anymore, I just want to use the ones I've found that work for me. I don't like rummaging through bottles and bottles of foundation, when there's only one I use primarily... You know? I think I'll most likely try and incorporate the foundations I use very rarely into some kind of routine, mix them, but not in an overwhelming matter. I love my Diorskin Forever, but it's 6 shades too dark, lovely as the formula may be, it'll never work for me the way the Re(marc)able does on its own, nor will the YSL Teint Touche Eclat, beautiful packaging and all, be as nice, for me, as the L'Oréal True Match. But I have to use them up.

So there you are, 6 new foundations, tested, 3 of which I recommend. All my porcelain ladies, hope you find something that works for you!