How To: Summer-Proof Your Makeup
Protocol as it appears below is optimized for my weather (>30C and 60-80% humidity all daylight hours; if you're fit and not prone to sweating you'll sweat enough for sweat-hives, otherwise you're at constant heat-shock risk) and my skin (sensitive, thin, dry). Notes on adapting the protocol for other conditions are included.
This got tested on whole-day exposure, spending +1hr at a time outside and going in-and-out of airconditioned spaces, which does a special number on weather-reactive makeup. Makeup made it to evening without budging, and looking better than exposed skin would've - although, understandably, not in perfectly fresh-looking condition.
1. Clean your skin. So long as the method doesn't involve water, it's fine. The nastier your weather and the less-dry your skin, the more you want to err on the side of "skin dry enough to pull/feel tight"; the milder your weather and the more sensitive your skin is, the more you want to err on the side of "some moisturizer would be nice, but not crucial for my comfort." See also step #3.
2. Wet-finish non-foundation products go on now. This includes most cream-based bronzer/blush/base-shadow products. Apply more than you normally would (up by 1/3 or so), and blend out the edges extra well.
3. Moisturizer/primer goes on now. I use Bobbi Brown's "Vitamin-rich face base", which is a hybrid of the two; if your skin is normal-to-oiler you'll likely do better with a full-on primer, and if your skin is a medical-grade dryness disaster zone you want your lightest/highest water-content moisturizer. You need your skin to be sufficiently dry from step #1 that the appropriate product'll go on comfortably. Apply a little extra, so it stays a little tacky/wet. (Only a little.)
4. Powder-based foundation goes on now. (Pressed powder is almost universally easier than loose.) I like a compact-sized, super-dense brush that "feels" the wetness. (This step is why you went a little extra in #2.) Make sure to go into all the spatial corners of the face and over easily-forgotten areas e.g. between nose and lips or into the hairline.
5. Let fully dry then settle. No, seriously, you'll regret it if you don't.
6. Dry-finish not-quite-powder products go on now. This includes cream-to-powder type and Colourpop's products - stuff you can't make up your mind on if they're cream or powder or something else entirely.
7. Rest of powders go on now.
8. Eyeliner, wet products and all things silicone-based go on now, in this order.
9. If your skin is extra-oily or your weather extra-awful, you may want to use a clear finishing powder - but I haven't tested that step, so.
Specific products I use:
- Avene's extra-mild no-rinse cleanser. If you have dry/sensitive/both skin and your body started explaining to you the difference of "full adult" from "early 20s" adult, odds are you'll benefit from using this.
- Bobbi Brown's vitamin-enriched face base. This is classified under "facial care" rather than "primer" on their site, is not a moisturizer replacement for most people's skins, and isn't a full-on primer-replacement for oily skin. It also smells of tangerines, is 100% safe for hypersensitive skin, and - like all things Bobbi Brown - rather obnoxiously expensive but worth the money if you have it.
- Sisley's pressed powder foundation. Beyond obnoxiously expensive, but the one thing other than the just-as-expensive Estee Lauder Double Wear that's regular-use safe for hypersensitive skin. (These two are, bluntly, the best foundations in existence. But for fuck's sake, if you don't actually need them, you can find perfectly good and Actually Nice foundations in saner prices.)
- ColourPop bronzer and blush. CP products come at 5-8$ a pop, have a gorgeous colour payoff and texture across the board, and (with the exception of the liquid lipsticks) are as hypersensitive/allergy-safe as they come. Their international (non-US, non-Canada) shipping is reasonably priced and accessible, though not The Cheapest. There are no words for how much I recommend ColourPop if you use makeup at all. I have true-medium warm-neutral skin and use bronzer in Carry-On (labeled for "medium to medium-dark" skin, doubles wonderfully as eye-area base/concealer) and blush in Fox (quite sheer; for less-sheer close cousins see Holiday and Fruit Stand), applied with fingers (and I'm a brush person).
- Stendhal eyeshadow in medium violet-based pink, satin-finish, fine-milled to butterfly-wing soft. This can be built up from "corrector" to Actual Colour.
- ...I keep not adding an eyeliner, because this gets so gorgeous I don't want to touch it, but either CP's gel-pencils or Revlon's liquid come in a good balance of "colour" and "non-obnoxious" and survive the freakin' weather.
This entry was originally posted at http://hagar-972.dreamwidth.org/2862163.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
This got tested on whole-day exposure, spending +1hr at a time outside and going in-and-out of airconditioned spaces, which does a special number on weather-reactive makeup. Makeup made it to evening without budging, and looking better than exposed skin would've - although, understandably, not in perfectly fresh-looking condition.
1. Clean your skin. So long as the method doesn't involve water, it's fine. The nastier your weather and the less-dry your skin, the more you want to err on the side of "skin dry enough to pull/feel tight"; the milder your weather and the more sensitive your skin is, the more you want to err on the side of "some moisturizer would be nice, but not crucial for my comfort." See also step #3.
2. Wet-finish non-foundation products go on now. This includes most cream-based bronzer/blush/base-shadow products. Apply more than you normally would (up by 1/3 or so), and blend out the edges extra well.
3. Moisturizer/primer goes on now. I use Bobbi Brown's "Vitamin-rich face base", which is a hybrid of the two; if your skin is normal-to-oiler you'll likely do better with a full-on primer, and if your skin is a medical-grade dryness disaster zone you want your lightest/highest water-content moisturizer. You need your skin to be sufficiently dry from step #1 that the appropriate product'll go on comfortably. Apply a little extra, so it stays a little tacky/wet. (Only a little.)
4. Powder-based foundation goes on now. (Pressed powder is almost universally easier than loose.) I like a compact-sized, super-dense brush that "feels" the wetness. (This step is why you went a little extra in #2.) Make sure to go into all the spatial corners of the face and over easily-forgotten areas e.g. between nose and lips or into the hairline.
5. Let fully dry then settle. No, seriously, you'll regret it if you don't.
6. Dry-finish not-quite-powder products go on now. This includes cream-to-powder type and Colourpop's products - stuff you can't make up your mind on if they're cream or powder or something else entirely.
7. Rest of powders go on now.
8. Eyeliner, wet products and all things silicone-based go on now, in this order.
9. If your skin is extra-oily or your weather extra-awful, you may want to use a clear finishing powder - but I haven't tested that step, so.
Specific products I use:
- Avene's extra-mild no-rinse cleanser. If you have dry/sensitive/both skin and your body started explaining to you the difference of "full adult" from "early 20s" adult, odds are you'll benefit from using this.
- Bobbi Brown's vitamin-enriched face base. This is classified under "facial care" rather than "primer" on their site, is not a moisturizer replacement for most people's skins, and isn't a full-on primer-replacement for oily skin. It also smells of tangerines, is 100% safe for hypersensitive skin, and - like all things Bobbi Brown - rather obnoxiously expensive but worth the money if you have it.
- Sisley's pressed powder foundation. Beyond obnoxiously expensive, but the one thing other than the just-as-expensive Estee Lauder Double Wear that's regular-use safe for hypersensitive skin. (These two are, bluntly, the best foundations in existence. But for fuck's sake, if you don't actually need them, you can find perfectly good and Actually Nice foundations in saner prices.)
- ColourPop bronzer and blush. CP products come at 5-8$ a pop, have a gorgeous colour payoff and texture across the board, and (with the exception of the liquid lipsticks) are as hypersensitive/allergy-safe as they come. Their international (non-US, non-Canada) shipping is reasonably priced and accessible, though not The Cheapest. There are no words for how much I recommend ColourPop if you use makeup at all. I have true-medium warm-neutral skin and use bronzer in Carry-On (labeled for "medium to medium-dark" skin, doubles wonderfully as eye-area base/concealer) and blush in Fox (quite sheer; for less-sheer close cousins see Holiday and Fruit Stand), applied with fingers (and I'm a brush person).
- Stendhal eyeshadow in medium violet-based pink, satin-finish, fine-milled to butterfly-wing soft. This can be built up from "corrector" to Actual Colour.
- ...I keep not adding an eyeliner, because this gets so gorgeous I don't want to touch it, but either CP's gel-pencils or Revlon's liquid come in a good balance of "colour" and "non-obnoxious" and survive the freakin' weather.
This entry was originally posted at http://hagar-972.dreamwidth.org/2862163.html. Please comment there using OpenID.