Concealer Review. Lancome, Dior, MAC, Paul & Joe & Maybeline

Concealer, I believe is one of the most essential product for a working lady. Why? Because we are stressed, we have bills, we have children and we have to take care of the home. This in turns causes us our banes like dark circles under the eyes, puffy eyes, acne, pigmentation, wrinkles among the few to occur on our faces and let’s face it. All of us are vain, even those of us who say they are not ARE deep deep down. Because lets face it if someone tells you, you are beautiful, gorgeous, that you are pretty and you feel happy/glad/proud/ecstatic. YOU ARE VAIN.

There comes along a product, the concealer. Its meant to cover up and make these ugly makes on our faces disappear. Now the issue comes is how do we find the right concealer? Why should we bother? Especially so for people who have no time for it.

The right concealer…

In the cosmetic market there are a lot of concealers available. The most important step is to find one that actually covers up that mark on your face. Because let’s face it why should we bother getting one that only covers it up halfway or so-so? If you get a really good one you can actually control the extent of the coverage that you want to achieve. The other really important point in looking for a concealer is to get one that does not cause you old seeds under your eye. What happens with some concealer is that it causes you to develop old seed in the under eye area of your eye. (where your dark circles are*). It looks like white dots, and its usually quite fine and obvious if you’re looking for it.

You must, must avoid this at all cost. I’ve seen this on many women’s and men’s faces and I don’t think they realize they have it. Its almost impossible to remove it one you have it. I’ve check it out (I have one spot and had consider removing it) and it cost a bomb for the treatment and if they do remove it there will be a GAPING HOLE under your eye where they remove it. Admittedly it would be small, but it would be obviously and I’m not really to have an hole/indentation under my eye.

As I have really bad dark circles (courtesy of me typing late at night), I need one that can completely hide it. I’ve tried many brands such as

Dior Skin Flash

I’ve tried this out and it’s decent to have in your handbag for a touch up when you’re on the go but the coverage is not all that great, especially if you want to hide really dark pigmentation. It has a sheer, creamy texture. It’s pretty good to hide dark circles if they are not that bad (meaning colors that are closer to a bruise). It’s blend easily and well. The only issue I have with this is that it had limited shades and is only suitable for fair skin. As I’m a bit tanned I couldn’t find one that suits my skin tone. My sister however did and she’s in love with it. I’d give this a 4 / 5 rating

Maybelline Cover Stick

I’ve tried this as well. It’s decent and cheap. But still not 5/5 rating. I wouldn’t use it under my eye but I would use it on my face, especially around the nose where it tends to be red and my pimple scars.

Paul & Joe

I’ve tried this too. It’s creamy and it glides on smoothly. But again the coverage is ok but not fantastic. I had some issues with this because it creases easily. Not too shabby but it’s a bit hard to find. All in all I’d give it a 4/5 rating

Lancome

What to say about this? Again to borrow it’s pretty much the same quality as the Dior mentioned above. I have no issues with the oil seed problem with this and its pretty decent if you don’t have really terrible dark circles. Its smooth and it glades on well. 3/5 rating.

Mac

MAC, MAC, MAC what can I say? It’s fabulous! Its covers everything up! From pimples to the worst pigmented scars!

It covers up any scars I want to cover with no fuss. It has thick and smooth texture when you use it. The best way to use this is with a brush or your finger. For the under eye area I’d suggest a concealer brush and you pat it on. If you’re using your finger, run your finger gently in a circular motion to transfer the product onto your finger and transfer it to the back of your hand. Warm the concealer up a bit more(this occurs when you rub your finger on the concealer on your skin, your body temperature warms it up) and with your smallest finger dab it onto the dark circles. Do not drag as this causes wrinkles.

For face scar, you do not need to warm it up as much. You can just dap it onto the affected areas.

So… this is the concealer review.

Hope it’s informative and that it helps. I’ll be putting up a video soon on how to put on foundation and concealer.

Please take a look at it when it’s up!

That’s all for tonight,

Tata, Love Marie

PS: Please don’t forget to follow & comment. It means the world to me.

The Basics of Foundation

The Basics of Foundation

To all you newbies out there who are just foraying into the world of makeup… this blog is to give you an idea of the types of foundation available and make you ponder about the type of looks that you might want to consider trying out.

There are many kinds of foundation…

The Liquid... the most widely known and seen




The Compact…



The Tube…



The Mousse…



The Spray… though I’ve only seen this once. I believe its quite rare and almost none existent in certain countries



The Mineral…



Now before you go off and decide on a type that you want to start with, you might first like to take the time to look at magazines pictures, makeup advertorials, movies or advertisement for an inspiration or idea.

Then consider the kind of look do you like and want to achieve. However in deciding this a dose of reality is needed because at the end of the day the skin type of each individual differs and it would have to come down to what are you willing to compromise on to get a closely similar look.

Now before I go on I’d like to give you a brief purvue of what I’ve been using. Once upon a time ago when I was 13 years old I started with compact powders. Now why would I need to use this? Well at that time I had good clear skin and was just breaking into puberty and had yet to deal with acne and the sort.
2 years later at 15 years old I changed to the compact foundation. Why again you ask? It was because I still had very youthful skin that could and would regenerate fast and well. I also had good collagen in my skin still doing its wonderful work. This compact foundation gave me the coverage I need to have a flawless looking skin when I was out with my friend and going out to parties.
It was not until I turned 17 years old that I started using liquid foundation. Though that this time I still relied heavily on my compact foundation. But at 17 years old my skin was changing. It was becoming more ache prone especially dealing with the stress of college exams.

Back to the Foundation….

In the family of foundation there 3 type of coverage that it generally gives. The light, medium and full coverage.
To put in a nut shell, the light coverage covers almost nothing and gives you a very very light sheen. This foundation is good for people with flawless skin a.k.a. unblemished/dark circled skin.
If you are buying a foundation to use because you want you even you skin complexion , hide those nasty scars, acne, blemishes, pores, dark circles and wrinkles then I would suggest that you try the medium to full coverage foundation.
The full coverage foundation being what it is… it covers imperfection up.

Next thing you need to know about liquid foundations, there are water based foundation and oil based foundation. By right the water based foundation would be better for problem skins however up to date I have yet to find a water based foundation that DOES ITS JOB and give me a medium coverage with the exception of Bobby Brown’s Skin Foundation SPF 15 PA+.



However... even this foundation has its limitations... it doesn't stay on your skin all that long, meaning if you wear it to work its not gonna last till 5pm. But if you have sensitive skin and don't actually need the foundation on all that long I would say give this foundation a shot.

The Tube Foundation… I find this a bit hard to blend in a rush without hurting my face. But saying that its handy to have in your purse. Overall however unless you are willing to spend time blending this one out I’d say you just stick with the liquid foundation.

The mousse… I love this L’oreal Brand. It had a matte finish to the end result. However the problem is that it was a bit too strenuous for my face. I found that if I used this product on a daily basis I tend to break out in acne.

The Spray… sorry guys I can't really give you a review on this because I’ve never actually gotten the change to try it out. To my knowledge it’s not available in Malaysia and it was too expensive when I say it in Brisbane, Australia. If any of you guy know where I can get this give me a holler.

Lastly the mineral foundation. This works very well on the skin but at most it can only give you a light to medium coverable. In all the numerous brands that I’ve tried I’ve yet to find one that can give me a medium to full coverage. Overall this particular once gives a nice natural look to your face but if and ONLY IF you find the right shade. Otherwise what happens is that you face will either look must lighter or darker than your neck and it will be quite obvious. The other that I find tedious and time consuming about mineral foundation is that if you want to change the coverage and the durability *how long the foundation will actually last on your face* you would need to spend a whole lot of money buying the tinted moisturizer (base 1) and the special base (base 2) and I have found to my dismay that these does not come cheap.
Because regardless of the basis needed for the mineral foundation, you still need to add on the primer for your face and eye.

All right people, I hope this blog is informative. If there’s a typo or something you don’t understand just give me a buzz...

That being said, tata all my sweeties!
Love Marie **Muah**