A change in the month and my thoughts at least turn to lightness and shedding of outer layers and general brightness, not the least in my base of choice.
Goodness I struggle, like I think most of the population, too oily for a hint of a tint, and too old for powder, I do tend to become a shiney sweaty mess come mid summer. However we are far from high summer in the UK, being just into April, but even so the sun is out and I need something less heavy on the face.
My bases of choice for this time of the year are Chantecaille Just Skin and Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser. What I like about both of these is their sublime texture, they really are both like moisturisers with colour, and not just a hint of colour either, both have a significant amount of pigment to even out tone a little, and make my skin look a bit less tired and a bit more alive, they seem to both be able to impart a bit of bounce and bloom.
I do struggle a bit with the shades, Just Skin's palest shade is "alabaster" which is a somewhat yellower pale and does oxidise on my skin. LM's Tinted Moisturiser cites "porcelain" as its palest shade but has always been somewhat dark and yellow on me, but thankfully they have a pale pinky shade "cameo" which is lovely.
If I had to choose it would be Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser as my favourite, it is about half the price of Chantecaille Just Skin, doesn't oxidise, is light enough in colour and lasts a good 6 hours suprisingly, I do look a bit shiney by then but is it all good. I bought both from Space NK.
A grubby photo of two far from grubby products, truthfully these were meant to be in an empties post but that didn't happen, they are empty but this is not about empties, it is about these two powder foundations, neither is it a head to head, rather observations about them.
I have a checkered past with mineral powder foundation, I have an oilier skin and theoretically, powder foundation, beit mineral or not, is suited to an oilier skin, it keeps it matte whilst covering imperfections. However as I have aged, my skin has become less oily, from the periphery in, so my oily "t" zone has become an oily "i" zone and even now this is reducing to an oily nose and chin.
What I like about both Laura Mercier and Lily Lolo is the shades in that they are sufficiently pale and neutral for my skintone, and the density of the powder, as neither have particularly heavy coverage on first pass, and that suits me, I can go in gently and then go in again and even again as necessary.
Now there is a but to this post, and it is more to do with the vagaries of my own skin rather than any deficit in the products. My skin is oily but it is also older, and thinner and menopausal and changeable. What I mean is that it can be dry and oily at the same time, which probably means it is dehydrated but whatevs. I can apply a layer and buff and buff until my arm falls off and achieve a lovely glowy skin like finish, and then when I by chance glance in the mirror, there is migration of product around my eyes (dry) and nose (oily) and generally my skin looks like an old dried out chamois. I suppose I could keep a kabuki type buffing brush about my person ready to whip out every passing hour but really?
Like I say perfectly fine products trying their hardest on an unpredictable skin.
