[Another older entry from Summer 2008, last one I promise! But it's still pretty relevant until I do an up to date one so have posted it anyway]

Foundation Types

Foundation comes in so many forms and brands and colours that it's pretty daunting to anyone who's never used the stuff before. Or someone, who's been using the same type of product for a long time and wants a change. Here is just a brief guide to the different types (rather than brands) of foundation that are around, and an indication as to what type of coverage you should expect with each. I've sat around all day trying them all out, working out the pros and cons, so here it is...

Powder
Powder foundation is usually the best kind if you're new to it all or you're having a hard time finding the exact shade you need. It's really easy to buy two shades and combine the them to match your skin tone exactly. You can get loose powder (more about that later) and pressed powders that sometimes contain cream so that it isn't too dry and harsh on the skin, this also makes blending a lot easier.

Powder is great for a matte look and during the Summer it can be easily reapplied to reduce shininess without much fuss. Powders tend to come with round, flat sponges but I find that these tend to make application more 'cakey' and don't blend as well as if you use a powder brush.

Main Advantages:
* Very easy to blend
* Can be touched up easily during the day
* Often come in compacts for handbag friendliness
* Getting an even coverage is pretty easy

Main Disadvantages:
* Matte is generally the only option, you can opt for ones which claim to be 'silky' or 'dewy' but at the end of the day they look pretty matte due to it being in powder form
* Only light-medium coverage, if you try and add lots to an area it tends to show in a cakey clogged up way

Loose Powder

Loose powder is most commonly in the form of 'mineral based make up' nowadays, for people who don't want to slather their skin with god-knows-what. However this isn't about the debate of mineral make up and how good it really is. Loose powder is, straight away, a bit messy. The particular one photographed comes with its own little brush but I still end up covering my desk with this stuff unless I unscrew it very, very carefully. It has lots of the same benefits of pressed powder, it blends really well, creates a light matte coverage. It's good for daytime use and reduces any shininess that you might get during the course of the day.

Main Advantages:
* Blends well
* Very natural look

Main Disadvantages:
* Unless you have a clear complexion, it won't do miracles, it's generally light coverage
* Can be messy


Liquid
Done right, liquid foundation can be a blessing, done badly, it can be a curse. Liquid foundation has the great advantage of being adaptable when it comes to the amount of coverage you want. Use a tiny bit mixed with moisturiser for a healthy natural look or find one with a shimmer and go for a flawless evening look that will make your skin look as smooth as porcelain. Like powder, you can mix them about to find the perfect shade, adding pigments for extra shine, used with moisturiser or as a base for your powder foundation for some serious coverage. It's a really versatile product. However, liquid brings way for streaking, which should never ever be seen. Liquid shows where you mess up, if you don't blend your jawline properly, you're more likely to end up with 'tidemarks' than with powder, any thicker areas will have a considerably stronger colour and if you use your finger to blend (which I don't recommend) and do it wrong, you will end up with streaks and potentially orangeyness. Lots of good liquid foundations turn bad when used with the fingertips (especially when they're not clean) as the skins natural oils mingle with the foundation and the colour can alter slightly and it all goes downhill from there.

Main Advantages:
* The choices you have, matte, sheer, heavy, ones with a sheen, frosted...the list goes on and on
* The versatility, you can experiment and add other products to get exactly what you're looking for
* Used correctly, you can get a great even finish with the help of patience and a good foundation brush.

Main Disadvantages:
* Mistakes tend to show up, especially if you're not using quite the right colour to begin with
* Streaking can be a pain

Mousse

There are now a pretty wide variety of mousse foundations available, and the basic concept is that it's incredibly light and therefore easy to blend without clogging up the pores too much. I find mousse foundation, to have medium-heavy coverage, I find it difficult to use such a small amount that it is 'light.' Although I am sure others have perfected it more than I have. You don't need a lot to do your whole face with mousse foundation, so it's purse friendly, I used the pot in the picture for one application and as you can see, I've only have to lightly press the surface of the foundation and scoop a tiny bit out to give a decent coverage to most of my face. If you have clear skin, again this foundation will emphasise the flawlessness of your face, if you have acne or sores on your face I wouldn't go for the mousse because it does somewhat highlight bumps and lumps even if it evens the skin tone well. This is the foundation that I find looks more 'plastered on' than the others, despite the labels frequently claiming to be light...

Main Advantages:
* Works well even on dry areas, doesn't flake off
* When applied successfully it looks flawless since it's so smooth
* Blends well
* Even coverage, generally medium-heavy

Main Disadvantages:
* 'Clings' to lumps and bumps in an unflattering way, shows no mercy to spots
* Not the most natural looking foundation in the world, probably better for evenings than daytime

Cream

Creams are the halfway point really in all foundations. They are quite easily blended (but not necessarily mixed) and give good solid coverage when needed. They vary in consistency, such as the solid cream to the left, which is best used with a firm sponge, to ones which act like liquid when on a foundation brush. if you need coverage, you need a cream foundation. They come in a variety of textures so you can get a matte or dewy look depending how natural you want your face to look and you can get user friendly compacts for quick touch ups during the day with minimum mess. Because they're creamy they are less messy than compact powders even, so you don't have to worry about spilling it all down your front. Despite creams being...err...damp, they do sometimes get stubborn around dry areas and creases, near the nostrils and between the eyebrows for example, so you need to usually adapt coverage in that area to be a little lighter so it doesn't get 'clogged' up.

Main Advantages:
* Less mess
*Good if you need coverage without looking slapped on
*Wide range of products out there

Main Disadvantages:
* Aren't always great on dry areas, but generally better than liquid

So hopefully that was at least a tiny bit useful, and it's given you an introduction into the main kinds of foundation and certainly what I find to be the pros and cons of them all. It varies from range to range and skin type to skin type but I think generally those are the main points for each that I've found. I have tried lots and lots of foundations so I hopefully have a pretty good range of comments.

Pictured (top to bottom):
1. No 7 Creme Touch in Honey Milk (12) - Please excuse the mess that is this powder, I have dropped it quite a lot today and so it is all messy, I didn't realise til I uploaded the picture!
2. Revlon ColorStay Mineral Foundation in 060 Medium
3. MAC Studiofix Fluid in NW25
4. No 7 Intelligent Balance Mousse Foundation in Suede (40)
5. No 7 Stay Perfect Foundation Compact in New ivory (10)

NOTE: Despite the fact that 3 of my 5 pictures are from the No 7 range, that is merely because they photographed best. I have looked at and evaluated about 15 foundations from a variety of ranges.

Date of Review: Jan 09

A couple of months ago, having seen so many reviews on youtube, I decided to finally order a 120 colour eyeshadow palette from beauties-factory.  I have left a review this late since I really wanted a chance to put this palette through its paces before giving my opinion.  Scroll down for an 'At A Glance...' approach.



Cost: I bought the item from the beauties-factory ebay shop for about 7.99 GBP and all together including postage and packaging from Hong Kong and optional insurance, my order came to just over 15 GBP.  Even if you forget about the P&P and what it must cost to make the black case which it comes in, each shadow is well under 13p.  So even you don't like all the colours, it's hardly money wasted in my opinion.

Packaging: My palette came bubblewrapped in a big envelope which seemed pretty secure but 2 of my shadows were completely obliterated and a futher 3 required emergency treatment upon opening.  I saved the 2 shadows which I liked (two vanilla esque beiges which I took a liking to) by putting them into some empty loose powder pots I had lying around.  But the most annoying part of the shadows breaking was the fact that one of them which broke, a really sickly glittery mint green, really did make a mess over every single other eyeshadow in the palette.  I still find random flecks of it now and I fear I will never see the end of it... So the smash-factor wasn't as bad as I feared but it's pretty tedious wiping the other 116 shadows clean....

The actual casing that the colours come in appears pretty sleek.  Flat black palette which contains 2 layers of shadows, which can be move so all slot in nicely (see picture) but it's pretty cheap feeling inside.  Nothing bad though, at the price I paid the casing is still pretty amazing.

Negatives: This is where it got a bit confusing for me.  I had seen loads of tutorials and videos and reviews about how amazingly pigmented all the shadows were, and what fantastic quality.  I was surprised that I was pretty disappointed once I started using the shadows.  I found that lots of the colours were very similar, such as the reds and blue and greens, about 5 of them appear different, but once applied, I couldn't tell lots of them apart.

The other annoying thing I found was that the colours seemed to either work very well and be very very bright, or just didn't show up at all, even on top of my best primers and bases.  I tried layering and layering and layering some of the lighter colours but to no avail...

Positives: I got the best results from the paler shadows by using a slightly damp brush, and I ended up with some really good results after some practice, so it's not all doom and gloom I am pleased to say, they just require a bit more working than other shadows I've tried.  I use the brighter ones as liners often and they work really well since they are so highly pigmented and stay on all day.  Seriously good stuff when it comes to staying on.  I did some swatches on my hand a couple of weeks ago and didn't wipe off before I went to bed and it was still on, very bright in all it's glory, the next day.  So this stuff lasts, and once I've used a primer with them, water alone won't shift them.

The neutrals, browns and more natural colours are what make this palette worth it for me.  My 2 favourite colours are actually the ones that got smashed (crap luck there) but I can still use.  I feel the neutrals are exactly what I look for in shadows so I use them more than the other colours.  There are also a few other colours in there, little hidden gems that I have found amongst other so-so ones.  For example, one of the 10 purples in there, I believe is comparable to MAC's Parfait Amour.  There are a few of these so I feel satisfied, but not amazed by the colours.


Safety: The beauties-factory website lists all the ingredients in the products, as did the original box which my product arrived in.  However I have lately been reading about a lot of Chinese imports and the lack of information/false information on packaging or where safety standards arent always up to those in the the EU.  This is obviously personal preference of what to believe off whom, but I while I haven't heard anything bad about the company at all, I am wary about varying levels of chemicals and ingredients in different coutnries, so I suppose it;s something all potential consumers should be aware of, especially when buying foreign goods.  I have had no irritation or anything from these products, even when I have worn lots out clubbing and then fallen asleep with it all on (my pillow was a bit of a rainbow the next day though!)

Review At A Glance:

Positives: Cheap, loads of colours, lots are very pigmented
Negatives: Many colours are very similar, some weak colours, inevitable smashing in transit

Overall: *** (out of 5)
I am glad I bought the palette but would probably consider buying one from a retailer I am more confident in in the future, such as the 88 colour ones from coastelscents, which will cost a bit more, but are still good value.  I am getting better and better at learing which colours are good and which ones are not-so-good but I think it's trickier than eyeshadow has to be!