FOTD (2): Revlon Colorstay for Normal to Dry vs Revlon Age-Defying with botafirm

   V.S.

 





They say Revlon has reformulated its Color stay liquid foundation. I am not sure if they do it here in Canada.  I have purchased a new colorstay recently,  and I feel it's still with the same good coverage and staying power. However there's no spf 15 for normal to dry skin type--no spf for combination to oily either.

To be honest, after today's (it's around 19 degree here) testing, I do not feel very big difference between Color Stay and Age Defying with Botafirm. Of course there are some difference between the two, but in general they are good foundations.

The colorstay foundation contains 30 ml while Age Defying has 37 ml;

Both of them have some paint smell, but age defying's smell is much stronger than colorstay, I am not big fan of age defying smell, but I am ok with it since it does not linger;

Colorstay seem to be offering higher coverage than Age Defying with Botafirm. In general both of them offers very high coverage;

Both of them are not difficult to blend with. I apply the foundation little by little with my finger and they seem to blend very well;

Both of them have no pump, this is one thing I dislike. I feel I cannot control how much I want to use easily each time.

Both of them are with nice finish. They are not matte. To me they are between satin and matte finish;

The staying powder of both are fantastic. They stay on my face for more than 14 hours and never transfer. The look is as fresh as I just applied!

Age Defying with Botafirm has spf 20 in it while colorstay has no spf ;

My skin does not feel dry with both foundations;

Colorstay stays very well on my under eye area while Age Defying with Botafirm is a little bit dry. I am surprised with it because age defying is supposed to be working on dryer skin type. But maybe Colorstay for normal to dry skin can moisturize well....Not sure;

Overall, both of them worth the hype on the Internet community. I do like both of them. They can be more pricey than other drugstore foundations, but they do worth that. Revlon makes a lot of foundations better than department store brands. To me drugstore foundations in general are as compatible to department store foundations; however when it comes to powder foundation, maybe department store brands do better.

FOTD (1): face makeup of the day

I don't know why I am obsessed with face makeup. The only makeup product  I would buy over and over is foundation--no matter it's liquid, cream or powder foundation. I have never been tired of trying new foundations.

The article is about the 'face make up' of the day. I always study carefully with the foundation performance each day since  climate or skin condition can change the foundation staying power on the face.

Before starting with my foundation, I apply moisturizer with sunscreen, I apply sunscreen everyday for it's the best anti-ageing product. Today I use Olay complete spf 30 daily moisturizer for sensitive skin. It's a little bit cold and dry in Toronto today but luckily my skin is not super dry, so this moisturizer works quite well for me.

I do not normally use primer before makeup and I do not think I need it. Sunscreen is enough. So I usually skip this step. 

Since I have the mood to test out my foundations on both sides of my face, I apply Revlon color stay on left side of my face and Revlon age-defying (old version) on right side of my face. 

I will have a detailed review comparing these two later. Revlon colorstay normal to dry skin seems to offer better coverage than Revlon age-defying. Both of them are above medium coverage. But colorstay is more full coverage in my opinion. They both stay more than 14 hours!! They never transfer! I wore them at 9:00 in the morning and I haven't remove my makeup yet now as I am typing (it's around 11:28 now) and the makeup is still  fresh as if I just applied this morning. Both of them have super good staying power. 

 

Then I use Gurlain  powder foundation as my setting powder. I had a review on it before. I apply very little of it. 

I use Revlon nearly naked powder in light to do a nature contour since it's darker than my skin tone.

I highlight with physicians formula happy booster powder translucent. 

Last but not least, I use CdP cheek color duo as my blush. The blush does not look attractive on the pan, but once you apply this blush on, you get the most natural, healthy and beautiful cheek as if you just finished workout. 

This look is for a very natural everyday look.

Review: Yves Rocher Pure Light Foundation

 

When I saw it in the store first time, this foundation did not attract my attention. One reason is that it's housed in a very light plastic bottle. I prefer foundation to be packed in a glass jar since I feel it can preserve better the ingredients in the foundation. The other reason is because I did not believe this foundation can offer any coverage from its name. I prefer foundation to offer some coverage. To be a foundation cannot be called foundation if it offers coverage less than tinted moisturizers. Nowadays more and more tinted moisturizers and sunscreens offer light coverage which work better than some light foundations.

For some reason I ordered this foundation online one day. I read YR claimed this foundation gives a luminous and second skin effect. As a person with dryer skin, I always wish foundation can give me some luminous and glow finish instead of dull matte look. Therefore I decided to give it a try.

The foundation really gives a beautiful luminous finish on the skin. I did not detect any sparkles in the foundation. It is moisturizing on the skin and it looks moisturizing on the face. Your skin looks full of hydration and very healthy.

The coverage is actually quite good as a light foundation, it's between light to medium. But you do not see any powder traces on your skin. Your skin looks better and healthier. I agree with what it claims, it has a second skin effect.

The foundation comes with a pump and the bottle is very light which makes it very travel friendly. Though I prefer glass jars instead of plastic jars. For those people who prefer to bring foundation everywhere for touch ups, it can be your best choice.

YR light luminous foundation gives skin a hydrating feel (see above swatch). 

Yves Rocher Pure light foundation ingredient lists:

Review: Rimmel Wake me Up Foundation

 

Rimmel makes very good foundations with affordable prices. This foundation is around $11 dollars. There are very few foundations retail below $15 dollars in Canada.

Rimmel's Wake me Up foundation claims to have anti-fatigue effect and radiant glow.

If you look at the above swatch, you may see some tiny shimmers there. These small particles does not make your face shine like disco ball. Because it's so subtle, you cannot detect them at all once you apply the foundation on your face. It gives a very healthy glow on the skin that everybody would enjoy. 

The texture is not as runny as revlon nearly naked. I personally dislike runny foundation because it makes everything messy. The foundation feels like light serum which is very comfortable on your skin. It's very easy to blend with your fingers.

The foundation comes with a pump so that you can control the amount of foundation easily each time.

The staying power is good. It stays around 6 hours on the skin. On my normal to dry skin, it does not transfer. 

One downside of this foundation is that the color selection is quite limited. I am around NC 20 and I wear the lightest shade. All Rimmel foundation seem to be having this problem with shade selection, otherwise I think Rimmel's foundation quality is one of the best in drugstore. 

Overall, this is a good quality foundation with limited shade selection. It gives skin very beautiful glow but not greasy. It comes with a pump and the packaging makes this foundation to look more expensive than it is. 

The ingredients list. 

Cle de Peau La Creme U vs Shiseido Bio-performance Advanced Super Restoring Cream

When I was in my late 10s to early 20s, I always dreamed to have CdP skincare or makeup products. I would save money for a long time to buy one CdP's product and felt so happy the whole day.

The more products I try, the more I understand that the more expensive does not mean the better. Everything depends on marketing and how a company present the products images to other people.

The higher end products does not necessarily mean the best ingredients inside, they may use better ingredients but it does not mean it can work wonders to everybody's skin.
   
   I used creme de lamer and cdp la creme and I do not think they are awesome. They are
   pretty good moisturizers, but it does not mean they can work better than medicines which solve      all types of skin problems.

   A moisturizer from Olay or Loreal Paris can work much better than other more expensive        creams. Paula Begoun has taught us a lot from her books.

  As everybody knows, drugstore cosmetics by Loreal can contain the same ingredients as Lancome's as they are from the same company. Same thing as Cle de Peau and Shiseido, both of them have the same mother-Shiseido.

Therefore, Shiseido has so many products to be the dupe of CdP, and the moisturizer is no exception.

CdP la creme retails at 550 CAD plus tax while Bio-Performance Advanced Super Restoring Cream is at $140 plus tax. The price difference is crazy and huge. Does a $600 moisturizer work better than $100 moisturizer? I am not sure.

The texture of both cream are almost the same. CdP is slightly oily while Shiseido is slightly sticky. If you have very dry skin, you may need to warm your shiseido cream with your finger tips before applying onto your face; with CdP, you can just apply it on without any problem.

Does CdP la cream work wonders? No. The claim is however so big. But when your skin is in a really bad condition, better not to use it at all. It will irritate your skin like nobody's business. Does it hydrates well? Well, when your skin is in normal condition, it's enough. When your skin is super dry, no way. You will end up waste lots of products and still feel dry and itchy on your skin.

The bio-performance advanced super restoring cream seems to have the same problem. It works only when skin is in healthy and normal condition.

Why do I need to spend lots of money on products which only work with my skin on certain conditions? I don't know. For the name? For the packaging? For that you can be bragging to your friends and relatives?  I really do not know.

Review: Yves Rocher Flawless Finish Fluid Foundation

When it comes to foundation with flawless finish, the top three foundations come to my mind are Cle de Peau cream foundation, Clarins Everlasting Foundation and Estee Lauder Double Wear. They truly offer full coverage that make your skin look flawless. However sometimes they can be drier than other foundations and they can look like mask on the skin.

However YR Flawless Finish Fluid Foundation does not have that mask-y feel to it and it opens my view on flawless finish foundation.

 


When I first tried this foundation I was surprised by how thin and liquid-y it is comparing to my other foundations with high coverage and long staying power.

The foundation is slightly runny. It is super blendable. I did not use any accessories such as brushes or sponge to apply. I use my fingers to blend it same way as I apply sunscreen. The foundation looks good on the skin. It does not cover as well as my other high coverage foundations which can be doubled as concealers.

The foundation looks very natural on the skin. It does not give any matte look like other high coverage foundation, instead, it gives a beautiful glow on the face. It evens out the skin tone really well.

In order to see how it performs, I apply this foundation without any concealer. I do set it with a very think layer of translucent powder.

It looks nothing special on my skin during the first half hour. However after 6 hours of applying this foundation, I found it looks very beautiful on the skin. This foundation does not transfer or spread. The longer it stays on the skin, the more beautiful it looks.

Like I said before, it does not make or conceal the flaws on the skin. I was a little bit disappointed with this foundation at the first time. However it seems to "diffuses" the flaws on the skin. The imperfections somehow hind somewhere but you know you do not put tons of products on. It's a very weird feeling to me since I always expect foundation claims to have flawless coverage should hide and conceal all my imperfections with a 'light mask' feeling on my skin.

Overall, YR Flawless Finish foundation does help your skin look flawless in another way, rather than masking everything up.

Ingredients lists: 

Revew: Yves Rocher Replumping Serum Foundation

YR Replumping Serum Foundation is a foundation infused with many natural skin care ingredients. It gives skin benefits while wearing foundation. The foundation is in a half-serum and half-foundation formula.

When I tried to pump the foundation out first time, there's no foundation coming out. It was a transparent liquid with slightly oily feel running out of the bottle instead. I suppose it to be the serum that has skin care benefits. It takes me to pump around 3 to 4 times until the foundation comes out.

The foundation was not liquid-y, it's has a light serum feel to it which I think it is because of the skin care serum in the foundation. It is very moisturizing on the skin that I feel myself wearing a skincare product instead of a foundation.

Though YR did not claim this foundation to be with great coverage, I feel it is the YR foundation with the best coverage. With one layer of this foundation, the coverage is medium. It does not look cakey if you put more layers on to build up more coverage and you never feel it's heavy on the skin.

The staying powder seems to be OK, it says around 6 hours on normal to dry skin like mine. If you sweat easily, you might need to blot it.

It has a light scent like all YR's foundations. Fortunately the smell does not linger. However if you are sensitive to scent you'd better to try it and test it out in the store.

Overall, it's a above medium coverage foundation infused with lots of skin care ingredients for normal to dry skin people.