Hi. Welcome back. Happy to have you here. As you saw in my last post, I just got off of a 3 month makeup-free streak. Well summer is over and the weather is cooler, which means I can tolerate foundation on my face again!

A while back Jess and I did a post on our everyday makeup and at the time I was using a drugstore foundation - Neutrogena Skin Clearing Liquid Makeup Tan 120. When I was using this foundation my skin was really oily and I thought “oh crap, I have REALLY oily skin!” When I stopped wearing makeup I learned that my skin is actually pretty normal, if not a little dry, and that the foundation was causing me to produce more oil. So when I decided to wear makeup again in the fall I also decided it was time to find a better foundation.

I’ve always been against spending a boatload of money on makeup products. I never believed that expensive products were actually better than drugstore. But after my oily skin/not oily skin fiasco I decided to actually do some research and see if there was a difference in a more expensive product. I follow a couple beauty vloggers on YouTube with darker skin tones and started watching their videos religious. One of my favorites is Jackie Aina and in a couple of videos she had really positive things to say about Lancôme foundation for darker skin tones. After seeing her positive reviews on Lancôme I decided I wanted to give it a try.

When Jess visited me a few weeks ago we went to Sephora* and I got a sample of  Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra 24H Long Wear Foundation in the color 430 Bisque C. So a few things: this was my first time getting color matched at Sephora and I was matched as a cool tone. I always believed that brown skinned girls were just naturally warm toned, so I was skeptical. The foundation looked like a perfect match in the store, but with all the lighting I decided it was best to try this out during a normal day. I got a sample and decided I would try this out during a workday.

Fast forward 2 weeks (because I’m lazy) and I’ve tried this foundation on 2 days at work and am in LOVE.

Pros:

• It takes very little foundation to get full coverage. At first I used the amount I usually use with the drugstore foundation and it was way too much. I thought my sample would only last 2 uses and it could easily last a week.
• Long wearing. They’re not kidding with that claim. This foundation lasts all day and doesn’t budge. The other night I wore it to a dinner and it had been raining all day. I had to stand in the rain and catch a cab and was shocked to see the foundation did not smear at all.
• No oily mess. I wore this foundation from 8am-12am on Friday with a little bit of powder and did not blot once. When I got home I was a little oily, but not enough to look crazy. My drugstore foundation would have me oily after just an hour of wear and I would have to take constant bathroom breaks at work to blot.
• It matches my skin tone perfectly. Lancôme actually has a wide variety of shades to choose from, which is perfect for humans because we’re all so diverse.

Cons:

• It’s expensive. $47 for 1oz of foundation. My heart hurts.
• That’s the only con. I can’t think of anymore.

The next step is to now purchase the foundation. I still have a few days of product left, so I’m in no rush, but I still need to buy it. Before I would dread putting on foundation because I knew it meant a day of blotting and then deep scrubs to make sure it was all gone. Now I’m kind of looking forward to it because this foundation is light, easy to take off at night, and looks great!

-Saudia

*Getting color matched and a sample from Sephora was intimidating, but Jess was with me and helped a lot. Look out for her post on finding a foundation match!

What I've learned going 3 months makeup-free

Dark circle corrector, foundation, concealer. That was my winter and spring routine, then summer happened. It was just too hot to have any makeup on no matter how many products people recommended that were light enough for the heat. After visiting Jess for a few days at the start of summer and not wearing makeup that entire weekend, I decided to go makeup-free. What I didn’t expect was that I would enjoy it so much and end up not wearing makeup for the entire summer. Here’s what I learned during those 3 months:

It took a surprisingly short time to get over the self-consciousness. I was nervous to go to work with no makeup on. I hadn’t done that in YEARS. For some reason I thought that all of a sudden people just wouldn’t notice me standing in a room or something. Looking back that was absolute nonsense. After a week or so I just forgot that I wasn’t wearing makeup and just went on with my life normally.

Makeup is expensive af, even if you only use drugstore. So I’ve always just bought drugstore makeup because it’s inexpensive. The thing is, drugstore makeup doesn’t last long so you have to repurchase it frequently. All those dollars add up. My saved dollars went to lots of coffee breaks at work.

Nobody gives a shit about what’s on your face. Seriously, they don’t. And if they do they’re nice enough not to tell you.

You don’t realize exactly how exciting eyeliner can be until you have a blank canvas. There were some days when I would look in the mirror and be so bored looking at my reflection. I was intent on not putting on any foundation or concealer, so I would shake things up with some eyeliner or lipstick on some days. Those days were SO EXCITING for me. It felt like a treat to wear eyeliner and lipstick and because I had no other makeup on those products really stood out.

Skin care can make or break this experience. When I decided to go makeup-free, I also decided to improve my skincare game. Afterall, my skin would be on display in its original glory. I made sure to wash my face everyday, exfoliate a few times a week and stay moisturized. I also tried to drink more water and eat a bit cleaner. And by a bit I mean at least one vegetable a day. That vegetable might have been potatoes on most days. The point is, if i didn’t focus more on skincare I don’t think I would have felt as comfortable without makeup as I did.

After 3 months of no makeup I’m ready to get back into the game. I won’t wear makeup everyday because I’m lazy and don’t have to, but I’d like to change it up every now and again. Stay tuned for a follow up post on my current favorite foundation and how I found it!

-Saudia