God help us all, or really just Matt’s check book! 😉

I’ve had a lot of makeup posts lately and it’s because I have recently become obsessed with makeup tutorials on youtube.  I’ll list a few of my fave channels at the bottom.  Anyway, they’ve sparked this new found interest/obsession with all things makeup.  Mostly though, I’m still looking for “the” foundation.  My Stila is still doing okay but my skin has changed and I no longer find I am super oily like I was even a year or so ago.  My skin has turned more to a combination to dry skin instead of combination to oily.  Maybe age is finally catching up to me but I can’t seem to get enough moisture in my skin.  I slather it with thick, heavy creams at night but nothing seems to help.  I mentioned I bought a Mary Kay moisturizer a few weeks ago and I do like it under my makeup but I’ve since added Pore Filler primer by NYX.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way this stuff makes your skin feel.  It literally feels like silk once you apply it.  It also does a pretty good job of filling the pore across my nose and cheeks.  It doesn’t help as much for some of the larger pores on my chin though.  Overall, I give it 2 thumbs up.  I will be purchasing it again.

Okay, so now on to what I really was going to write about, my MAC experience.  My new love of youtube has lead to my need for a concealer.  Almost all the girls I watch on youtube use MAC’s Pro Longwear Concealer.  They rave about how it won’t crease under your eyes.  Well guess what, that’s what I NEED!  I’ve always had fine lines/wrinkles under my eyes, even a kid I remember having them.  I guess it’s just in my genes.  So on Saturday I got dressed and ran to the mall.  The MAC store was pretty busy so I walked down to Belk to the MAC counter.  I found a nice girl who informed me the pro longwear concealer was NOT what I needed and she recommended the mineralize concealer.  She also recommended the mineralize foundation since I’d said I’d like a sample or two to test out.

She took me to a chair and went to grab a few items.  When she came back she wiped off my current concealer and showed me how to apply the mineralize concealer.  Then she decided to apply some strobe cream and  foundation.  The strobe cream was very moisturizing and had some luminosity to help brighten my skin under the foundation. She wiped off the rest of my makeup on one side and showed me how to apply it.  Next she let me do the other half of my face, with her guidance.  Looking at everything in their light looked really good.   A tad heavier than what I’d normally wear but I felt like I looked pretty.  She added some blush, grabbed a foundation sample, and I paid for the concealer.

As the afternoon wore on, I noticed the foundation had started settle a little in my pores but a light wiping with some tissue helped to smooth it over.  I knew the real test would be the next day when I applied everything as I normally would.  Yesterday after I got ready, I noticed the MAC was still settling into my pores especially across my cheeks near my nose.  This is exactly what I was trying to avoid, and what everything else is currently doing.  This morning I did my normal makeup routine but I used my fingers to apply my foundation instead of a brush with the same results!  UGH!  So far, I’ve gone back and forth as to whether I really like this foundation or not.  In some lights it looks okay but in others it just makes my skin look dull and gross.  Though I should mention the color is pretty spot on.  The one thing I LOVE about my Stila foundation is the color.  It’s more on the neutral/yellow side and it really helps to neutralize  the redness of my complexation and also brightens up my skin.  Granted I think it’s a shade too light but still I think it looks pretty good overall.

I should probably mention that so far I do actually like the concealer.  It does still settle in my fine lines but it’s not terrible.  It could also be I’m not setting it correctly?

For now I guess the foundation hunt is still on.  If you have dry skin please let me know what you are using.  I’d love a foundation that gives you a nice dewy/glowly look without feeling heavy or greasy.

Here are my youtube faves:

Jaclyn Hill http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6jgzx2g3nlbaYkd8EMweKA

Lauren Curtis http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXbQzhqSvgVZTUyi1T4AU3w

Shaaanxo http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpOz2KEfkSdd5JeIJh_fxw

Happy Monday!

~k