Emergency Post! Kat Von D Light 42 Back in Stock!

Hello lovelies! I know I haven't been around for a while and I promise to explain that a bit soon (and come back with some posts. I know you want to see some Charlotte Tilbury eye quads and Tom Ford lipstick - amazing stuff) but this emergency post is brought to you by:

As you might know from last year's foundation hunt - this is the pale foundation unicorn for me: full coverage, long-lasting, neutral.

Go forth and purchase! 

Ellis Faas Skin Veil in S101

I finally got my hands on some Ellis Faas Skin Veil in S101. At $90 a bottle, available from Sephora and Ellis Faas directly, I had some high hopes for this shade as I had been told that it was "paler than reasonable." In fact, Ellis Faas doesn't even keep samples of this shade available because they consider it too pale for common sampling.

I will say that the finish on this medium-coverage natural-finish foundation is astounding. It doesn't glow too much, it isn't too matte, it feels great on your skin. If you have a shade match in this foundation and don't cringe too much springing for a $90 foundation, I would highly recommend this one. It has the finish that so many other brands promise and truly delivers on a flawless face.

Unless, like me, the lightest shade looks like a yellow-orange mask on your face. As I have mentioned, winter light in Seattle isn't the best for photography, so  apologize in advance for the weird shadow on the face photo here. I wanted to take a better arm swatch photo but I also wanted it to match the previous ones so you could really compare them if you went back to my large swatch post of paler foundations, so this is taken in exactly those conditions.

From left to right: Jane Iredale Glow Time BB in BB1, Ellis Faas Skin Veil in S101, and NARS Sheer Matte in Siberia

As you can see, this is pretty close in shade to NARS Siberia. If Siberia is too yellow but not too dark for you, S101 might be your shade. 

Ellis Faas Skin Veil S101 (and MAC Huggable Lipstick in Rusty)

As you can see, like Siberia it's just a hair too dark on me, which is most unfortunate because the finish is astounding. The medium coverage here is not buildable, in my opinion, so if you need a full coverage foundation I'd look elsewhere.

This is a great foundation, alas just not my color. 

Undertones?

Ask for beauty advice just about anywhere and someone will ask you, "what are your undertones?" If you shrug and say you don't know? They're going to look at you like you forgot your birthday. Like you misplaced the card we're all secretly handed at puberty that tells you how to suavely get dates and what the difference between white and black tie is that had your undertones marked down on it.

What, you didn't get one of those? Me either. 

So, then comes the parade of advice on how to pick your undertones:
The color of your veins (check your arms, folks:) blue means cool, green means warm (red means see a doctor)
Jewelry: like silver you may be cool, like gold you may be warm
Clothing: look good in blue? Cool, they say! Pink or orange? Warm it is!
White-test: Put on a pure white shirt (or hold up paper under your face) - yellow and sick-looking? Warm! Just fine? Cool!

Now, the next two "tests" lead to mis-matched undertones all the time, because they assume that dark=warm and pale=pink and everyone in between is cool. I know some un-cool people in that middle range and I'm not just talking social skills. These tests have lead to a lot of people telling me I must be warm because blah blah blah: Tan easily? Have certain hair or eye colors? Then they stick you in a category.

What happens when you're a blue-green veined pale person with no pink who likes silver, looks good in blue, looks terrible in a white t-shirt, burns easily, has a naturally dishwater shade of hair, and gray eyes? Oh, you're neutral. Huh, no one seems to mention that during these infuriating tests. I've had counter representatives refuse to match me to a non-pink shade of foundation because "all pale people are pink!" No, no we aren't.

Then you'll get advice on what kind of colors you "should" be wearing.

Funny thing, I look best in red, purple, and blue.

In green, yellow, and orange I look like I need a vacation or a doctor.

Here's the thing - you can wear any color you want to. The place that undertones are going to make the biggest difference is in foundation. There's an additional wrinkle here, many companies will say a foundation is "for" someone with cool undertones when what they mean is that it "corrects" cool undertones. That's not cool at all. Knowing that you're cool undertoned, though, means that you can usually skip foundations that all have yellow undertones or if you're warm you know that you can skip the ones that all have a reference to pink in the name. You'll know what that online foundation-finder means when it says "cool-undertones; medium shade."

Another place it's going to make a difference is picking a great shade of red lipstick - blue-reds (those touted as "universal" - you'll learn I dislike anything being proclaimed as "universal," you're undoubtedly making someone feel like a mutant for not fitting the shade) are going to look best on cool undertoned folks, orange-reds and corals are going to look best on warm undertoned folks, and us lucky neutral-toned folks are going to have a hit-and-miss toss up of which works best. (I think this is where the "universal" comes in, as many neutral-toned people do better with cool-toned color cosmetics or at least like them better.)

In short, no you didn't miss that day at school and half of the people who think they've got it figured out have no idea, either. It doesn't make a huge difference but it might make finding a foundation easier if you can figure it out and it'll be one more thing you can stick in the introductory sentence to your request for assistance that lets you skip to the answers that you want. :)

Foundation Final Round! A Winner Emerges!

Sorry for the delay in posting, I've been having some computer troubles.

I figured that this foundation was going to be a long shot. You might remember in the swatches and the Jane Iredale BB cream in BB1 looked yellow compared to the others. It looked like it wasn't going to be a match at all. Turns out, I was so, so wrong.

First up, the packaging on the BB cream isn't anything astounding - it's more convenient for throwing in my bag to head to the gym, though.

Jane Iredale Glow Time Full Coverage BB Cream

Here's the day one face test for shade BB1, indoors in natural light:

Look at that - it matches my neck, chest, and hairline! It doesn't look dry, it doesn't look overly shiny which is what "glow" usually equates to. The coverage is definitely full. It has a titanium-dioxide sunblock (25 SPF UVA/B full spectrum) built in and my skin feels amazing when I wash my face at the end of the day. I've been using this for two weeks now and my skin has never looked better, which wasn't something I figured a foundation would do. There is a very light sweet herbal scent which makes sense given the number of extracts in it: white tea, green tea, aloe leaf, grapefruit, bitter orange, apple, sunflower seed oil, radish root, honeysuckle. I only smell it when applying and I have a very acute sense of smell.

For a more matte finish, you can layer the Pressed Mineral foundation over the top. My shade match is Ivory (neutral undertones) but they have a variety of undertones available in a fair-to-light pressed powder. The refillable compact is amazing - the hinge is sturdy and will stay where you place it which is so rare anymore in a mirrored compact. Just large enough to hold the powder puff that comes with the powder refill. All of the packaging is recyclable, as well.

Here's my second-day photo, taken a week or so after the first photo with the powder over the top. Sorry for the lack of visibility of other skin for color-matching, it's been cold here! Clearly, I'm outside.

I think I could go on forever, so I will just wrap up with, uh, more photos (after the jump.) I may have gotten over-excited about this being such a good match and throughout the day on day one (first picture) as I ran errands with my little guy, I took pictures in different kinds of lighting situations - see more after the jump, this even looks good in florescent lighting.

Chantecaille Future Skin - Full Face Test (and what KVD looks like)

I'm losing hope, my pale foundation watchers. Here's the results of the full day skin test with Chantecaille Future Skin in Porcelain:

Day 1

Chantecaille Future Skin in Porcelain
MAC lipstick in Studded Kiss

Day 2

Chantecaille Future Skin in Porcelain

MAC Huggables lipstick in Rusty (lightly applied)

Pink, pink, pink and more pink. This oxidization appeared about an hour and a half after application, and to the credit of Chantecaille, stayed steady at this level for the rest of the day. I'm disappointed but it's closer than the Koh Gen Do. Unfortunately, I think it broke my face out - I had to go two days without foundation of any kind to clear up the bumpiness (I usually get rashes, so this was a new one for me.)

Here, let me show you what it's up against, since I'm being so picky. Kat Von D Lock-It Tattoo Foundation in Light 42:

Bright Outdoor Light:

KVD Light 42
MAC Punk Couture and Violetta (layered)

More indirect outdoor light:

(same as above)

Indoor lighting:

Kat Von D Light 42
MAC Punk Couture lipstick (heavy application)

That's after all day of wearing on that last photo. The other two were after several hours. No pink, no orange, perfect match to my neck and chest. Why, oh why, didn't I back up a few bottles of this?

Upcoming: Punk Couture Lipsticks general swatching and round up. I also caved and bought the RiRi VIVA Glam, so expect swatches and photos when that arrives - I'm hoping for a replacement for KVD's Adora lipstick, love the color, hate the formula. 

Koh Gen Do Maifanshi Moisture Foundation Face Test

So, after going through all of those swatches, I came down to a small list of winners. I decided to try the Koh Gen Do Maifanshi Moisture Foundation in 001 first, as it was nice to apply but I had worries about further oxidization. This foundation did something I wasn't expecting - it got more pink as I wore it. I've never seen a foundation oxidize in quite this way and I'd love it if someone could explain it to me. They usually go orange or dark or brown, at least in my experience.

This foundation applies and blends amazingly well and has decent coverage. It does live up to the name - two days of wear and my skin seemed to be a little less dry even in the middle of typically very dry winter skin conditions.

After day one at about eight hours of wear:

Koh Gen Doh Maifanshi Moisture Foundation in 001 at eight hours

Photo taken in natural light, no flash

As you can see, my face is having a bit of doesn't match body issue. It didn't go orange but it certainly did get pinker.

I tried it on a second day and took a photo in the only reasonable amount of natural light I could find - my car. Sorry. This went just as pink as day one, but here you can see it at about three hours of wear, not nearly as pink and much more neutral. Everything about the application was the same, the only thing different, down to the eyeshadow palette I used is day two's MAC Instigator lipstick.

Koh Gen Do Maifanshi Moisture Foundation at 3 hours wear

photo in (car, sorry) natural light

Depending on how the others from the short list perform, this one may be further down the list than I anticipated. The application is great, it's nice to my skin, but the continual slide into pink is a little disappointing.

Next up: Chantecaille Future Skin in Porcelain two-day test.

Foundation Swatches

Quick - you're pale, your favorite foundation has just been discontinued (again,) and you haven't even looked for a replacement in years. What do you do? If you're me? You panic and go and get, I'm not exaggerating here, 24 different foundations color matched to you by a variety of counter sales folks, make up artists, and other pros to swatch and find the next foundation for the CPTB (Cosmetic Powers That Be) to discontinue. (This seems to be a thing with pale foundation - in fact, Torq (my spousal compatriot) jokes every time I find one - "So, how long until they discontinue this one?" or most recently, "Are you going to send the company a condolence letter on their impending discontinuation?")

(Super long post and swatches after the cut)