The Basics of Foundation [TUTORIAL]

The Basics of Foundation

To all you newbies out there who are just foraying into the world of makeup… this blog is to give you an idea of the types of foundation available and make you ponder about the type of looks that you might want to consider trying out.

There are many kinds of foundation…

The Liquid... the most widely known and seen




Christian Dior Extreme Fit Foundation - I love this product! Unfortunately they have discontinued it in Malaysia. Although if you're lucky... some DIOR counters may still have some of their old stock left, so hurry!


The Compact…



Christian Dior Diorskin Nude Compact Foundation Cafe Moka


The Tube…

Bobbi's Essentials Foundation Stick


The Mousse…



Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation


The Spray… though I’ve only seen this once. I believe its quite rare and almost none existent in certain countries



Christian Dior AirFlash Foundation


The Mineral…



Bare Escentuals Mineral Foundation


Now before you go off and decide on a type that you want to start with, you might first like to take the time to look at magazines pictures, makeup advertorials, movies or advertisement for an inspiration or idea.

Then consider the kind of look do you like and want to achieve. However in deciding this a dose of reality is needed because at the end of the day the skin type of each individual differs and it would have to come down to what are you willing to compromise on to get a closely similar look.

Now before I go on I’d like to give you a brief purvue of what I’ve been using. Once upon a time ago when I was 13 years old I started with compact powders. Now why would I need to use this? Well at that time I had good clear skin and was just breaking into puberty and had yet to deal with acne and the sort.

2 years later at 15 years old I changed to the compact foundation. Why again you ask? It was because I still had very youthful skin that could and would regenerate fast and well. I also had good collagen in my skin still doing its wonderful work. This compact foundation gave me the coverage I need to have a flawless looking skin when I was out with my friend and going out to parties.

It was not until I turned 17 years old that I started using liquid foundation. Though that this time I still relied heavily on my compact foundation. But at 17 years old my skin was changing. It was becoming more ache prone especially dealing with the stress of college exams.

Back to the Foundation….

In the family of foundation there 3 type of coverage that it generally gives. The light, medium and full coverage.

To put in a nut shell, the light coverage covers almost nothing and gives you a very very light sheen. This foundation is good for people with flawless skin a.k.a. unblemished/dark circled skin.

If you are buying a foundation to use because you want you even you skin complexion , hide those nasty scars, acne, blemishes, pores, dark circles and wrinkles then I would suggest that you try the medium to full coverage foundation.

The full coverage foundation being what it is… it covers imperfections up.

Next thing you need to know about liquid foundations, there are water based foundation and oil based foundation. By right the water based foundation would be better for problem skins however up to date I have yet to find a water based foundation that DOES ITS JOB and give me a medium coverage with the exception of Bobby Brown’s Skin Foundation SPF 15 PA+.



The Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation SPF 15

However... even this foundation has its limitations... it doesn't stay on your skin all that long, meaning if you wear it to work its not gonna last till 5pm. But if you have sensitive skin and don't actually need the foundation on all that long I would say give this foundation a shot.

The Tube Foundation… I find this a bit hard to blend in a rush without hurting my face. But saying that its handy to have in your purse. Overall however unless you are willing to spend time blending this one out I’d say you just stick with the liquid foundation.

The mousse… I love this L’oreal Brand. It had a matte finish to the end result. However the problem is that it was a bit too strenuous for my face. I found that if I used this product on a daily basis I tend to break out in acne.

The Spray… sorry guys I can't really give you a review on this because I’ve never actually gotten the change to try it out. To my knowledge it’s not available in Malaysia and it was too expensive when I say it in Brisbane, Australia. If any of you guy know where I can get this give me a holler.

Lastly the mineral foundation. This works very well on the skin but at most it can only give you a light to medium coverable. In all the numerous brands that I’ve tried I’ve yet to find one that can give me a medium to full coverage. Overall this particular once gives a nice natural look to your face but if and ONLY IF you find the right shade. Otherwise what happens is that you face will either look must lighter or darker than your neck and it will be quite obvious. The other that I find tedious and time consuming about mineral foundation is that if you want to change the coverage and the durability *how long the foundation will actually last on your face* you would need to spend a whole lot of money buying the tinted moisturizer (base 1) and the special base (base 2) and I have found to my dismay that these does not come cheap.

Because regardless of the basis needed for the mineral foundation, you still need to add on the primer for your face and eye.

All right people, I hope this blog is informative.

I will try and put up a blog on concealers as well as soon as I can. Cheers!