Finding The Right Combination

I did a MAJOR cleanout of my makeup this weekend.

Holy Helena Rubenstein – did I ever have a lot of old stuff! Eyeshadow cracked to smithereens, foundation that had separated like one of those layered truffle desserts, cream blushes that had hardened into pink pumice stones. I had one eyeshadow that I remembered buying from a friend – a friend who moved to Florida about nine years ago.

I filled a shopping bag with all the product that I decided to toss. When my husband was taking it out to the trash, he asked me if it was all safe, or whether any of the stuff had to be handled as hazardous materials. I’ve been putting all this stuff on my face! It had better not be hazmat!

All the old dried-up or bad smelling stuff were easy decisions. Much harder were the new and sometimes expensive products that I just don’t particularly like.

One post I did a while back looked at some of my Primers. One I didn’t hate but didn’t love was Too Faced Primed and Poreless.

I used this for several months in combination with the very nice foundation I was using at the time, Origins Plantscription Foundation.

 

I was okay with the results but not blown away.

My Origins foundation was running low, and my shade was on back-order, so I thought it would be a good time to try something new. I bought Laura Mercier Candleglow Foundation –  a nice light-to medium coverage foundation that is perfect for “mature” skin.

 

And to combine with this foundation, I thought I should go with a “mature skin” primer as well, so I added Cover FX anti-aging primer.

I loved the results at first.

But you know, after a while I began to think that my skin looked rather average. And that the foundation wasn’t very long lasting.

But both products were really pricey, so I continued to work with them, trying different applications (brush vs beauty blender vs fingers) and different finishing powders. It was all “okay” – but again, I was not blown away. Of course, I secretly wondered to myself if this was the best I was going to look anyway at my age.

So back to my makeup clean-out weekend.

I still had a tiny bit left of the Too Faced Primed and Poreless Primer. I was trying to decide whether to toss it, or use it up.

I put some on. And put on my Laura Mercier foundation.

And VOILA!!!!

 

Blown Away!!!

Sometimes you really need to try different combinations. Both the primer and the foundation that I thought were a bit of a disappointment are really good together! (And I’ll bet the Cover FX primer might be just the product for a different foundation.. you never know.)

So now I am faced with another dilemma. Instead of tossing the Too Faced Primer – I am distressed that I only have a little left. I want to buy MORE!

 

My cleaned-up makeup cabinet. Still a LOT to choose from.