Bobbi Brown foundation routine!

Well, well, well. I don't know what to say. Even if I did, my mouth is currently full as it is eating my words and a teensy slice of humble pie. A few posts ago, I came out of my foundation-hating closet. Since then, I've discovered something wonderful and life/face-changing. The Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Stick. I went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to just even out my skin tone a little, as my face was looking a bit blotchy. I crept into John Lewis (I can't stride in with confidence. Deep down I feel that I'm not posh enough to be in there, and I'm afraid they already know) and quickly spotted my target- Bobbi Brown. I'd read a few reviews of the new 'Skin' formula Foundation Stick, so I definitely wanted to have a cheeky tester. One colour-match session later, I was walking out with No.3- 'Beige'.

My issues with cream foundations previously were:

a) potentially thick, cakey-looking makeup
b) fear of my skin breaking out into turbo-acne

My terror has been quashed; the texture of the Skin Foundation Stick is pure, silky, buttery, smoothness. Both lightweight and natural, my skin FEELS naked but looks flawless.

So let's get to it!

Moisturiser: Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream - LOVE IT. If you have dry skin, GET IT!
Primer: Smashbox Photo Finish Colour Correcting Adjust (green) Primer -Life-changing wonderment.
Foundation: Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Stick in Beige, drawn on in stripes and buffed out with the Urban Decay Optical Blurring Brush.
Contour: Urban Decay Naked "Flushed" palette (bronzer only) on temples, hairline and hollows of cheeks, using a Sephora Kabuki brush.
Blush: e.l.f. HD Blush in 'Headliner' using the e.l.f. Studio small stipple brush. If you haven't used used this before, you really need the TINIEST little blob (the size of a grain of rice) on the back of your hand, work it into the brush fibres, then stipple and buff onto your cheeks. This product has a lovely soft sheen to it, so you may not need a highlighter.

That's pretty much it for the face! For the photos below, I've added mascara (Rimmel ScandalEyes Rockin' Curves in Extreme Black), tightlined with my UD 24/7 pencil in 'Perversion' and applied e.l.f.'s SPF15 lipbalm in 'Pink'.

Step 1: Moisturised

Step 2: Primer (I know, sexy green slime on my face)

Step 3: Bobbi Brown tiger-stripes!

Step 4: Buffed, blushed and contoured! Mascara time with this crazy-looking wand.

Step 5: That gust of wind was actually me batting my Rimmel-tastic super long lashes.

YAY! Flawless photo-finish skin!

Makeup Confession: Foundation

Okay. Here it is, confession time...

*deep breath*

I hate wearing foundation.

I hate choosing foundation. I hate putting on foundation. In Winter, I hate being afraid to blow my nose BECAUSE I'm wearing foundation. In Summer I hate being afraid that it's going to melt off my face.

I do not like it at all.

On top of this, I'm like a chameleon- the colour and pigmentation of my skin appears to be in a constant state of flux. If it's a sunny day, I could be outside for 10 minutes and I'll go back inside a different colour than I went out. If I'm feeling a bit run down, my skin goes all ghostly and anaemic looking. When I DO buy foundations, I ALWAYS swatch them on my skin, but they NEVER seem to look the same at home.

I currently own three different foundations, two are Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 4.0 (approximately my average colouring) and 6.0 (for Summer) and the other is a Body Shop Extra Virgin Minerals loose powder foundation in '208 Golden Vanilla'.

It's not that they're BAD foundations, or even that they look bad, I just hate looking in the mirror and knowing that what I can see isn't my skin, because it makes me feel like I'm wearing a mask, which is absolutely NOT the reason I love makeup.

I only tend to choose to wear these if my skin is doing its ghost thing, or I've been unwell and my colouring's all blotchy. Sometimes I'll wear foundation because I've done a really dramatic eye makeup for an event, and the rest of my face just needs to fall more in line with that, but I still resent feeling like I need to. *sigh*

There are girls on YouTube with complexions that seem beautiful and airbrushed before their foundation even touches their skin. I would love to have that. What I do have are three foundations that I resent owning, and two product-specific foundation brushes whose price tags made my eyes well up as I handed over the cash. 

UD Good Karma Optical Blurring Brush & The Body Shop Extra
Virgin Minerals Powder Foundation Brush

Don't get me wrong, they're good brushes. I especially LOVE the Body Shop brush for the powder foundation, but I wear the product so rarely that it seems cruel to have such a lovely brush and not use it. A male friend of mine recently blogged about owning too many shoes, and said he wondered if it was like in Toy Story, where all the neglected ones feel unloved. I feel this way about my makeup brushes. Do they peep out of my makeup bag, wondering if I will ever love them, being rewarded only by the briefest contact, when I begrudgingly sweep product I wish I didn't want onto my face with brushes I'm angry for owning?

I think I might be overthinking this.

Anyway, I hope that this confession/review/mental breakdown has been relatively informative. If you DO enjoy owning and wearing foundations, I thoroughly recommend that you try the ones I've mentioned, so that you can perhaps give them a better home than I have! Like I said, they're great products that totally serve their purpose, but my favourite everyday complexion-baby will always be my UD Naked Skin Beauty Balm!

What's your secret makeup shame? Please share in the comments below! I'm hoping I'm not the only beauty heretic!