Have your foundation preferences changed over time?
I used to go for fuller coverage and more matte finishes, and now, I prefer more medium, buildable coverage and a natural finish.
— Christine
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It largely depends on my mood, but overall I have shifted to a medium coverage more matte finish. It seems counterintuitive with my aging skin, but I find dewy goes all kind of wrong after a number of hours whereas matte softens. I can also avoid wearing the additional layer of setting powder by barely touching the sides of my nose and chin. I wear all types of foundation formulations except cream or spray.
Most matte foundations lean towards heavier coverage, so I am invariably mixing. Right now my favourite combination is Nars TM mixed with Fenty liquid matte. My favourite setting powder is the ultra fine Surratt powder in their matte formulation.
I used to prefer higher coverage, ultra matte foundations, but now prefer medium coverages with more skin like finishes. If I fo buy a matte full coverage foundation, I always sheer it out now. I get dry patches now on the sides of my nose when it gets cold, so it’s much more forgiving for texture. And shade matching shade matching.
After spending almost my entire makeup wearing life using fuller coverage matte finish foundation from different brands, a few years ago I switched to a more dewy, satin finish with medium to full buildable coverage with Fenty Profilt’r Hydrating foundation and MAC Pro Longwear Waterproof foundation. I’m not looking back, either!
Not really, I’ve preferred light to medium coverage with a natural finish for a long time. I’ve slightly changed in that I also sometimes like a dewy finish, but my preferences have been pretty stable.
Yes – I use a light concealer in my foundation shade to tap on or spot conceal here and there to even out tone and LM Translucent powder to set. It used to be sheer-to-medium, natural finish foundation but I don’t think I’ll go back to that. I still love to wear a full face but don’t like seeing it on my mask. I pre-cut paper towels to put as a barrier so that my mask stays makeup-free. (Fast-product trend of 2021?)
Looking back, it’s not that my foundation preferences have changed, but that my application techniques have change.
All in all, I’ve always been a fan of matte finishes, medium to full buildable coverage, liquid foundation. If someone would force me to use Estee Lauder Double Wear or MAC Prolongwear Waterproof all my life, no other option, I wouldn’t be bothered.
But my skincare and application techniques have highly improved since my teen years. So even if I like the same foundations, they look more flattering on me nowadays.
As a teenager I was obsessed with getting my base as opaque, matte, and “perfect” as possible. I didn’t want ANY shine outside the areas I highlighted or my freckles to show through. Now, in my mid-20s, I don’t really care about photographing things as much as I do wearing them comfortably, so I prefer light-to-medium coverage with a more natural-matte finish (I’m sweaty enough to make things dewy with time).
It’s not so much that my preferences have changed over time, but it’s that I found out what my true undertone was (cool and pink) and was then able to purchase the correct foundation that suited me best.
I have always prefered a slightly matte finish, as ‘dewy or natural’ tended to make me look shiny or even greasy.
Even HE foundations didn’t work for me because of the incorrect undertones – a total waste of money.
I had to really shop around to find the right foundation for me – medium coverage (to last all day), porcelain with the pink undertones. Thankfully, L’Oreal extended their True Match line to incorporate cool undertones and now I’ve got it right.
I now prefer a lighter foundation, or even a BB cream to a full on heavy foundation. I like my skin to look like skin not like a painted panel of sheet rock. Lighter formulas also have less tendency to settle into fine lines on my face. I also prefer a more natural finish rather than any of the extremes of matte or luminous for the same reason.
I used to have oily skin, so I used a medium to light matte foundation, setting power and kept oil blotting papers close at hand. I have since switched to tinted moisturizer (NARS is my favorite) and use the NARS setting powder in the compact just to set my under eye area and to soften/blend my blush.
As I’m aging my skin is getting drier and I don’t need as much coverage so my next purchase I will be looking for something that won’t highlight fine lines which will mean a trip to an actual store. I would like to try the Amore Pacific cushion compact, La Mer Soft Foundation or PMG Foundation.
Not a ton, I don’t think-I’d say my foundation preferences have expanded (as have finishes) rather than flat-out changing. I favor semi-matte, soft matte, or matte foundation with medium coverage or higher-my skin’s a bit too finicky and acne-prone for anything sheerer. I don’t really have a preference for how quickly a foundation reaches its maximum coverage level-a one-layer product is fine, but so is a buildable one. As disco cats says, shade matching is the aspect I care about most!
Used to prefer a med-full coverage foundation sheered out. Then discovered affordable, good quality, high spf, tinted sunscreens and CC creams, with much better shade ranges than years ago. My skin actually looks better and requires less coverage now than a decade ago.
The older I get, the less coverage I prefer. I used to wear a medium satin finish and now I go for a very light skin tint coverage in the winter and tinted moisturizer in the summer.
Yes, when I first started being serious about makeup I preferred cream foundation ( Kett 😉🙌🏽👍🏼) then I moved to Kevyn Aucoin’s pot foundation, Sensual Skin Enhancer ( which I’m considering going back to with a moisturizer since you can control the coverage). Now I’m mostly into thin, paint-like coverage with liquids like PMG, Estée Lauder’s Double Wear Water Fresh.
Not so much. I’m usually just happy to find a good skin tone match so other things become secondary lol. I usually avoid very matte or powder foundations because I’ve never been happy with how they look on my skin. And I lean toward medium or full coverage, mostly because it helps me even out the ruddiness from my rosacea. The times that I want something sheer I’ll just use a BB cream or tinted moisturizer instead.