Favorite Face Products!

1. MAC Powder Blush in Well Dressed ($20 for 0.21oz)
• My most used and versatile blush.  A beautiful pale pink color that is subtle but noticeable
2. Tarina Tarantino Dollskin Cheek Palette ($45 for 4 colors)
• A pretty palette of both warm (coral/brown) and cool blushes that wears wonderfully.  I think Tarina Tarantino's products are severely underrated.
3. YSL Anti-Cernes Multi-Action Concealer in 1 Ivory Beige ($35 for 0.07oz)
• A great concealer that applies beautifully.  Stick concealers have always been my favorites because of how easy they are to deal with but this is my favorite of those I've found.
4. LORAC Breakthrough Performance Foundation SPF 14 in SMS1 ($39 for 1.0 oz)
• One of the best foundations I've found.  Naturally it's not quite pale enough on it's own but it has one of the best formulations I've found for my drier skin.
5. Urban Decay All Nighter Long-Lasting Makeup Setting Spray ($29 for 4.0oz)
• A nice solution to combat Dallas humidity.  Especially helpful for my t-zone.
6. Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation in 105 ($34 for 1.0oz)
• This has been a life saver!  While I wish the formula wasn't so drying, it's what I add to every foundation I have until the shade I need.  Basically a white base.
7. Chanel Perfection Lumiere Long-Wear Flawless Fluid Makeup SPF 10 in 12 Beige Rose ($55 for 1.0oz)
• Naturally designer brands have more money and research to put into their products and this one is no exception.  Nothing buffs as seamlessly and effortlessly as this foundation.  Again, not pale enough but that wasn't a surprise.  (Even smells nice!)
8. Bobbi Brown Corrector in Porcelain Bisque ($22 for 0.05oz)
• Something that is actually pale enough for me!  Part of me balks at the stickiness of this concealer but I can't deny how well it works under my foundation.  My flaws, most notably, my undereye circles, are perfectly covered.

(In no particular order)

My Quest...

I am one of those super white people.  You know the type.  I'm Miss Glow-In-The-Dark, Lady Paler-Than-Death's-Horse, Madame Can't-Survive-Without-SPF and if I had a Cherokee name I'm betting that it would be something like She Who Fears The Sun.  But you can just call me Sally.

Being fair in an unfair world (yea, I went there) has always been a challenge.  Finding non-icky sunscreens, looking for colors that don't wash me out but the worst?  The endless search for a perfect foundation.

Of course I realize that most makeup wearers have this conundrum, this same odyssey for their "Holy Grail" foundation.  But I feel that being far paler than is average makes things a lot more complicated.  It doesn't help that so many brands oxidize on me.

My cousin recommended Bare Minerals to me and I was thrilled to find that it was in fact my shade, among it's many other attributes.  Gone were the lines of demarcation and the nasty germy application sponges.  It was beyond a relief.  And I was very loyal up until recently.  But I got restless watching all my favorite beauty gurus wear and recommend different liquid foundations.  Not to mention my Bare Minerals wasn't sticking on my t-zone very well anymore.

I tried Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage Foundation in Fair and found it, as usual, to warm for my skin.  It ended up giving me an orange hue and it was a little drying.  Not really the foundation's fault really.  My skin is White Sands, New Mexico.  Arid and, you guessed it, WHITE!  And fuller coverage foundations tend to be drier formulas in my experience.  But it was a start.

And so the search continued…  I then tried LORAC Breakthrough Performance in SMS 1. It was a significant improvement but still not perfect in that was a slightly too yellow.  But I really liked the texture.  Then I tried Make Up For Ever HD Invisible Cover Foundation in 110 and was pretty pleased to see something with pink undertones in it but the texture didn't stick to my skin like the LORAC foundation and it was still too dark.  So I combined the two and liked that better.  But was still not perfect yet.  My foundation still wasn't quite pale enough…  So I bought what I know to be the whitest foundation available, Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in 1, and waited for it with bated breath.  My first try at mixing the three foundations was something that made even me look pastey which was actually a bit of a pleasant surprise as it's NEVER happened before.  I found that I had to be very light-handed with the Illamasqua foundation as it really is an off-white with a slight pink undertone.  It also made my foundation a bit drier but I recently corrected this with more moisturizer beforehand and adding NARS Illuminator in Copacabana to (what is now a very complicated) mixture to sheer it out, make me dewy and helps correct imperfections.

While I don't think my search for my perfect foundation is yet over I am glad to see brands making paler shades to accommodate those of us with this issue.  Might try NARS Sheer Glow in Siberia next. : p  And I wish you all luck on your journey to your perfect shade!

Here are some swatches.  I would like to remind you that I'm yet a novice and photography is not my forte!  The light's very yellow in my apartment.  Might wanna work on that...

From Left to Right:
1. Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage Foundation in Fair
2. LORAC Breakthrough Performance in SMS 1
3. Make Up For Ever HD Invisible Cover Foundation in 110
4. Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in 1
5. NARS Illuminator in Copacabana