Two months ago I started seeing Shirley at the David Douglas salon in Tustin, and during one of our sessions we got onto the topic of foundations. I’d never been able to find a good color match for my skin, having tried a range of products from drug store brands to the likes of Prescriptives, MAC, Bare Minerals, and even Prescriptives CUSTOM bended foundations. They were always slightly too pink/orange for my darker asian skin tone. Shirley recommended Bobbi Brown’s Oil-Free Even Finish Foundation since that’s what she’s used for years as a fellow yellow skin-toned asian. I couldn’t even tell that she was wearing anything on her face at the time (she also has a ridiculously good complexion so that probably helped), and being a general fan of Bobbi Brown products I said I’d give it a go.
MUA doesn’t give it very high marks, ranking at 3.5/5 with 275 reviews and only 46% of those saying they would buy the product again. I’m typically heavily reliant on MUA reviews since make-up can be really costly if you try everything that has an appealing box sales pitch, but I picked up a bottle in Natural (4) anyway.
First thing I noticed upon opening the bottle was the smell. If you have a sensitive nose, smearing this scent all over your face might be too much. It’s not odorous or very strong, but it is noticeably chemical.
The application is where I think a lot of nay-sayers might have failed. If you apply it straight from bottle to dry face, it’s a bit chunky and will likely highlight any flakiness you’ve got going on. Two musts for wearing this foundation:
1) Exfoliate beforehand. This is kind of important regardless of what you’re putting on your face though.
2) Apply it while your face is moist, or wet your foundation brush with water and squeeze it out before applying.
Wet application makes a huge difference with any liquid foundation. I may have just been on the slow boat and this is actually a given that most females learn early on. I’m pretty nubly when it comes to makeup though and only learned this approach by accident maybe 4 months ago.
The coverage is very sheer, but easily layerable without looking chalky or thick if you get a good match. It’s light and doesn’t make my skin feel more oily than it would be normally like some other foundations do, plus it has SPF 15. I set it with some Bare Minerals powder and it wears for the entire day.
In sum, I recommend this only if you have:
- yellow based skin.
- an oilier complexion.
- tolerance for scented makeup.
- a good setting powder.
- time in the morning to exfoliate and layer the foundation on slowly.
It’s a lot of effort for someone who wants to roll out of bed and be out the door in 15 minutes, but I’d call this close to my “Holy Grail” of foundations simply because the color matches so well and it’s goddamn hard to find that. Hopefully when next summer rolls around and I get my islander look going, the next shade up still works for me.
[Add] Shirley is absolutely awesome if anyone in the area needs the services she offers. Really comfortable to be around, easy going, and does great work.