little white truths

So one of the things I do with myself these days is lie down and watch youtube makeup tutorials before lights out.

This isn't something I used to do and I can't imagine I'll keep doing it because I miss reading books as I used to - it's just that I don't have the head for reading at night while I'm still breastfeeding and my days as a full-time carer are so long.

Anyhoo. I've been watching a lot of Wayne Goss (he's probably my favourite vlogger) and he has some great tricks and tips that he's learned in his years as a makeup artist.

You may remember that I'm not a huge fan of foundation, and while I still prefer tinted moisturisers (or BB/CC) creams as a general rule, Wayne has inspired me to dust off the few foundations I own and use them in different ways. 

I can happily report back that some of the products previously destined for the presents pile will now be used by me, because with a little 'massaging' I can get them to look better than they do on their own.

What Wayne suggests is to add a drop of oil to your foundation before applying it (I think Jaclyn Hill does this too).

This makes the foundation a touch sheerer and easier to spread, plus it will add a dewy finish that you can always tone down with a powder if it's too much.

I've tried this with my Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in Santa Fe - a product I previously found too thick and pale for me - and combined with the trick discussed below, it's now a product I can wear. Huzzah!

This is good because I received three samples of Santa Fe (and three of the Nars Sheer Matte Foundation in Fiji) from Mecca and didn't think I could use it after testing it a few times. Now I can.

I haven't yet tried it with Fiji (which is even paler than Santa Fe), but I plan to and I'll report back on the products in a separate review.

I didn't get this one from Wayne Goss but I saw a few bloggers talk about it and it inspired me to buy Becca's Shimmering Skin Perfectors in both Moonstone and Topaz.

I was planning to buy at least one of these anyway, but once I saw the trick, the purchases moved up the list.

Like many people I have an issue not only with finding base shades that match well, but that I can use throughout the year as my skin changes shade. 

What I've done in the past is bought two shades of each base and mixed them, but this can get expensive. It'd be ok if I only wanted to use one base product, but I like trying new things and don't want to have heaps of product to go through (because there are two tubes and not one) before being able to buy something else. Plus what if the product stops working for me and I'm left with two bottles rather than one? This has happened before, and it's an annoying waste.

I saw online that people were using darker illuminators like Topaz to bring up the colour of their too-pale bases, and lighter ones like Moonstone to bring down the colour of anything they could usually only wear in summer.

I had tried doing this with dark and light Stila BB creams but found they only worked for tinted moisturisers because they didn't have the added benefit of thinning out any foundation that was too thick or had too much coverage for me.

The oil trick combined with the dark/light illuminator trick has made previously unwearable bases suddenly wearable for me. I'm thrilled! These tricks also mean that you use less of your base product on each application, so you're not only left with a more natural (and dewy) finish, you're also making your foundation bottle last longer.

In sum

I'm so pleased I found these little tricks! 

I also saw another one from Wayne Goss where he says to put your setting powder beneath your foundation (rather than on top of it), but this didn't work for me because my powder sat in pores and left white dots on my face. BUT if I use a mineral foundation (that matches my skin) rather than a white setting powder, this might work.

Anyhoo. I might try that one again in future. Have you found any new tricks lately? Let me know!