When No Foundation is Pale Enough
Hey loves!
As someone with incredibly pale skin, it is often hard for me to find a foundation which matches my skin tone. Since I spent less and less time outside thanks to the lockdown, my skin has gotten even paler and it has become virtually impossible to find a shade matching it. The other issue I have is that my skin is quite sensitive and prone to acne. I therefore tend to stick to brands and products I know in order to avoid breakouts or dry patches. Here are products that I find super helpful with my pale skin:
1. Lightening Shade Adjusting Drops
Problem no. 1 on my list of problems was that I could not find a foundation that matches my skin tone. If you have been a subscriber of mine for a long time, you may know that I use quite a few Chanel cosmetic products. Their products are generally not recommended for acne-prone skin since they contain fragrances, but every skin is different and their products actually have a positive effect on my skin (especially because they are quite hydrating). I went with the lightest foundation I could find from them which ended up being a CC Cream. I currently use their Super Active Complete Correction CC Cream in 20 Beige and I would highly recommend to anyone else with dry skin! Since I bought my cream in a store, no. 20 was the lightest option (they actually have an even lighter shade online) and so I needed something to brighten the cream up.
The Body Shop has some amazing shade adjusting drops which are meant to be mixed with your foundation in order to adjust the colour. I usually use two drops of the product and mix it with as much foundation as the size of a pea. They also have other shade adjusting drops to darken foundation in case you bought a foundation which is too light. For me, it does not affect how the foundation feels on the skin but it definitely makes a difference in the colour. A great product to use when you invested in a slightly wrong colour!
2. Light Concealers
Since many people like to use a concealer slightly later than their actual skin tone, I usually have no problem finding a good concealer. These are only the concealers I use to cover any spots and I do not use them under my eyes since I do not need such a high coverage there. I use my MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NC15 for spots that require a lot of coverage. It is the most full-coverage concealer I have ever come across, but this also makes it easy for it to end up looking caky. I would therefore recommend using it only on few spots that really need that kind of coverage.
The other concealer I use is Chanel's Le Correcteur in 10 Beige. This one has less coverage (but still a good coverage) and it tends to look more natural. I also find this product more hydrating which is quite important to me due to my dry skin.
3. Powders: My Go-To & My Big No-No
When I was initially looking for a solution to my shade problem, I thought I would also try lightening up the look by using a different powder. I usually use Chanel's Powder Universelle Libre in 20 Clair Translucent 1. So I went to their website and discovered that a powder which, at first glance looked like it is the same, was also available in white:
But while they look very similar and even have the same name on the packaging, they are different. Chanel sells them as separate items (meaning they are not two different colours of the same product) and when I first used the white powder, I knew why. Something in the formula of the white powder is different. I can say that it works for lightening up foundation but the lightening-up effect is incredibly strong - it even made my foundation look too light. But the much bigger issue for me was that the white powder stuck to every tiny dry patch it could find. Instead of being able to apply it smoothly, the powder would stick only to some dots on my face, giving my face a weird print look and it would not work well with my foundation either. So while the white powder is a big no-no from me, I would highly recommend their more beige powder - I have used this one for a long time and it has never let me down - it does not dry out your skin and it keeps you from looking shiny for hours.
And yeah, that is it for this beauty post. I have not written about beauty on here in a long time but I love doing my makeup and I just wanted to share these few products with you all!
Thank you for reading. Stay safe.
Lots of Love,
Elena
