A Chat about Foundation and my Current Collection

Morning everyone! I want to have a chat about foundations today and hopefully you will get involved and tell me your favourites too! I used to be on the hunt for the perfect foundation to the point where I would have up to 10 bottles in my collection, only to be disappointed with half of them and regret wasting my money! I have very difficult, acne prone skin that is combo/oily so I always look for full coverage foundations that are long lasting and transfer proof! 

My current collection is above - the two I love, repurchase regularly and use every day are Estee Lauder Double Wear (Desert Beige) and Revlon ColourStay (Buff when I am pale and Sand Beige for when I have tan on). If you have followed my blog for any length of time you will be sick of hearing about these two but Double Wear in particular is my holy grail foundation and one I always have a backup of. It’s my go to if I need to look my best and I trust it 100% to stay on all day, cover all my imperfections and magically this seems to look better as the day goes on. I know people have a love/hate relationship with it but if you have combo/oily skin and like full coverage look no further! 

Revlon ColourStay is my budget pick – I don’t like wearing Double Wear if I am just going to work as it’s a waste so ColourStay fills the gap nicely, again it’s full coverage, comes in two different formulas (one for oily skin and one for dry skin) and its super affordable! It’s not quite as long lasting as Double Wear but as it’s got everything else going for it I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend! 

Even though these were some of the first foundations I ever used and loved, I didn’t stop on my hunt for the perfect foundations so I have tried a lot. I’ve kind of calmed down now as so many of them were disappointing to me but I thought I would discuss here and get your opinions on some that are on my wishlist! Before we get to those let’s talk about some others first! 

Foundations I Hate

I wish this category wasn’t so large but unfortunately more often than not, a foundation I have fully researched and think would be perfect for me fails to meet the mark! I wrote a whole disappointing products post about the Too Faced Born this Way, Urban Decay All Nighter and KVD Lock It foundations but in short they are all awful! These were a mixture of patchy, transferable and oily on my skin so all get a huge thumbs down from me! They are all pretty pricey too so for me that’s double the disappointment!  

While I was in Canada I picked up the Wet n Wild Photo Focus and The Ordinary Coverage foundation – both budget options that are pretty hyped! Again these did not work for my skin, they both transferred easily and were super patchy especially in my problem areas – my nose and chin so I ended up giving these away pretty quickly!  

Most recently, the Note Beauty Mattifying Extreme Wear foundation has been a disappointment and also got its own post. Another one that came highly recommended, it separated on my face, transferred and did not stay matte all day. I was so happy to finish this – again it’s not very expensive but that doesn’t mean it’s any less of a disappointment! 

Foundations I Like and would buy again

This category includes foundations I would keep in my collection if I was still in my bad spending habits lol. I have went through a couple of bottle of NARS Sheer Glow and Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte longwear foundation as well as one of the Bare Minerals Bare Pro Performance Wear and these are all BEAUTIFUL foundations! I really enjoyed wearing all of them but they are pricey and on my skin they do not last all day so I tend to have to top up. Saying that however, they do not wear off badly at all like other foundations I have mentioned and their finish when they have just been applied is amazing! 

Foundations I like but wouldn’t repurchase 

More foundations that I like but these didn’t wow me enough to feel the need to purchase again! Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk foundation has one of the most beautiful finishes ever, it’s so skin like, but I need more coverage and that, combined with the price, is why I wouldn’t purchase again! NARS Velvet Matte Skin Tint is another nice one and even though I found the coverage impressive for a tint, the staying power wasn’t great on this one. Vichy Dermablend* had good coverage but was tough to work with as it’s so thick and didn’t look great round my nose and MAC Studio Fix Fluid is just not the longest lasting for me either, sometimes my face just seems to eat foundation! The most recent foundation I tried was my mum’s Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless and this would fall under this category for me too -  it’s another one that’s love/hate for a lot of people but I was just a bit underwhelmed by it, the staying power seemed ok but it did end up clinging to some dry patches and fine lines. 

I have tried some other fan favourites like Rimmel Lasting Finish and Loreal True Match and Infallible 24-hour Matte but it was so long ago and I don’t think I ever had a quite right shade match and I didn’t wear them much so don’t have a full opinion on them! 

Foundations I want to try

Even though I have wised up a little with my foundation spending I still have a wishlist of those I would like to try and top of that list is the Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 24 hr foundation and NARS All Day Luminous and Radiant Longwear foundation– I have heard such good reviews about these but haven’t taken the plunge yet! Also on my list is the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin as well as the Armani Power Fabric high cover foundation and on the more affordable side of things I would like to try the EX1 Cosmetics Invisiwear and the Milani Conceal and Perfect foundation and concealer at some point too! 

Congratulations if you made it to the end of this post, I just had a complete brain dump about foundations haha! I would love to know your thoughts on any of the foundations I have mentioned and if you have tried any that are on my wishlist I am even more interested! Let me know you full coverage faves! 

*denotes a PR sample that was sent to me. All opinions are my own. See my full disclosure here. 

Danielle xx

If you want to keep up to date with my posts, don’t forget to follow me on

Bloglovin | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

SHARE: