Uh-oh, You Went Overboard With the Foundation?

Around this time of the year, women everywhere are reaching into their makeup drawers or bags or cabinets and pulling out the foundation. So what to do if you make a mistake and apply too much? Try these great tips I got from the new Sephora book.
Ross Burton, a Lancome makeup artist, suggests putting a dime-sized amount of moisturizer on a foundation brush and working the brush over your face. If you don't have a foundation brush, your fingers should do. Another Burton trick is to separate a two-ply tissue, placing one ply on your face and moving it around to pick up the excess. I've used the first trick in the past entirely by accident and found it works great.

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The Benefits of Powder & Foundation Primer

This week I stopped by Sephora to stock up on some of my favorite beauty products. It was at the Laura Mercier section that I learned there's actually a primer for powders. Who knew? The primer works by filling in pores and fine lines and wrinkles so the powder doesn't settle in. Turns out Laura Mercier has a mineral primer specially formulated for women who wear powder. It's pictured here. Buy it online.

My first step in my beauty routine is to apply a tinted sunscreen, so a foundation primer works best for me. Laura Mercier makes an excellent one. Buy it online.

Learn all you need to know about primers in What is a Foundation Primer? And Do I Need it?.

Photo: Laura Mercier mineral primer courtesy of Nordstrom

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Use a Brush to Apply Foundation AND Concealer? Wow.

Every day I read a ton of beauty Website and blogs to find useful tips to pass on to you (always giving credit to the Website, of course). I have to sift through a lot of stuff I'm not interested in (like pricey new creams that just hit the market -- obviously something sent to the blogger that they're plugging), or products used on celebrities that are really just a plug for L'Oreal or Laura Mercier or whatever. Usually those celebrities are spokespeople. But these blogs are also full of fabulous information.

Today, I got this great beauty tip from the Fashionista Website. Barney's beauty guru Jason Ascher shared his best fall beauty tips (check them out here) and I loved his recommendation for applying concealer and foundation: Use a sponge, not your fingers. Here it is, via Fashionista:

"Squeeze a little foundation onto your hand, dip your brush into it, and then gently pat the liquid onto the areas needed. A patting motion under your eye diffuses any fluid that's puffing up your skin. Two minutes is the recommended patting-session time. Applying with your finger is counterproductive. 'You end up pulling on the delicate under-eye skin way too hard, you move too fast and you end up putting it on and taking it off,' Ascher warns."

Every makeup artist I know applies foundation with a brush, but the concealer trick is a new one. I can't wait to try this myself!

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