I'm back with a foundation review! This time it's the Chanel Perfection Lumière Velvet Foundation (retails for $52CAD). I have the shade Beige 30. Chanel also has "rose" shades available too, if you are on the pinker side (my friend bought this foundation in the Beige 20 Rose, for example).

Now the one that is available on Chanel has SPF15 in it, but the one I have does NOT have SPF in it at all. When I bought it in stores, the SPF label was blacked out, so I'm assuming the batch that I bought from either had faulty SPF issues, or Chanel was testing something out. 

I'm also testing the Maybelline Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser Primer as well in this post. 

I got mines in Canada, so it has French on it, whereas if you bought yours in the States, you'll just have the English subname on it.

It is worth noting that I normally do not put primer on. I don't feel the need for it, my makeup/foundation holds up pretty well without it (my foundation doesn't slide off my face), and it's just money wasted (for me at least). I got this primer while it was on sale (I don't like purchasing drugstore items for full price).

So prior to any face makeup, this is what I look like:

Excuse the weird lighting... I couldn't get a photo to look nice and ended up with this

As you can see, I have slight discolouration on my cheeks (that are more noticeable/visible in real life) and some pores all over the face. I also just realized through this photo that my face and neck are two different shades...

Primer applied on my left side

The primer made my face feel more "smooth" and less bumpy. I can't tell if it did a good job of hiding my pores or not as mines are not very large to begin with. But this primer felt smooth. Smooth to the point it was slippery. It also had a fake glossy kind of texture to it. I've tried a sample of the Smashbox primer before (the most basic one, I can't remember the name of it) and it did not have the same or similar texture. The half of my face that I put the primer on, actually felt as smooth as baby's skin (so Maybelline picked the right name for this product lol).

Foundation applied on my left side

You can see immediately that the foundation evens out my discolouration and looks to be an alright match for my skintone based on this photo.

But from this angle, we can see that Beige 30 is unfortunately, not the right shade for me as it does not blend into my neck. It is also too pink for me. As this is just the regular Beige 30 shade, I'm thinking that Chanel's foundation shades all run slightly more pink undertoned than any other foundations I've tried.

I also find that this foundation likes to pick up on my dry spots and cling to them. All the whiteheads on my nose as well... this foundation clings to them really badly. I appreciate the matte-ness of this foundation, but it's just slightly too drying for my skin.

As for the primer, I found no visible difference between using it and not using it.

At night (12am-ish)

Excuse the horrible lighting. This was around 12am, so I was only left with the yellow light in my room and my flash wouldn't go off for some reason. It's difficult to tell in this photo, but my foundation did not slip and slide off on either sides. The left side still felt baby skin smooth whereas the right side felt like my usual skin.

The Chanel foundation is thin, but is buildable for heavier coverage. If I rub my face (which I did many times that day) I don't feel foundation coming off onto my fingers. However, its undertone is pink, and my undertone is yellow. It also clings to dry spots and made my skin feel more dry. For a high-end foundation though, I feel that the $52 price tag is quite reasonable. The YSL Le Teint is $62CAD and the Armani Maestro foundation is $66CAD. Keep in mind as well, Chanel prices rise every year.

Verdict: Not for me. The pink undertones don't match my yellow undertones and it's also quite drying to my skin. The range of shades for this foundation are also quite limited. As for the primer... it's not a necessary step for me, so I think I'll just be skipping this until I reach an age or point in my skin's life where my foundation starts slipping off all the time.

I'm hoping to try the new MUFE foundation soon, as I can't be wearing this foundation everyday and looking like a mismatched pink loompa.

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Yesterday, I wore a sample of Sephora's new foundation to go grocery shopping. I had this sitting around in my drawer for quite some time now and I believe I got in as a sample in an online Sephora order. I also wore a couple other samples on my face, but I will talk about the foundation in detail. So onto my first impressions!

First off, the sample they gave me was literally just a dollop of product. It was barely enough to cover my face, even though I didn't use a brush. Secondly, I got this in the shade medium and it was still too dark for my face.  I usually wear Urban Decay's Naked foundation in the shade 3.0 (which is a 5Y05 I believe, in the Sephora foundation system). Thirdly, the coverage for this foundation was very light. I would compare it to a bb cream coverage except bb creams provide reasonably well coverage these days. I suppose one could build up the coverage by using more product, but I only had the sample amount to work with.

I left a tiny bit untouched and you can really see the difference between my skin tone and the foundation shade

Because the coverage was so light, it didn't cover my red spots very well. I layered it on around my red spots, and used it sparingly around my forehead. This provided me with better coverage, but it still wasn't good enough for me.

I wore the foundation for around 9 hours and it held up reasonably well. It only faded/smudged in the area around my nose where my sunglasses were. However, this happens with pretty much everything I wear on my face because I lack the nose bridge to keep glasses on my face properly :(

store lighting

outdoor - shade

Other samples I also wore yesterday included a MUFE HD powder, a NARS eyeliner, Tarte blush in Dollface, YSL babydoll mascara, and a NARS satin lip pencil in Rikugien.

The MUFE HD powder is pretty much the exact same as the ELF HD powder, only it came in a powder format and not a loose powder. This makes it much easier to carry around for touch ups. Don't have anything negative to say about this one...

The Tarte blush in Dollface is nice, wore for about 4 hours before it began fading and by 9 hours it was pretty much gone. It's a universal pink that works for any skintone, I'd say. However, it's difficult to pick up product with this one and I have to swirl my brush in the pan for a bit to pick up enough product. (I have this sample as a travel size blush so I will be giving this one away at the end of the month).

The NARS eyeliner and satin lip pencil I got as part of the NARS 500pts perk from Sephora. I loved the staying power of the eyeliner and would probably repurchase it if I regularly used pencil eyeliners. The only downfall to this product was that it tugs at your eyelids. It did not glide on very well. Comparing it to the MUFE Aqua Liners, I would say that the MUFE ones are much creamier and go on easily but the staying power does not compare to the NARS eyeliner. I have oily lids and the MUFE eyeliner smudges quite fast for me but the NARS one only smudged slightly in the corner of my eyelid by the end of 9 hours.

The NARS satin lip pencil is a MLBB color. It glided on very nicely and felt hydrating. Would definitely purchase a satin lip pencil in other colors. The downside is that you would have to reapply after eating or small pecks on your SO's cheeks. It completely disappeared after I ate dinner and I never bothered to reapply it after that.

no mascara

with mascara

I bought YSL's babydoll mascara in that mascara favorites set from Sephora a while back. It is a holy grail for many beauty gurus. I've been using it for a while now and need to throw it out, but I thought I'd wear it for the last time for reviewing purposes. It does a good job of lengthening my lashes but can't hold a curl - mainly because it isn't waterproof. I wouldn't repurchase this; the price tag is just too high for me to justify for a mascara.



TL;DR:

If you're looking for a thin/light foundation, then the Sephora 10HR foundation is perfect but you could get a drugstore foundation that does the same thing for cheaper. There's nothing special about this foundation so if you're into high-end brand products, skip this and save your money. NARS eyeliners are the bomb, go purchase one if you use pencil eyeliners. If you're in the market for an HD powder, just buy the ELF one. Unless you have something against loose powder, there really isn't a difference between the MUFE one and the ELF one.

Sorry for the gross yellow photos. I don't have good lighting in my house :(