GRWM: Foundation update and ten minute make-up
Bobbi Brown’s Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation is the best new foundation I’ve tried this year. It’s good coverage, not matte and not glowy, but just right, giving a real skin finish that doesn’t cake or flake by the end of the day. I love that it’s lavender scented which has an instantly calming effect on my brain – handy when I’m running late in the morning. I think it’s particularly good for combination skin, with Marine Sugar Cane and mineral powders to control shine and Vitamin E and Shea Butter to hydrate.
Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation comes in a gazillion shades (OK, 30) and the best bit is there are lots with a yellow undertone. I’m using Warm Natural, but Natural Tan and Golden Natural were also very similar (the Bobbi PR sent me a huge box of sample shades to try which was very handy – although not something I like to encourage – but you can get teeny sample bottles in store). It also has SPF 15.
So my current morning face routine is something like Julep cleansing oil, Dr Dennis Gross vitamin c serum, Clinique Moisture Surge moisturiser, then five minutes later a couple of drops of facial oil (La Mer The Renewal Oil is nice and light for going under makeup). I rub my hands together and then just press my face.
Then I do my primer, which I never understood but now I love. I have to say, YSL Top Secrets Instant Moisture Glow is heaven. It’s a super lightweight blur gel and I think the magic ingredient is the teeniest tiniest metallic flecks which I only detected by accident when I caught them in my 6x magnifying mirror! This primer gives me a beautifully smooth surface for blending my foundation.
Next, I do under eye concealer. Currently I’m trialling It Cosmetics Bye Bye Undereye, which is quite thick (so good if you need extra coverage) tapped on gently with my finger, then Estée Lauder dual ended Double Wear Custom Coverage Correcting Duo on top. One end is illuminating and the other is pigmented to colour-correct and I use the apricot ‘brightening’ one. I use my trusty Zoeva concealer brush for this, it’s the perfect shape.
I use a half pump of foundation and add a drop of serum to sheer it very slightly. Guerlain Youth Watery Oil is a perfect non-oily oil as it’s slightly tacky so I feel like it binds the foundation to my skin. I usually apply my foundation with a brush (I love this one), but I watched Lisa Eldridge’s recent ‘secret make-up’ video and she suggested another way. So now I apply the foundation with fingers – but blend quickly as the Bobbi foundation does dry fairly fast. Then you use the brush to blend and in effect, take off any excess foundation. (If you want to add another layer, this foundation builds nicely.)
To get my ‘glow’ I still rely on my old faithful Tory Burch Lip and Cheek Tint, which has a magic illuminating ingredient that gives just the right amount of light to the cheekbones. I don’t even know if they still make this. Or I use Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge which has the loveliest shades, or if I’m in a hurry I love Chanel’s new Rouge Coco Lip Blush, which for once does an equally great job on lips as well as cheeks.
And then I use a big Marc Jacobs bronzing brush to lightly smoosh everything together! If I have any excess shine on my forehead or side of the nose, I dab on my YSL Touche Éclat Blue Perfector or Estée Edit (RIP) Pore Vanishing Stick. Or I use a sheet blotter from Mai Couture as I’m running out the door. I hardly ever use powder any more.
For eyes, I’ve been loving Chanel Ombre Premiere Longwear Powder eyshadow in Talpa and Bobbi Brown Smokey Eye or Marc Jacobs mascara (top lashes only) to get me out of the house fast. And then Browcote or Dior brow gel if I don’t have time for the full brow ritual.
For lips I like to do lip balm while I’m moisturising and then I do lip gloss first and lipstick on top, blended in with a finger or blurred with a cotton bud. I’ve still not found a better tint-of-pink almost-clear lip gloss than Bobbi Brown Cosmic Pink although Chanel’s Rouge Coco Gloss is my go-to for sheer juicy watermelon shades. I also rate the matte liquid lipsticks by Revlon (smells of strawberries!), Chanel and Armani, blotted to a stain with gloss on top for lasts-all-day colour.
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WORDS: Disneyrollergirl/Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation by Disneyrollergirl/Navaz Batliwalla
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11 April, 2018 @ 9:17 am
Gosh Navaz, you must get up with the lark to do this beauty routine every morning ! So many products ……Looking good on it anyway !
11 April, 2018 @ 7:15 pm
Ha ha, nope only ten minutes, plus couple more for the serum step! Mostly sheer cream, oil or balm products to apply with fingers. I avoid precision products like eyeliners – too much faff!
13 April, 2018 @ 1:51 pm
Must try the Bobbi Brown foundation – good coverage and calming, perfect for a woman of my age!
13 April, 2018 @ 3:18 pm
Come to mine and I’ll shade match you with all these little sample bottles!
30 April, 2018 @ 5:33 pm
Hi Navaz, I’m back cooking with the gas and able to view your blog. This BB foundation looks great – though the spf 15 is lower than I would purchase unless I was wearing a high factor BB cream. The photographic exhibitions look wonderful. So capture the era that was disco in the Northern Hemisphere (I imagine as now experience). Can’t say anything as sophisticated in Sydney during the disco period that I am aware. The punk period was very prominent in Sydney and then new wave. cheers Yvonne
1 May, 2018 @ 8:39 am
Thanks Yvonne, happy that the blog is now visible! Ooh imagine if there was an underground Australian disco scene that we don’t know about! My boyfriend runs a photography gallery so I’m frequently hearing about curators rediscovering long lost photo projects documenting little known movements. I love seeing these mini capsules of style unearthed!
2 May, 2018 @ 1:45 pm
William Yang is a Chinese/Australian gay man who took photographs during that period. The gay scene in Sydney late seventies was huge and predominantly male and buffed and Sydney probably had the most overt gay scene in that period next to San Francisco. This scene was disco and mainly centred around the very inner city of Darlinghurst and a place called “Palms”. I lived north of Sydney in a beach culture and we had no interest in disco – West Coast America sound and rock and roll. My husband loved punk and new wave and he grew up in Sydney and bought NME and The Face etc. If you saw pictures of him he is a very very unlikely punk – just the music. Sydney during the seventies had an amazing pub music scene and our public broadcaster (ABC – modelled on BBC) had the best radio station – Double JJ (am band) and now Triple JJJ when FM was introduced in 1979. The BBC has nothing comparable to this radio station however JJ was definitely a disco free zone. I remember hearing Talking Heads, Blondie, Dire Straits, The Police for the very first time on this radio station. All new bands that of course had long careers.
2 May, 2018 @ 11:48 pm
Love it Yvonne! Just Googling William Yang…!