I enlisted the help of Sir John, L'Oréal's brand ambassador and Beyoncé's makeup maestro who advised against seeking out a one-size-fits-all solution. “It would be nice if I could see your skin and not the makeup.” Until Rihanna blesses us with something more sheer, I have to reserve her signature product for special occasions.Ĭlearly, it was time to check in with the experts. “Are you wearing stage makeup now?” One friend asked, her face accusatory. From the moment I began the project, people suggested I try Fenty Beauty's game-changing foundation, but the full matte coverage was too much for my day to day. At times, finish proved a more significant hurdle than shade options. While the process was highly entertaining-the machine calls to mind a souped-up paint mixer-I found myself preferring the feel of the brand's ready-made Teint Idole, which offered fuller coverage and a robust 88 shades. Why should I have to set up the beauty equivalent of a chemistry lab to have something that matched?īack home, I went high-tech with Lancôme's Le Teint Particulier, a computerised match system that employed sensors to read the tone and texture of my skin in multiple places, then brewed up a custom blend with the texture of a tinted moisturiser. The idea of relying on a single colour, or at least a single formula, became something of an obsession. While I didn't mind the amount of effort it took to merely look normal, I didn't always have the extra 10 minutes needed to make sure my face was in order. This, plus a colour corrector-around my mouth area where there is a patch of unruly skin-and a concealer to tackle any spots. In the past, I've used one bottle for my slightly darker forehead, another for the lighter area around my cheeks. As someone who has hyperpigmentation and several different shades present on my face, I expected that I'd have to do some blending. Dior's Face and Body fared better the sheer, buildable coverage came closer to my liking, but I still needed to mix shades to get a perfect match. Once the purveyor of my first holy grail foundation, Teint Innocence, a barely there luminous blend that was discontinued back in 2011, I had high hopes for Chanel but found the undertones in their lineup too tangerine for my liking-the ironically named Les Beiges left me looking like an Oompa Loompa even after a lengthy consultation with a makeup artist. Bougie as I am, I wanted to see what Chanel, Dior, and their ilk had to offer. After years of tweaking the darkest shades at Sephora or mixing three different colours to match, I was used to putting in a little extra work. I grabbed what I could, hoping that I'd be able to make the best of things. I'd grown accustomed to YouTube videos in which content creators swatch every shade within a line, so I felt a degree of surprise upon realising the approach to publication samples was entirely different. Entering the Vogue beauty closet, I was overwhelmed by the number of foundations on the market, and the limited range of what actually was sent through by PR companies. Of course, I didn't expect it to take an entire year of my life. The hue may be right, but the undertone is wrong, the texture or finish might also need work, and since many brands still refuse to stock their full array of shades, even getting ahold of the right options would take time. As a woman of colour, I knew this wouldn't be an easy task. Post Fenty Beauty, many brands have expanded their ranges, but capturing the nuances of deeper skin remains an uphill battle. So began my search for a foundation that would match my skin tone and leave me with the healthy looking complexion of my dreams.
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