Royal Effem is an Italian cosmetics brand that caters mostly to professional makeup artists. Laboratori Royal, the manufacturer of Royal Effem and Oe Organic Elements Skincare, has been around for 50 years so you know they know makeup intimately!

The sleek black packaging and wonderfully pigmented products make them a nice addition to a MUA's kit. Today I'll be talking about one of the brand's best-selling products: the Royal Effem Compact Creamy Foundation (~P1,600).

This cream foundation is pretty good in terms of coverage, so much that I don't even use concealer anymore! It doesn't cover marks 100% (the really dark ones) but it does a pretty good job of hiding everything neatly. You'll see a photo later.

What I love about the product

• Heavy coverage fills in pores and blurs out most imperfections. It can moonlight as a concealer for light blemishes.
• Finish is quite nice, straddling the fine line between glowy and matte. 

The Evian Facial Spray (P459/300ml) is probably the single most expensive bottle of water I've ever bought. Yes, it's just fancy water in a fancy aerosol can and not much else. I rather felt silly when I went home and unpacked it. Almost P500 for water? What the hell was I thinking?

Well, I got it because I've heard so many good things about this mist. It's supposed to make your makeup look more natural, and hydrate + cool down your skin whenever you need it. In this heat, you can't say no to something like that!

I've been using this Evian spray for a few weeks now and I can say that it's useful. Is it a must-have? Not really, but it's very handy to have around. Here's why:

• You know how sometimes your makeup looks too thick and obvious and you wish there was a way to tone it down? The Evian mist can tone it down. A couple of spritzes and your makeup will look more dewy, more like skin, since the water breaks down the binders of the makeup a little.

When Shu Uemura claims something, I find that it rarely jokes around. If it says brightening, it's brightening! If it says that a product will make you look less yellow, you will look less yellow. That's what I discovered with the Shu Uemura Whitefficient UV Under Base Brightening Mousse (P2,150).

I have to admit that I was extremely hesitant to use this product at first. SPF products tend to break me out so I don't really experiment much. But since most Shu products have wowed me in the past, I thought, why the hell not this one? Good thing I did try it, because now this Shu Underbase is an indispensable part of my day makeup! I've been using it for a few weeks now so I can confidently say that. :P

Okay, down to business!

What I love about the product

• It brightens my face instantly, without the use of shimmer or shine. The Pink Purple shade mixes with my yellow skintone to provide a more enhanced color. Call it color correction, if you will.
• My face makeup looks smoother and more pigmented on top of this! It's a great foundation base in that sense. 

Adding skincare elements into makeup is not a new concept, but you'll be hard-pressed to find such products at affordable price points. Maybe the ingredients that go into it are pricey or maybe by virtue of the added skincare, the makeup is already branded as a premium product. But that's not the case with Max Factor's newest foundation: the Max Factor Ageless Elixir Foundation + Serum (P895).

The foundation feels like a thick, heavily tinted serum. It's very moisturizing and has a velvety, mousse-like texture that's easy to spread and work with. Another distinctive feature is the floral scent - some people might be turned off by it, but since this is specifically marketed towards more mature women, the scent seems to be a preference for them.

The coverage is pretty good - medium to heavy - and goes on very smoothly without emphasizing fine lines and creases.

There are foundations that feel light on skin, and then there is the Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup (P1,900). It's true to its promise of feeling like tinted moisturizer, with the coverage and staying power of foundation! Aside from the lightweight texture, it has a flawless, semi-matte finish that blends on your skin seamlessly. Basically, it's a foundation that doesn't feel or look like foundation.

I've been testing this product for more than a month now and I can now confidently give it a thumbs up. Here's why!

What I love about the product

• Ultra-light on skin. It's probably the most lightweight foundation I've tried to date. It doesn't feel hot or sticky by mid-afternoon - perfect for our weather!
• Has light to medium buildable coverage. It evens and brightens the skin and covers minor blemishes, all the while looking practically invisible. 

We have an extra day this year and I find that so incredible. This year, I am granted another day to live and do something a little itty bit more with my life. Am I the only one who feels like this?

Anyways! Today I want to talk about a foundation that I've been using heavily lately: the Clinique Perfectly Real Radiant Skin Compact Makeup. It's a lovely sheer foundation that looks pretty much like radiant skin without the shimmer or glitter.

I don't have the compact, so I only have pictures of the refill. :P Here's what I think of it!

What I love about the product

• Smoothens out my skintone, blurs pores and bumps while still looking natural.
• Gives a sort of matte radiance - if that's possible! There are no visible shimmers in the formula. 
• Has SPF29 PA++! That's a considerable amount of sun protection; not that many foundations have this number. The high SPF makes it a great summer foundation or finishing powder!

Concealers and foundations rank high in my list of beauty must-haves because I am prone to pimples and their unfortunate progeny - blemishes. Why else would I wear so much makeup if not to cover them up? Thankfully my blemishes are less bothersome now thanks to a consistently good skincare routine, but I still have a few left over. Recently I am letting the Cinema Secrets Foundation Palette #2 (P1,998) handle them.

This palette is quite expensive, but it is literally everything you need for your face if you're looking for full coverage. It's an all-in-one palette, which makes the price tag look cheap compared to buying separate products for your face base.

It's a great palette, and here's why!

What I love about the product

• It's as opaque as you get, but the texture is surprisingly thin! It adheres like second skin and covers even the darkest blemishes.
• Different shades allow for different functions. It has a blemish concealer shade (I use a slightly lightened #607-19), undereye concealer (#603-21, a beige salmon), and of course all the colors can be used as foundation (I either use a mix of #605-61 and #606-26 or just #602-65). So it's all-in-one face makeup, basically. I think it's a better buy than the single-color pans.

There's a lot of buzz surrounding a new foundation, the one called the Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup ($34/ P1,900 locally). It sounds like the foundation to beat! It promises to feel like tinted moisturizer but with the coverage of foundation. It also has vitamins E and C combined with antioxidants to help brighten skin.

I just got mine yesterday after my meet-and-greet with Maggie and Annie, and I am so excited to use this in the next few days! It's not even out in the US yet, and in the Philippines, the target release is April.

What do I think about it? I was wowed the first time I used it, that's what! It has coverage but it lets my skin peek through. It doesn't look and feel like makeup at all, due to its very light, watery texture.

You better see it to believe it!

The shade I'm using, Petal, is two shades lighter than my actual skintone.

Mature skin tends to be duller, with age spots, wrinkles, and dry skin overall. That means normal makeup just won't cut it anymore! To enhance older skin, makeup artists would recommend products that have intense moisturizing and brightening effects.

One foundation that fits the bill is the Revlon Age Defying with DNA Advantage Cream Makeup (P975). I wouldn't recommend you put too much stock on its "DNA advantage" that is, its claims to protect your DNA from aging, but it is certainly a good foundation for its intended market.

Texture. It's thick, creamy, and easy to spread on even the toughest, wrinkle-ridden skin. It also helps soften lines due to its light-reflecting properties. Has SPF20.

Coverage and finish. Coverage is medium to heavy.

Good Monday morning to you! Say hi to Nikki, who shall be talking about the latest L'Oreal foundation to hit the Philippines!

I’m a BB cream fan and I have been using BB creams for a while now, mainly because they are the most economic choice for me. Not only do they cover blemishes and make your skin dewy and delightful but they also offer additional perks like sunscreen and whitening (I’m not really big on whitening but hey, why not).

However, as my life is pretty hectic and demanding (and I have yet to master the art of time management), I’ve been searching for a better form of foundation because BB creams, like liquid foundation, can be a little time consuming and tedious to use. Musing on that thought, I realized that powder foundation is the easiest foundation to apply. I swear, we women go through so much to get perfect skin, but as Liz puts it, “You can call it vanity but I call it survival”. 

As my beauty guru and close friend, I told Liz about my predicament and she told me to try L’Oreal’s White Perfect Pearl Duo Powder Foundation (P995 / P795 refill only). I was really excited to use it because the packaging was really cute and it came with a highlighter too!

I fancy myself as a foundation expert (humor me) because I've tried a goodly number of that stuff. I've lost count, but I've narrowed it down to six foundations which I consider are the best I've used to date. They're the ones I keep coming back to because of their superb formula and finish. That's not to say that the other ones I've raved about before are not good ha; they're just not the best.

Anyway, here's a list of my favorite foundations of all time! Do click the links to read the full review of each product. I use these regularly depending on where I'm going and what I'm doing so I'll explain that.

NARS Sheer Glow Foundation. Yeah you should've seen this coming! Still one of the best there is for me. It has a satin, flawless finish that covers all my skin's sins. It's also so economical that a bottle can last you for more than a year even with regular use.

Last week I actually found out that I still have 20-25% of this stuff left in the bottle, which is mind blowing considering I bought this on September 2010.

I use this when...It's my all-around foundation, especially when my skin is terrible.

Not gonna lie: the Lancome Teint Miracle foundation (P2,200+) is one of the best foundations I've tried this year. It claims to be a "natural light creator" and a "bare skin perfector". These are two hefty promises if you ask me, but by jove this foundation delivers them!

I was unsure about this at first because it broke me out the first few times I used it. Good thing my skin got used to the formula after three, four uses of this product. Whew. I wouldn't want to miss out on this illuminator + foundation combo, for reasons I will state below.

Fine shimmers can be seen from the bottle, but don't worry, they're not visible on your face except as a nice glow

What I love about the product

• Perfect finish. Looks like glowy skin. This is the first thing I look for in any foundation!
• Medium to heavy coverage. It's very thin and watery but a light layer of this immediately gives great coverage - it will hide lighter marks and redness without further help from concealers.

Why do you need to "set" makeup? If you like using cream/ liquid foundation or concealers, it pays to make sure that they won't slide off when you sweat or oil up. Think of wet makeup as if it were, er, pizza dough. It's malleable and easy to form in a shape you desire. Once you're done working on it though, you need to dust it with liberal amounts of flour to keep it in that shape and prevent it from sticking everywhere.

Likewise, to protect the makeup's integrity, you need to set it with a final layer of powder that will absorb our bodily excretions as they come. Gross but it happens, so be prepared!

Currently, I love using the Smashbox Photo Set Pressed Powder (P1,550). It's a winner in keeping oil at bay, plus it never looks makeup-y. It has an invisible finish that smoothens and evens out skin. As it promises in the press materials, it blurs imperfections too!

What I love about the product

• Keeps me oil-free for a good four to five hours even in humid weather, even if I'm using it on top of liquid foundation.
• Has a light coverage that minimizes imperfections such as pores, uneven patches of skin, wrinkles and light blemishes. It can be used alone, on top of concealer, or as a finishing powder.

Morning, guys. Today we have a pretty guest blogger to review an interesting liquid foundation. Say hi to Tracie, and don't forget to read her blog, Tracie the Diva! 

We all know that mineral foundation is healthier for our skin, especially for problematic skin. Without the harsh chemicals, the skin could benefit from fewer breakouts. But the annoying thing about mineral make-up is the mess since it’s usually in loose powder form. It takes more effort in applying the make-up and cleaning up your dresser. 

I think Kanebo has heard the woes of MMU users and created the KATE Mineral Liquid Foundation (P900). Though they are not the first to release mineral foundation in liquid form, so far it is one of the best I’ve tried!

Texture. As most liquid foundations are applied with either a sponge or a brush because most are thick and getting it even on the skin is a challenge, the texture of this liquid foundation is light but not runny so you can use your fingers to blend it out when you’re in a hurry.

My job doesn't usually take me more than six hours out of the house, which means that I don't need a long-wearing foundation on a regular basis. I'm fine with using ultra-light mineral foundations on a normal day; I like the comfort they give to my face since they don't feel like a sweaty mask after a few hours. 

Still, there are days when I need something more heavy duty. It's the kind of day when work and social engagements pile up so I need something that can keep up with me. One foundation that I love for that purpose is the Smashbox Studio Skin 15-Hour Wear Foundation (P2,300).

To be honest, I didn't expect to like, nay, love this foundation. It looked odd the first few times I wore it, odd in the whereabouts of "I am wearing too much makeup lolz." But after playing around with application techniques, I did discover a trick on how to go around that obstacle. It's pretty neat actually.

Coverage and finish. I'd say that Smashbox Studio Skin has medium to heavy coverage. It'll smoothen and even out skin in a jiffy, plus it won't set on lines and creases.

I am a foundation monster. I love foundations. By now you should know that I have far from perfect skin, so I try to enhance it as best as I can.  

I already have a few favorites, but right now I am really loving the Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Mineral Makeup SPF15 (P2,200). It's the most natural-looking foundation that I have ever had the pleasure to try! It really looks like skin - silky, luminous skin - an effect that some foundations can fake but never truly mimic. With other foundations, I still add a luminizing finishing powder to get that effect, but I don't need to do that with Bobbi's mineral foundation.

What I LOVE about the product 

• Natural, beautifying finish that looks like skin. Check out my photos!
• Pretty good lasting powder. It stays put for 5-6 hours without primer. Longer with primer, of course.

One of my readers requested for a tutorial on how to apply mineral foundation. I thought that was an interesting question. After all, mineral foundation IS different from normal powder foundation and therefore requires a slightly separate set of tools and techniques. 

But wait, why use mineral makeup? It depends on your needs and preferences. MMU is great if you want a smooth, luminous finish without all the added chemicals traditional foundations have. You also don't need to use a lot of MMU to get the skin you want, which means that you only use a thin layer that lets your skin breathe.

Unlike normal powder makeup where you just pat it on to get your desired coverage, you have to sort of break down and really spread mineral makeup all over your face. That's why even if you only use a small amout of mineral powder (well, good MMU anyway), you get a lot mileage out of it. It's basically concentrated pigment, unlike traditional makeup where there are comparatively more binders, extenders, and preservatives included in the formula.

That said, I'd just like to share the tools and techniques I use in applying loose mineral foundation!

Choose your weapon

Dense brushes allow you to break down and spread the MMU efficiently.

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that looks less appealing than a woman with the wrong foundation shade. You could look like Angelina Jolie or Gloria Diaz but with the wrong foundation all your good looks will just look...odd. Gray. Orange. Yellow. It depends! That's why you must pick your foundation carefully, since it could really make or break your appearance.

Always remember that foundation should look natural. It should look like skin. Otherwise, you'll just end up looking like you have a blanket of color on top of your face - and you don't want that! So, here are a few tips on how to choose your best foundation shade:

1. Determine your skin tone. Your skin tone could be one of two: warm and cool. Warm tones include yellow and olive, while cool tones include beige. One way to determine if you're warm or cool is by checking if you look better with gold or silver jewelry. If gold makes you glow, you're warm. Same with silver! Thus, if you're warm-toned, get yellowish foundations. If you're cool-toned, get beige foundations.

I just got the Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Mineral Makeup SPF15 (P2,200) last Saturday so I can't give a full review right now. Still, I want to share an FYI on the product because I find it super intriguing!

Bobbi Brown says that this foundation is lightweight, shine-free, and long-wearing. I've worn it only twice so far, and only on short trips out, so I can't say how long-lasting it actually is. But by golly this is the lightest and most natural foundation I've ever tried so far. 

Agree? I didn't edit this photo at all.

First there was the liquid, then the cream, and finally, Revlon has the powder version of their popular PhotoReady line. The Revlon PhotoReady Two-Way Powder Foundation (P995) is an oil-free and fragrance-free foundation that promises to provide a flawless look under any lighting, with a "medium to full yet undetected coverage". Sounds cool, right?

It is. Even with a heavy layer, I like how this foundation doesn't look like a chalky mask. It definitely delivers on its promise of making me look photo ready, too! The pics will speak for themselves. ;)

What I love about the product

• Medium to heavy coverage still looks natural. I think its because the powder is very fine and well-milled. This foundation will cover redness and minor blemishes.
• Good at oil control. I can go for four to five hours without looking like an oily mess.