My first attempt at applying liquid foundation

Remember how I told you my Chambor foundation was almost over in a recent post on my introduction to the world of makeup? Well, I’ve been on the look out for a new foundation to buy. Chambor works perfectly well for me, but considering that I’m getting married this October I thought it would be a good idea to give some other foundations a shot. “What if there’s something *better* out there?”

My mother has the Revlon Touch & Glow foundation, so I thought “might as well try out what’s at home first”. My skin tone matches hers, mostly. So this Saturday I got my hands on it and tried it out.

Ok, quick word about my experience with foundation. I’ve only ever owned ONE – Chambor’s Wet & Dry Brightening foundation. You pick up the product with a wet sponge, and use that sponge to apply it on your face. It’s fairly easy to apply, you just have to remember to blend.

The Revlon Touch & Glow foundation I was about to try was a liquid foundation. Liquid. Now, that scared me. I had no idea how to use it. And no, I was not going to use my fingers. I’m quite sure fingers can’t blend any foundation the way a brush can. Thankfully, mother found this huge set of brushes somebody had gifted to her and it had a big flat dense brush. However, the entire set was gifted to her 2 years back, she never used it and they weren’t exactly MAC quality brushes (laughing at myself for saying this, considering how I’ve never actually owned a MAC brush!).

Anyway, I had the foundation in place. I had a brush in place. But, what’s the technique? So I googled (of course) and here’s what I found: How to Apply Liquid Foundation. It’s a very helpful article, and I followed it to the T (except the applying loose powder part). And yes, the foundation seemed to have blended extremely well. I thought my skin looked pretty darn good, and that’s when I realised – give me any decent foundation and I will be able to apply it! 🙂 Of course, all thanks to this article. It also taught me what stippling is (from the comments section):

“Stippling is dotting a product in a tapping motion over an area (as opposed to buffing {essentially rubbing in circular motions} or patting {which is like stippling, but with a flat-sided brush and a slight bit of drag}) with a flat top brush. All “motion” should be perpendicular to the surface. Stippling creates a pixeled effect: the fine tips of the brush hairs create minuscule dots of product on the skin, and by stippling over an area, you can cover textured surfaces (scars, burns, etc.) evenly and mimic the skin’s natural appearance, as well as eliminating the chance of brush marks. Stippling also allows product to be applied over another product without disturbing it. If this was unclear, stippling is dotting it over the area many multiples of times-not just once or twice-until the product seems to meld into your skin.”

I did face some issues though:

1. The brush I used was not exactly a stippling brush, which is what is typically used for applying foundation I think. This one was not as soft, so it felt a little pokey and this made it slightly difficult to stipple and buff (another term I learnt through this article!) Lesson learnt: I need to buy a stippling brush
2. It’s the peak of summer season here in Delhi, so the foundation started to dry off pretty quickly on my hand and on my face. I needed to be quicker, which was difficult since I was doing it for the first time!
3. After being out for 2 hours, the foundation started to look a little dry – this could be because of the Delhi heat, the not-so-great brush I used or my novice hands.

So if you’re also looking for a good technique to apply liquid foundation using a brush, go check out this article. It’s really great and explains it through easy-to-understand images.