Foundation of the Month July- Makeup Forever Ultra HD Foundation

 

Hey guys, welcome back to my foundation of the month series! In this series, I am testing out foundations by wearing them for the whole month and letting you know my thoughts on it. The point of this series is to help dark-skinned women find foundations and hopefully introduce you to some good products! So far I have 6 months’ worth of foundation reviews from the very popular Fenty Foundation to the very cheap but extremely good The Ordinary High Coverage foundation!

This month I wore my Makeup Forever Ultra HD Foundation. I have had this foundation for a very long time but it’s one of those products that sit in my collection and I hardly ever use it. Mainly because it’s a darker shade( I got matched to this in the summer now that I remember) so I can only use it in summer or when I go on holiday. I decided to use it this summer because I’m slightly darker than my usual shade thanks to the amazing weather we have had in the UK.

MUFE Ultra HD Foundation offers a natural invisible finish with medium buildable coverage. I have the shade 180= R530. I bought the foundation at the time they were switching from their HD formula to their Ultra HD Formula hence the two shade names. The foundation feels extremely lightweight on the skin, like a second skin and blends seamlessly. It works well for my normal to combo skin type and holds well throughout the day. The shade I have of this foundation is too dark and red for me which is why I hardly use this foundation. I use it in the summer when I am tanned and when my undertone is neutral and slightly red or when I am away on a really sunny holiday. I love the formula of this foundation so I tried getting the stick formula hoping to get a better match to my usual skin tone/undertone, unfortunately, I got matched again to the wrong shade, this time a really neutral shade that looks grey!  At the time I didn’t know much about foundations and undertones, I trusted the MUFE lady and the foundation did match my jawline which is darker than the centre of my face. Sighs, my liquid formula is at least workable but the stick formula is rubbish, it’s not even good for me as a contour.

The MUFE Ultra HD foundation oxidises. My shade has a red undertone but at the end of the day looks redder than when I first applied it (I learnt this the hard way when I tried to apply this foundation in the winter with a bandeau style top. My face looked extremely red and dark compared to my chest, I had to wipe my face and start all over!). To counteract this, I apply a lighter than usual concealer with this foundation so my face doesn’t end up 2-3 shades darker than my body.

Verdict

I have mixed feelings for this foundation. It’s a beautiful foundation which feels like nothing on the skin and offers medium coverage that doesn’t look cakey however it oxidises and I can only wear it during the summer time. I would like to have my correct shade but I also don’t want to have a 3rd bottle of this foundation in my collection. I want to give away my stick foundation as I have actually never used it but I really don’t know anyone with a neutral/grey undertone and I don’t want to throw it away either. Sighs.

Will I recommend it? Hmm, if you can get your exact shade (they have 40 shades) but you run the risk of oxidation. I think there are other options out there which offer the same amount of coverage and finish without the oxidation.

MUFE Ultra HD Foundation is £31 at Debenhams (wow I bought mine 3 years ago for £29)

Autumn/Winter Beauty Trends 2015

Hey my loves how’s everyone doing? Good I hope!

So the autumn hasn’t officially started (I believe the 1st official day of fall is 23 September, but I could be wrong) but I’m here with some serious fall/winter trends you may want to start thinking about! After all it’s getting colder!

I will include some products recommendations which will suit every budget, from ‘I’m on a serious tight budget’ to ‘where the stuff at? I got money to spare’ so get a notepad ready and let’s go shopping together!

Nails

Just because we will be hiding our hands in our pockets or pretty gloves doesn’t mean we should neglect them! Switch from the bold and bright nail colours for the spring/summer and paint your talons with some dark and mysterious colours.

Trynails

Collection’s Blackberry, £1.99 from Superdrug (This polish gives you up to 7 days of wear!)

Essie’s nail colour in chocolate cakes, £8.00 from Debenhams

OPI in Russian navy, £12.50 from Debenhams

 

 

 

Lips

Lip gloss is back this season and was seen on all over the runaway of Rag & Bone and Fendi (Raise your hand if you hate lip gloss or anything remotely shiny on the lips lol) as always dark vampy colours are back and better than ever. Remember the most important aspect of wearing any lipstick (including lip gloss, urgh) is exfoliation, exfoliation and more exfoliation then moisturise, moisturise and moisturise! Fall/winter also means dry, chapped or cracked lips which equals doom for any lip colour esp. matte colours ( have you ever tried wearing MAC ruby woo on cracked lips?) make sure you regularly have a handy lip balm on deck and you exfoliate frequently. From experience I noticed if you regularly moisturise your lips, exfoliation a 10x easier and quicker!

If you detest lip gloss like me you can try lipstick with a sheer/lustre finish or use Vaseline on top of your fav matte lip colour as a D.I.Y sheer lip colour. To be fair, I will give recommendations for both lip gloss (urgh) and lipsticks

Try

Lip glosslipgloss

Makeup Revolution salvation intense lacquer in Rebel, £3 from Superdrug

B. Brilliant lip gloss in Morello, £6.99 from Superdrug

MAC vamplify, £18 from Debenhams

 

 

Lip Stick

It was hard, oh so hard to narrow it down to 3 choices! So I narrowed it down to 6 (so I cheated a little) I won’t include the classic ruby woo or heroine or cyber or rebel from MAC £15.50, (Ok so I cheated a lot) because I am sure by now everyone and their sister’s boyfriend’s side chick has that but I will give you an alternative and cheaper red!

Try

Makeup revolution in make me tonight, £1.00 from Superdrug

MUA Luxe velvet lips lacquer in kooky, £3 from Superdrug

Barry M Lip paint in black cherry, £4.49 from Superdrug

Sleek’s rioja red, £4.99 from Sleekmakeup.com

MAC’s matte royal (For the brave ones), £15.50 from Debenhams

Bobbi brown lip colour in black raspberry (This is a very popular shade!), £19.50 from Debenhams

lipsticks

 

 

Lashes

Bigger than life lashes were very popular too. For this trend the easiest way out is to pop on your fav pair of falsies and go right? But what happens when you can’t seem to get it right? Like never? Mascara and go! Finding a mascara that gives you the maximum length and volume with zero clumps is as hard as finding your perfect red shade (Ok maybe not as hard but you get the point), here are my tried and tested recommendations that will leave you with puppy eyes!

Try

Maybelline Great lash, £4.99 from Superdrug

Maybelline colossal volume express, £6.99 from Superdrug

Clinique high impact mascara, £17.50 from feelunique.com

Benefit they’re real, £17.55 from feelunique.com

By Terry growth booster (my current fav), £33.50 from feelunique.com

mass

That’s all folks! Let me know what you will be rocking this season! I tried to give products suitable for different budgets and I think I did well. What trends have you seen and are loving?

Until next time

Love

Sarah