Our beauty expert has some quick fixes for those expensive product fails Louise McSharry's favourite foundation fixes 3ina’s Custom Drops Colour Wow One-Minute Transformation Styling Cream Elf Cosmetics’s Colour Correctors LA Girl’s Pro.Color Foundation Mixing Pigment Bumble and Bumble's Long Last Styling Cream Of all the wonderful beauty products available to us, foundation is one of the trickiest to buy. Finding a formula you love, in the right shade, can be challenging and, given the price of most complexion products, getting it wrong is gutting.
I’ve written about this previously and given you tips to help avoid being in this position (asking for a sample and testing the shade in daylight being primary examples), but what do you do if you end up with an expensive foundation which just doesn’t work for you? When it comes to formula, the fix is usually relatively easy. We all have preferences based on the look we’re aiming for or our skin type. I like a glowy, natural finish when it comes to my complexion.
If I end up with a foundation that feels too heavy or matte, I lighten the impact with skin prep and application. The skincare products you use ahead of putting on your foundation will have a big impact on the finished look. If you use rich, emollient products, they will soften the impact of a matte finish and still result in a lovely glow.
The tools you use to apply it will also have an impact. Applying foundation with a dense brush will result in a heavier, fuller coverage, while a fluffy brush or less product on your fingers will lighten its impact. If you have oily skin and find yourself in possession of a foundation that seems too glowy for you, it’s a little harder to make it work.
But a mattifying primer like Fenty Beauty’s Pro Filt’r Mattifying Primer True Matte (£28) will help. Minimise the amount of foundation you apply by using concealer instead in areas which tend to become oiliest and, of course, apply powder to finish. Mixing products is another way to make something that initially seems inappropriate work.
A product that seems too glowy or matte can be balanced out by mixing it with another complexion product with a different finish, whether it’s another foundation or a skincare product. You can create a skin tint, for example, by mixing a full-coverage foundation with a serum or moisturiser. 3ina’s Custom Drops Mixing is also your friend when it comes to a product that’s the wrong shade.
If a foundation is too dark, it can easily be lightened by mixing it with a lighter product, and the same goes for darkening a lighter shade. If you don’t own a product in a darker shade, 3ina’s Custom Drops (£16, 3ina.com ) come in a range of shades, which can lighten or darken your foundation to your desired shade.
Undertones are a little more difficult, but not impossible to fix. If you find yourself in possession of a product which is too warm for you, mixing in a little blue eyeshadow may sort it out, while an orange tone will warm up a product that is too cool. LA Girl’s Pro.
Color Foundation Mixing Pigment There are also products like LA Girl’s Pro.Color Foundation Mixing Pigment (£11, beautybase.com), which is made specifically for this and comes in a range of shades to alter the undertone of a complexion product.
Elf Cosmetics’s Colour Correctors are useful for this purpose (£4). A little goes a long way here, so start with the tiniest amount as you can always add more. In short, if you get the wrong shade or formula, don’t panic.
There are options. If they all sound like too much faff, no worries — you’ll almost always find a taker for a bottle of expensive foundation! Elf Cosmetics’s Colour Correctors Marula is a word popping up more and more in skincare, but what is it and what does it do? The marula is a tree indigenous to South Africa, and marula oil comes from the kernels of the tree. It was originally used by the Zulu people for moisturising and treating their hair and skin, and now the rest of the world has cottoned on.
Scientific analysis tells us that marula oil contains antioxidants, amino acids and fatty acids, all of which protect and nourish the skin and hair. Colour Wow One-Minute Transformation Styling Cream Colour Wow is a brand I only became familiar with a few years ago but, since then, I’ve become a dedicated fan of its products. Launched in 2013 by beauty industry veteran Gail Federici, Colour Wow originally focused specifically on colour-treated hair and quickly became known for its award-winning Root Cover Up (a powder which conceals roots between colour appointments).
Now, the range includes lots of different products for a variety of hair types and styling needs. The multi-purpose One-Minute Transformation Styling Cream (from £11) has become a favourite of mine. You can apply it to fluffy, air-dried hair and it will eliminate frizz and smooth it out.
It also works brilliantly as a blow-drying cream, leaving the hair smooth and silky without any super-complicated drying techniques. Bumble and Bumble's Long Last Styling Cream I’m not great with a hair dryer. I simply don’t have the patience to carefully section and dry my hair, so I’m always looking for a product to help me get a polished finish without a lot of effort.
Blow-dry creams are always in my arsenal, as I genuinely feel they make a significant difference to the finish of even the sloppiest blow-dry effort. Bumble and Bumble ’s latest launch is an addition to its Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil range, which is all about hydrating, anti-frizz products. Long Last Styling Cream (£32) includes a blend of six light oils which leave the hair glossy and soft, and make styling easier.
When used on wet hair, it will improve the results of a blow-dry or other heat styling (it also provides heat protection up to 232C), as well as making them last longer. It can also be used to finish dry hair or smooth second-day looks..
