Edit| Mattifying Primers

The Becca Matte Poreless Priming Perfector  is flawless, awesome, powerful, resilient, and................expensive. Coming in at 36 dollars, I expected this to be the be all end all in the quest of controlling oil in the hot summer sun. My T-zone is basically a melting mess even in an air conditioned room and I'm sitting on my ass. Hm.

Here are the main points:

• Keeps me dry and matte for the entire workday without blotting once. If I spend some time in the sun and sweating, I have to blot. Keep in mind I am combo at the moment, with normal cheeks. 
• 36 dollars retail for 1.35 ounces. That's not bad since you can store it in the fridge when winter comes back around town.
• It works beautifully with either oil or water based foundations. It's free of cones, oil, alcohol, and fragrance and claims to make your pores less visible as well as "forever blotting" oil off your face. It really works with everything. 
• However, it can be very drying if used in copious amounts and all over the face. You will not want this on any patch of skin that's not dripping oil.

To be completely honest I had tried this once before, about two years ago, and purged it because I frankly had to clue how to use it to the best of its potential. Now I'm glad I tried it again, because now I can't do my makeup routine in the morning without using a primer before a foundation or CC cream. It's that good.

I find that it makes a phenomenal difference in how "natural" your makeup looks without the trace of powder making the skin looks heavy. If you know how hydrating Hourglass No28 Serum can be, Becca's primer is the exact opposite of it. To correctly use Becca's product you must have some extra time to extract it from the sanitary squeeze tube onto your ring finger. And only a dab. No, half a dab. Then, you rub your ring fingers together and start spreading/pushing the almost waxy lotion into the skin wherever you want to control oil. The trick is having patience and using as little as you can get away with.

And the best part is I've since found a relatively drugstore product to dupe this workhorse: No7 Beautifully Matte Make Up Base. I found mine for $10 at Target. There's a negligible difference in performance between No7 and Becca if you're looking to save money.

Main points:

• Again, this is not a product you want to spread all over the face as a base primer unless you really have oily skin everywhere.
• It can have a white cast if you're very tan and dark, but only if you have layered too much onto the face. 
• It has the slightly similar consistency as Becca but with a slight fresh scent and feels more like a lotion when you first spread it onto your fingers.
• It promises to not clog pores, have salicylic acid for acne prone types, and contains 1.35 ounces of product in the same squeeze tube format. 

Below are the ingredients list for both products. You can find the ingredients on the back of the No.7 primer. The Becca primer contains: Water, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Propylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Butylene Glycol, Enantia Chlorantha Bark Extract, Oleanolic Acid.

Here are comparison swatches of the product. I would take a picture, but it just looks...matte on my face. My T-zone does not get so oily that it would show up in pictures for a comparison.

The consistency of the Becca primer is very thick, waxy, and almost impossible to squeeze out loads at a time. You have to really work it between your fingers first. Once it's warm you can easily spread it on your face. On the other hand the No.7 primer feels much more like a thick sunscreen and has a white color to it. 

 This is me beginning to blend it out. Excuse the tomboys hands, I forgot to moisturize this morning. You can see that the Becca primer begins to blend in while the No.7 just seems to sit on the skin.

This is the product "blended out" as best as possible. The Becca primer has completely disappeared into my skin while the No.7 still leaves a white cast. This is the biggest complaint on the product that I've heard, so I think it's best not to use this all over unless you want to brighten your skin tone or resemble a ghost. I never notice any white cast on my T-zone because I use much less than this amount.

Overall, the price difference is what drives me to use the No.7 primer on a daily basis. If you're on a budget and don't care to spend over thirty dollars on a primer, this is your best bet. To me, I need very little of the Becca primer at a time so a tube will most likely last me through several humid summers. If you're looking for a more "natural" alternative, the Becca primer may fare better with your skin.

xo Be

Review: Revlon Colorstay

Is the Revlon Colorstay foundation a hidden holy grail, lying underneath piles of rubble?

If you know anyone in the beauty blogging world, either on blogs or Youtube, you have probably heard of the drugstore Magna Carta known as Revlon Colorstay. When I first tried it out, I was NOT impressed. Why? It's thick. The color match was horrendous. Every shade suited for NC25 was too pink toned or seemed ashy on my skin, making it look like a horrible and flat mask. 

I picked up the shade Golden Beige in an earlier haul as a last attempt of saving humanity's faith in drugstore foundation, and it seemed to fail me yet again. I had thought this shade would be a great match for my summer tan (around an NC35 to NC40). Wrong!It was much too light. This is when I should've realized that it would be a perfect match to NC30. I didn't. Instead, I shoved it into my "excommunicated and ugly foundation pile", never to be seen again.

Now in the summer heat, my skin is a definite poster child of combination oily. My T-zone, and especially my nose, isn't responding well to liquid foundations that have a satin or dewy finish. Two hours after makeup application, I look like I've been snorkeling in a sea of grease. Gross. Meanwhile, my matte finish powders are too dark. Therein I thought to myself, I should invest in Makeup Forever's Mat Velvet and solve this awful problem!

Then my wallet cried, and I said, "Let me look instead to my pile of cast-off foundations to find something that controls oil."

Oh yeah, I have Revlon Colorstay. Isn't it touted as the HG affordable solution for oily skinned girls?

I gave it a try again, and it matches PERFECTLY with my NC30 skin. As the name suggests, its yellow tone matches to my face and neck with no issues.

Yes, it's thick. I use a very watery Beauty Blender and a very sparing amount of product, taking care not to spill the entire bottle out with each application. The finish in the first hour is definitely flat and doesn't pass for natural at all. By the second hour, however, my natural oil has seeped through enough to make it a beautiful natural finish with zero shine or slick. Wow! I'm guessing this is the goal of any other oil controlling foundation that is on the higher end, but since I am on a budget, this foundation is turning out to be a surprising (or not surprising) favorite of mine at the moment. I'm sure that when my tan comes through again, however, I will have to buy the next color up and risk hating this foundation again.

Verdict?

Pros:
- Oil control is magical. Blows my Studio Fix Fluid AND Powder out of the water. The only place that "glows" on my face right now is where I place my highlighter, not on my forehead or the creases of my nose.
- Cheap. And for the price, I think it probably does the same job as a higher-end product like MUFE Mat Velvet or NARS Sheer Matte.
- Needs very little product for full coverage. Goodbye, obvious zits and concealer!
- Water resistant, may I say waterproof. This baby doesn't budge with sweat and only comes off with some elbow grease and some oil based makeup remover.
- Natural finish with some aid from skin highlighters and natural oil.

Cons:
- Thick. I think it is very easy to go overboard and risk cardboard skin.
- Good God, why can't you include a simple pump? I feel like it's a life or death situation every time I pour some product on the back of my hand.
- Horrible, horrible, horrible color match for light-medium skintones with yellow undertones. I'm talkin' NC23-NC27. I've tried Sand Beige based on online recs and the color was still way too pink and ashy. As for NC30, Golden Beige is deceptively dark in the bottle, and you can't try it on in stores before purchasing. I'm not even sure what the color match for NC35 is, or if it even exists.
- Will this clog my pores? My skin is very resistant to allergic reactions from products, but I can't see this as healthy for every day use. It takes a lot of work to remove this foundation, and I wouldn't recommend to people who even occasionally sleep in makeup after a long night out.

Overall, I'm glad I saved 40 bucks from not buying a new foundation that controls oil. I wouldn't say that this foundation is amazing, but it is very excellent for the price point. My skin wouldn't like it in the winter, but for the humid summers, it stays on very well. This is a good option for those who are active, live in hot climates, and need full coverage (or are just plain lazy like me and hate multiple steps when applying skin correcting goop).

What's your take on drugstore foundation? Do you have a DS foundation that can beat out a high end one? Let me know!