All these foundations, not enough colour

“It’s a little embarrassing when I’m trying to help someone and I can’t find a match,” said a make-up artist at Sephora. “I mean if there was just you in the world, then I would understand but really…” she trails off as we both nod in agreement.

We’re talking foundation. I popped into the store to take a look at the new NARS matte multiples – they were ok – and got distracted by their lip pencils. As the sales associate and I were talking, we got into the topic of foundation. I recently bought a tinted moisturizer from NARS and it is perfect. “Cuba” if anyone wants to know.

Finding colours has gotten better since the Fashion Flair and the Iman days when she had to mix her foundation at shoots. Personally, I’ve been loyal to M.A.C. for two decades because they were one of the first cosmetics companies to have a wide variety of colours. I think I must have bought about 10 Studio Fix powders in my life.

I love M.A.C. and NARS (the social media person for NARS is an idiot though).

Yet it’s still a wee bit difficult to find certain colours in Toronto. I went looking for Clinique’s superprimer colour corrects dullness in deeper skins. I couldn’t find it in my local Shoppers. I couldn’t find it in other shoppers as well. That was irritating. They had the other superprimers but not this one. The Clinique site has all six but you have to click on “shop all six shades” to see it.

Shoppers, you should stock it.

Laura Mercier does a great bronze primer. I’m not sure it’s actually meant just for dark skins but I use it as a tinted foundation and yes, as a primer. It’s a perfect shade for me.

I find the problem with a lot of foundations, and not just for women of colour, is that not enough lines do enough colours. We all know that part. What also happens is some of them have a chalkiness to the colour, which can make you look flat and one dimensional.

So that conversation made me think – there aren’t enough places to talk about or find products. I’m not a beauty blogger but I wear make-up. So let’s see what we find.

Also, “nude” will not be used in this conversation.