I have plenty of foundations I love, but I’m always on the hunt for the latest & greatest. After reading this post on Will Work for Makeup about Tiffany’s foundation wardrobe, I decided to pick up a sample of Make Up For Ever’s Face & Body foundation. Three or four trials later, I knew a bottle would be mine!
Make Up For Ever – one of my favorite brands – recently released a new foundation, the Pro Finish Multi-Use Powder Foundation, and I was very excited to get to try it out. Pro-Finish foundation is can be used either wet (for less coverage) or dry (for more coverage).
An important note about using it wet: when I spoke to a MUFE artist (at The Makeup Show), she said that when using it wet, it’s important to get the entire surface of the compact wet & completely emulsify the product – if you just dampen your sponge, the product will not apply properly. I was still nervous about getting the powder wet, but I can now confirm that it will dry back to the original consistency – getting it wet doesn’t harm it at all.
I really like the packaging of the powder; as you can see, it’s all set up to use on the go and includes a mirror and a sponge. The sponge has a separate compartment that has air holes so it will dry quickly.
Most of the year, my match in MUFE HD foundation is 120, though in the depths of winter I mix 117 and 120. MUFE Pro Finish runs darker, so 117 is a perfect match for me. Note that when applied wet, the color looks a bit darker, but it dries down to the original color.
MUFE Pro Finish 117 Swatch: applied dry (unblended / blended)
MUFE Pro Finish 117 Swatch: Applied wet, partially dried (unblended, sort-of-blended)
I found that dry, Pro Finish has a really lovely texture; smooth and silky. Wet, it has a tendency to streak a little bit, but the streaks can easily be buffed away once it’s dry. The foundation looked great – very natural – on the majority of my face, but I noticed some flakiness and dry patches near the corners of my nose and on other dry patches; I think my skin is a little too dry at this time of year for this foundation (or any powder foundation) to work well on those areas. I expect that this would work best on normal to oily skin, though I of course do not know how well it controls oil.
So, at this point in the review this foundation seems like a solid choice; best for me during summer, perhaps, but a really nice foundation. And that’s what I thought midway through my testing. But, then I put two and two together, and came up with a problem. My eyes had been stinging and hurting for a couple nights in a row after I removed my makeup – I had assumed it was contact related, but after getting this foundation in my eye, I realized that it has an ingredient that irritates my eyes very badly. When I was removing my makeup at night, I was getting foundation in my eyes & irritating them. I normally apply all foundations right up to my lashline, because I usually don’t wear undereye concealer – just foundation. I’ve probably tested dozens of foundations, and never had a problem before. So, I took a look at the ingredients (& asked some friends who know more about cosmetic ingredients generally):
Ingredients: Talc, Mica, CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), Diethylhexyl Succinate, Silica, Nylon-12, Zinc Stearate, Polyethylene, CI 77492 (Iron Oxides), Hydrogenated Lecithin, Trimyristin, CI 77491 (Iron Oxides), Ximenia Americana Seed Oil, Aluminum Hydroxide, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Caprylyl Glycol, CI 77499 (Iron Oxides), Tocopherol, Aqua (Water), Stearic Acid, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder, Sodium Hyaluronate, Silica Dimethyl Silylate
I know it’s not anything that’s found in several other foundations I wear without irritation, I know it’s not anything in my daily sunscreen (this one by Josie Maran, which I wear in the eye area as it’s all physical), I know it’s not anything found in most eyeshadow — so we figured out that it’s almost certainly the Ximenia Americana Seed Oil, which is an unusual ingredient.
Let me be clear: There is nothing wrong with MUFE Pro Finish Foundation’s ingredients; I’ve read many reviews where other bloggers used it without problems. I just happen to (probably) have a sensitivity to this one ingredient.
I debated for a while whether to blog about this foundation at all; ultimately I decided that I tested out the foundation enough to write review it aside from the eye irritation issue. And, I wanted to blog about the eye irritation issue too, so if someone else experiences it, this pops up as a result if they search, and helps them figure out what the irritant is.
So, overall (and perhaps surprisingly), I would actually recommend this foundation to those with normal to oily skin – it looks very natural, is long lasting, and has a fantastic color range. No, I won’t be using mine, but it is a really nice product.
*I was given the Pro Finish foundation courtesy of Make Up For Ever and The Makeup Show. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.
I recently (-ish) purchased Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Brow in the shade 35 Taupe, and after a lot of experimentation, I finally feel comfortable writing a review of it. For me at least, this wasn’t an easy to use product – it took a while for me to figure out how best to use it, and specifically how to keep from applying too much product.
Make Up For Ever boutiques, and makeup supply stores that carry the whole line, sell seven shades of Aqua Brow (which is also known as the waterproof eyebrow corrector) 10 Light Blond, 15 Blond, 20 Light Brown, 25 Ash, 30 Dark Brown, 35 Taupe, and 40 Brown Black. Sephora sells three shades – 10, 15, and 25.
I purchased mine from a beauty supply store, and while I was there, I swatched all the shades they had available (they were missing testers for 10 and 25). Please note that this swatch is a cell phone picture in store lighting, so it’s not completely color accurate, but hopefully it’s helpful for comparison purposes. For the other shades, Vampy Varnish has a swatch of #10 here, and Makeup & Beauty Blog has a swatch of #25 here.
15 Blonde, 20 Light Brown, 30 Dark Brown, 35 Taupe, 40 Brown Black
And of course, I have a better swatch of 35 Taupe, since I purchased it – please note how significantly the color differs from the above swatch of all the colors! These swatches were all done with my brow brush. I did the heavy swatch first, wiped off my brush, then used what what left on the brush to do the medium swatch; then I used what was still on the brush to do the light swatch.
heavy swatch // medium swatch // light swatch
As for how it performs, I like it, but I don’t love it. As I mentioned, it’s a bit hard to use. I’ve settled on squeezing a bit out on to the back of my hand, dipping my brush in that, then wiping my brush off on the back of my hand. Then, with the remnants left on my brush, I do my brows – it’s basically the same method that I used to swatch it. It’s a bit of a process, and seems to be more trouble than it’s worth. I get good results, but I also get good results with other brow products and less time. Perhaps it’s because I chose a darker color; 25 Ash might have been a better choice.
Here is a before/after without any product and with the aqua brow (and other makeup, as you can see!):
The good news is that it does, as advertised, last all day (though again, my other brow products do too).
Coming soon: a comparison of all the different eyebrow products I use.
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| MUFE Smoky Lash mini mascara |
Several months ago, I purchased a mascara sampler from Sephora that included a mini-sized Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash Extra Black Mascara. I try not to keep too many mascaras open at once, so it’s taken a while for me to open it up.
Although I currently have a few other mascaras open – Jordana, an Hourglass mini (I finished the first one, and loved it so much I bought another mini off Ebay), the purple Maybelline – which doesn’t really count, I think, and a Japanese mascara I have yet to review – my curiosity got the better of me. MUFE Smoky Lash seems to get good reviews, and I was curious to see if I would like it.
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| MUFE Smoky Lash – wand |
Smoky Lash has a traditional-type wand, with very full bristles. Generally, I don’t like this type of wand – I prefer either a rubber wand (like -->Maybelline One-by-One’s --> wand), or a traditional type wand with smaller, more separated bristles (like the Jordana mascara’s wand). I find that this type of very full wand makes my lashes clump a little. And, true to form, I had some clumping with this mascara.
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| MUFE Smoky Lash applied |
Overall, I feel sort of neutral about the quality of this mascara. It’s fine – it gives me good volume and length – but nothing spectacular. It clumps a bit – but not too badly. The good news is that it wore very well, and did not flake or smudge at all, even when I rubbed my eyes. I had no trouble removing it.
It retails for $23, and I would not pay that for it – there are plenty of less expensive mascaras that perform just as well. It does come in a few other colors – including plum, blue, and green – and it might be a nice option for a good quality colored mascara; it’s certainly better quality than the purple Maybelline I just reviewed!
Mascara is such an individual makeup product though; like foundation, it seems to behave differently on everyone, and there’s really no substitute for trying different mascaras out for yourself.
This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.
On a recent trip to the Make Up For Ever boutique, I picked up MUFE’s Sculpting Kit in #2 (it comes in four shades). The duo consists of two matte powders; one to contour, and one to highlight.
MUFE’s Sculpting Kit is packaged in a very simple plastic palette with a clear cover. It is very functional – it’s easy to see what you’re working with – though not particularly beautiful.
Both of the powders are very high quality. The textures are great – soft, silky, and blendable. They last very well on my normal to dry skin. They have just the right level of pigmentation for contouring / highlighting products; the first layer is sheer, but they’re buildable to any level of depth that I want.
Heavy swatches:
Overall, I really like this kit, and I’m happy to own it. I’ve been using it every day since I bought it. However, if you’re on a budget, I would suggest buying the MAC Pro Sculpting powder in Sculpt, which is extremely similar (or whichever sculpting powder is best for your skintone), then using a matte offwhite eyeshadow to highlight. This will give you an identical, or at least very similar, look for less cost.
I bought the MUFE Sculping Kit at the Los Angeles MUFE store, but it’s also available at Sephora stores and Sephora.com.
This post contains an affiliate link. For more information please see my disclosure policy.
This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.
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| Benefit Hoola; MAC Sculpt; MUFE Sculpting Kit #2 |
I’ve been on a contour powder kick lately; when I visited Make Up For Ever LA and bought the Sculpting Duo, I also visited the nearby MAC Pro store and bought MAC Sculpting Powder in Scupt, a contouring powder.
Today, I have comparison swatches of my favorite contouring products for you: MUFE Sculpting Duo #2, MAC Sculpt, and Benefit Hoola. I’ll have full reviews of the MUFE and MAC contouring products up later this week.
I was surprised to find out that Benefit Hoola – which had previously been my favorite contouring product – is much more yellow than the two products actually designed for contouring. I probably won’t use Hoola for contouring at all in the future, and will only use the actually contour products.
It’s hard to tell from the swatches – though you can see it a little in the product photos – but MAC Sculpt is a little bit lighter than the MUFE powder, which is little bit deeper. Overall though, they’re extremely similar, and there’s really no need to own both – though I’ll eventually use both up, since they’re really the perfect shade for me!
What’s your favorite contouring product?
This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.