Pale Foundations

Sorry, this took so long for me to put up! No excuse, i haven't been busy, just never got around to it!

Firstly here is the video i made about foun dations for pale skin that i have encountered:




Here are swatches of the products mentioned:

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And blended a little:

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from left to right the swatches are:
Kryolan TV paint stick in 1W
Dainty Doll Concealer in Fair
Dainty Doll foundation in Ivory
Dainty Doll foundation in White
Shieido The Makeup fluid founation in I00 Very Light Ivory

I also tried to take a photo with half of my face plain, and the other half with my avon tinted moisturiser applied but you couldn't see any difference!
I swear you can see a distinct improvment in rea life, but the photo just made it all look the same. Maybe it's the lighting in this room, i'll try some time.

Now I thought i'd do a more in depth review of the products i use frequently.

Avon Personal Match Barely The Makeup (in 'light'):
This is a tinted moisturiser and the main item of face makeup I use. It is incredibly sheer, so if you need a good coverage this is not for you. I generally have quite good skin, it's neither too oily nor too dry and i rarely have breakouts. I do have a lot of redness (perhaps a very mild for of rosacea? i'm not sure) from my cheeks to my chin. Sometimes i get very irritated by this and ut a heavier foundation over the top to cover this, but for day to day i generally just stick my avon on to even out my skintone.
One reason i love this is that it is the only 'personal match' product that has ever worked for me. When the boom of 'intelligent shades' and suchlike first appeared i got very excited because i thought i might be ableto get the lightest shade and it would adapt to be as pale and pink as my skintone. Sadly it didn't work and i never found one that would match my skin remotely. I've also tried a lot of tinted moisturisers, and because they are s sheer it doesn't qute matter so much, but they were still too dark and yellow!
This however is brilliant. When you squeeze it out it looks like an ordinary white moisturiser but with a more liquid formula, but if you look closer you see tiny lttle spheres inside, these burst as you blend it onto your face.
As I said the formula is incredibly sheer, it gives you very little coverage, but it really seems to both brighten my skin and even out my complexion. it also does something that's hard to describe, as i seems to both mattify my skin but add a little sheen, almost as if my skin is luminous.
I also love this because it makes my skin feel extremely soft and almost powdery after using it. It has a slight smell i can't describe, but it is not chemically and i quite like it.
Sadly Avon have discontinued this, I don't know why. There aren't any other tinted mosturisers in their range. You can get it on ebay still in quite a few colours (as 'light' is basically colourless i guess it gets more pigmented the darker the shades get) for around a fiver for 30ml. I think it's very good value because the little tube has lasted me for almost half a year.

Dainty Doll:
This range was brought out by Nicola Roberts from Girl Aloud specifically for pale skins. I've seen a lot of very mixed reviews about this, and mine is much the same.
Firstly about their concealer. I use it a lot, as it is the only concealer i've found that has been the right colour for my skin, it really is a wonderfully pale shade, but it's really not the best concealer. It's good for little blemishes, but i find it quite bad for under my eyes. I have only recently started getting dark circles under my eyes, so they're not terrible, but this concealer is somehow both greasy feeling and very sheer. One layer of this does basically nothing for me. But unfortunately when i try to layer it up, so it's thick enough to actually conceal, it makes me look even paler under my eyes, so i now have white circles instead of dark! Having said that, it is definately the palest concealer i've ever found, and the only one that really works with my skin tone, so i would probably buy it again. It also came in a slightly darker colour ('natural') which might be better for under the eyes, or if yo're sill too pale for ordinary face makeup, but not insanely pale.

The foundation got a lot of mixed reviews, people seemed to either love it or hate it. I personally am on the side of loving it. A lot of criticism comes from the size of the pot you get (for around £12 you get 10.8g of product). I live in London so i got mine from the Jelly Pong Pong shop, where i saw the size of the proucts before i bought them so i knew what i was geting for my money, most peope have got theirs from Asos.com and i can completely understand why they might be dissapointed. Firstly the website didn't show the actual size of the pots and secondly the box the pot comes in is a lot bigger than the pot, it's got a sort of built up 'step' of cardboard at the bottom, and even then the pot is not completely full to the top.
However even in this sall pot you get quite a lot of product. You don't need a lot to cover your face. Howveer as i don't use this particularly regularly i still have plenty of mine, if you were to use it every day then it probably wouldn't last you too long.

Now about the actual product. It comes in 3 colours, i have two, 'white' which is, shockingly, just white and 'Ivory' which is a very very pale pink shade. The other shade is called 'porcelain' and is a yellower, more regular foundation shade and (i think) slightly less pale. It's a mousse formula. I find it's buildable, so it can go from quite sheer to a medium thick coverage and it dries with a slightly owdery, semi matte finish.
I've read a lot of reviews which say it doesn't apply well and ends up patchy. Persoally i've never had this problem. You can't really use a brush with it as the mousse formula is too thick, but i usually prefer using my fingers anyway so it's no problem for me. I do find it clings slightly to any flakes of skin, an effect i find i often get if i use too much powder, it also does the same thing to my eybrows, meaning i definately have to use a brow colour when i wear this foundation.

The colours i have are perfect though. The Ivory is the closest i've ever found to a perfect match for my skin. It's the only foundation i've ever seen which has a really pink colour to it instead of a yellow one and it is pale enough to look perfectly natural on my skin, it doesn't give me even the slightest hint of a tideline at my neck.
The white seems to frighten people. If you apply it very thickly it will indeed come out opaque white, but unlike a lot of other white foundations it is not a thick, white face-covering formula. If you blend it well it turns almost colourless, just adding a slight layer of coverage, almost like a thicker tinted moisturiser. I find i can use this alone and it looks fine, but more often i use it with the Ivory on places where ihave more redness or uneven colouring and it blends perfectly.However if you'e not as pale as me i think the white would make you look chalky.

I'm not sure if this range has been discontinued or not. Some products are still available from Asos.com but not the foundations and theres no information about it on the Jelly Pong Pong website, so i don't know if it's just out of stock or not being made any more. I have heard that it's going to be relaunched with new products soon, so i'll keep you infomed if i hear any more :)


And a word about illamasqua foundations:
I'm quite sad about these to be honest. I was so excited looking at swatches on the website, thinking maybe i'd finally be able to have my pick of foundation formulas (powder, cream, light and rich liquid) that would suit my skin. Sadly when i went to a counter and tested them there in't one anywhere near my skin tone. The closst match was one the second palest, which is basically pure white but with a hint of pink. This was really to light for me sadly, but the next shade jumps to being far too dark for me, and still not the right shade for my skin. The woman at the counter was really lovely and helpful and did manage to match my skin with a blend of 3 light liquid foundation. The finished product looked lovely, my skin was evened out and flawless, with the red in my cheeks taken away, but not looking too pale or colourless. But as the foundations cost £20 it would mean i'd need to spend £60 to be able to get the right match, yes i would get 3 times as much foundation, but still i really can't afford £60 on face makeup :( I must say i'm a bit disappointed, because i was so pleaed to see a foundation range of such colours (its wonderful how many good shades they have for dark skin particularly) but to me the shades for caucasion skin are pretty much the same as MAC or other ranges. I'd heard some people saying they were sually the palest shade of foundation but in Illamasqua came up about the 5th or 6th palest, but for me they're still too dark, or unwearable unless i wanted a very gothic white-face.

I'm really sorry if i've made a lot of spelling mistakes in this, i'm on my new computer and it has a really sensitive laptop that keeps omitting letters.
if anyone knows any other very pale foundations that i haven't mentioned i would love to hear about them!