One of my most popular posts was my Drugstore Foundation Roundup from 2013. At the time, I only owned drugstore foundations so it was a fairly inexpensive collection. I’ve now branched out a bit more and have a few new foundations to share.

I know colour matching can be difficult , so here’s a little information about my skin:

• At MAC, I’m in the NW20/NC20 colour range.
• My skin is mostly normal. I get a bit dry during the winter and a bit oily during the summer, but I’m never dry like the Sahara nor do I ever turn into a greasepit.
• My veins appear blue, which means I have a cool undertone.
• I wear foundation for aesthetic purposes, not to cover up blemishes. I do not have problems with acne. I also don’t wear foundation on a daily basis as I find it can make my skin itchy. (Make Up For Ever’s Smooth Primer helps prevent this.)
• The inside of my arm (where the shades have been swatched) is infinitely lighter than my face.
• My face is also not the same colour as my neck (which is lighter), so I don’t even bother trying to match the two since it make me look like I’ve got a pasty face.

Enjoy the comparison swatches and short reviews! There’s a full comparison swatch of every foundation at the very bottom of this post.

First up are my Revlon Colorstays. This used to be my absolute favourite foundation, but then they went ahead and changed the formula. The ones that smelled like paint thinner and had an SPF of 6 (the bottle on the left is the old formula) were amazing. The stuff would cover anything and everything and it looked better and better as the day went on. With the new formula, I don’t find the coverage is as longwearing nor does it wear as well throughout the day and that’s been very disappointing.

150 Buff and 200 Nude are in the Combination/Oily variety, whereas 220 Natural Beige is Normal/Dry Skin. If I’m honest, I don’t notice much of a difference between the two varieties.

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup is a recent addition to my collection and I got a shade that’s really only going to suit me in the middle of summer when I’m quite tan. Right now it’s wearable, but I have to blend it down my neck quite a bit. To me, this feels very lightweight and is easy to blend into the skin.

Definitely too dark for me right now though!

Oh Boots No7, I love you so, so much. I feel their colour matching technology (that gun thing they put on your face) is incredible and seems to nail my skin colour every time.

On the left is Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla. This is my absolutely FAVOURITE foundation. It’s exactly the kind of coverage I enjoy (light to medium with a somewhat dewy finish) and it feels fantastic. Cool Vanilla works for me when it’s late spring into summer.

On the right is Stay Perfect in Deeply Ivory. This is my late summer into fall foundation. It’s way, WAY too dark for me right now, but it blends in seamlessly when I’ve got more of a tan. The only reason I didn’t pick up another Instant Radiance in this shade is that the Boots at Heathrow didn’t have Instant Radiance on hand. However, Stay Perfect is a gloriously matte foundation that works wonders at keeping me from looking sweaty.

Cool Vanilla is quite pink toned and Deeply Ivory looks (frighteningly) orange, but I assure you it really is a good suit for my tanned skin.

I’ve done a recent review on Bourjois‘ Healthy Mix Serum foundation so I’ll keep this short. I don’t know a single person that doesn’t like this foundation. It’s a soft (I guess that’s the gel?) liquid foundation that smells absolutely incredible and feels wonderful on the skin. It has a light to medium coverage. They’re considered drug store in the UK/Ireland, but they’re high end here in Canada. Absolutely worth the price tag though.

I will say that the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum foundations do lean yellow and there aren’t an awful lot of shades. If they do suit your skin colouring though, get them!

Illamasqua‘s Skin Base was a panic purchase when I found out that the brand was leaving North America. The texture is very thick, surprisingly so, and yet it doesn’t feel thick on the skin. I have no idea how they managed to do that, but somehow it works. The name is apt too; Skin Base. It does feel like a second layer of skin and probably one of my more comfortable to wear foundations.

I have shade 6.5 and it does lean a bit orangey/yellow on me.

Last up are my it Cosmetics CC+ Creams with SPF 50+. They are hyped out the wazoo on YouTube, so I *had* to try them out. I picked up the shade Fair when I was in the US in April because Light was so incredibly dark. Of course, then I realized Fair was too pale and gotLight as well when I got back to Canada. Right now I’m in between both shades, so I mix them together to get the right tone. (Seriously, can you believe how dark Light is? I was astounded.) I love that there’s a huge amount of SPF in these, but I haven’t tested them enough to see how they perform through sweaty days.

I feel these ones have far more neutral colouring than my other foundations which is really, really nice.

1. Revlon Colorstay in 150 Buff
2. Revlon Colorstay in 200 Nude
3. Revlon Colorstay in 220 Natural Beige
4. Neutrogena Healthy Skin in 30 Buff
5. Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla
6. Boots No7 Stay Perfect in Deeply Ivory
7. Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in 51 Light Vanilla
8. Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in 52 Vanilla
9. Illamasqua Skin Base in 6.5
10. it Cosmetics CC+ in Fair
11. it Cosmetics CC+ in Light

My Favourites

I feel you really can’t go wrong with the Boots No7 line or Bourjois‘ Healthy Mix Serums. They’re my favourite foundations to wear by far! How about you? Any top picks? Or anything in this list that you love or hate?