Down and Out Beauty: The Elusive Holy Grail

As a person with very fair skin, I have always had trouble finding my perfect foundation. Always looking for perfection, I've rarely ever bought the same foundation twice. They always end up either looking bad in natural light, caking up half way through the day, oxidizing yellow, or flaking off.  However, after many years of searching, I think I've found my Holy Grail of foundation.

I decided to give Chanel foundations a try because so many other makeup artists have it in their kits. When I went to the Chanel makeup counter, the makeup artist gave me several formulas to try: VitaLumiere Aqua (a light water based fluid for light to medium coverage), VitaLumiere (a hydrating and light reflecting fluid for light to medium coverage), and ProLumiere (an oil free formula with light reflecting pigments that give medium to full coverage).

After trying them all, I bought the ProLumiere. It comes in a glass bottle with a pump top that measures out the perfect amount of product for a single use. I applied the foundation with my favorite foundation brush the Sephora platinum airbrush #56 ($32). I was immediately in love with the texture and the fact that I needed very little concealer.  At the end of a long day I checked how the foundation looked, and it still looked flawless even after I'd performed several facials with steam, been outside in the humidity, and stayed out late with the girls.

The ProLumiere ($54) was my favorite, but oily skin types would benefit from the VitaLumiere Aqua ($45) and drier or mature skin types would do well with VitaLumiere ($55). I encourage everyone when shopping for makeup to ask for samples and try as many as possible. I'm curious to know how many of you have found your Holy Grail foundation?

-Layne
Layne is a licensed esthetician and makeup artist working at Urban Sanctuary in Athens, GA. She writes the bi-weekly column, Down and Out Beauty.