REVIEW: L'Oreal True Match Lumi Cushion Foundation

I know, I know, it's been forever, I'm the worst blogger ever. My fall semester was absolutely nuts, and because of that, I just couldn't find time to blog! I decided I was going to take a break for a bit so I wouldn't be so swamped with homework and also be worrying about school work and what not, however, I am hoping to be able to get back to it this semester. Forgive me if I'm rusty!

Anyways, for my first few posts of the New Year, I have some reviews to do for you guys! The L'Oreal True Match Lumi Cushion Foundation is all over YouTube right now, and I really wanted to give it a try.

I remember when I was younger, my mom had an Asian beauty brand cushion foundation that I loved playing with, so seeing cushion foundations in American drugstores really take me back to my childhood. That being said, cushion foundations originated within Asian beauty brands, and, especially with the recent interest in Asian beauty products, have become more popular in the US. It's kind of like how BB creams took the world by storm a few years back. A widely popular product in Asia made its way west!

Anyways, let's get on to the review. First thing I noticed about this product right off the bat was the packaging. It's this gorgeous rose gold compact that easily draws you into the display. When you get to the display, there are these little stickers that are supposed to help you find your shade. Personally, I didn't find those particularly helpful, but it was nice that they tried. Normally with the L'Oreal True Match Foundation, I wear the shade C2. However, within the True Match Lumi line, the lightest they go to in each of the shade ranges is C3, N2, and W2. For those of you who aren't familiar with the True Match line, each shade range is categorized by your undertone (C for cool, N for neutral, and W for warm). In the Cushion Foundation, I chose to go with N2, because I have kind of a cool-neutral skin tone.

Something super important to note is that the shade range of the True Match Lumi line is definitely not as vast as the shade range in the original True Match line. The original True Match line has 28, Lumi only has 12.

When you open up the foundation, it is just as all cushion foundations are. You open it, the sponge is sitting on top of a little cap, and when you open the cap, you see the foundation-soaked sponge. To apply, you just press the sponge into the cushion, then tap it on your skin!

While we're on the topic of packaging, I feel the need to make note that the sponge gets VERY dirty, very fast. While it is easily washed, it stains pretty badly. So your sponge will never look as immaculate as it does when you first open it.

My first thought when I opened this foundation was that it was pretty orange for a "neutral" toned foundation. But I still wanted to give it a shot. When you first apply this foundation, you'll notice it is very thin and almost watery. However, this foundation really lends itself well to the patting motion that is recommended. It's definitely a sheer-to-medium coverage, but you can build it up to medium pretty quickly. When the foundation is applied, it's definitely very luminous, if not a bit slippery. For me, with my dry-combo skin, this is ideal! At first I wasn't sure how I felt about the finish, but after wearing it throughout the day, I noticed something with this foundation that is always a major struggle for me: it didn't cling to my dry patches. Like at all. And it lasted pretty much all day!

Here's the struggle for me. I'm pale. Pasty even. Not only did this shade look orange in the packaging, but when I brought it down my neck to attempt to blend it out better, it definitely came off just slightly dark enough to show up as orange. To resolve the problem, I went back in with my Beauty Blender and kind of dealt with the situation. The problem here for me is that the shade range just isn't a vast as the shade range of the original True Match line. I'm simply too pale for this foundation (shout out to all my pasty girls out there).

Maybe in the summer I could pull this shade off. I mean, it isn't THAT dark on me, so I think with a tan I might be able to wear it. However, I paid $16.99 for this foundation. That's right. $16.99 for a drugstore foundation. Oh, and it only comes with 0.51 fl oz! The standard foundation size is about 1 oz, so you're paying a big chunk of money (for a drugstore foundation), for half the product. You're definitely paying for the packaging here.

Final Thoughts? For mid-range skin tones with dry to dry-combo skin, who wants the ease and portability of a compact liquid foundation? This stuff would probably be great. However, I personally can't forgive the shade range. If you're super fair, or even just a dark-medium skin tone, you're out of luck with this one. I also can't forgive the price. While I have no problem shelling out $45 on a good luxury foundation, I expect to get at least an ounce of product in my foundation. With this, I expect it to run out quickly and have a person running out to the store to buy more.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this foundation. I've been using it for about a week, on both bad skin and good skin days. I think my biggest beef with it is the shade range. Honestly, if the shade range was better, I could justify the price tag, due to the ease of application, the kind of coverage that gives you the "I woke up like this" look, and the fact that it doesn't cling to any dry spots.

Hope you enjoyed this review! I'm definitely rusty since it's been a while, but I hope to be back into the swing of things soon!

- D.

Hometown Hunt: San Diego

Hello! It's been ages, I know, and I apologize. I have so many posts lined up but I haven't had the chance to do any of them because school has been keeping me incredibly busy! Maybe I'll upload some photos of the crazy projects I've been working on, but in the meantime, I'm here to bring you some of my homesick blues with this fun post about some of my favorite places in my hometown. Unfortunately, since I'm not home to take pictures of these places, I'm using pictures that I have of these places that are either on Instagram or on my phone!

Of course, I'm a San Diegan currently living in North Carolina, and let me tell you, there's nothing I miss more than some good food. One of my favorite places to go is this cute little family-owned pho restaurant in Chula Vista (although they also have a location on Convoy) called Pho Convoy Noodle House. Their food is absolutely amazing, and it's one of those places I seriously miss when I'm so far away. The staff is incredibly sweet, and they even know Andrew and me! In fact, when I left for college, some of the waitstaff asked Andrew where I had been.

Another amazing place in San Diego that I absolutely adore is the theater I had the opportunity to work at this summer! Of course, I don't think it's amazing simply because I worked there. It's a truly incredible and groundbreaking theater, only a couple miles from the beach! That place is the La Jolla Playhouse. Located in the theatre district at UC San Diego, the La Jolla Playhouse works directly with the theatre school at UCSD, and is known for working on upcoming musicals that sometimes even make it to Broadway -- like Jersey Boys for example. It got its start at the La Jolla Playhouse!

Sometimes, you can find tickets for the La Jolla Playhouse on Eventbrite, or if you have tickets for your own event, you can sell them there! The fun thing about Eventbrite is that it gives you the option to search for events in your area, so if you're ever on the hunt for something fun to do on a Friday night -- including free events -- check out Eventbrite! 

This is seriously such a bout of homesicknesses for me. I've been back in North Carolina for a little more than a month now, and I have a countdown on my phone that lets me know how soon I can come home. It's been so rainy and dreary here. I'm ready to come home to the California sunshine!

What are some fun venues or restaurants in your area that you love? Let me know in the comments below!

- D. 

 

This post has been done in partnership and inspired by Eventbrite. All opinions and photos are my own. 

Throwback Thursday: My Makeup Evolution

Alright, so this post has potential to be a dangerous one...because I'm going to be discussing my makeup evolution, from 8th grade when I first started wearing makeup, to now, and how my skills and techniques have grown over the years.

Lemme give you a fair warning: I was a dopey kid. Like seriously. Really freaking dopey.

We'll start out when I was in 8th grade. It was when I was still really trying to find myself. All the way through 6th grade, I was a total tomboy, and I went to a tiny private school. 7th grade was the first time I went to a large public school, and 8th grade was when I finally started wearing makeup. I started wearing makeup because I was coming out of the 2006 emo phase. Luckily, mine wasn't too bad, but I did attempt to rock black eyeliner and some curtainy side bangs...

When I first started wearing makeup, my routine was very, very simple. I would smudge my CoverGirl Perfect Point Plus on my lower lashline, throw on a coat or two of the Maybelline Great Lash Mascara (because let's be real...who didn't own this mascara at one point in time?), and buff the Physician's Formula Talc-Free Mineral Powder all over my face. To this day, I continue to ask myself why in the world I ever thought this was a good look.

After this, I went into high school. My freshman year, I had a really solid group of friends and it was definitely one of my better years in high school. My makeup situation got a bit better, but this was also when I discovered liquid liner...and the struggle that comes with it.

Whenever I see these photos, I'm still shocked at just how thin I was. At this time, I was medically underweight, although I ate plenty of junk and did very little physical activity aside from walking. This was the year that I started out wearing the L'Oreal HiP Color Chrome Eyeliner in black on my upper lash line, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to prevent it from transferring onto my brow bone throughout the day. I then switched from the L'Oreal liner to the Wet n Wild H2O Proof Liquid Liner, which I still swear by today. I also graduated from wearing a mineral powder to wearing a liquid foundation, which was the Almay Truly Lasting Color foundation. I think I continued wearing the Maybelline Great Lash Mascara through this year as well.

Then my sophomore year happened. I actually choose not to remember much from my sophomore year, simply because it wasn't a very good year. I struggled a lot with my confidence this year, and it was a big year of firsts. This was the year I had my first major breakup, as well as my first year in drama and colorguard -- I even got asked to prom that year.

Someone should have taken my tweezers away from me. This year, an upperclassman in drama introduced me to the Maybelline Ultra Liner Liquid Liner. This was a really great product that I ended up using for years after that, and this was also the first year I attempted a winged liner, for prom. I have no idea what brand of eyeshadow I used for my look that night, and probably for good reason. I don't know why anyone let me leave the house looking like this. Thanks, mom.

My junior year was a bit of a golden age for me. I had solid friends, I had found my place in my drama department, I was captain of my colorguard, and I was starting to really learn how to do my makeup. At this point, the eyebrows continued getting thinner, and kind of started to look a lot like commas.

Look at that improvement! This was the year that my boyfriend at the time bought me the Coastal Scents 88 Palette, and I really started to play with color. I continued using the Almay Truly Lasting Color foundation and the Maybelline Ultra Liner Liquid Liner, but switched up my mascara to the L'Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara. I also discovered the L'Oreal HiP Color Chrome Eyeliner in "Silver Lightning," which I wore on my lower waterline to brighten up my eyes, and the Wet n Wild Color Icon Blusher in "Mellow Wine."

From here, I'm gonna skip over my senior year, because I was incredibly lazy that year. I basically stopped wearing makeup altogether, aside from blush to make me look more awake. I had major senioritis. We're gonna skip right on over to when I was in beauty school!

This was when my makeup hoarding began to get a little bit intense, and I got really good at winged liner. Honestly, I can't even tell you what products I was using the most of at the time because I was constantly switching back and forth between products. I can definitely say, though, that I improved a LOT over the years, and I had drama and colorguard to really thank for that, since I had to do makeup that was consistently out of my comfort zone in order to perform.

And now we've reached today, in which photos of me today are all over this blog already. My skills in makeup have improved immensely sine I was 13, and the magic of puberty and braces seriously did me well.

I hope you found this post as fun as I did! Trust me, as I was going through my external hard drive, looking for pictures to post, there were so many cringeworthy photos I chose not to use. I was laughing so hard while looking through all of those photos!

Do you have any embarrassing photos from when you were young? Any makeup faux pas you're willing to share? If you're brave enough, feel free to post them in the comments below!

- D.