makeup

– Primers

I actually tend not to use primers at all. For my oily skin, I use as few base makeup products as I can after skincare and before point makeup. I used to use primers a long time ago, and I did find a couple of products from Ettusais (a yellow-based color-adjusting primer and a pore-concealing primer) to be quite effective. Among the primers I have talked about so far (that are currently available), I have been relatively pleased with SUQQU’s Makeup Base Creamy and Makeup Base Brightup. If you are interested, please have a look at my post on Coffret D’Or’s Beauty Lasting Veil UV and Lunasol Smoothing Makeup Base as well.

– Powder Foundations

I have been a fan of Shiseido ZA’s Two-Way Foundation for many years. I think the product has been revamped once since I started using it (while the product name remained the same), but the change is (fortunately) minimal. (It has very slightly less coverage and the finish is marginally more luminous.)

Other than ZA Two-Way Foundation, I think one of the best powder foundations I have tried in the last couple of years is Coffret D’Or’s Beauty Lasting Pact UV, which has very good sebum-control efficacy. (The link above will also take you to my thoughts on Lunasol’s Skin Fusing Powder Foundation.) Some of my other posts on Japanese powder foundations include those on SUQQU’s Powder Foundation Glow, Jill Stuart’s Smooth Silk Powder and SUQQU’s Powder Foundation Fresh, and Primavista’s Powder Foundation Moist Touch.

– Pressed/Loose Powder

At the moment, all my favorite pressed powders are from Raycious, and they have been discontinued. In terms of loose powder, my favorite is Lavshuca’s Face Powder (in Lucent). Mat Chiffon Powder from Kiss is almost equally good too. I also enjoy using Coffret D’Or’s Makeup Powder, but it slightly falls short on pore coverage and sebum control compared with the previous two.

(Lavshuca has launched Finish Powder (in two shades) on February 1st. It is replacing Face Powder, but Face Powder might still be available for a little while.)

To finish off the series, I’d like to mention the wave of mineral makeup (particularly foundations) arriving in Japan at the moment.

Since last year, I have started to notice that more and more Japanese beauty blogs are covering mineral foundations from the west. While I like some of the mineral eyeshadows I have tried, I have not yet been a fan of mineral foundations. There is very little doubt that mineral foundations have attractive appeals, as true mineral-based foundations can be saviours for people with very sensitive skin. However, I feel that, compared with some of the best (Japanese) foundations that I have used, they generally lack sebum control and pore coverage and they often lack staying power. For me, purely in terms of the quality of the finish (not of their skincare benefits), mineral foundations are generally mostly about coverage and not much else, as their straightforward ingredients do not seem to provide multi-faceted results.

It seems that many Japanese consumers are very open to trying out new products, so I think the novelty factor will work its magic for a while. But I do wonder, compared with some of the best foundations that one can buy in Japan, whether most of the mineral foundations will continue to hold consumers’ attention in the next few years. I guess this will depend on future product developments from both sectors.

So that’s it from me now, and I hope you enjoy this series. Now I would love to know your favorite Japanese base makeup products. You could simply drop in a short comment with the name of the item(s), and it would be really helpful if you would tell us your skin type as well. Of course, if you have any comment on this series or any question, do please feel free to post a comment here too.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Here we go:

– Neutral Ochre (OC) shades
– Yellow-toned Beige Ochre (BO) shades
– Pink-toned Pink Ochre (PO) shades

(Notice that some brands don’t carry PO shades.)

Sometimes the shade name can vary. (Coffret D’Or’s pink-toned shades are called Soft Ochre shades.) But, on a typical shade chart, neutral shades are usually in the middle, with pink-toned shades on the left and yellow-toned shades on the right. Below is the shade chart for Coffret D’Or’s Lasting Power Pact UV:

(shade chart for Coffret D’Or Lasting Power Pact UV)

(shade chart for all Primavista foundations)

(image from www.sofina.com/jp/primavista)

Many major Japanese beauty brands release two base makeup collections a year. Spring/summer releases are usually in March and April, and fall/winter releases are usually in September and October. (They are more or less released two months after the seasonal point makeup collections are available.)

The size of the collection varies. Sometimes there are just a couple of items (perhaps a new foundation and a primer), and sometimes there can be a major collection revamp.

Very often, when a new product is launched, the existing equivelant will be discontinued. This means that a Japanese base makeup product can sometimes only be available for 12 months. (This is especially the case with some department store brands.) For example, during the Raycious era (2000 – 2007), a new powder foundation was released every March and the previous version would be discontinued. Not all the products are updated at this rate, but many do get revamped about every other year.

So, on the whole, every six months, a base makeup collection goes through an update, and possibly a few products are phased out. (One obvious exception would be a new base make range whose lineup is still growing, like Primavista.) My suggestion is that, if you discover a Japanese base makeup product that you can’t live without, consider picking up some extras. (The next version might not suit you equally.)

There are some general differences between spring/summer and fall/winter releases. Spring/summer releases tend to have higher SPF and PA. They are often more sweat-resistant and are better at sebum-control, and the finish is often slightly more matte. Sometimes, the coverage is more on the natural side.

Fall/winter releases usually have a more emollient texture. The foundations sometimes have more coverage, and the finish is more luminous. The primers tend to be for further moisturizing the skin.

It can be quite useful to know in which season a product (particularly a foundation) is released. In Japan, there is quite a big temperature difference between summer and winter. If you have combination or oily skin and you happen to live in a tropical or sub-tropical climate, you probably don’t need a very emollient cream foundation (even though it might be a best seller in Japan.)

(Though the choice of a powder foundation or a liquid/cream foundation is often a matter of preference, I tend to suggest powder foundations for people with combination or oily skin. I think those with normal or drier skin do have more choices. Liquid/cream foundations would generally work fine, and there are some powder foundations with a very smooth and velvety texture that can work very well on dry skin even without a primer.)

Apart from regularly checking the official websites of Japanese beauty brands, Japanese beauty magazines offer great editorial content on new base makeup releases. Biteki runs a major base makeup feature twice a year (usually in the May and October issues). Voce’s popular monthly feature, “Voce Experiment” regularly tests out the latest foundations. Even if you don’t read Japanese, these features are usually abundant in photos of new products.

Tomorrow, I will touch upon the choice of foundation shade.

Related posts:

SUQQU Base Makeup Kit

Esprique Precious Spring/Summer 2009 Base Makeup Collection

Japanese Base Makeup Week (Part 1)