My Favorite Foundations for Oily Skin
My love for makeup and all things beauty came from my mom. I remember experiencing a lot of firsts with her: selecting a sunscreen, finding a fragrance and her painting my nails. However, my most memorable beauty moments have to be watching her pluck her eyebrows near a window and her putting lipstick on me for school pictures. I can still smell the Revlon lipstick today. Although she no longer wears or buys makeup, I’m thankful for her love for beauty and the memories we’ve made together.
When it comes to beauty, I tend to go through phases. For instance, I’ll wear the same lip color for months before I switch to another one. I wore highlighter for nearly half a year before I gave it a break. And I’ll switch out my eyeshadow looks depending on how I feel.
As for foundation, it’s the most finicky makeup product for me. I’ll go through extremely long periods of time between wearing and not wearing foundation. I do think it’s because I wore foundation/heavy makeup on a daily basis when I was in dance in high school.
On the other hand, I’ve found that hate the process of finding the right foundation when my skin is super oily. I remember when I went through a period where I would wipe oil off of my forehead and the paper towel would be almost transparent! Yeah, it was that bad.
After working hard on eating healthier and sticking to a skincare routine, my skin has improved leaps and bounds and looks a lot better. That’s not to say that there’s still work to be done (dullness, milia, dark circles), but progress is progress!
Now that I have my skin a bit more under control, I thought I’d share my favorite foundations for oily skin that have worked wonders for me. If you have olive skin, I’ll be sharing my shades as well!
DIOR Diorskin Forever Perfect Foundation
As someone who has oily/combination skin, a matte finish is a must when it comes to foundation. If you’re looking for full coverage with a matte finish, this foundation has worked great for me. It doesn’t feel heavy at all (which is my makeup pet peeve) and doesn’t clog my pores. With SPF 35 (because mom says sunscreen is important), this helps with shine control (I mean, it says it right on the box! Shine. Control.) while protecting your skin from harmful UV rays. And just because your foundation has SPF, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t wear additional sunscreen underneath your foundation too! Make sure you cover all of your bases!
For a good base to start off with, I use DIOR Capture Totale Dreamskin Advanced underneath when I use this foundation and top it off with this drugstore shine-free oil control loose powder with a light hand. I’m shade 021 Linen in the foundation and 02 Medium in the powder.
GIORGIO ARMANI Power Fabric Foundation
This is my go-to when it comes to foundations for oily skin. If you’re looking for complete full coverage with a matte finish, this foundation is it! This is a bit more expensive than the Diorskin foundation, but I love it. When I inquired about their Luminous Silk Foundation after hearing about it SO much, I was recommended their Power Fabric foundation instead. My beauty associate said that it’ll help mattify my skin and has SPF 25 unlike the Luminous Silk (which has no SPF).
When trying shades from this line, do it with a beauty product specialist so they can see how it oxidizes on your skin to make sure you’re matched correctly. Ghost faces aren’t pretty with night/flash photography. Just sayin’. I learned that I’m shade 7, but I’d up it to 7.5 when I get a bit darker.
Makeup Primer
YVES SAINT LAURENT Touche Eclat Blur Primer
I’m a HUGE fan of YSL Beauty. And I’m not ashamed to say that the majority of my makeup collection is YSL. From their eyeshadow to the their lipsticks, they just know how the beauty game works! Aside from the Touche Eclat concealer, this is quite possibly one of YSL’s best products I’ve used!
I can’t gush enough about this primer and this is coming from a girl who didn’t use one before! The product just glides on so smoothly, like a baby’s butt smoothly. And it does what it says: blur. Bye bye pores! The absolute best part is that it isn’t greasy so your foundation goes on flawlessly! One pump is all I need for my face and neck. The tiny gold flecks are a nice added touch too.
Trust me, you’ll want this bottle out on your vanity because it works and it’s that pretty!
As a bonus…
Here are a few other face makeup products I use:
BY TERRY Cellularose Brightening CC Lumi Serum
On the highest end of the price spectrum in this post, trust me when I say to have this product on hand for your lazy or good skin days. I’ve watched Lydia use this product in a ton of her videos and decided to give it a shot so I pulled the trigger on shade Sunny Flash. It’s lightweight and adds just the right amount of color to your face!
If the cost is an issue, I’d ask for a sample. I got my first bottle on my first-ever trip to Bluemercury this past summer and I know it won’t be my last.
SMASHBOX Studio Skin Foundation
Another foundation that I’ve used in the past for oily skin is Smashbox Studio Skin Foundation. It’s definitely on the more affordable side and still gets the job done! It provides a natural finish and the coverage is medium and to me, it’s buildable. Just use a bit more shine control powder and you’ll be set! Here’s see my full foundation review of it if you’re interested!
What are your favorite foundations for oily skin that you use?
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Let me know in the comments below! If I had to pick one out of the two I recommended, Armani Power Fabric Foundation is my absolute favorite. Also, check out this article if you’re interested in learning how to pick foundation texture for your skin type!
I hope you enjoyed today’s post before the Sephora sale starts up again tomorrow (this time it’s for VIB members)! Stay tuned because I’ll be doing detailed reviews along with swatches of each of these products in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, I’ll be sharing my picks from the Sephora Holiday Bonus Beauty Insider Sale tomorrow so come back tomorrow!
