💡The compact that finally did it

Let’s talk about the foundation that’s actually a skin tint in a trench coat.

I've been burned by compacts before. Many times. The cushion compact era of the early 2010s was particularly brutal. You'd open the little mirrored case, feel the satisfying press of the applicator, and wind up looking like you'd been Photoshopped by someone who hadn't quite gotten the hang of it. The finish was always either suspiciously wet or aggressively matte. There was no in between. I gave up on the whole format and kept living my life.

So when my Insta algorithm decided I needed to see No Makeup Makeup by, well, No Makeup Makeup approximately eleven thousand times in a row, I held out longer than I'd like to admit. The name just didn’t do it for me and it’s solely because a lot of products claim that benefit.

And then, Jennifer Belle Pond — one of the best makeup IG feeds on the internet, full stop — was raving about it. I remained skeptical. I'm a professional. I've tried everything. Literally everything. For 20 years. My bathroom drawer is a graveyard of "this might be the one" foundations that were very much not the one.

And then I caved. I've been walking around for weeks looking like I have freaking fabulous skin, and I'd like to discuss this.

Here's my situation, for context. I want medium-to-full coverage that looks and feels like light-to-medium coverage. This is not easy to find. I have a dark spot that doesn't take suggestions, and a freckle sitting directly on my third eye that I've made peace with but would still prefer to quietly address. Powders settle into lines and are anathema to me as I saw how my mother and grandmother aged after a lifetime of committing to using it never on a dare. Liquids slip off my sunscreen. Creams look like creams. The Goldilocks problem of complexion products is real and I've been living it for years.

The IT Cosmetics Balm was my previous answer, and I still respect it the way you respect a very solid honors student. I also loved Luminaire Moisturizing Mineral Foundation and have repurchased it many times. It’s been dethroned. No Makeup Makeup is the AP version. Same ambition, higher ceiling.

What you put underneath it, though. That's the whole story.

I mix a pump of Merit Great Skin Instant Glow Serum with a couple of drops of Bioeffect 3XGF Recovery Serum in my palm, press it in, then smooth on a little AV Laboratories Face Cream Light (my summer moisturizer, the quiet hero of this whole enterprise). Then the No Makeup Makeup brush, the compact in Light Medium, and that's it. I’ve never had a better shade match, that’s the first thing you need to know. The second is that the result is skin that makes people ask if you've been somewhere. You haven't. You've been here. You just look like you haven't.

It blends. It covers. It doesn't migrate. It doesn't cake, even over SPF, which historically has been where everything goes wrong for me. It looks like skin because it looks like skin, not like a foundation doing an impression of skin.

I was served the ads. I resisted the ads. I bought the thing the ads were selling, and the ads were right. This is a humbling outcome I'm choosing to frame as a win.

Light Medium, if you're in the same neighborhood as me. The brush is worth getting. Don't skip the layers underneath! That's not just the routine, that's what makes it skin tint-esque as opposed to a cakey mess.

While I have you: Two things I just found out about

I'm adding this section because I believe in radical transparency when it comes to information that improves your life immediately and costs you nothing.

First: Every Wednesday at Carvel, ice cream is buy one, get one free. I'll wait while you process that. I found this out recently and have not stopped thinking about it. You walk in, you get two soft serves, you pay for one. On a Wednesday. Every Wednesday. This has apparently always been the case and no one told us.

Second, and this one stings a little more because it involves money I've already spent: Spotify Premium includes audiobooks. Free. Included. Part of the subscription you're already paying for. I've had Spotify for over a decade and was also paying for Audible like it was a completely separate and necessary line item in my budget, which it turns out it was not. And it gets better — Peloton workout videos are also on there. So if you've been paying for a Peloton membership for the content and not the bike, stop doing that immediately.

You're welcome, and I'm sorry it took this long. This is what we do here — foundations that actually work and Wednesdays that cost less. Act accordingly.

P.S. If you missed last week’s newsletter, I spilled the dirt on the hair lineup that’s a revelation.