The Foundation Series #3 | Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick

Hello, hope you've all had a lovely Christmas, it's taken me until now to recover from all the partying which occurs over the festive period and very soon it will be new year's eve and it will all start again! 

Today I am bringing you another review as part of my foundation series, I realise that in my last foundation series post I said the next up in the series would be Rimmel Wake Me Up but I can't wait to review these Bobbi Brown Foundation Sticks so Rimmel Wake Me Up will come next.

If you haven't read any of my previous foundation series posts, the reason I started this series is because the beauty product I probably obsess over the most is foundation. I am yet to find my perfect foundation and wonder if there really is one out there for me. 

If you didn't catch the first installment in my Foundation Series - you may want to have a look here - basically I just talked about what I look for in a foundation and how I always struggle to find a foundation I love which is why I have so many! As a recap, here are the things I look for most in a foundation :- 

• Coverage - What coverage am I looking for and does this foundation provide this for me?
• Longevity - How long does this foundation last on my face? How does this foundation look after 4 hours, 8 hours? Do  I need to touch - up or re-apply? Does this foundation melt/slide? Does it oxidise?
• How does this foundation interact with my skin? Does it break me out? Does it dry my skin out?
• Overall finish - How good is this foundation as a base for the rest of my make - up? Is the shade right for me? Is the finish even?  

These things are the factors which make or break a foundation for me so these are the things I'm planning to cover in this series. 

Above are two Bobbi Brown Foundation Sticks which retail for £28 per stick. I now have two since I got another for Christmas, I have these in shades 2 - Sand and 3 - Beige which I tend to mix to find a more accurate colour to match my skin so I guess that makes me shade 2.5 - Warm Sand. What Bobbi Brown have to say about their sticks - 'Bobbi's innovative Foundation Stick is designed for portability and adjustable coverage. Easy to apply and blend all over the face or just where you need it. For all skin types, except very oily.' 

I'm just going to say this now, I have used many foundations in my time and none have ever come close to these sticks. The main reason for this is due to how they react with my skin, I have combination skin which can sometimes be very dry but can easily become oily depending on what I put on my face, I get breakouts across my forehead and chin often so I typically look for a foundation which will not add oil to my face but not dry my skin out. The Bobbi Brown Foundation stick has a thick consistency when in the stick, I use either a foundation brush or buffing brush to apply this to my face, it feels neither oily or dry and when applied to my skin feels very lightweight and not thick at all. Through the day it maybe gets very slightly more oilier that it started out but this is almost not noticeable and has little to no effect on my skin, as Bobbi Brown do say, if you have very oily skin, avoid using this foundation as it will not do anything to absorb any excess oil your skin produces, but if you have any other skin type, this foundation should be okay for you. 

Typically, I look for light to medium coverage, what I want to achieve is a 'I'm wearing no make -up' look but appear to have healthy, blemish free skin. As I have dark spots on my skin from where previous spots have been in the past I do like to wear foundation daily to cover these up but the foundation stick does a good job of this whilst still looking natural, sheer but not oily/greasy and barely there. When I apply this foundation, the colour match is so good I cannot even see where I've applied it, this may sound like a bad thing but its not because it means I only apply the foundation to the areas where it is needed rather than lot's all over my face.

Foundations do not tend to have great staying power when it comes to my skin, I moisturise and prime but still to no avail they only tend to last 4 - 5 hours, I would say this lasts about 7 hours on my skin but I do re-apply my MAC sheer select powder every 3-4 hours to keep my make up looking fresh. 

A few things I will say about this foundation is that it is very portable, its small and easy to slip into your bag but you do need to take a foundation brush or something to apply this with as applying this straight to your face will cause the spread of bacteria and will break you out. The first thing I noticed about this foundation when I used it is that it smells like Crayola Crayons, which isn't all that pleasant, and although Bobbi Brown say it is easy to apply, I find it rather difficult to apply as my foundation brush seems to pick up barely any foundation to apply to the skin so I am constantly going back to the stick to pick up more of the product but I think this could easily be solved if you mixed it with a little bit of moistuiser to soften it up a bit. 

Here all I am wearing is the foundation and a small amount of mascara, as you can see the foundation does not look at all greasy but neither does it look cakey.

The Verdict - All in all, this is my favourite foundation I have tried to date, it looks flawless but not obvious which is what a foundation should do.

The Recommendation -  If you have very oily skin I don't recommend (as Bobbi Brown said) however if you any other skin type it's fantastic if you're looking for good but very natural coverage, however I realise at £28 this is quite pricey for a foundation stick.