Chanel Perfection Lumière Trial & Review

Perfection Lumière

I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of Chanel Perfection Lumière in advance of its release, and have been using it for the last two weeks now to give it a good trial run.  I've interspersed, every other day, with my other batch of Chanel foundations (Vitalumière, Vitalumière Aqua, Pro Lumière, Mat Lumière and Lift Lumière), just to do a decent comparison, in terms of wearability;  these are all different foundations in terms of coverage, finish and skin-type, so I wasn't trying to compare like-with-like, I just wanted to see how it "fit" to my skin in comparison with my other Chanel foundations.  This post goes hand-in-hand with this one (which provides a quick description of all the Chanel foundations I have and use).

Chanel Foundations

I received some Chanel Perfection Lumière in the post a couple of weeks ago and in order to accurately trial it, I decided to wear it every other day, with one of my other Chanel foundations in between each wear, as a reminder and a comparison base.

As long as I was wearing, and comparing, and making notes on all these Chanel foundations, I thought I'd blog on them.  Rather than having a long long post, I'm going to split it into two, this one is a quick description of all the Chanel foundations I have and use, the other post will describe my Perfection Lumière trial in more detail.

Lauren Luke Brushes & Comparisons

I have been using the Lauren Luke collection of Makeup Brushes for a number of months now, and I thought I'd blog some information on them.  For those of you who don't know, Lauren Luke is a wonderful and talented lady, based in the UK, who has YouTube channel Panacea81, with video tutorials since 2007.

These are genuinely brilliant brushes.  I have to say that I love these brushes, and have started to reach for some of them in particular, before I look for their MAC "equivalents".  Lauren Luke doesn't make any claims that these are dupes for other companies' brushes, these comparisons are mine alone to show you some similar/more familiar brushes, and discuss how the Lauren Luke ones stack up.

Under-eye Concealers, Correctors, Brighteners

There's a lot of confusion around with regard to concealers and correctors.  This post deals solely with under-eye concealing.  I will do another blog on general concealers at a future date.

There are a few different ways to correctly conceal the under-eye area.  For younger skin, and for skin with no darkness, no puffiness, no dark circles or redness, no pigmentation issues, then a standard liquid-formula concealer will probably work just fine.

For more mature skin (and by this I mean from mid-30s onwards, if not sooner), or skin that does have pigmentation, or puffiness, or redness, or more noticeable dark circles, you may need to use a corrector first, then a concealer over the corrector.

Read on if you want to know what a corrector is, and how to choose one for your specific under-eye problems...

MAC Concealers

I'm frequently asked about concealers.  Everyone wants to know how to conceal correctly.  This question, along with "what foundation shade should I use", is the biggest concern everyone has.  How to hide dark circles.  How to counteract redness.  How to disguise moles or blemishes.  How to make your eyes look awake and alert...

I'm going to do a second blog with more information on concealers, correctors and highlighters, and more in-depth information on colour theory, or knowing what shade and tone concealer to pick for your skin [Edit: see here for information on under-eye concealing].

This blog is essentially just to discuss MAC concealers specifically, what they are, what they look like, what they do, and which ones to use.  It's going to be a short blog, mainly bullet-pointed so you can compare and contrast faster...

Brushes I Use for Foundation

There are many types of foundation, and many types of foundation brush.  Depending on whether you are using a powder, mineral, compact, liquid or cream foundation, you may want to use a paddle brush, a buffing brush, a stippling brush, a pointed/round/flat-top brush... Even liquid foundations can vary in terms of consistency; thinner, thicker, creamier, water-based, silicon-based... and a particular type of brush that might work well for a creamier liquid foundation might not work as well for a thinner formulation.  It's a question of trial-and-error!  I've listed my top brushes and what I use them for.