Hi Dolls,
My best friend was kind enough to do a review on her favorite foundation. Happy Friday! :-).
Shan at a Mustachio Bashio last year :-D.

Hi all! This is Shannon, Vanessa’s BFF who often takes advantage of her make-up skills. V asked me to do a guest review for her blog so I thought I’d give it a try.

I don’t like spending a lot of money on makeup. One, because 99% of the time I only use my go-to products so any extra items would go unused and two, I’d rather use it on happy hour or new clothes. But when you run out of a basic product, you HAVE to replace it. That’s how I came upon Almay’s Smart Shade Foundation.

I ran out of my previous foundation and the CVS I shop at didn’t have my shade. So, after spending about 10 minutes trying to find a shade that worked (for a price I was willing to pay), I saw the Smart Shade. It was about $10 but it was coupled with a Smart Shade Blush (which alone sells for an additional $10). I was skeptical about how ‘smart’ the foundation actually was but I bought it anyway figuring it would probably match my skin color better than the $6-$8 foundations I had to choose from (and the back of my hand was covered in about 20 different shades already).

I used the Smart Shade Balancing in Light Medium. It starts out beige-y/white on your finger and darkens as you blend. (It’s really weird to see and I still haven’t figured out how it works exactly.) The foundation has a thin consistency, giving it a light finish. It evens your skin tone and covers small blemishes/shadows pretty well. There’s also really no scent to it, so that’s nice. The balancing formula works pretty well on my oily skin. My skin still gets oily, but I’m usually the only one to notice because I can feel it. The foundation prevents my face from looking slick/sweaty/shiny from the oil.

The foundation before blending.

The blush that was paired with the foundation (in shade 020) worked the same way – starts out pink and blends into your skin/foundation. The blush is thicker than the foundation but doesn’t feel much heavier. The application of this is kind of a science – too much and your entire cheek is pink, too little and it blends completely in and becomes hardly noticeable. But I like natural-looking makeup for my everyday use and this is just the right amount of pink/color without looking too dramatic.

The blush before blending.

The finished look.

I’ve used the foundation just about every day for the past 3 months and am just starting to get to a point where I need to replace it – so I figure $10 for 3 months worth of product is a good deal. (I bought a replacement foundation – Almay Pure Blends – and it was paired with a mascara. Score!)

I would recommend the Almay Smart Shade line to anyone who hates trying to find the right shade of foundation and who doesn’t want to break the bank.

Foundation: 5/5 Blush: 4/5

Products used:
-Almay Smart Shade Balancing foundation in Light Medium
-Almay Smart Shade Blush in 020
-Physician’s Formula bronzer in Moonlight
-Covergirl eyeshadow trio in Shimmering Sands
-Maybelline Define-a-line eyeliner
-Maybelline Define-a-lash mascara
-Covergirl Invisible concealer

❤ Shannon

P.S. This is Shan’s artwork, it’s us clubbing lol. I love her!