I don’t mind admitting that I am a creature of habit in a lot of areas, and my make up bag is no different. Once I find a product I love, I’m not letting it go easily. This trait can be especially frustrating when a much adored item is discontinued; Urban Decay I’m looking at you. Occasionally though, something changes, and a product I have known, and loved, just doesn’t seem to work for me anymore.

Last year the foundation I have been wearing for years and years, just suddenly stopped creating that flawless, glowy finish that I love. The colour match was still perfect, but my face was just sucking in every last drop of the foundation, and a few hours into the day I looked like I hadn’t bothered with anything at all, and let me assure you, that ain’t pretty. I was feeling pretty run down, and slapping on the make up was supposed to make me look better, not worse.

It had taken me a lot of experimenting, and a lot of money to find a perfect colour match in a foundation with a formulation I loved (woe is me with my pale, almost see through skin) so I thought it was best to stick with Nars if I could. I hotfooted it to their counter next time I was in London, where the perfectly preened assistant advised me that I should try their new (at the time) formulation, ‘All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation’. I passed over my hard earned cash and waltzed out the shop safe in the knowledge I was going to once again have luminous skin in no time.

How wrong was I? Luminous I was not. Now, this post certainly isn’t intended to bash this new formulation, I’m a serious Nars fan girl, but this was certainly not the right foundation for me. The dewy glow I dreamt of was nowhere to be seen, and if I’d missed a step in the skin care routine my dry patches were clung to and illuminated in the most horrible way. Things were going from bad to worse. At the time, my skin was parched and grey; central heating was taking it’s toll, I was sleep deprived and recovering from pneumonia. It all felt a little alien to me, and a far cry from my usually very normal skin. I hadn’t shared any of this with the assistant though, and in hindsight, I definitely should have.

So why am I sharing this story with you? Because I imagine that we all have those impulse moments when purchasing additions for our make up bags. The lure of “illumination”, “lengthening”, or “plumping” can sometimes make us completely forget about whether the product is suited to our skin type, or whether we are putting in the right ground work, so to speak. The beauties manning the make up counters can only work on the information we give them, so tell them everything, or at least do your research.

Now I know it wasn’t that Sheer Glow suddenly decided it didn’t like me anymore, it was that my skin was just tired and very, very thirsty. Focussing on fixing this, as opposed to fixing my foundation, would have been the right port of call, and by not doing so I was inadvertently sabotaging my make up. I’ve tackled the dry patches with my favourite exfoliating face mask, and this miracle Bobbi Brown oil and hydration levels are back up thanks to a heap of water. In case you were wondering, the Sheer Glow in Mont Blanc that I wore on my wedding day and loved ever since is firmly back in my make up bag, and I won’t be taking it for granted again.

Do you have any foundation tales to tell? How did you pick your current base and any lotions and potions you’ve left behind along the way?