It’s a typical Saturday night in my life, which means I’m arriving at a birthday party without an invitation, bearing two dozen freshly baked cookies as my entry ticket. The yellow-tinged ceiling lights helpfully illuminate the drinks table, but I can tell at a single glance that they’re not going to lend a single ounce of flattery to my skin. (When you spend enough time in front of ring lights, diffused studio lights, and portable LuMee lights, you just get an immediate sense for these things.) Nonetheless, the combination of celebratory spirit and all the great new people I’m meeting soon have me snapping selfies left and right.
Approximately 30 seconds after I post the first one to Instagram, I get a DM from a fellow beauty editor: “Wow. Your skin is really doing amazing things.” I take a second look at the unfiltered photo. She’s absolutely right. I text her back that it’s the glow of happiness, which is 50 percent of the truth—and vow to save the full story for later.
Well, here it is: Bobbi Brown makes the best cream foundation to ever touch my face. In years past, I’ve always had a tendency to gravitate toward liquid formulas because I believe they tend to do the best job balancing coverage, wear time, and comfort. Sign me up for a cream highlighter or eyeshadow any day, but many of the foundation formulas I’ve tried tend toward the heavier side. They look amazing on camera—imitating the look of bare, dewy skin beautifully—but they also feel like a thick coat of spackle, a feeling I loathe. And if I happen to break a sweat or have an especially oily skin day, you can dial up the discomfort another few degrees (while I watch the results of my careful application disintegrate into little flesh-colored icebergs floating across my face).
Any foundation—cream or otherwise—has to be truly special for me to take note because of how rarely I feel like wearing it. See that photo above? That’s how my skin looks without a single drop of base makeup, in the middle of a particularly sweaty day running to and from appointments in New York. I have a very mild case of rosacea and periodic hormonal breakouts, but my multi-step skin care routine means I can usually skip this particular product altogether. On occasions when I do reach for foundation, it means I’m looking for something that will either photograph flawlessly, perform the Herculean task of rendering my Asian glow invisible, or both.
My ideal formula combines a semi-matte finish (you know, the kind that’s equal parts velvety-smooth and gently dewy), enough coverage to cancel out vibrant alcohol-induced redness, and long wear time (like I said, I have an aversion to flesh-colored icebergs). Oh, and rather than blanketing my face in a suffocating coat, I’d like something that feels so featherweight I forget I’m wearing it in the first place. Shoot your shot, beauty brands.
In truth, I wasn’t expecting Bobbi Brown’s Skin Foundation Stick to fulfill all of these demands the night I grabbed it. I have vague recollections of once testing it on the back of my hand, but apparently I wasn’t that impressed at the time because I promptly forgot it existed.
Cue the fateful eve of my party-crashing. I was running late and couldn’t locate my trusty bottle of Armani Power Fabric, which I eventually realized I had forgotten to pack when moving to another country. I rooted around in my beauty heap until I unearthed this gold-and-black tube, let out a gusty sigh, and proceeded to scribble lines across my face, blending them in with my fingers. Without bothering to give the mirror more than a cursory glance, I was out the door.
Best last-minute decision ever, as it turns out. While swivel-up sticks like this one often go on patchy, this one lays down smooth, even coats of color that don’t catch on dry spots or skip over oily T-zones. I’d describe the feel as a dry-touch cream—one that glides on seamlessly, then disperses weightlessly across my face. It’s apparently packed with emollients like olive extract, as well as light-diffusing powders that create that an incredible airbrushed effect. One coat delivers an effect halfway between a tinted moisturizer and a foundation, while two or three easily dial up the intensity to a full-coverage formula. And you can really layer this on liberally, too. It never starts feeling thick or greasy, or looking caked-on. I wear it in 2.5 Warm Sand when I’m at my wintry palest, but switch to 3 or 3.5 once I start developing a tan. In person, it delivers the same poreless results as it does on-camera. You can zoom in as much as you’d like on the photo above; my face will retain the texture of a beige-tinted eggshell.
