Let Patty Buy It

First, American Idol brief recrap.  Okay, I get the genius that is Adam this week. What a strange, talented kid he is.  Johnny Cash would have loved that.  I’m not entirely sure I like Ring of Fire being messed with in quite that way, but I still think it was genuis. Megan did more shimmy porn on Patsy Cline.  This was my favorite thing she’s done so far, but why does it sound like the exact same thing she’s done on every other song, just this one slightly less sucky than the others?  It makes me miss Patsy, who was brilliant and one of a kind.  Lil made some poor choices.  Scott?  I really want to root for him, but I start nodding off every time he sings.  This whole season, so far, is staring to make me really sleepy.

Let’s move on to ludicrously priced stuff in our new feature, “Let Patty Buy it so you Don’t Have To – yet.”  This is where I’ll buy something overpriced by any normal standard and tell you if it’s even remotely worth it.  Today is Serge Lutens Compact Foundation and their makeup base.  A nice SA/makeup artist made me up with Serge this in Beverly Hills.  Let’s get the price out of the way. The compact foundation kit is $160, but the good news is, the refills are only $80 (yeah, I did say only, but that’s on par with the Armanis and Cle de Peau and some of the other pricey foundations, so it’s high, yes, but rolling in that same high rent makeup district that’s already been breached. )  I’m assuming you can just get the refill foundation and use your own sponge if you don’t want the little compact.  The foundation base, is $80, and I can’t tell if it’s refillable.  My hunch is yes because their lipsticks are refillable at $55 instead of $75 and, well, about everything they do is refillable.

Now, I’ll start off by just warning you that after the SA did this makeup, my face looked flawless, and she used all Serge products, base, foundation, blush, powder, lipstick, everything.  I’ve had that done a few times in my life by gifted makeup artists, so the real trick is – can I do it myself?  I know she’s talented, but I’m always in a hurry and usually have mediocre lighting,so my face is too often left for the 2 minutes leftover in the morning.

The base is white and was touted as covering discoloration in your skin, redness, etc. The MA (makeup artist) put it on in what she called a warpaint configuration.  A swipe on your forehead between the eyes, on the furrow lines, then a swipe under each eye, one swipe down the  nose and a swip on the chin.  You blend that in with your fingers/sponge/brush (I picked my fingers, it just seems to smooth better, the heat seems to melt it into your face).  This does an excellent job of coverage and priming your face for foundation, so no complaints there. I’m not sure it’s worth $80, unless, of course, it works better with the Serge foundation than other concealers.  Haven’t tested the foundation with anything else under it, so I don’t know.  But the product itself is superior to about anything I’ve used.  Most concealers are too light for me and just seem to  show up on my face as concealer instead of blending into the skin – and I include in that the much vaunted Cle de Peau concealer, which is too dry and slightly cakey looking on me. So to find one that isn’t drying and doesn’t read completely in neon signs on my face as “CONCEALER HERE” makes this work for me.

The foundation uses nano dispersion technology (as does the blush, etc.).  I have no idea what that means, but it is a powder-type foundation that comes in a compact. I apply it with a sponge, finishing with a little bit of brush in the areas a sponge doesn’t do as well with.  My shade is B40.  The finish on this is silky smooth and completely flawless, not dry or flaky in any way. It covers great and doesn’t look like you’ve just “done” your face.  I’ve tried a lot of the powder compact foundations in the past (Longo, etc.), and this has been the best on my skin.  Not just for powder foundations, but any foundation I’ve put on, and I can say pretty emphatically that I am a foundation whore and have tried most of them out there.  Lots of them go on pretty, but a check in the mirror in full sun finds some brush strokes or dryness, places it didn’t spread evenly.  I do know how long it wears, and it’s pretty much until you take it off.

Is it worth it?  Probably not for most people, unless it is the perfect foundation and no others have worked to give you the level of coverage and flawlessness this one does.  I’m not sure if Shiseido makes something similar that may not be as pricey.  If anyone has info on that, let me know.  For me?  I’ll be buying refills, it is a match and goes on like nothing else I’ve used before.

Next up – Cire Trudon candles.  If you have something you’d like me to test, let me know.  If I can fit it into my budget or get plenty of interest in it, I’m your tester!