Foundation / concealer advice please?

[Chottie]

I accidently caught sight of myself in a shop mirror yesterday and I saw a pasty face with dark shadows under tired, little piggy eyes.

Help, I was wearing makeup. CC cream, Clinique foundation and concealer BB blusher, eyeshadow and Benefit mascara and BB lipstick. Obviously I was doing something wrong (!) please can someone help ?!?

My skin type is delicate and dry. I don't have any T zone or zits. My colouring is fair with blonde hair and green eyes.

I have your coloring and skin type except that mine is sensitive. I noticed the same some time ago - makeup is ageing me. I had problems with tinted sunscreen oxidizing orange and many liquid foundations seemed to make my pores very visible and accentuate the dry patches. And most foundations wore off in a way that was really unflattering in the afternoon, creasy and patchy and powdery. Many of them had yellow undertones which just looked dirty on my pale cool-toned skin. So I had to ditch liquid foundation.

I've radically decreased the amount of products I use and now my daily makeup is prepping the base with a tiny amount of LRP moisturizer or liquid sunscreen. Then comes a veil of mineral makeup (Lily Lilo in Porcelain - find a shade that matches you exactly, I have a different shade for summer) buffed in and fixed with a spray of water. I use a tiny bit of blusher (Chanel or Lily Lolo - make sure blusher/bronzer does not look too dark and dirty on you, I need the lightest tones, my Nars is too coppery), neutral lipliner and dark pink gloss. Next, a bit of taupe eye shadow or mid gray brow pencil to define my brows. I neutralize dark undereyes with a dab of Bobbi Brown corrector in Light Bisque and fix it with a tiny amount of mineral powder. I also like eye pencils, bitter espresso, taupe, silvery gray and denim blue all look great with my eye color. I only outline the outer half of my eyes, blending the line, this seems to make them bigger. The end result is glowy but barely there and it lasts until late in the evening. I remove everything with micellar water.

You could also consider a makeover with a pro. For me, less is more!

Was there strong lighting from above?

There may well be nothing wrong with your foundation. Especially if you were colour matched. Maybe you just need new blushed and an illuminating under eye pen.

frugal your answers are brilliant

No one looks good in shop mirrors with harsh lighting, that's why in TV studios they have make up artists to make you look half human.

Thanks Anais! Spring light is merciless - most of us do our makeup in the bathroom where the light is quite different, so it's a great idea to check every now and them in the daylight that the colors are not totally off!

Adding a quote from Nora Ephron: "That's another thing about being a certain age that I've noticed: I try as much as possible not to look in the mirror."

Boots do a mirror with 3 different light settings for daylight/office light/evening light. I

I second Frugal's advice, try and check your makeup in natural light. I'm lucky to have a bathroom with a huge velux window so can do my makeup in bright natural light. The downside is that every winkle and blemish is blindingly obvious and the sight of my unmade up face first thing on a bright spring morning makes me want to head straight back to bed