Comments

• lindygirl1960

  February 2014

  Hmmm…

  
  

  How about adding liner to the top lash line only? Is there "room enough" to stay off the rosacea areas and use a bit of bronzer (not the sparkly kind!) on the sides of the face? A 3 shape. Or maybe as the situation improves add that?

  
  

  Just a thought. But I would definitely add the eyeliner on the top lash line.

  
  

  I am a big fan of the pale face look myself. 
• sarahf

  February 2014

  I tried bronzer over just sunscreen once and it looked wrong somehow. And one time I even thought liner looked wrong somehow with only sunscreen, though I can't figure out why. I was going to do under eye concealer, though. I will experiment again with liner and see if it can work.
• sarahf

  February 2014

  But I don't know if I'm strong enough to resist the impulse to experiment more with primers and foundations....
• lindygirl1960

  February 2014

  To be honest I haven't used just bronzer over sunscreen, I always apply it over a powder foundation and then blend it using my foundation brush.

  
  

  Playing up the eyes and lips should do the trick though. That look is tough for ME to pull off because I don't remember to reapply the lipstick. Maybe I need to find a good lip stain.

  
  

  Isn't it amazing how hard it is to go without makeup when you are used to wearing it? 
• sarahf

  February 2014

  Thanks, Lindygirl.  The funny thing is, I was not that big of a makeup wearer until recently.  And even now, on my non-work days, I am happy to go around with my pasty sunscreen face lol.  In my teens, 20's, and 30's, I never wore any foundation, and no eye makeup; I just wore lipstick and blush (which I swiped on my bare skin!)  But a couple of things happened: 1) in my 40's, I started to get uneven skin tone, which led me to wear a daily sunscreen, and also to need something to even out my skin tone so that you could see the blush at all.  It was like seeing the forest for the trees--with the uneven skin tone that I now had, you could no longer see that I'd even applied blush.  The ladies at Aveda (where I was then buying my blush) sold me on the idea that I needed at least a powder foundation to even my skin tone, and then my blush would show up again.  The other thing that happened was when I switched to a zinc oxide sunscreen, I felt like I needed something to counteract the whiteness of it.

  
  

  I did actually try the bronzer thing today.  I applied it super lightly.  I don't think it was bad, but you could still see where the pasty white sunscreen face (on the parts that were still pasty) was just sitting there.  You're going to laugh, but a funny thing happened.  You know how we talked about powder foundation getting that weird cakey, pooled look when your facial oils come out?  Well, the same darn thing happened with my zinc oxide suncreen--it was like the little white particles in it got all caked on my face and looked really nasty by the end of the day.  And it almost accentuated the whiteness of it.  And then, to top it all off, my rosacea was every bit as bad by the end of the day, if not worse!  I actually had little papules, which I rarely get (I normally just get redness and dilated blood vessels, if that).  What gives?  I have mild rosacea (or at least I used to), and it used to be that laying off the offending agent for a day was enough to see a visible improvement.  So I am starting to wonder if it isn't just the foundations that are bothering me.  I think it's at least partly foundation--certain products (like certain powders I've been trying lately) irritate me right when they go on my skin.  But I'm not sure that is the only issue.  I'll have to give it a couple of days to a week and see how I do.  Aargh.
• brainybimbo

  February 2014

  Sarah I agree with you that eyeliner and bronzer probably won't look good with just sunscreen face. I'm naturally very fair without self tanner and whenever I tried this more "natural" look I always wound up putting some foundation on because I felt like it only enhanced my uneven skin tone and dark circles, rather than detracting from it. 

  
  

  Just to make sure I didn't miss any of your posts, you've recently given up on monistat chafing gel, turned out to be too irritating. Definitely no liquid foundations have passed the test. The Laura Mercier primer is not protective enough. Still no powder foundation which works for your skin. Am I missing anything?
  

  
  

  I wish you were in my area, I would make you come into my Sephora and it would give me so much joy if we could find you something that works for you. Sensitive skin sisterhood.

  
  

  Is it acceptable in your workplace to go makeup free? I sometimes just go without anything but skincare and feel the feminist freedom.
• sarahf

  February 2014

  It's perfectly acceptable in my workplace to go makeup free, and I often do. But at the end of a day recently when all I wore was sunscreen I was still irritated and red! And I didn't feel attractive. I feel like a whitening sunscreen (which I'm not willing to skip) almost demands something to counteract the whiteness. A tint, at least. Right now, I'm experimenting with a tinted sunscreen sample. Stay tuned.
• sarahf

  February 2014

  As far as your other questions. I'm having trouble keeping up myself. There are many variables that determine whether a product causes irritation, and I am nowhere near narrowing them down. So I haven't altogether given up on primers, for example, but I'm not sure I have time for them anyway. Stay tuned...
• brainybimbo

  February 2014

  I will stay tuned! When you do finally find something, it's going to be a day of great celebration!
• sarahf

  February 2014

  I think tinted sunscreen may be the ticket for me. I have a sample of a Clarins one. I'm just mixing a couple drops of it in my regular sunscreen to take down the whiteness and provide a little coverage. Then dusting on powder.
• sarahf

  February 2014

  I also want to try out the la roche posay one.
• brainybimbo

  February 2014

  Double check, but I think the La Roche one has alcohol high up on the ingreident list as a base? Almost all the L'oreal company ones with physical screens that compete with that segment of the sunscreen market do as far as I know.
• rozyisback

  February 2014

  Wow that seems miserable. I would just give up. Just save the money you would spend trying to find something that doesn't bother your skin and spend it on cosmetic dermatology.
  
• rozyisback

  February 2014

  Feel the feminist freedom! Brainy this is meme material!
  
• rozyisback

  February 2014

  http://www.quickmeme.com/p/3vt3z3
• sarahf

  February 2014

  Brainy--I think there's a newer la roche one that does not have alcohol. I wouldn't buy it if it did.
• brainybimbo

  February 2014

  Ok cool, I hope that new La Roche hits Canada soon, they've got a customer in me.

  Rozy, I love that. Though overly attached girlfriend is perhaps too enthusiastic to be the spokesmodel for my slogans (and most definitely not feminist enough). 
• sarahf

  February 2014 edited February 2014

  I double checked brainy. I know a lot of their fluid sunscreens had alcohol at one time but it doesn't appear this one does. http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod4350455&categoryId=cat90032
• rozyisback

  February 2014

  There is no La Roche in Canada? You sure its not at Shoppers?
  
• rozyisback

  February 2014

  We never get the cool stuff.
  
• brainybimbo

  February 2014

  Rozy it's particularly hard for us to get sunscreen products because of Health Canada's DIN # laws. Usually there's a 2-3 year delay in getting new sunscreen products.

  Trust me it's an everyday frustration for us at Sephora.