There is nothing more exasperating than going to a store, knowing that it carries the brand of product you want, and then getting hit hard in the face when you see that it carries LIMITED SHADES of the foundation. Not even those counters at Metro or BHG carry the full range of Revlon Colorstay Foundation shades.
Okie, drama queen, there is more to life than frowning over foundation shades.
But mannnnn!!! Why do they do this to us?
There are 20 shades for the Revlon ColorStay Makeup with SoftFlex liquid foundation. Guess how many people in Singapore are entitled to?
A grand total of 5.
F.I.V.E!!!
In the picture are Sand Beige (left; available in all drugstores) and Buff (right; not available in any drugstore). They are just one shade apart, but make a whole lot of difference.
A WHOLE LOT.
The full range of Revlon Colorstay Foundation Shades goes like this, with the ones available in Singapore in orange:
- Ivory
- Buff
- Sand Beige
- Nude
- Natural Beige
- Medium Beige
- Fresh Beige
- Golden Beige
- Warm Golden
- True Beige
- Natural Tan
- Early Tan
- Rich Tan
- Golden Caramel
- Toast
- Rich Ginger
- Caramel
- Cappuccino
- Mahogany
- Mocha
Whatever happened to the ones in between???
For the love of my motherland, I’m crying out loud to the cosmetics merchandisers: “Do we all constitute just 5 shades out of the 20?”. If I had such a nightmarish episode with finding the right foundation shade for my very common MAC NC20-25 skin undertone with the Revlon Colorstay Foundation, I’m sure many others in Singapore have trouble too. And us being a multi-racial country with Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasian, etc, shouldn’t we be entitled to even MORE foundation shades? Oh, and the entire Dry/Normal Skin range is non-existent. How could they assume people here don’t have with dry/normal skin?
It’s the “All asians must look the same” logic again, isn’t it? LOL!
I don’t know, maybe I’m just kicking up a big fuss but it really is annoying that for such a highly raved liquid foundation product, only 5 shades are brought in to Singapore. And I’m kicking up a fuss because I am a victim of this insufficient range of shades. *bangs table*
E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y loves the Revlon Colorstay Foundation. It is all coated with mushy love and sugary kisses and bestowed the Holy Grail honor by thousands and thousands of blogs and videos all over the world.
So one day I went to Watsons and looked for a suitable shade. I didn’t know they had 20 shades then. Nude was too light and Warm Golden onwards was too dark for my MAC NC20-25 skin undertone. Sand Beige seemed a little dark on my skin but that was the nearest of all the 5 shades. Against my better judgement, into my basket it went.
In the ensuing months of using the Revlon foundation, I established a love-hate relationship with it. Despite all its goodness – full coverage, long-lasting, non-irritable to skin – it never felt right. When something doesn’t feel right, negative things about the product start to surface – can feel heavy on the skin sometimes, horrible paint smell, must work very fast otherwise would turn streaky on the skin…….
I always thought there was something wrong with my method of application, or that my primer caused it to react and change color, or that my skin was too oily, or that I had applied too much or too little. I kept blaming myself. How could I hate it when the whole world seems to worship it?
So I kept giving it chances and hated it even more every time I saw myself in the mirror with my face looking all orange.
It wasn’t so bad when I paired it with NARS Loose Powder in Flesh coz Flesh is the right shade for me, but when I wore it alone, Ooompa Loompa was I!
Look at how dark Sand Beige looks against Buff! To think they’re just one shade apart!
I chucked it aside for many months and only started using it again 2 months ago. Then (can’t fathom why it took me so long) it came to my realization that it wasn’t the product nor my foundation application skills, it was the wrong shade! It was then that I discovered that there are actually 20 shades, not just our measly 5!
I had to order Buff online (from amazon).
(dolltodoll.com now carries Buff and Medium Beige. We ship worldwide too!)
Since Ivory is definitely too light and Sand Beige turns me orange, Buff was my only option. I mean, other than giving up hope altogether on Revlon Colorstay Foundation. I’ve always have to take a gamble when I buy face makeup online because we have such limited US products here. NARS Loose Powder in Flesh was also a lucky bet. (Oh c’mon Singapore Sephora! When are you giving us NARS???)
Notice the green arrow? It points to where I stopped applying Sand Beige. It looks like an ugly tan line I got from sunbathing in a t-shirt.
The first time I tried Buff, OMG. I tell you, I felt like a carebear sliding down a rainbow. It looked a little light when it touched my skin, but upon stippling it looked better and after the makeup settled in an hour, my skin appeared more natural-looking. There was no two-toned skin between my neck and jawline. And by mid-day, it oxidised to such a natural shade I almost wished I could kiss my own cheek!
See what a GREAT difference a shade lighter makes? I couldn’t be happier with Buff on my NC20-25 skin. I LOVE the Revlon Colorstay Foundation coz everything is right! (I’m one of you now!)
If a Revlon Colorstay Foundation turns orange on you, your skin most likely reacted to some components in the foundation causing it to oxidise and turn orange. Oils in our skin or moisturizer can intensify and alter the color of the pigments.
So if you find that a foundation looks barely right when you swatch it at a drugstore and you have had experiences of foundation oxidising on you, don’t think it will get any better if you bring it home! Do some online research and see what people of your skin undertone and skin combination say about a certain foundation shade.
Revlon Colorstay Foundation is priced at SGD27.90 (edit: SGD30.90 as at Nov 2012) in Singapore. It feels expensive coz Sand Beige’s just gonna lie there and be wasted. Boooooooo!
Buff: 1
Sand Beige: 0
Get Revlon Colorstay Foundation in Buff and Medium Beige at:
US: amazon
Singapore & rest of the world: dolltodoll
Bun Bun rates the Revlon Colorstay Foundation in Buff for NC20-25:
Did you have any trouble finding the right shade for the Revlon Colorstay Foundation?
Wherever you are, do they have a huge range of foundation shades?
