Beauty Shopping: Sales in Full Swing in Zurich

Time has arrived for seasonal sales in Switzerland! In Zurich sales have started already on the last days of December. However those who like sales deals know that right now it is just a warm-up: the prices are not yet “desperately” low.

I went to Bahnhofstrasse this Friday and checked out several “hot” sales spots for beauty product. Jelmoli has a nice selection of makeup on sale with a choice of foundations, powders, concealers, lipsticks, lipglosses and eyeshadows from MaxFacactor and Revlon, Versace and Bourjois …plus some skin care from Revlon and Payot. There are also some lazy sales going on at Origins, Clinique, Lancome, Shiseido counters … Coop is selling off a variety of Nivea, L’Oreal, MaxFactor, Sans Soucis makeup etc. Manor has a mix from the well-known L’Oreal, Maybelline, and MaxFactor brands in addition to inexpensive colourful bunch of unidentified origins (most probably made in China).

I think sales give you a great chance to try out something new: either some new brand or a new (wild!) colour/product. You don’t risk paying the full price in case it doesn’t work for you; very often this is the way you discover a great product or a new shade :-)

I’ve always wanted to try out Origins’ products! So I got Origins “Calm to your senses” set at a very nice 35-40% discount. The set includes a body peeling and a moisturizing body soufflé. Both products strongly smell of lavender and have a lot of essential oils among the ingredients. I also got a Bronzing Powder in Gold “Terra Mediterranea” from MaxFactor… I have never really embraced bronzing products, so for me it will be a chance to experiment. I guess I’ll make a good use of this bronzing powder at St.Valentine’s! ;-)

Beauty Review: Double Wear Makeup by Estee Lauder

Those who have a combination skin type with visible pores, an oily T-zone and prone to break outs are always in search of the best product that would solve these imperfections… or at least would cover them up!
One of the powder foundations for combination skin I tried out recently and used to even out my skin tone for an Autumn inspired photoshoot is Double Wear Makeup by Estee Lauder.

Double Wear
Stay-in-Place Powder Makeup

Promise: Provides “medium semi-matte coverage”, is a “worry-free powder makeup” that “looks natural for up to 8 hours, even through nonstop activity”. It is also promised that you will have “a continuously flawless look without touch-ups”.
I especially liked the phrase “through nonstop activity”. I got an image of me working out in a gym and still having a flawless skin tone and “semi-matte coverage” :-)

Well, though I am quite happy (for now!) with my powder choice and I have never had a better powder foundation, it did not work as well for me as it was promised and as I hoped for.

My Review:

The sales girl recommended Estee Lauder’s Double Wear as having one of the best (and thickest) coverage. “Very good for your type of skin” – she ensured me.

Matte-finish, oil absorbing: Well, most of the powders for combination/oily skin I have tried before including the ones by Maybelline and Max Factor kind of let me down. They never really provided the long term “matte finish” as promised. The same unfortunately happened with Estee Lauder Double Wear. In a couple hours my resistant to oil-absorbing inredients T-Zone was shiny again.

Color: The promise that Double Wear “won’t change its color” is very true. It gives an amazing even color to the skin and it looks as if powder actually blends with your skin. Very very nice but of course only till the oiliness starts to show in the T-Zone.

Smooth application: The fact that it “Glides on silky smooth” is completely true. It gives the skin a very natural even look covering up minor imperfections and minimizing the appearance of pores. However, since it turned out to be not oil-absorbent enough for me, I had to reapply it and do some touch-ups much sooner than 8 hours. I found it looked smothered and unnatural when I did it though. The reason is that it does give you a very thick Double Wear that when mixed with oil and covered with another layer of Double Wear just looks like a mask. So I changed the application strategy and applied it with a brush instead of the applicator-sponge provided with the powder. It works excellent and allows a couple natural looking retouches (before those it is advisable to use a blotting paper on the shiny areas).

What I would Recommend: I think this makeup is ideal for an even tone, matte look and coverage of imperfections for medium oily skin and normal skin.
If you have oily skin:

use mattifying/oil absorbing moisturizer on the T-Zone

keep a pack of blotting paper with you (I love the ones by Clinique)

apply the powder using a brush to allow natural looking touch-ups when needed.