If you have ever been frustrated looking for foundation in the drugstore aisle or if you’ve been searching for a cheaper foundation option for you to wear day-to-day orrr if you just like experimenting with makeup, this post is for you! Today’s beauty diary entry is about finding the perfect drugstore foundation.

Finding a great foundation can be tough, especially when trying to find darker colors that are also good quality. I wanted to share my experience with you all because I tried three different products before I was able to find something I loved.

For reference, here is a photo of me sans makeup.

As you can see there are areas on my face that are lighter than my body and I have a yellow, warm undertone.

Before I get started, I want to show you what my current go-to foundation is: Makeup Forever HD foundation. It has a flawless finish, looks great on camera, and has little transfer but it is on the pricey side at $42 a bottle and I mix N178 and N180 to get my perfect match.

Swatches: N178 and N180

So when I started this adventure, I read some reviews online, and decided to try my third place contestant : Revlon Colorstay Foundation.

I accidentally bought Mocha in combination/oily and Caramel in normal/dry skin. But decided to try it out anyways. I would classify myself as having combination skin…normal everywhere except my t-zone which gets oily.

The combination/oily formula was definitely thicker and seemed to offer more coverage, which I liked. I didn’t like how there was no pump to get the product out. You kind of have to just tap in onto your hand.

Swatches

Side by side comparison (no makeup, Revlon, Makeup Forever)

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this foundation. It does what it’s supposed to do and it pretty good quality for a drug store foundation. But, the reason why it’s in third place is because it does nothing for me. I wasn’t wowed by its performance. The color choices are mediocre as you get into the darker shades and there was nothing to really love about this for me. I think it does the job but I didn’t love it. So I went on try my second place contestant: Black Opal’s True Color stick foundation.

I bought Hazelnut and Suede Mocha and mixed the two colors together.

Swatches: Hazelnut on top, Suede Mocha on bottom

I absolutely loved this foundation! The color looked amazing buttttt, the transfer was ridiculous. It was everywhere, I couldn’t touch my face even a little bit without getting foundation on my hands, something I wasn’t used to after using Makeup Forever for so long. It wasn’t until I read some more reviews and talked to some other people that I realized  you have to use an extremely light hand when applying this foundation..like you barely need any of the product on your face for it to do it’s job.  And finishing it off with the Black Opal finishing powder (i bought mine in “Deep”) helps set the foundation and avoid transfer. So all in all this is a great option to try out and they have many colors for darker skin tones, its just a little tricky to use and required more work than I had anticipated.

Which takes me to my winning contestant in this search: CoverGirl Queen 3 in 1 liquid foundation in Spicy Brown.

Swatch

Covergirl has this cool little tool which allows you to select which makeup line you normally use for foundation so it can help you choose which color you would probably need from Covergirl. (they didn’t have a Makeup Forever option so I chose MAC, in which I am NW50) The tool suggested “Spicy Brown” for me and it worked!

There is little transfer with this product. I do notice I get oily in my t-zone a bit earlier than I would when using Makeup Forever but I think thats normal, especially for a drug store foundation. It’s also important to note that I normally don’t just wear foundation on its own. I usually have a highlighter (just fell in love with the LA Girl Pro concealers btw) and a blush on which will somewhat change how the foundation will appear.

I hope my little journey was helpful! What are some of the drug store foundations you have tried?