Foundation Mixers

I was hanging out with some girlfriends over the weekend and the conversation turned into talking about le blog and one of my friends, Lori, mentioned that she also loved the Josie Maran foundation I love but couldn't wear it because it was too light.

I was like, Le duh, use a foundation mixer, like it was the most normal thing in the world and she looked at me like I had two heads. Then said, I'm gonna need you to blog about that, k?

K, Lori, here you go!

Foundation Mixers are richly pigmented liquids that you use to lighten, darken, change the tone or add radiance to a foundation. Makeup artists are the ones who probably use these the most but I have long been using a foundation mixer to darken my foundations because my face is always lighter than the rest of my body (thanks to SPF'ing like a psycho) and my skin tone is a bit difficult to match.

The one I use is by NYX and they actually have a great line of multiple shades of mixers:

I use the Olive color one to darken my Josie Maran foundation but there is an actual "Dark" shade to darken a foundation if the tone is already correct.

They have Warmth, to warm up a too cool toned foundation:

Opalescent, to make a matte foundation more radiant and dewy looking:

Luminous, which is a more yellow toned radiant mixer:

White, which lightens the foundation without changing the tone:

Deep, which darkens without changing the tone:

And Olive, which both darkens and changes the tone:

So the obvious question is: why don't you just get the correct shade of foundation? The answer to that is easier said than done. Some of us have skin tones that are hard to match or, we've found a foundations' finish and wear we absolutely love, but it doesn't come in our shade. Or we love a foundation but don't want to buy a shade for winter and summer.

Enter, NYX foundation mixers.

And guys. The best part? Each foundation mixer is a mere 10 dollars.

That said, they aren't sold in store at Ulta that I've seen, onlye online. So that's kind of a drag but Ulta has a good return policy (within 60 days).

So tell me, have you guys ever tried a foundation mixer before? I'm kinda dying to buy the opalescent and luminous ones...