"CAKEY FOUNDATION" and How To Fix It!

Hey friends, today we're talking about the most common reasons that your foundation is looking cakey throughout the day, and I'm gonna give you tips on how to fix it. Let's get started. Okay, so reason number one starts with skin. No surprise, it always starts with skin. But I'm talking about before we even get to prepping the skin with moisturizer, we're gonna talk about exfoliating the skin. So what is exfoliating the skin? Exfoliating the skin is basically using a product that helps kind of remove dead skin cells that sit on top of the skin, remove peach fuzz that sits on top of the skin. It just creates a smooth, even canvas for your skincare products and your makeup to sit on top of, because if you don't have a smooth, even canvas, then of course that can make your foundation look cakey and heavy throughout the day. Now when it comes to exfoliating the skin, there are really kind of two camps that products fall into, a physical exfoliant or a chemical exfoliant. So a physical exfoliant might be something like shaving your face. It might be a brush. It might be tools that you actually use physically to kind of slough off that layer of dead skin cells. In the case of using a razor to shave your face, I actually use a Dermaplane to shave my face. I don't do it every day. I would say I do this every couple of weeks, and this tool is amazing. It really helps just get off that layer of peach fuzz on the face. You may not realize it, but we all have tiny little hairs all over the face, and certain foundations can really just not sit on that pretty and magnify it and just look heavy. So removing that just creates a nice, even skin surface so that your makeup lays on and looks a lot smoother. It also is gonna remove that layer of dead skin cells sitting on top of the skin. So I personally love to shave my face. Now there are also chemical ways that you can exfoliate the face, and those come in products that contain different types of ingredients, many acids. So you might be familiar with a glycolic acid. That's one that we see a lot. Salicylic acid is one we see a lot. Alpha hydroxy acid is one that we see a lot. So products that contain acid ingredients like those can exfoliate the skin, and they come in different serums and lotions. I have one here that I'm excited to try from Relevant. This is the Soul Tone, and it's a resurface and glow solution. So this is a very thin solution. You put it on a cotton swab and use it to chemically exfoliate the skin. Now typically when you're using a product like that and you're just starting on it, it's always recommended that you kind of ease into it. So rather than do it nightly, start out with like once every few days, see how your skin adjusts to it, and then gradually increase to a daily use if your skin tolerates it. But getting in the routine of exfoliating your skin is really just going to help create an even, smooth canvas of skin so that you can put makeup on it and everything just looks smoother. So the next most common reason that your foundation is still looking cakey, we're still at skin, you guys. So we've exfoliated the skin, but now it's time to prep the skin. I cannot get into how important this is. When I was younger, I didn't fully understand how important prepping the skin was for foundation, and now I know that that is like half the battle. So obviously you want to make sure that you're using the right moisturizer for your skin type and your skin concerns. There are different moisturizers to target different concerns, but there's also different formulations and different consistencies. Now when it comes to prepping the skin for makeup, I like to use moisturizers that are a little lighter weight. So at night I save my heavier creams, and in the morning I like to use either gel cream moisturizers. Currently I'm using the Tata Harper one. That's really nice. I think it's called the Water Lock Moisturizer. It's like a gel cream hybrid. That's really nice. I also like to use lighter weight lotions sometimes. I want to use something that is going to hydrate the skin, but absorb into the skin. If it's very heavy and it sits on top of the skin for too long, it can make your makeup just not lay on smoothly, not like meld into the skin, and it can just look heavy and cakey throughout the day. So make sure you're not only using a moisturizer, but you're using the right type of moisturizer. You can also add in a serum, like a hyaluronic serum before you moisturize if you have extra dry skin. Now, if you have really dry skin, sometimes your foundation can look heavy or cakey because it can accentuate the texture in your skin, fine lines, wrinkles, all of that, which tends to make it look heavier. So making sure that you're really prepping the skin prior to applying a foundation is so important, and you might want to add a quick-absorbing, lightweight serum before your moisturizer. This is one from Jane Iredell. It is the Beauty Prep. It's really nice. I also like the Colony Rothschild one. I also like the Keira Weiss one. You can't go wrong. You just want a lightweight serum, and you want to apply it after cleansing the skin and before moisturizing the skin. Also, allow a few minutes between each step so that your skin can fully absorb each product and you're not just layering and piling product on top of each other. Really take your time in allowing that skin prep to become a ritual before you go and apply foundation because how good your foundation looks is really dependent on that skin prep. Okay, so let's dive into number three, which is applying your concealer first. Now, let me explain why applying your concealer first can actually make your foundation look cakier. Like, what's the reasoning behind that? So concealer is, by nature, a more concentrated formula. It has a lot more pigment. It's designed to give a lot more coverage than a foundation. So the reason why I always recommend applying it after foundation is because if you go in first with concealer, you are very likely to apply it in more areas than is actually needed because you're looking at bare skin and you see every little imperfection. You want to go in there and cover it all with concealer when, truthfully, you could probably get enough coverage in a lot of these areas with foundation alone. So concealer should really be reserved and saved for underneath the eyes or those areas that you just need heavy-duty concealing. So in short, you will likely apply too much concealer if you apply it first. Let's go ahead and do the left side and get started. I am using the Bobbi Brown Full Cover Concealer. I think is the name of this. I love this concealer. I've loved it since it launched. Now, this is a full-coverage concealer, so it is very easy to go wrong with this if you apply too much. Now, I am going to apply this first. Now, I'm not gonna be obnoxious with it and apply way more than I normally would, but let's just say that I was going in with concealer first. Obviously, I'm gonna cover underneath the eyes. I have a little brown kind of spot right there I want to cover. A lot of us have redness around the nose that we might like to cover, and then I have a little bit of sunspots, kind of redness right here that we're gonna cover. So, definitely more concealer than you guys typically see me do, but not an absurd amount. This could be very easily what you might apply if you go in with concealer first. All right, so let's go in and blend this in, and I'm using the BK Beauty 110 brush. This concealer brush is fantastic if you like to work quickly. It is very much like a sponge and a brush in one, but it will not absorb as much of the product as your sponge would. Okay, so you have the concealer applied. It actually looks pretty nice. If I were doing my makeup like this normally, I'd actually take a look in the mirror and think, oh, wow, things are looking good, but yet I haven't gone in with foundation. Now, I do want to mention that if you decide to skip foundation and just wear a tinted SPF, this technique is actually really great. You can wear a tinted SPF, no foundation, and just spot conceal with concealer and be on your way, but for the case of this video, we're talking about foundation, I probably applied more concealer than's needed. Let's go into the right side. I have nothing on the skin here except my tinted SPF. Let's go in first with foundation. The foundation that I'm choosing is the NARS. This is the light reflecting foundation. I think this foundation is great for me because it is a very natural kind of satin-like finish. My skin lately has been more on the drier side, so I like foundations that give a little bit of life to the skin. My skin has really been changing over the last couple years. I used to be oily. I live in Texas, so it's always hot. I'm always sweating. Things are always getting shiny, so I still find myself going back to my matte foundation, but in the current state that my skin is, more of a satin finish foundation would serve me better. Okay, now this actually jumps into my next tip, so this is kind of like a two-in-one, so we're still talking about applying foundation first, but the next tip that I have, you guys, is rather than going in and applying foundation all over the face and then going and blending out, apply it to the back of your hand, take your brush, kind of work a little bit of it into the brush. I'm not picking all of it up. I'm just picking a little bit, and then I'm kind of pre-blending it into my hand, kind of working it into the brush. Now, the reason that I recommend that technique versus applying it all over the skin is just, again, you're likely to apply a lot more than you need if you just go in and apply it all over the face. Sometimes I think on content, we see people doing this to their face, and I think it makes for great content, but I can guarantee that we're gonna use a lot more than we actually need. So I recommend applying to the back of your hand, working it into the brush, and then applying it onto the skin, really taking your time to blend it out. Also, if you notice, when I start in the center of the face, I'm pressing my brush. When I get out here to the perimeter of my face, I'm working in large circular motions. This is great because this is allowing you to get the coverage you need, and then sheer and blend it out. So again, the whole goal here is to use the product that you need, but not more than you need. And all of these techniques and these tips really are working towards the same goal here, you guys. Okay, so now that I have the foundation blended, and oh my gosh, this foundation is so beautiful. I am reminded of why I was obsessed with this foundation when it first launched. I remember I could not stop talking about it. And if I didn't do YouTube videos, I'd probably still wear this every single day. But the nature of my business and my work requires me to try and buy a lot of different products. So I've applied the foundation. I haven't applied any concealer. And when I'm looking in the mirror, you guys, honestly, I feel like the only place I need concealer is right here underneath the eye. I don't feel like I need any extra coverage anywhere else on the face. So I'm gonna go in with my concealer, and we are going to conceal the inner corner and underneath the eye. We're gonna put the same amount that we did on the other eye. Just a little there and a little there, but that's it. I'm not gonna go in and add any more in the center of the face. I have gotten my makeup done a few times recently for photo shoots and just different events. And I always like to get my makeup done by other makeup artists for these because I wanna look just a little extra. And my makeup always looks stunning and beautiful and perfect for the photo shoot and perfect for the event. But after it wears for about four, five, six hours, it definitely looks a lot heavier than my normal makeup wear. And that is because we are applying a lot more product than I normally do. Foundation concealer on the right side. We're gonna go in and finish off the foundation on the other side. And we're gonna do this the way that I don't recommend, which is basically applying it all over the face and then going to blend it out. So I'm just gonna put dots here. Good foundation is really meant to stretch and spread and work a long way. So when you go in and you do your makeup like this, there is a high probability that you are applying way more than is needed. I mean, sometimes twice as much as needed, maybe even more. I also wanna mention that a lot of these techniques, initially they'll look good. You'll look in the mirror when you've just done your makeup and you'll think, wow, this looks great. And you'll go about your day. But you will notice as the day progresses, hours pass by depending on the climate that you live in, depending on just your skin type, you will look in the mirror and the makeup will look heavier. It will migrate into fine lines. It will start to separate or patch up. It'll just look like makeup. It'll look very obvious. And the whole goal we're working towards is for your makeup to look like skin. Okay, perfect. So I've got both sides applied. And at first glance, there's a slight difference. You can definitely tell that this side is a heavier than this side, but they both actually look good right now. The next most common reason that your foundation is looking heavy or cakey is you're not using the right foundation formula. It can be so overwhelming because there are so many different options on the market. Even as a makeup artist and a beauty YouTuber, I can get overwhelmed with everything that floods the market. What's best? Who's it good for? What's the finish? What does all the different descriptions mean? Natural, satin, dewy, glowy, matte. I mean, what does it all mean? I'm gonna keep it very simple for you. So when it comes to skin type, we're really kind of looking at oily skin types, dry skin types, normal skin types, right? So typically, if you have oily skin, I would recommend looking for a natural or a matte or a natural matte finish foundation, something that is going to help control oil and shine throughout the day because your skin is naturally producing an excessive amount of it, right? I would veer away from dewy or radiant finish foundations if you have oily skin, because typically what will happen is throughout the day, hours later, you're going to have glow on top of glow on top of glow, and you're just gonna have more opportunity for that foundation to move and to migrate on the face, kind of travel down the face, land in like smile lines, land around the nose, land in wrinkles and fine lines, resulting in unflattering foundation. So now if you have dry skin, you might really enjoy those radiant finish foundations, those satin finish foundations, those very hydrating foundations, because your skin is on the drier side, and if you use more of a matte foundation, it can accentuate that texture. It can accentuate fine lines and wrinkles, and just overall look heavy or cakey or very made up. So a radiant finish foundation, something with some hydration and glow to it, maybe a little pearlescent, will just give some life to the skin, make it look healthy, make it look more skin-like, and make it look more natural. And if you have normal skin, you can kind of decide which texture you really prefer and like. I know you guys hear me talk a lot about matte finish foundations. I've always been a matte, matte girl. I live in Texas, and it's a million degrees here, as you probably know. So I don't need any help with the glow factor, because I would say eight or nine months out of the year, I'm gonna get a glow just walking to my car and to my house because it's so hot. So that's why I always lean towards matte foundations. However, as I'm getting older, my skin is changing, and you have probably heard me talk about how it is getting more drier. And so now I am really embracing and leaning towards foundation formulas that I might not have enjoyed five years ago. So I really enjoy formulas like the NARS Light Reflecting Foundation. It's what I have on today. This does give some radiance to the skin, but it stays in place, and it looks fresh and beautiful all day long. I'm also really enjoying the MAC Studio Radiance Serum Foundation. This one is very, very beautiful as well. And one of my favorite matte foundations is the Dior Forever Matte. This is a matte finish, but it's a very natural matte finish. It looks natural and velvety. It's more of a velvety finish. It's just absolutely beautiful, and it lasts all day. Another common reason why your foundation is looking cakey is you're not using the right tools or using them properly. One of the reasons I launched BK Beauty is because brushes are so important to the overall finish and look of your full makeup application. I've always said this, but you can be a makeup artist and have lousy tools, and you will be very limited on what you can do and what you can create. But on the other side of that, you can be just getting started in makeup, not really have a clue what you're doing, but if you have the right tools, they can do all the work for you, and you can have a beautiful, flawless makeup application. So tools are crucial. Now, choosing the right tool for the right product and application is also important. Now, when it comes to foundations, I love to use a brush to apply my foundation. I know sponges are also very popular, and occasionally I might use a beauty sponge. I like to save my beauty sponges for very full coverage or very thick cream products because a sponge will absorb a lot of your product. And I like to use brushes that have some density to them, but are also very soft and fluffy because they are going to blend out that product and that foundation and make it look more natural. My favorite foundation brush is the BK Beauty 106 brush. We have this one and we have our 101, which is our best-selling brush. You really can't go wrong with either. When I get asked from people, which one should I get, which one is better, they're just different, you know? It's like asking you to pick your favorite child. You can't, you can't pick your favorite. Actually, the 106 is my favorite, but it's my favorite because of the way I like to apply foundation. I like to press in the center, and then I like to buff in circular motions. This motion is a motion that I learned how to apply foundation, and I just love this technique. If you are someone who likes to swipe more or press, the 101 is fantastic because you can do that with that brush. So I've got the 101 here for you, and I've got the 106. Now, one of the main differences is the size, obviously. The 101 is larger, so again, if you're a girl on the go or you don't have a lot of time for your makeup, this is gonna do your makeup in, it goes from zero to 60 in two seconds flat. It's just gonna do all the work, and it's gonna do it fast. Again, 106 is my personal go-to because I like the circular buffing motion, especially to sheer product out. If you come from the school of liking to kind of swipe or paint the foundation on, this one is a great one. This has longer fibers here at the tip and then shorter dents, so you can still do that same pressing motion to build coverage, but then you can also swipe to sheer out. Both of them can give full coverage, and both of them can give very natural coverage, but when it comes to applying foundation, you wanna make sure that you're choosing a really good tool and you're using it properly. Next up, we have powdering, and I think this is one of the last steps in our foundation routine, and this can really be where we kind of ruin it all. Now, what I'm about to say might offend some of you, and I apologize in advance if it does, but hear me out, and this is just my opinion. Keep that in mind. But I believe baking should stay in the kitchen. However, let me further explain. Baking is a technique that we've really seen and embraced on the beauty channels, Instagram, I would say probably over the last, what, 10 years or so? It's a technique that a lot of makeup artists still do, and I think that it has its place for sure. Like I said, when I get my makeup done for events, for photography, for just special occasions, we bake, and we go at it. But I'm just saying for everyday wear, you will have beautiful, flawless makeup for like two hours, and then depending on your skin type, this may not happen to you. Let me kind of rewind and retract a little bit of what I'm saying here. This might not apply to everyone. On me personally, when I apply a lot of powder products, my makeup looks flawless for like two hours, and then after that, it goes downhill, and it goes downhill quickly, and not all over the face, just in particular parts of the face. Around my nose, I see a lot of it separating. I will see patches, and it's very, very obvious. So when it comes to powdering, I really come from the school of less is more, especially if we have dry skin, and especially if we have very textured skin. What is textured skin? Textured skin can mean anything from subtle fine lines to deep-set wrinkles to large pores, anywhere the skin is not perfectly smooth, and let's face it, whether we're 30 or we're 80, we have texture to the skin. It's just kind of how it goes. So I'm going to heavily bake on this side of the face, and I'm going to do what I would normally do on the right side, and I'm going in with the Makeup Forever Loose Powder. I love a loose powder because they're very refined, and you can just really control the application that you apply, but you can also go easily wrong with loose powder because it's very easy to over-apply. So this is a really nice matte formula. I do like this one. Okay, baking also involves not only applying a lot of powder, but just letting it sit there for a long time. So I'm going to pick up my BK Beauty 113 brush, and we're going to pack this underneath the eye. So when you bake, you see the powder very obviously on the skin, and we bake for a few different reasons. We bake to not only set the makeup, but also to kind of leave a highlight to the skin. When we brush this away, we're left with a slightly lighter finish, which is going to highlight the skin. It looks very beautiful. We also bake sometimes to do eye makeup and then be able to brush away the powder and any fallout that we've had without ruining the foundation. So there are some benefits to baking, but I'm just going to demonstrate why it can make your foundation look heavy. And then I'm going to take it around the nose, and overall, I'm just going to remove what's left, and I'm just going to powder the rest of the face. Okay, so this is kind of what not to do. I'm going to let this sit while we go over, and I show you what I would recommend doing. So for underneath the eyes, I do love this brush. This is the BK Beauty 113. I also love the 108 brush. We have a few brushes that are great for underneath the eye. So I pick up my powder. I like to kind of tap off the excess. Now, I always recommend tapping on your finger. When you start doing this kind of stuff on hard surfaces, you are very likely to dent the ferrule. So if you want to keep your ferrules and your brushes nice and beautiful, then tap on your finger. And I'm just going to softly sweep and press underneath the eye to set that concealer, and then I'm going to softly just press in the center of the face, any area that I want to set the skin. This powder, by the way, is fantastic. It is so great for blurring and smoothing. I mean, it's almost like an eraser. Like, I can see texture and pores, and they just kind of go away. And then I'm going to lightly press here as well. I also recommend kind of powdering where it's needed. For me, that's really around the nose. It's underneath the eye. It's the forehead and the center of the brows. But I usually don't powder over here. Perfect, so we're just going to do a light layer of powder. Now, I'm going to let this sit for a few minutes, and then we're going to come back and remove it. Okay, so it's been a few minutes. I'm going to go ahead and remove this powder. So you can sweep it away so there's no trace. And at first glance, I mean, it looks really nice and smooth. I still have that smooth, blurred finish that we have over here on the right side. Okay, so before we move on, I'm going to zoom the camera in, and I'm going to hope that you guys can see the difference between the two sides just from that powder. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of like force my face to make some wrinkles, some fine lines, some texture. So I'm going to do this. And if you guys can, if we can zoom in here, obviously you see the deep set wrinkles on both sides, or the deep set little smile lines and creases on both sides. You really do. But do you notice, and let me speak first, and then I'll go back to making that face. Pay attention when we zoom into this side versus this side. This side is just going to have a lot more emphasis on every bit of texture. It's going to look drier. It's going to look heavier. It's going to age the skin. I feel like add at least five years to the skin. Like I see like right under here, I mean, obviously you see the large deep set, but underneath here you see a lot more of the fine lines than you do over here. There's a much softer look over here. Also here, I see a lot more of the texture and just like tiny little fine lines around my nose. And I do not see that over here. The powder is overemphasizing that texture. It's actually bringing texture, bringing awareness to texture that I didn't even know that I had. You know what I'm saying? So to summarize, less is more when it comes to powder. Those are some of the most common reasons that your foundation is looking cakey. I hope those tips were helpful. If you learned anything from this video, drop me a comment down below and let me know what you learned. If you enjoyed this style of video and enjoy learning makeup application, check out this video here. This is another educational video that I did that I think you might enjoy. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it. I wanna do more of these videos, so let me know what are some of your most common like makeup issues or problems or things that you just can't figure out how to fix when it comes to your makeup. Drop them down below and I'm gonna make an ongoing list and I'm gonna film some more of these videos to just make your makeup routine a little bit easier. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you guys have a beautiful day and I'll see you in my next video.