Every Friday in October I reviewed a different foundation and I’m planning to do the same for November. I’m kicking off this month with the Milani Stick Foundation. I’m also going to review one of their Rose Powder Blushes and the Silky Matte Bronzer. This foundation was a pain to test out so let’s get started!

Conceal + Perfect Foundation Stick

The Conceal + Perfect Foundation Stick is $10.00 for 0.46 ounces of product. This is a great deal because most stick foundations contain much less product. For example, the Makeup Revolution one contains 0.21 ounces for $9.00 and the Colourpop one contains 0.34 ounces for $10.00. Despite how good of a deal this is, this was one of the trickiest foundations I’ve ever worked with. It CAN work well and look beautiful but you better be prepared to put some work into it. Let’s get into all the pros and cons!

*Skin type: combination that tends to be more oily, large pores, sensitive and acne prone with acne scarring

Pros:

• Stick Foundations are very travel friendly because they are in a compact tube and in solid form.
• This foundation contains bamboo powder to absorb oil and lily extract to lighten the look of pores. I wouldn’t say this completely absorbed all oil but it did a decent job and it did look good over my pores. However, for it to look good over pores, you need to really press the foundation into them. If you don’t, they can look larger than they are.
• This foundation has a beautiful matte finish.
• This foundation is unscented and did not cause any breakouts or irritation.
• I HAD to use this foundation over an oil, I’ll talk more about that in the cons section. Over an oil, it blends easily and wears beautifully throughout the day.
• This foundation has a solid medium coverage and really doesn’t build up that well. I was happy with the coverage but others might not be.
• All of my other products blended and wore well on top of this foundation.
• I did not notice this foundation oxidizing.

Cons:

• I wear the lightest shade available, 200 Porcelain. This shade works for me but the undertone isn’t perfect. It’s somewhere between a peach and a yellow undertone. The shade range in general is not great but Milani’s shade ranges are almost always bad.
• Without an oil, this foundation blends out like GLUE. It’s next to impossible to blend it, even with a hydrating primer underneath. I had to use a stiff, dense foundation brush (these from ShopMissA) and even then it was an arm workout to blend. With an oil, it blends easily with a sponge and looks great. I use the Argan Oil from Pura d’Or.
• I prefer to blend my foundations with a sponge but for some reason if I’m not using an oil under this one, the sponge will completely soak up the foundation. It’s very odd.
• Without an oil, this starts to break apart almost immediately; especially around my nose, chin and between my brows. Even with an oil, it creases in my fine lines, however, it looks good on my under eyes once set with powder.
• This foundation claims to be transfer and water resistant but that is not true in the slightest. I always powder my foundations and this one still transferred and wore away under my glasses.

The first two pictures on the left are of my skin with no foundation and the two on the right are with one layer of foundation. You can still see blemishes and under eye darkness.

Here are a couple of pictures of my makeup on different days. I typically like to test my foundations at least once with no concealer but this one just looked bad without it.

The top two pictures were taken after around six to eight hours of wear with a primer underneath the foundation. The bottom two pictures were taken in that same time frame but with an oil underneath. There is a MASSIVE difference in how this foundation wore and looked. You’ll need to click on the pictures and zoom in to really see the difference. On my skin, an oil is absolutely necessary with this foundation. It sounds counterintuitive but using an oil actually helped my skin to produce less natural oil and so less oil broke through the foundation.

Do I Recommend It?

This is a tricky one for me to recommend. I DO think it can work and look beautiful but the question is, are you willing to experiment to see how it works best for you? If you’re not willing to use an oil underneath, I say pass on this one because the formula is atrocious on its own.

Rose Powder Blush & Silky Matte Bronzing Powder

I’ve tried a few of the Rose Powder Blushes in the past and really enjoyed them. I decided to pickup the shade Coral Cove for $9.00. It is a soft, peachy coral shade that is just beautiful. It is the same great formula as the previous ones that I’ve tried. It’s buildable and blendable. However, Coral Cove is a bit more patchy than the others but that’s not an issue for me. The only true con is the smell. This blush, and all their Rose Powder Blushes, REEK of chemicals. I really wish they would lightly scent them or somehow fix the issue. Other than that, I recommend these blushes.

I rarely ever use bronzer or contour but I’ve been wanting to try them out. I bought the Silky Matte Bronzer in the shade Sun Light for $10.00. I’ve primarily been using this to lightly contour with and I think it works well for that. It’s not overly pigmented and it’s very easy to blend out. It is slightly warmer than what I truly need to contour with but it’s a bronzer so I don’t hold that against it, lol. Unlike the blush, this bronzer is lightly scented with coconut and smells fantastic. If you’re looking for a good bronzer, I recommend this one.

I’m wearing the blush in the picture on the left and I’m wearing the bronzer as a contour in the picture on the right.

Final Thoughts

I was really hoping that this this foundation would be a total winner but at least it wasn’t a complete fail. Milani makes gorgeous powder products but their cream products need some work. If you’ve been thinking about trying any of these products, I hope this review helped you out. I would love to know your thoughts and if you’ve tried any of these! Thanks for reading and have a great day!