Tips on How To Make Foundation Last Longer In Hot and Humid Weather

Living in a hot and tropical country like Thailand where humidity levels are high can really impact skincare and makeup. Humidity basically means there’s a lot of moisture in the air and this can cause makeup — especially foundation — to break up and slip and slide on the face.

I’ve been on the hunt for a foundation and/or a way to wear foundation in humid weather so that it doesn’t melt away and/or leave my face looking oily within an hour or two. And I finally figured some stuff out. I thought I’d share my little humid weather-friendly foundation hunt and experiment here in case it’s helpful to any of my fellow tropics-inhabiting bellas out there.

Just a note my skin type is normal but gets oily in the T-zone in heat and humidity.

I recently bought the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Foundation (shade 300) thinking that because the finish is matte, it will keep my skin matte. I used the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Foundation for a week and my face looked oily within 30 minutes to an hour despite setting the foundation with loose powder. I thought maybe I was using too much powder and drying my skin out and so it was producing excess oil to hydrate the skin to compensate. So I tried using much less powder to set but even then my face looked equally oily with the foundation. I was really confused as to why this was happening because to me a matte foundation should keep my skin looking matte, right?

What I discovered through trial and error is that when I wore the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Foundation (or any matte foundation for that matter) I could feel it like a thin layer over my skin. At first I thought the thin layer of foundation will stop the oils in my skin from coming out. But it happens to be just the opposite: the thin layer is in fact causing more oiliness on my skin for one or two reasons:

• The humidity in the air is causing my foundation to break up and fade away
• Skin can’t breathe under a layer of thick matte foundation so excess oil is released to compensate for the dryness

Then I decided to give the Colourpop No Filter foundation (shade medium dark 120) a try; I have to say that while the Colourpop foundation claims to be ‘matte’, the consistency of the formula is so thin and liquid that it has a more like a sheer velvet finish, which is nice but not very effective. The foundation is so thin and sheer that is fades very quickly when exposed to heat and humidity. So now a thick foundation and a thin foundation have failed me…what do I do?

Inspired by the many beauty bloggers I follow I decided to experiment with mixing foundations. It sounds weird but when I think about it, it actually makes total sense. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to beauty and skincare products; adding in other factors like skin type and weather just makes it harder to find that one perfect product that is guaranteed to work. So I think it takes some time and effort to really figure out (as I did with my little trial and error foundation experiment here) what your skin really needs in the conditions where you live and if you can’t find a perfect solution — create one!

For my foundation mixing experiment I used the L’Oreal Infallible Pro Matte Foundation (shade 106) — a more affordable option as well as slightly thinner formula than the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Soft Matte foundation — with my very liquid Colourpop Natural Matte Foundation; it created the perfect foundation formula for me. The L’Oreal Infallible Pro Matte foundation offers the holding power and matte properties while the Colourpop Natural Matte Foundation’s runny formula thins out the whole mixture, making it lighter and breathable on the skin when applied. As a result, this foundation mixture (very lightly set with loose powder) lasts longer and my skin didn’t appear as oily so quickly. I imagine this trick can work for any matte foundation mixed with a thinner / sheer foundation — you don’t have to specifically use the brands I mentioned.

After figuring out my little humid weather-friendly foundation concoction, I also learned a few more interesting tips and facts:

• Use a matte foundation but make sure it’s not too thick or drying on the skin

• Mix foundation into your daily moisturiser to keep it light but give your skin the coverage it needs

• Use a damp beauty blender to blend out foundation so that it helps to sheer it out a bit more

• Find a foundation that has a velvet finish and thinner formula like the Make Up Forever Matte Velvet Skin foundation (shade Y405 on me) that lets the skin breathe while also giving coverage

• Always prep and hydrate your skin adequately before applying makeup with serums, moisturiser and sunscreen — by locking in extra moisture into the skin, it actually helps to reduce oil production

• Less is more in humidity: keep all makeup layers light — don’t pile on too much of anything (powder, concealer etc) because the key is to ensure your skin always breathes

I hope you found this post useful in understanding how to adapt foundation for humid and hot weather conditions. If you have any more tips, please share!