SPF - Sunscreen is NOT Optional!

Be sure to wear a sunscreen everyday!  As careful as I have been with my complexion, it is not something I have always done.  Going about day to day life, I often used a foundation with an SPF of 15, but often I didn't.  Now I know that you can prevent signs of aging by wearing a sunscreen year round, yes, even in the winter when all you do is hop in and out of your car to do errands. And remember, your foundation may have a sunscreen, but most people do not wear enough foundation to get true protection.  The answer is a moisturizer with sunscreen and a foundation with sunscreen. Wear both - everyday - even in the dead of winter!

Foundation: Armani VS. Estee Lauder - and the Winner is...

 

There has been so much hype about the new Giorgio Armani silky foundation that I felt that I had to try it.  Armed with my Neiman's charge card (or rather, in this case, my husband's) I set out to Tyson's to see if it was all sold out.  It wasn't!  It had a nice silky finish and I bought a bottle and took it home.

Now at this point it is probably important to add that I have stuck with Estee Lauder's foundations since the 1970's and been ever so happy with them  My favorite and the best all-time foundation is Estee Lauder's Fresh Air Make-Up Base; for a while in the 1990's I couldn't find it anywhere, but luckily it's available again and I am happy again!  During the interim when it wasn't available, I had used Double Wear by Estee Lauder and was happy enough with it, but nothing beat the Fresh-Air make-up.
So I paid by $59.00 to try the Armani make-up (over twice the price of Fresh-Air's humble $24.50 price tag). The result: it looked fairly good, and it was different.  Very light, but there was coverage unlike most "light" make-ups. However, after wearing it for about 5 hours one day, I happened to look in the mirror while I was wearing my reading glasses and noticed that I had a bit of flaking near one side of my nose and a rather dry looking patch on the other side. I no longer had that refreshed look of well-moisturized skin, but rather skin that said, "I've been on the overnight from Heathrow to Dulles and my skin feels it!"
I washed off the Armani and put the Estee Lauder back on.  It looked wonderful; the color was richer, but matched my skin, and it gave me a half-dewy, half-matte look that requires no powder.  I've been checking everyday since with my reading glasses to see if the look is lasting after 5 hours, after 10 hours... and it is!
If Estee Lauder ever gets rid of Fresh-Air, I may have to use the Armani, but until then, the winner is - Estee Lauder's Fresh-Air make-up base.  Never fool with a winner!!
  P.S. You can find Fresh-Air make-up in the standard department stores that sell Estee Lauder, but they don't seem to stock a lot of it.  I usually buy it directly from the Estee Lauder website.