Alright ladies, this post is for you!  Truth: I am someone that has only started learning how to use makeup in my 30’s.  Most of my childhood and teen years were spent with horses, on the golf course, working out or doing homework.  I just seemed to miss the boat on makeup.  My senior prom was the first time I ever had my makeup done for anything and frankly, it felt weird!  So over the years, I just went without it, of course making an exception on my wedding day.  Here’s the issue, I have really long days and sweat on and off throughout the day as I train clients.  If I wore full on makeup, my skin would breakout and whatever I put on would be gone by the end of the day.  And when it comes to the golf course, a similar issue exists.  My hat would rug off anything on my forehead and I need some SPF coverage.

As a 35 year old woman, my skin is changing and I also want to present myself in a more professional manner.  This means embracing makeup for the first time to help even out my skin tone.  I also need a little help looking a little more awake at 6am!  But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to look like myself and there is no way I will be happy with a ton of products on my face.  Enter the tinted moisturizer with SPF, the perfect solution to my makeup dilemma!

Sephora is the perfect place to go in search of a product to try, they are awesome about letting you take home some samples.  After doing a little research, I narrowed it down to three moisturizers, picked up the samples and spent the past week trying them out!

To keep it consistent, I took pictures of before and after in the same spot each time.

Here we go……..

First up, Urban Decay’s One and Done in Light.

This one feels awesome going on my skin, it blended right in and I could see an immediate decrease in redness.  I also really like that it has more of a mat finish.  The true test is whether or not it can survive the day at work with me and it did indeed!  This one gets 2 thumbs up!

Next up, Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer in Blush.

Just like Urban Decay, this one does a great job toning down the redness.  It however has more of a shine to it making the skin appear dewy.  I definitely like how it photographed, but when I looked closely, it actually just sits on my skin instead of blending.  Basically if I touch my face, it comes right off.  By the end of the day, there was not much left.  However, I was in the sun during the day and it did the job from an SPF standpoint.  I also noticed that it fell into some of the lines on my face as the day went on and it made them look more pronounced.

Finally, NARS Tinted Moisturizer in Terre-Neuve

I have used NARS products before and struggled with breakouts so I was a little unsure about this one.  Right off the bat I noticed it did not reduce the redness as much as the other products.  I do however like that it is a good balance between the mat and dewy finish.  On this particular day I wore it during a round of golf, and the SPF did really great!  It also held up despite the copious amounts of sweat due to our hot temps.  As I feared though, my face seemed to get a little irritated with it.

I did go back and continue to try each product a second time the past few days because after looking at the pictures, I really liked how my skin looked with the Laura Mercier and NARS, but liked the feel of the Urban Decay best.  If we’re talking price on all of these, they’re not cheap and all range from $36-$45.  I will add this note though, the tinted moisturizer I used this past year in the same size, lasted a long time.  My main priority is finding a product that will moisturize my face, protect it from the sun, and provide some coverage without the feeling of being made up.

Ultimately after over a week of testing, Urban Decay has won!  Of all the products, it blended best and made my skin feel more natural.  As an added bonus, some of my freckles are still visible with it which makes me feel more comfortable and like myself.

I’m excited to put it into play tomorrow morning and see how it goes.

If you have some favorite products, let me know!

-S