Oily skin girls, stand up! Let’s be real, you don’t want to be talking to a friend or colleague and notice they're distracted by the shine from your face looking like your makeup is dripping off. Or you decide to skip foundation altogether because you’re frustrated with not finding foundations that work well with your oily skin.
As an oily-skin girl myself, I’ve tested so many foundations on the market, so you don’t have to! Before we get into the foundations themselves, let’s talk a little about oily skin and some good practices. Having oily skin can be challenging, as it tends to produce excess sebum, which can lead to shine, enlarged pores, and acne breakouts. However, with the right foundation and makeup application techniques, you can achieve a flawless and long-lasting look.
How to Apply Foundation on Oily Skin: Good Practices
Start with a Clean Canvas: Properly cleanse your skin before applying makeup. This will create a clean canvas for your foundation to adhere to and help prevent clogged pores.
Set with Powder: After applying your foundation, set it with a light dusting of translucent powder. This will help absorb excess oil and keep your foundation in place for longer.
Remove Makeup Thoroughly: At the end of the day, make sure to remove your makeup thoroughly using a gentle cleanser or makeup remover formulated for oily skin. This will help prevent clogged pores and breakouts.
Practice Good Skincare: Consistent skincare routine is crucial for managing oily skin. Use oil-free and non-comedogenic skincare products, including cleansers, toners, and moisturizers, that are specifically formulated for oily skin to help regulate oil production and keep your skin balanced.
AND DRINK YOUR WATER!
5 Starter Foundations For Oily Skin
Jumping into my five top recommended foundations for oily skin. Between having oily skin myself and working on clients with oily skin, here’s what I’ve seen to work from the ones I’ve tried.
Teint Idole Ultra 24H Long Wear Matte Foundation
This foundation has a natural matte finish which is perfect for oily skin. I love it because it’s lightweight and not cakey. This is my current favorite that I’ve been wearing faithfully for EVERY occasion. From an everyday makeup look to a night out on the town.
Soft Matte Complete Foundation
NARS
I recently used this foundation on a bride, and the application plus the finish eliminated the stress of being oily and having to touch up throughout the day! Imagine dancing the night away and realizing your foundation didn’t move. Since foundation is the base of a makeup look - it is crucial you’re using a good one.
Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation
Fenty Beauty
The name says it all! This soft matte long-wear foundation saves the girlies. I mean, who doesn’t love everything Fenty Beauty anyway? The key to this foundation is making sure you grab the right shade and that it matches your undertone.
ColorStay™ Longwear Makeup For Combination/Oily Skin
Revlon
If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly foundation option, then this is your match! From the application to the amount that comes in the bottle, you can’t go wrong. One thing I love about this line is that it calls out if the product is for "combination/oily skin" or "normal/dry skin." When shopping for this foundation, grabbing a shade from the “combination/oily” skin selection is the direction you want to go.
Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 Foundation
MAC
Lastly, MAC has been around for a long time, and there are people who stick with MAC once they’ve found something that works. This was the same for me! When I first started building my makeup kit, I ran straight to purchase this foundation. Not only did I work at a MAC store for some time and learned about this foundation, but other artists raved about it as well. They have a large range of shades to choose from, and having a foundation with SPF is a plus! The finish is like satin and perfect for us oily skin girlies!
I could go on and on. The trend with all of these foundations is that they have a matte finish and are typically lightweight. The key is to avoid heavy or creamy foundations, as they can make your skin look greasy. Ultimately, everyone's skin is unique, so it may take some trial and error to find the perfect foundation and makeup routine for your oily skin, but these foundation options are a great place to start. Don't be afraid to experiment with different products and techniques to find what works best for you!
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak