Your Makeup Is Showing Every Bit of Texture. Here’s What I’d Fix First. 👇

Okay, here's the first thing I want you to know: you have texture because you have skin.

I know. Revolutionary.

But I actually think we need to say that out loud because we've spent the last however many years staring at people on Instagram and TikTok who don't appear to have a pore anywhere on their face.

Of course they don't. Half the time there's a filter on it.

And women can't win with this stuff.

• Use a filter and everybody complains that you're hiding what you really look like.
• Don't use one and somebody wants to know why you look so old.

Meanwhile, you're at home looking in your magnifying mirror wondering when your pores became the size of damn dinner plates.

So before we fix anything, can we agree on one thing?

Skin has texture.

Girl, listen. I'm not trying to make your skin look like a piece of glass, okay?

I'm trying to make your makeup stop making your texture look worse.

Because that we can actually do something about.

I've been a professional makeup artist for longer than Jesus wore short pants. Okay, technically over 35 years.

And when someone sits in my chair and tells me, “Foundation makes me look older,” I don't immediately start digging through my kit looking for another foundation.

I look at her skin.

• Is it dry or dehydrated?
• Are there flakes sitting on the surface?
• What has she already put on her face?
• Is she using enough skincare—or too much?
• What foundation is she using?
• How much foundation is she applying?

Because here's where this gets interesting.

There are usually a couple of things happening at the same time.

And if you've bought foundation after foundation after foundation and every single one of them somehow finds the same dry patch on your chin, I have some news for you.

We may not have a foundation problem.

But don't throw your foundation away yet.

We'll get to that.

Why Foundation Emphasizes Skin Texture

“Texture” has become this catch-all word for everything we don't like about our skin.

But texture can mean a lot of different things:

• Fine lines
• Visible pores
• Dry flakes
• Rough skin
• Breakouts
• The completely normal texture that comes with being a human being who has skin

Here's the problem:

Those aren't all the same thing.

So why would we treat them all the same way?

This is where somebody usually tells you to buy a primer.

Of course they do.

We'll talk about primer in a minute, because I have thoughts.

But first, if you were sitting in my chair, I would look at your skin before I started throwing products at you.

• Maybe your skin is flaky and needs some gentle exfoliation.
• Maybe it's dehydrated.
• Maybe you've got perfectly lovely skin and you're simply wearing too much foundation.
• Maybe you're using a full-coverage matte formula when what you really want is something sheer and skin-like.
• Maybe you put nine skincare products and a primer underneath your foundation, and now we're wondering why the whole situation is sliding around.

We have to figure out what problem we're actually trying to solve before we solve it.

Otherwise, you're just buying more stuff.

And believe me, the beauty industry will be perfectly happy to let you do that.

Dehydrated Skin Can Make Foundation Look Cakey

Okay, this is one of my favorite things to explain because once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Think about a grape.

A grape is full of water. It's plump. It's smooth.

Take away that water and what do you get?

A raisin.

Now, before somebody sends me an email, your face is not literally turning into a raisin.

It's an analogy.

But visually, it's a really easy way to understand why hydration matters so much when we're talking about how makeup looks on the skin.

When skin is dehydrated, fine lines and surface texture can look more noticeable.

As our skin changes with age, hormones, environment and menopause, it can also become drier and less able to retain water the way it once did.

And here's where you may have noticed something weird.

Your skin can look pretty decent until you put the foundation on.

Then suddenly everything shows up.

Why?

Because now you've put pigment and product over a surface that wasn't necessarily ready for it.

This is one of the first things I'm looking at when foundation looks cakey, patchy or heavy:

• Does your skin feel supple—or does it feel tight?
• Does it look comfortable?
• Is your foundation grabbing onto certain areas?

And here's another little plot twist:

You can have oily skin and still need hydration.

Yep.

That doesn't mean I'm going to slather every oily person in facial oil and heavy cream. Please don't do that and tell everybody Sonia told you to.

It means oily skin and properly hydrated skin aren't automatically the same thing.

Which brings us to something else foundation absolutely loves to expose...

Why Foundation Clings to Dry Patches and Flaky Skin

You know the ones.

You couldn't see them five minutes ago.

Then you put foundation on and suddenly there's a little flaky island next to your nose.

And another one on your chin.

Fantastic.

Here's the problem: putting moisturizer on top of a bunch of flaky surface skin doesn't necessarily make those flakes disappear.

Sometimes we need to gently remove what's ready to come off.

This is where exfoliation can make a huge difference when it's appropriate for your skin.

It's also why I created Sexapeel Gommage Peeling Gel. I wanted a gentle way to deal with surface buildup and flaky skin without feeling like I was attacking someone's face.

But please don't hear “exfoliate” and decide that if once is good, seven times must be better.

No.

Now you've irritated your skin barrier and created an entirely new texture problem.

We're not refinishing a hardwood floor.

Smooth what needs smoothing.

Then stop.

Because what we do next matters just as much.

Too Much Skincare Can Make Foundation Pill or Separate

This one gets me every time.

Someone tells me her foundation is pilling or separating, and I ask:

“What did you put underneath it?”

Then we start going down the list:

• Toner
• Essence
• Vitamin C
• Serum
• Eye cream
• Moisturizer
• Facial oil
• SPF
• Primer
• Foundation

Girl.

At some point, we're making lasagna.

You do not get extra credit for how many products you can fit underneath your foundation.

In fact, sometimes the reason your makeup looks like hell isn't because you're missing a product.

It's because you've got too much stuff on your face.

And this is where we need to talk about something that sounds like another beauty-industry term but really isn't:

Skin prep.

What Is Skin Prep Before Makeup?

Skin prep is exactly what it sounds like.

We're preparing your skin for makeup.

That's it.

Skin prep is:

• Not necessarily your nighttime skincare routine
• Not another twelve-step routine I want you to buy
• Not slapping primer over whatever is happening underneath and hoping for the best

Your regular skincare might be working on long-term concerns.

Skin prep has an immediate assignment:

I have makeup going on this face. What does this skin need right now so that makeup has the best possible chance of looking good?

And I didn't come up with this because somebody in a marketing meeting decided “skin prep” sounded cute.

I learned it from doing faces.

Lots and lots and lots of faces.

Why Preparing Your Skin Makes Foundation Look Better

Years ago, when I was working as both a makeup artist and esthetician in Chicago, I had VIP clients where I would give them an entire facial before doing their makeup.

An actual facial.

An hour.

Then I'd do their makeup.

And girl.

The difference was night and day.

• Same makeup artist
• Same makeup
• Same face

The only thing we changed was the condition of the skin underneath it.

The foundation sat differently.

The skin looked softer.

Everything looked more supple.

And I remember thinking:

Okay, how do I get THIS without making somebody get an hour-long facial every time she wants to put on foundation?

That question eventually became my entire approach to skin prep.

And later, it became the reason I developed my products.

I wanted efficacious skincare, yes.

But I also wanted skincare that understood makeup was coming next.

Because those products have to play nicely together.

Which leads to the next question.

How do you know when you've actually done enough?

How Your Skin Should Feel Before Foundation

Touch your face.

Seriously.

Touch it.

Before I put foundation on someone, I want her skin to feel:

• Supple
• Hydrated
• Smooth
• Comfortable

I don't want it to feel:

• Tight
• Flaky
• Greasy
• So slippery that foundation is basically water-skiing across her forehead

Comfortable. That's the goal.

And here's the part people don't love because there isn't a sexy universal answer:

The amount you need changes.

• Your cheeks might need more than your nose.
• January might need something different from July.
• Your skin at 52 may not behave anything like it did at 42.
• Tomorrow your skin may wake up and decide we're doing something completely different because apparently that's fun.

This is why I want you to learn to look at your own skin instead of memorizing somebody else's routine.

Because once you've got the skin feeling good, we still have another problem to solve.

How much makeup are you putting on top of it?

How to Keep Foundation From Emphasizing Fine Lines

I say this all the time:

Pick a struggle.

Let's say you want absolutely flawless, opaque, full coverage.

Okay.

But the more product we put on your face, the greater the chance we're going to see product sitting on your face.

Especially around areas that move:

• Fine lines
• Around the eyes
• Around the mouth

That's not your foundation plotting against you.

That's a face being a face.

If your number-one priority is for your complexion to look incredibly natural and skin-like, I may tell you we're going to use considerably less foundation.

But then you may see a little more of your actual skin through it.

Which one bothers you more?

That's the decision.

Somehow we've been sold the idea that foundation should:

• Give us full coverage
• Erase every imperfection
• Hide every pore
• Never settle into a line
• Survive for 18 hours
• Look like we're wearing absolutely nothing

That's a pretty tall order for a bottle of beige liquid.

Good skin prep can make the skin look softer and more supple.

Can my skincare erase your wrinkles?

No.

Neither can anybody else's moisturizer.

And I'm not going to tell you it can.

If texture really bothers you, there are legitimate conversations you can have with a qualified professional about retinoids, lasers, chemical peels, microneedling, injectables and other treatments that may be appropriate for your skin.

But we're talking about what you can do before makeup this morning.

And sometimes the answer is shockingly simple:

Use less makeup.

How to Make Pores Look Less Noticeable Under Makeup

You have pores.

I have pores.

Everybody you follow online has pores.

Even the 22-year-old telling you she “erased” hers with a primer.

She has pores.

We cannot make them cease to exist.

But we can make them less noticeable.

Depending on your skin, that might mean:

• Changing your skincare
• Keeping pores from becoming clogged
• Using a little silicone-based blurring product
• Changing your foundation
• Changing how you apply it
• Using less makeup

Because here's the funny thing about texture:

The more desperately we try to cover it, the more obvious we can make it.

Which brings me to the foundation itself.

Because I've been beating up on everything underneath it this whole time.

What if you actually did all of this correctly and your foundation still looks terrible?

Now I'm interested.

How to Apply Foundation Over Textured Skin

If I've got your skin exactly where I want it and the makeup still isn't sitting right, I'm looking at two things immediately:

• How much foundation are you using?
• How are you applying it?

For textured skin, I generally want less foundation applied strategically instead of a thick layer everywhere.

I love stippling—pressing the product onto the skin rather than rubbing it all over the place.

Why?

Because stippling gives you a lot of coverage with less product.

Try this:

• Apply a thin layer.
• Stop.
• Look at your skin.
• Find the areas that actually need more coverage.
• Add a little more foundation only in those areas.

You don't need another layer across your entire forehead because you want more coverage around your nose.

And while we're here, I would like to release everybody from another ridiculous makeup expectation:

You are allowed to touch up your makeup.

I don't know when we decided foundation has failed us if it doesn't look identical 12 hours after application.

• Your face moves.
• You sweat.
• You produce oil.
• You eat.
• You touch your face.
• You live on planet Earth.

Touch it up.

It's okay.

And yes, after all of that, sometimes the actual foundation really is wrong.

How to Choose Foundation for Textured or Mature Skin

Your foundation could be the:

• Wrong color
• Wrong undertone
• Wrong coverage
• Wrong finish
• Wrong texture for the result you're trying to get

And this is where I want you to start doing something incredibly boring but useful:

Read what the product says it is.

Tinted serum?

That's telling you something.

Skin tint?

That's telling you something.

Full-coverage matte?

Oh, that's definitely telling you something.

If your skin is dry and you're very concerned about visible texture, am I immediately reaching for a heavy powder foundation?

Probably not.

That doesn't mean it's a bad foundation.

It could be fantastic.

For somebody else.

This is where social media has really done a number on us.

Somebody says:

“This is the BEST foundation I've ever used.”

And suddenly everybody needs it.

Okay.

Maybe it is the best foundation she's ever used.

But have you looked at her skin?

• Does it look anything like yours?
• Does she want the same amount of coverage?
• Does she live in the same climate?
• Is she putting the same skincare underneath it?
• Does she have the same definition of what “good foundation” looks like?

Probably not.

Your Skin Changes—and Your Foundation Routine Should Too

Your skin is different from mine.

It's different from your favorite creator's.

It's different from your sister's.

And here's the kicker:

Your skin is also different from the skin YOU had ten years ago.

People tell me this all the time:

“But I've worn this foundation forever!”

Okay.

But has your skin stayed exactly the same forever?

• Hormones change.
• Menopause happens.
• Medications change.
• Weather changes.
• Oil production changes.
• The way our skin holds moisture changes.
• Skin can become thinner and drier as we age.

So maybe your foundation didn't suddenly betray you.

Maybe the conditions changed.

And now we adjust.

That's what I've done as a professional makeup artist for over 35 years.

I'm not married to a routine.

I'm looking at the face sitting in front of me today.

And that's what I want you to learn to do with your own face.

A Simple Skin Prep Routine for Better-Looking Makeup

If you've made it this far, you're probably thinking:

Okay Sonia, I get it. Now what do I actually put on my face?

Fair question.

This is exactly why I created my Skin Prep Method.

It's a way to assess what's happening with your skin and prepare it specifically for the makeup you're about to wear.

And no, you do not need an entire bathroom full of products to get started.

I created the Skin Prep Starter Kit because I wanted you to be able to experience what I'm talking about with the foundation you already own.

That's actually important.

Don't change everything at once.

Change the condition of the skin underneath your makeup and see what happens.

[TRY THE SKIN PREP STARTER KIT →]

And if you're sitting there thinking:

Sonia, I still don't know what my skin needs.

Perfect.

That's why I made the Skin Prep Method Guide.

It's free.

I'll show you how I think about skin before makeup so you can start figuring out what your face needs instead of blindly copying somebody else's routine.

[GET THE FREE SKIN PREP METHOD GUIDE →]

Start With the Skin Underneath Your Makeup

If you've spent the last few years buying foundation after foundation, primer after primer, trying to figure out why your makeup suddenly shows every pore, line and dry patch...

Before you buy one more thing, I want you to stop.

• Look at your skin.
• Touch it.
• Pay attention to what it's doing.

You are not trying to make your face look like somebody else's filtered face.

You're trying to make your makeup work with your skin.

And after longer than Jesus wore short pants—okay, technically more than 35 years of putting makeup on real faces—that is still where I start.

Every single time.

Not with the foundation bottle.

With the skin underneath it.

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