Daniel Sandler foundation /concealer review & swatches

Tags

camouflage concealer, Catwalk Compact, Daniel Sandler, full cover, heavy cover, undereye concealer

A little while back, one of my favourite makeup artists Daniel Sandler sent me some full size foundation shades and concealers to try. I have been using these on myself and others for a little while now, and have really grown to love them.

I’ll be reviewing the liquid foundations separately very soon, but here are my thoughts and experiences with the Camouflage Concealer and Catwalk Compact.

Price: Camouflage Concealer £10.75 (currently £4.50), Catwalk Compact £21.50 (currently £10)
Weight/ volume: Camouflage Concealer 3g, Catwalk Compact 11g
Shades: Camouflage Concealer 9, Catwalk Compact 10
My shade: 6 camouflage concealer, 6/8 foundation compact (7 is probably my shade)
Features:
Camouflage Concealer – Heavy duty concealer with added Tea Tree oil for imperfections, Tea Tree is a natural antiseptic which aids healing
Catwalk Compact – Cream-in-a-compact leaves smooth matte finish and setting properties of a powder.
Purchased/ sample: Free sample (full size products)

The comments below apply to both the compact and the concealer, unless otherwise stated.

+ Fantastic shade range for light to medium and dark skin. The ebony shades are not ashy and look natural on dark skin.

+ Easy to blend and the product doesn’t sit on the skin, it buffs nicely into the skin for a natural finish.

+ Medium to heavy coverage means that you can build it up on areas of severe pigmentation or in my case to cover acne scars.

+ Heavy cover without caking especially the Camouflage Concealer. It’s worked wonders under my eyes, where I have really dark circles. Usually I use a Bobbi Brown colour corrector and concealer to cover them naturally, but the Camouflage Concealer has done it one step. I’m very impressed.

+ High SPF The compact has SPF25 which is very high for a makeup product. Usually with SPF in foundation you won’t achieve the max SPF indicated but with the Catwalk Compact, you probably will, if using it for full cover. As the compact foundation does contain high levels of SPF (SPF 25) there is some flashback, and the skin does look lighter under direct flash, but given the high SPF I would have expected far worse flashback. Generally I’m not keen on SPF in my foundation, I’d rather wear SPF underneath.

– Shade matching is difficult across the foundation ranges. For example my Daniel Sandler Super Mineral liquid foundation shade is 4-5 (5 was a little dark), but my shade for Catwalk Compact is 6-7.

In the picture above, I’ve used Catwalk Compact shades 6 and 8 on different parts of my face and blended them together for a more natural look. Using a single shade of any foundation can make your face look flat and these foundations blended beautifully together so that you can’t see any contour lines, you just get a natural finish. I didn’t set with powder and I think you really do need to set it to minimise slippage. I do love the slightly dewy finish though.

In the past, I’ve always done my highlighting and contouring with powder highlighters/ bronzers on top of my regular makeup. Recently I had a makeover photoshoot where the MUA used very light and very dark cream foundation compacts for the contour/ highlighting and blended them beautifully into my skin-matched shade. The end result was a contoured face which looked natural and flawless. Since then, I have been using my Daniel Sandler compacts for contour/ highlighting. If you can’t afford multiple shades in the Catwalk Compact, then I would advise getting multiple shades of the Camouflage Concealer while it’s at the reduced price.

Yay or nay
Yay! The products are a little pricey, but you get what you pay for. I wouldn’t expect to pay less than the RRP for such high quality products (though a bargain is always nice!).

The good news is that both the Catwalk Compact and Camouflage Concealer are reduced price from Daniel Sandler’s online store at the moment. Although these were free samples provided for use on my clients, I went back and ordered a few more shades, both for myself and to add to my kit.

Even if you know your shade, I would suggest getting some of the camouflage concealers in lighter and darker shades. The formula is so blendable with the Catwalk Compact and compacts from other brands that they make great highlighters and contour shades.

I do owe a huuuuge thank you to Daniel for sending me these products as, to be honest, I would never had tried them otherwise. Now that I have tried them, I am 100% in love with the concealers and I really really like the compacts.

Generally the Camouflage Concealer and Catwalk Compact are for medium to heavy coverage. If you have skin pigmentation, birthmarks, scars, or acne that you want to cover, then these are worth trying. If you don’t, then I would suggest the Super Mineral Liquid Foundation which has more sheer to medium coverage. Less is more, so if you don’t need full cover, don’t use it, sheer cover will do.