All products were received complimentary for review but all opinions are my own.

A few weeks ago I was invited to a custom makeup event at Mix Beauty Lab in Toronto to discover their salon and to make my own foundation and lip products. Initially I wanted to make this one blog post but it ballooned into TWO, so this post will cover the salon and the foundation, and a follow-up will feature my lip products!

What is Mix Beauty Lab?

Mix Beauty Lab is a beauty and skincare salon in Toronto that offers custom makeup creation, facials, makeup application, lash and brow services, mani/pedis and sells products by popular beauty brands like Herbivore Botanicals, Ren Skincare and Vita Liberta. It's basically a one-stop-shop for beauty! Located just around the corner from St. Clair West Subway Station at 216 Heath Street West, it's super easy to get to by TTC and as of the time this blog was written, is open Tuesday to Sunday for all your beauty needs.

I'd never been to the salon before, so I took a tour of the location and found it to be cozy, bright and welcoming. All the staff I met were super knowledgeable about the processes involved with creating makeup, and they didn't mind when I peppered them with questions about the makeup and my constant refrain of "Am I doing this right????"

The event I attended focused on Mix Beauty Lab's custom makeup offerings, and throughout the event we would create three different makeup products: foundation, lipgloss and lipstick. As I mentioned above, I'm going to cover foundation in this post and I'll link to the lipstick and lip gloss one as soon as it's completed!

The Foundation Process

At the Mix Beauty event, the lipgloss and lipstick portions were lead by a staff member, but actually mixed and molded by ourselves. THANKFULLY the foundation process is much more streamlined, as the mixologist who is a professional who actually knows what they are doing, does all the hard work. Phew! All you need to know is your own personal skin type, concerns and preferences.

I have combination skin with mild rosacea and I wanted to know what product would be good to use that would give me a dewy look without essentially becoming oily at the end of the day. She asked about my current products that I used and what I liked, and after discussing my options, I told her that I wanted to make a dewier version of my IT Cosmetics CC Cream. I really like my IT Cosmetics CC Cream but I find it a bit too dry in the winter, so I wanted something similar that would cover any excess redness or breakouts, but would still be lightweight on my skin. So with that product in mind as a "base", she added 25 SPF, a bit of shimmer, and more hydrating elements to create a wetter foundation to help provide some of that dewiness that I was in search of. After that, she mixed it all up and voila, my foundation was done!

Wearability

Since I already attended the event with a full face of makeup on, I didn't get to try the foundation until the next day. The mixologist initially advised me that I could use this foundation without any primer, but in practice I found that the foundation settled heavily into my pores when I did that, so I choose to use it with a primer whenever I bust it out. It is, however, a very wet formula that takes a few minutes to settle on my skin, going from dewy upon application, to a comfortable and flattering semi-matte about 10 minutes later. I usually apply everything in a rush, so when I use this foundation I apply use it first, then do my eye look and finish with blush/bronzer/contour/whatever I feel like using that day. One of my favourite parts of this custom foundation is that it's very similar to a BB/CC cream in that it looks like my skin but better, so I can truly just put it on without any makeup to keep my skin all nice and level, with JUST a hint of shimmer and colour and SPF to keep my skin all nice and protected.

While I essentially chose to create a BB/CC cream dupe, other people who attended the event went for thicker foundations or more matte finishes, so they can provide a variety of coverage, I just know that I am in no need of any more heavy foundation and wanted something wearable and breathable for my day-to-day looks.

Cost

The custom foundation at Mix Beauty Lab costs $65 for 1oz. It is pricier than the Smashbox and MUFE foundations I usually buy, but it's completely customized and while I don't see myself doing this again for awhile, I actually love the fact that this product has everything I need in it. I've been using it on a weekly basis and would absolutely consider returning to Mix Beauty Lab in the future to create another foundation specifically for me.

Overall I really enjoyed my visit to Mix Beauty Lab and my products are all in frequent rotation in my collection. I would definitely recommend stopping by and making one yourself, or getting a group of friends together to do a custom makeup party. It's a lot of fun and at the end of the day and makeup is so much better when it's FUN, right? You can learn more about Mix Beauty Lab on their website.