7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup: Urban Apothecary

Happy Sunday! I hope your weekend is going fine so far. For me, I am having a blast writing about some of my favorite MMU companies. Today is our last entry in this series and I'm having a bittersweet moment right now.

Anyways, let's go back to Urban Apothecary, shall we? Founded in 1990 by Cheri Tracy, Urban Apothecary is a makeup company specialized in natural, botanical, and mineral makeup and skin care. It is not solely a MMU company but the Colorliscious Pro Pigments has become a favorite of MMU users. Recently, I decided to try some of their pro pigments and I was happy about their quality and here are the pros and cons:

Pros:

• Finely milled MMU with pigmented colors: the texture of these eyeshadows are similar to those from Aromaleigh and their stuff are really finely milled (micro-milling). The color payoff, on the other hand, is a lot better than Aromaleigh's eyeshadows;
• Interesting color formulas: some of the colors I have are duochrome and frost which change color according to the lightning

Of the four colors, Something Wicked and Sugar Plum have duochrome quality.
Glow-lita has shimmering quality while Kitch Witch is a bit frosty.

Same colors in different lightning.
Glow-lita is my favorite of the bunch

• Products sold by weight, not volume: each jar is packed with 5 grams of pigments which will last you for a very long time

Top row: Something Wicked, Kitch Witch, and a quarter for sizing purpose
Bottom row: Glow-lita and Sugar Plum

• Fast processing and shipping time: I received my order in less than a week;
• Very good customer service: I emailed Urban Apothecary and got replied immediately. Kim Szlak, the site manager, is enthusiastic and willing to answer any of my questions.

Cons:

• Pigments contain bismuth oxychloride: I did not notice any itches when I applied on my eyes. However, when applied on my lips, immediately I felt it. While I applied on my arm for the swatch, the itchiness feeling is there too. The reason I did not feel anything on my eyes as I always use MAC paint pots as my eyeshadow primer all the time. They probably shield my skin from the bismuth compound. Yay for paint pots!
• Shipping rate is expensive: UA probably has the most expensive shipping rate of all the companies I've ordered probably because their products are big in sizes.

My rating: B+, would be A or A+ if bismuth oxychloride is excluded.

Urban Apothecary also has other traditional makeup and skin care items. Their top 3 products are Mineral Sheer Tint which I want to try, Indelible Gel Eyeliner, and Mineral Sheer Lipstick with SPF 15. This company although relatively unknown to the mass, has quite a crowd devoted followers. Soon they will launch a website just for Pro Pigments and will have more colors and swatches. A joke about this company is: "Urban Apothecary is an urban company without the decay". Get it, Urban Decay?

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Series Closing Remark:

Ok, I start to sound like I'm in a scientific meeting, "closing remark"! But seriously, these are the last few points I want to make before we close down this series:

1. Do your own research when it comes to makeup: as many companies these days claim their products are "pure", "natural", and "organic", the ingredients may indicate otherwise. Natural doesn't mean risk-free and bismuth oxychloride is a good example.
2. Know yourself and your allergies: if you are allergic to some certain ingredients, even if the product claims it's good for you, stay away from it! Don't expose yourself to such compounds in the name of vanity.
3. Take shipping and handling cost into consideration: if a product is cheap but the shipping cost is high, you may find the same thing at another website with cheaper shipping cost. Think about the order in total amount, not just the pre-shipping cost.
4. Take advantage of discount coupons and special offers: an extra google search may save you 5, 10, 15% or shipping cost. That's money saved for other things in life y'all! So why don't you google already?!

That's it, the end of your first edition of "7 days and 7 Nights". I hope you get something out of this series. Another series in the future, I don't know. Until we see the needs of another one, there are plenty of other products for me to review so this blog hopefully will not be something boring.

If you have any questions about MMU, please let me know. If there are a lot of them, I may address them all in an entry.

Have a restful Sunday and a wonderful week ahead,
Your Makeup Blogger