Some Mineral Makeup Tips For You

Hi everybody,

When I started writing this blog, I was very passionate about mineral makeup. I even did a week straight to review mineral makeup companies that I experienced called Seven Days and Seven Nights of Mineral Makeup (click here for a trip to the past!) Since then, my mineral makeup stash has grown like mushrooms after the rain. I finally found my perfect foundation (Adorned with Grace minerals in Grace 3.5, yay!), and thank to that, my pictures look a whole lot better now. However, I realize I haven't done much on mineral makeup after the minerals week and I do have so much to give. So, today I decided to write things down before I forget all about them. I hope these tricks will help you to look as flawless as possible.

1. Brush size, thickness, and materials:

I've come to some conclusions regarding makeup brushes used to apply mineral foundation

• The bigger the brush, the wider the area of application;
• The denser the brush, the more material it can pack;
• The more synthetic the bristles are, the less material lost to the brush.

So, if you are in a hurry, a flat top brush made of synthetic taklon is perfect. Currently, I'm lemming the Everyday Minerals flat top and the E.L.F Studio powder brush. From what I've heard, they are really good brushes for mineral makeup applications and the E.L.F one is really cheap!

2. Be a Powder Puff Girl:

Image courtesy Robert Jones beauty

Before becoming a Powder Puff girl, I used to apply my Sunlight kaolin clay powder with a kabuki brush. Regardless how careful I applied, my mineral foundation always ended up looking like a tragic accident by the end of the day. It's not that Sunlight does not do its job, it's me who did not apply enough of it on my face so the clay can absorb the oil from my skin.

After busting out a velour powder puff from my stash, which just sat there looking pretty for years, my life changed dramatically. Ok, I was kidding, at least my makeup looked a lot better after that. The velour puffs are washable and can pack a mean amount of powder there.

Now, instead of looking shiny at 3pm, I can feel comfortable until I go home. The velour puffs are that good!

3. Skunk it up:

I mean, by using a skunk brush- not by using a skunk to apply mineral makeup to your face. A skunk brush is kind of nice: you can stipple your wet mineral foundation on your skin or apply finishing powder with it as well.

The how-to on making a wet mineral foundation is here. And you need to try your dual fibre brushes with your finishing powder (or mineral veils). It makes your skin look really dreamy.

4. Order matters:

In the old world of conventional makeup, you apply powder last, right? And some mineral makeup companies told you so, too (at least Bare Minerals told me that!) But please don't listen to them because you will end up loooking like a clown if you do so. If you contour your face and apply your powder afterwards, your contour lines would be gone. If you apply blush and then powder, you'll end up looking really pink (or red).

How did I know?

I learned it the hard way: after spending time to contour and apply blush, my face ended up looking extremely bad once I applied finishing powder. The blush was all over my face and so was the dark contouring powder. Yikes!

From then on, I applied blushes and contouring powder after the finishing powder. It may sound strange to you but my makeup looks a lot better that way.

5. Always use a swirl bowl:

The swirl, tap, and buff routine that you always do in the lid of the mineral foundation jar? Forget about it! It's very unsanitize for you to do so. Imagine spreading whatever on your face to the brush, then dip it to the lid and back? Not only it is gross, you risk a chance to contaminate the whole jar of your precious minerals.

The good news is you do not need to have a fancy or special bowl to buff your makeup. I use a glass bowl used for dipping sauce as my swirl bowl (and make sure it's for makeup only!) The thing cost me 25 cents a piece and is there to stay unless it's broken. Also, if you use only samples, you don't need to worry if your brush is going to fit the tiny lid!

The swirl bowl with some honey-olive oil scrub

That's all for now. If I remember some more tips, I'll post them up as soon as I can. I hope you enjoy them and if you have other tips, please let me know.



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