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

7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup: The She Space

Happy Saturday and welcome to the penultimate entry of "7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup"! I hope you're ready for this one because this entry may change your lives of save some money on your wallets.

Enters The She Space, a very unique MMU company that I've experienced. Heather, the owner of The She Space, offers her customers high quality, pigmented, and trendy colors with affordable price. I've heard about this company for a long time but did not get to experience their highly pigmented eyeshadows until recently. Unlike other companies, The She Space called their eyeshadows "powder pigments" which makes me think of MAC pigments.

Like many other MMU companies, The She Space allows their customers to sample all the products except their lip junks with a very affordable price: $.50 USD per sample! On top of that, their samples are very generous.

Here are the lists of pros and cons on The She Space eye pigments:

Pros:

• Higly pigmented: almost made me forget about MAC, my favorite makeup company;
• Has a variety of colors: last time I counted, they have about 150+ colors that covers all the color spectrum;
• Has different formulas: matte, velvet (which I love), sparkles, twinkles,...
• Offers affordable samples: for 50 cents per samples, you are allowed to try as many colors as your heart desires. On top of that, the samples are generous;
• Has a custom pigment jar that allows you to create your own color renditions;
• Packed in clear-lid jars: this is my pet peeves when it comes to MMU because I don't want to flip the jars to see the colors. Having clear lid jars allow me to identify the colors immediately.
• Affordable shipping rates: shipping starts at $1.75 USD and you can spend up to $20 USD to be in that rate, that's 40 samples y'all!

Cons:

• Packed in tiny containers: while most companies pack their eyeshadows in 5-gram jars (same size as MAC sample jars), The She Space sell their eyeshadows in 3 gram jars. These are the same jars that EM pack their samples.

• Slow processing time: although the website stated a 10-day processing time, I got my order in 18 days!
• Not-so-good customer service: I contacted Heather, the owner, twice regarding my order and never got a reply from her. Since there are so many MMU companies out there, consumers really have a lot of choices these days when it comes to makeup. I am quite put off by this company's customer service. If their products are not so good, I would never placed another order on their website.

My ratings: A+ for the pigments, C for customer service and processing time.

The colors that I ordered
Top row: Risky Rebel (custom color), Happy Birthday Chris, and Follow the Sun (sample)
Bottom row: Living in Color, Go to Shop, and a quarter (for size comparison)

The same colors with a pack of sample pigment in School Girl

Swatch of the full-size colors, notice how velvety Go to Shop looks

Swatch of the samples.
Bubble and Burn, Stolen Soul, and Spinter are 3 special colors made from black pigments and coated mica. Unless applied wet, you don't really see the difference.

From the number of pictures this post has, you can clearly see how much I love these pigments. Only if the processing time and customer service are better that The She Space will become the top MMU company.

Wee, one more entry and this series will come to an end. I'm glad I made it so far! Enjoy your Saturday and stay tuned for tomorrow.

With Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

P.S: "Happy Birthday Chris" and "Living in Color" are a duo that Heather dedicated to Chris, a boy who has cystic fibrosis. With every purchase of the duo, $3 USD will be donated to the Cystic Fibrosis foundation. So if you decide to make a purchase from The She Space, please consider this duo.

7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup: Aromaleigh

TGI Friday everybody! And welcome to our 5th day of "7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup"!

Our topic of discussion today is Aromaleigh, another MMU company. Founded in1998 by Kristen Leigh Bell, aka Miss K, this company offers a wide spectrum of colors in the form of micro-formulating MMU. Since my quest to a perfect-match foundation ended at Silk Naturals, I did not sample any mineral foundations after that. Purchases from Aromaleigh and other companies were solely on mineral eyeshadows and they are all I'm going to discuss until the end of our series.

Although I purchased a jar of Nocturne overnight mineral treatment, I got 3 mineral eyeshadows sample and a lipbalm sample with my order. Aromaleigh prices their samples quite higher than other places, about $1.25 USD per sample so having 4 free samples equals to saving $5 USD in my wallet.

The full size mineral eyeshadows are quite pricey: $6.25-$8.25 USD per jar. However, the eyeshadows have about 1.2 grams of finely milled and pigmented powder so it will last you a very very long time. Aromaleigh also has weekly sales on certain items, usually 25% off so if your colors fall into the sales they will cost you less. Typically, a cycle is about 4 weeks so if you miss it this time, make sure you check out next month.

3 eyeshadow colors that I have: Passion, Le Mystere #49, and Cielo
Picture taken in natural lightning and without flash.

Passion is a very deep plum color. Why it appears brown on my swatch, I have no idea. I don't particularly love or hate this color but I think it's a good eyeliner color. Le mystere is their oops colors, or colors that did not formulate right. I particularly like this color more than Passion as it is frostier. Cielo is a very light blue color, almost like sky blye. I love this color so much but wish it is a bit more pigmented. Aromaleigh colors are very finely milled and works well when applied wet (foiling method).

My rating on the eyeshadows: B+, points taken off because of the price and pigmentation. I do not like to apply my eyeshadows wet but those of you who do, Aromaleigh is perfect! I just don't love the price and cost of shipping.

As I promised, this entry is shorter than the other ones. Have fun y'all and have a nice weekend ahead.

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup: Silk Naturals

Hiya there lovely!

Welcome to day 4 of our "7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup". At this point, some of you probably dubbed this series as "the MMU boot camp" already and I do agree. I love MMU y'all! And if you've been following my blog since Monday, you know what "MMU" stands for right? Right? For you newbies out there, hang tight and don't be scared. "MMU" stands for "mineral makeup" and we're going to stick with it from now on.

Today we're talking about my utmost favorite MMU company called Silk Naturals. This company was founded by Karen Stark in 2006 in her quest to find the perfect makeup that does not aggravate her skin. Silk Naturals (or SN) is a small business which sets it apart from other big-league companies such as Bare Essentuals or Everyday Minerals. The company's success is pretty much due to its fine products that induce a strong group of customers. Karen, in fact, is a very nice lady and really listens to her customers.

In this entry, I am going to review some of SN's products that I've used. Seriously, I have a lot of their stuff and I haven't had one that I didn't like. I think it's hard to go wrong with this company.

1. Foundation:

After EM, I was not happy with their foundation but did not want to go back to regular foundation anymore. I was so stubborn y'all! So my quest to find the perfect mineral foundation started again and lucky me, I found SN. Unlike other companies, SN does not mix the foundations for you! A very strange concept that works. Instead, you get to mix it yourself and aha, your foundation matches your skin perfectly! It does take a bit of your time to mix and match but afterwards, you get a foundation that's yours forever. And if you get a tan during the summer, just go ahead and add some extra ebony powder to it.

Moreover, SN foundation has silk powder in it which makes my face looks flawless. Whenever I use their foundation, it stays put and doesn't give me an oil slick look at the end of the day. Take that, BE! Since I live in the South, having a foundation that does not slide or melt in the heat is very important. I don't want to look like a hot mess under the sun y'all! SN is the only foundation that truly delivers and I've never been looking for another foundation ever again!

My rating: A, could have been A+ if I didn't have to mix my foundation. Also, if you're allergic to silk powder, please don't use it!

2. Eyeshadows:

Currently I own 6 of SN eyeshadows and they are one of the most pigmented colors I've ever had. Karen not only owns SN but also creates all of the colors: foundations, concealers, blushes, eyeshadows, lip colors, etc. SN eyeshadows work fine with or without an eyeshadow base, a thing that most mineral eyeshadows can't do.

Sizing purpose: eyeshadow, blush sample, and mineral glow sample are in 5-gram jars.
The quarter is there for size comparison.

A swatch of colors that I own: chocolate twinkle, grassroot green, boom, whisper, cashmere, and idolize. Picture was taken without flash and in natural light.

I own quite a lot of their highlighting and nude colors simply because they are so awesome! Cashmere is my favorite sheer wash color ever: I can quickly get out of the house with a wash of this color over the eyelids, a bit of eyeliner, and mascara. It's so low-maintenance chic and I love it.

Boom is a clone of MAC Shroom and Whisper is a clone of Your Ladyship. Idolize is a clone of Idol Eyes from MAC. SN does have a wide color clones from MAC, Bobbi Brown, Chanel, Urban Decay, and Nars. Since I don't own any of the original colors, I have no idea how close they are to the originals. Even if they are not clones, SN eyeshadows are very good colors, no doubt about it!

I didn't realize how sparkly these colors are until I took the picture. Look at Chocolate Twinkle, it sparkles like mad!

My rating: A+

3. Blushes and Mineral Glow:

I haven't come around to purchase the full-size items because I never get to the end of the samples. SN offers matte and shimmering blushes and they are true to their labels. If it says "sheer blush" then it is really sheer, you need to layer it. If it just says "blush" then it is pigmented enough to be applied in one or two layers.

The mineral glows are similar to MAC MSF but without bismuth oxychloride. Some of them are MSF clones as well. Also like MSF, these mineral glows are really virsatile: I used them as blushes, highlighters, eyeshadows (they are pigmented enough!), and all-over face glows. The mineral glows are truly fantastic and you should not miss them.

A swatch of mineral glows and blushes:
Halo, Cupid, and Heavenly mineral glows, Tarte and Climax blushes

Halo is a clone of New Vegas MSF, Cupid is a clone of Northen Lights MSF, and Heavenly is a clone of Stereo Rose MSF. The last one I really adore and use as a blush sometimes.

Tarte is a clone of Bobbi Brown Pink Raspberry and also a matte blush. I got it as a test sample and use it as an eyeshadow sometimes. Very pink, almost neon bright but gives me a nice pinky glow on my cheek. Climax is a sheer blush and a clone of Nars Orgasm. As it is sheer, you need to layer lots of it to get the color. I think lighter skin ladies will have more luck on this blush than me.

My ratings: A+ for the mineral glows, A for the blushes as they are not so pigmented.

4. Lip glosses:

There are 3 types of lip colors at SN: lip gloss, lip sticks, and kiss bliss demi gloss. I only tried their lip glosses so I can't tell how well the other two performs. However, the lip glosses are really fantastic. They smell sweet, doesn't taste like anything, and are organic. Also, they are moisturizing without being sticky. But if you think you need to dip a wand into the gloss tube to scoop some of the gooey gloss out, you're wrong!

Their lip glosses are packed in lipstick tubes! And they feel like MAC lustre lipsticks...with about 1/4 of the price! Karen also has quite a few clone colors of MAC and Bobbi Brown lipsticks for those of you who are budget conscious.

My rating: A+ for the glosses!

5. Other items I can think of: finishing powder et al

The finishing powders are great, they totally blur out your pores. However, I find them a bit heavier than EM silk dust so I don't use them as much. I haven't bought any brushes from them so I don't know. I haven't used their gel liners, solid perfumes, mascaras, primers so I am not going to chime in on those.

In short, Silk Naturals is a very wonderful MMU company. Recently, Karen has expanded her products with newer colors and different foundation formulas. Whenever I'm stressed, I go to her blog to read about what's coming up next in SN. Usually, every 2-3 months Karen releases a new batch of products based on customers' requests. SN ships their orders out very fast and Karen is very friendly. If you have any inquiries, she will answer you within a week as I'm sure she's very busy. Also, she is very well-equipped with MMU knowledge and mentioned that she goes to Princeton library to do her own readings on this subject matter. I am a pretty picky customer when it comes to makeup but I've never been upset about any of SN products at all. This company deserves an A++ for ending my quest to a perfect match mineral foundation.

After this post, the rest of this series will have shorter entries. I know you're tired of my long-winding posts already and I promise the last 3 will be shorter.

Take care and have fun!
Your Makeup Blogger

7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup: Everyday Minerals

Welcome to day 3 of our 7 days and 7 nights of MMU!

Today we are talking about another favorite MMU company: Everyday Minerals (EM). This company was founded by Carina Menzies and offers spa-quality MMU with affordable price. I found out EM from Rice Bunny's blog when Michelle Phan, a fellow Vietnamese girl, did a tutorial on foundation. She has flawless skin when she used EM so I thought why should I not give it a try.

The wonderful thing about EM is they give out free samples of 3 shades of foundation, 1 blush, and one concealer. You only have to pay for shipping which is less than $4USD. The samples are generous, about 1 gram each. It took me forever to finish up the foundation that matched my skin color. Also, this company is the first and only MMU company that allows you to customize your kits. Currently, they have mini and large kits, eyeshadow kit, and a super-large kit.

To me, EM has hits and misses. The hits are:

• 4 different foundation formulas: original glo for dry skin; semi-matte, matte, and intensive for normal to oily skin;
• wide range of colors: from really light to really dark, EM foundations cover the whole spectrum of skin colors;
• different colors for different skin tones: warm, cool, neutral, olive, beige, golden, and buff;
• really nice blushes: wide variety of colors and texture, these blushes are the hits;
• reliable concealer that can cover blemishes well;
• brushes: made from synthetic materials, these brushes are affordable when purchased in a kit;
  
• silk dust: this product is one of the cult favorites! The silk dust is a finishing powder that mattifies your face. It is so great that a lot of other companies have to create their versions.

The misses are:

• foundations: with a wide range of colors divided into different skin tones, it is hard to find a good match. On top of that, the matte and intensive formulas are quite chalky and uncomfortable while semi-matte does not eliminate shines totally.
• lip glosses: the most unpigmented and unmoisturizing glosses I've ever tried!
• eyeshadows: not really pigmented and most does not contain lots of shimmers. They're quite boring in my book actually;
  
• soaps: I would not use their soaps on my face ever again! Although they indicate some soaps are safe to use as face wash, I find the pH too high to use on my face.

I ordered a full-size kit and a mini kit before and found out it's better to order the mini kit. Since EM gives very generous amount of MMU, it takes forever to finish a full size foundation! A full size foundation has 8 grams of MMU while a mini version has 4 grams.

From left to right: full-size foundation(8 grams), mini size foundation (4 grams), sample size blush (1gram)
The quarter is for size comparison only (I misspelled "comparison" in the picture, eek!)

The two brushes I got from EM (top down): dual fibre brush, foundation brush

The dual fibre brush, aka skunk brush, stippling brush, is an awesome product that EM offered. Too bad they discontinued this brush because it is so wonderful. I use it to apply highlighting colors, pigmented cheek colors, and mineral foundation in wet form. It does give me a flawless and airbrushed look that I can't achieve when using dry mineral foundation.

In this picture my EM foundation was applied wet with the stippling brush

A swatch of colors EM blushes and eyeshadows
Top to bottom: Favorite hoodie blush, Sunday Brunch blush, Theme Park blush, Cherry Fizz blush and eyeshadow, Sunset Voyage eyeshadow

I use Favorite Hoodie and Cherry Fizz as eyeshadows and blushes, depending on my mood. Sunset voyage is light enough to be used as a highlighter. Of the whole bunch, Sunset Voyage and Cherry Fizz are the sheerest colors and also very virsatile.

In conclusion, Everyday Minerals is a fairly good MMU company. While their foundations and eyeshadows are not something I'd love to use, their blushes, finishing powders, concealers, and brushes are the items I'd love to buy again and again. EM products are truly affordable when ordered in a kit. Customer service is fairly good and they ship your order as fast as possible. I usually receive mine within a week.

My rating: B, could have been better if the foundation does not give me ginormous pores!

That's all, folks! End of day 3. Tomorrow we'll diss on another MMU company and this one I love so much: Silk Naturals. Stay tuned and if you have any questions, comments, or simply want to give me a hola, go ahead and press that "Comment" button. You know I love to hear from you!

Take care and have a nice day,
Your Makeup Blogger (who's in MMU overdrive!)

7 Days and 7 Nights of Mineral Makeup: Bare Essentuals

Perhaps some of us who were into mineral makeup (MMU) got started with Bare Essentuals (BE). If you're not one of us, consider yourself lucky! BE is a mineral makeup company that started it all. As I mentioned on the previous post, the founder of BE was the person who coined the term "mineral makeup". Located in San Francisco, CA, this MMU company is on top of the MMU market.

My first experience with MMU was from BE circa 2003. At that time, I started using makeup and was a poor undergraduate student. Needless to say, my makeup stash did not contain top-of-the-line items from expensive department store brands (and it still doesn't, I'm wondering why?!) So my skin did suffer a lot when I used harsh makeup around all day. And I was such a hard-working student who spent around 10-14 hours a day at school. By the time I got home, my makeup sat on my face for that long already and I did not have a good cleanser to remove it properly. So lesson learned: harsh makeup + inadequate cleanser = bad skin!

Then one day I watched TV and saw this commercial of this MMU company that claimed their makeup "is so gentle you can sleep on it". Then I saw how well their MMU covered the model's flaws. So I was hooked. Immediately, I placed an order from them and about 2 weeks later, it came to my door. Nice!

From 2003 until now, BE's introductory kit has gone through many different levels of transformations but generally you would expect these items come in the kit:

• 2 foundation shades: one darker and one lighter. I ordered a medium light kit and it came in light and medium light.
• a "warm" powder that acts like a bronzer and a blush: the "warm" powder is actually nice and I kept it around for a long time since it doesn't have expiration date.
• an instructional DVD to show you how to apply plus some tips and tricks
• 3 brushes: a kabuki brush, a foundation brush, and a concealer brush. Back in the day, the brushes that came with my kit were top quality. Now I heard people complain of how hard the bristles are.
• some extra items: these change all the time. I got a half-moon brush and a portable compact. I think the current extra item is a cleanser but I'm not sure.

So how did it do for me, your beloved makeup blogger?

First of all, BE gives a good amount of mineral foundation per jar. Each mineral foundation jar contains 0.3 oz (about 5 grams) of finely milled powder so it is a lot of makeup to powder your face. Believe me when I said it because often times I had to weight 1 gram of substance and it was a lot of powder! Until I discarded the MMU from BE, I never got to the end of the jar. Secondly, the foundation has SPF15 so you get some extra sun protection on your face. Thirdly, it glides on smoothly and gives the look of regular makeup.

However, the downfall of BE is its ingredients. Besides mica, zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide (common ingredients in MMU), BE makeup products also contains bismuth oxychloride which causes skin itch to those who are allergic to it. Bismuth oxychloride is a natural compound found in the earth so BE is right when saying their products are natural. By adding bismuth oxychloride, the product has a nice creamy texture and glides smoothly on your face. On top of that, it gives you a glow that you can't find in your regular foundation. It does sound good and look good to you unless you are allergic to it.

Since I'm allergic to it, I can tell you how I feel when I have a product with bismuth oxychloride applied to me: first it starts with a mild and tingling feeling starting from the cheeks, then as I sweat out, it will make my whole face itchy like a thousand ants marching on my face. Until I wash my face and brushes that touched the products, the itch will remain. About 2, 3 days later, some zits will pop up at random places on my face. So if you have the same feelings when you applied BE, chances are you're allergic to bismuth oxychloride as well.

So here are the pros and cons of BE:

You will like it if you:

• are new to MMU and want to try MMU: it has a good starter kit with nice brushes and instructional DVD which I still use until today;
• want to simplify your makeup routine: MMU takes less time to apply in my opinion and are quite goof-proof. I can confidently say MMU is also idiot-proof (sorry if I offend anyone but it's really idiot-proof!)
• are not allergic to bismuth oxychloride;
• want to do something better for your face: since MMU does not require any fillers, synthetic fragrance, collorants, and preservatives, your face have less possibility to have allergic reactions from such compounds;
• like finely-milled MMU: BE's mineral foundations and makeup are very finely milled and does glide smoothly on your face. The second point thanks to bismuth oxychloride;
• do not mind the messiness it brings to your life: the shifters in their MMU have big holes. Most of the time, I found out half of my powder are on top of the shifter and it's hard to get a small amount of makeup from it.

You will not like it if you:

• are allergic to bismuth oxychloride: I'm not going to elaborate more on this point without making people think I'm holding grudge to BE. So let us move on to the 2nd point;
• do not like to spend $60+ USD on the kit: the kit itself costs you $60 USD and you will also pay for shipping and handling. The total amount of money would be around $68-70USD. Also, if you decided to sign up for their auto shipping service, you will receive the kit every 3 months or 6 months;
• have skin color that does not match the colors in the kit: although the kit allows you to mix colors, the formula of BE mineral foundations is not as forgiving as those from other companies. Unless you find the right shade, you end up with the color on your face looking different than your neck;
• want a matte foundation: since bismuth oxychloride is involved, it gives your skin a glow that will transform into a greasy look once you go outside and sweat;
• have oily skin: the faster way to achieve the greasy look is having oily skin. It took me about 15 minutes to go from glowy to oily when I did not even break a sweat.

My take on BE is: there are so many wonderful MMU companies out there that makes great products for a fraction of what BE costs. Therefore, you should not waste your money on them. If you already did, make sure not to throw away the brushes as they are made from good quality materials. I ditched BE for about 4 years now and have never looked back. And why should I since there are so many wonderful things out there for me!

Have fun y'all and stay tuned for tomorrow when I review Everyday Minerals.

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

7 Days and 7 Nights: Introduction to Mineral Makeup

Happy Monday! Welcome to our first installment of the "7 Days and 7 Nights" series on mineral makeup (MMU). Recently, MMU has been at such a rage that even Sephora featured it on their front page! That's when you know MMU finally hit mainstream.

Mineral Makeup on Sephora front page in April 2008
Image copied from Ms. K's blog

So what is mineral makeup and why people get so excited about it?

The term "mineral makeup" was coined by Diane Ranger, the owner of Colorscience and founder of Bare Essentuals, in 1977. After reading Egyptian history, Ms. Ranger discovered that ancient Egyptians used minerals as sun protectants and it inspired her to use minerals as makeup. The raw minerals used in MMU are minerals from the earth and the sources are all over the world. (1)

Common ingredients in MMU are:

1. Titanium dioxide: inert minerals that provides coverage and sun protection;
   
2. Zinc dioxide: inert minerals, gives sun protection and has anti-inflamatory property;
   
3. Mica: inert minerals, diffuses light and provides smoothness to the skin. Mica is a group of mineral ingredients that come in different colors, varying from pale green, brown, black or colorless;
   
4. Bismuth oxychloride: inert minerals that gives the creaminess to MMU, most commonly used in mass-produced MMU in big makeup companies. Bismuth oxychloride is known to cause skin itches in people who are allergic to it, myself included;
   
5. Iron oxides: inert minerals, depending on its oxidative states, iron oxides can have various colors from red, brown, black, orange, and yellow.

There are also other ingredients that are used as color pigments such as manganese violet, chromium oxide green, ultramarine blue, carmine, and ferric ferrocyanide. Some companies such as Silk Naturals also add silk powder which is a natural ingredient to their products to provide smoothness, absorb extra moisture (on oily skin) or pulls moisture from the air (for dry skin).

To me, a makeup product is considered "mineral makeup" when it has the first three ingredients as the major ingredients. Also, it does not contain any skin irritants and pore clogging ingredients such as mineral oils (petrolatum, petroleum oil,...), talc (big no no as it clogs pores major time!), parabens (a preservative which we don't need in MMU). When you read a label of a product that said "mineral makeup" and it has more than 10 ingredients, most of which you can't pronounce their names, chances are they are not real MMU.

Since ingredients of MMUs are inert and they are in powder form, they are self-preservative as bacteria cannot grow on them. Also, MMUs are non-fragrant products which eliminate another cause of skin irritation. So, a product with no preservatives, no fragrants, no additives but just pure earth in the mineral form can be a good thing. For people with acne-prone or sensitive skin, switching to MMU is the way to go as the real MMU products are really gentle for the skin. Also, MMU has other micronized ingredients that are good for your skin such as zinc oxide to calm irritated skin.

Bismuth oxychloride, while is a natural mineral, can cause skin irritation to those who are allergic to it. Yours truly is one of them and I found out the hard way as well. My first MMU kit was Bare Essentuals and it has bismuth oxychloride in all of the products. Whenever I went to the sun and sweat, my cheeks and face were on fire. Later on, my face had more zits than when I used regular foundation and I could not figure out why. Until I realized that I am allergic to bismuth oxychloride, I did not touch a fleck of MMU. And it was a long time!

Another potential allergic ingredient to your skin is pure silk. Although allergy cases to pure silk is rarer than those of bismuth oxychloride, they do occur. So if you start using a new product and feel itchy, my suggestion is to stop using it totally for some days to see what happens. If continuing usage lets to itchiness then you should stop using that product all together.

Using MMU is fun in my opinion because you get to try different brushes and application tools. If you are a creative person and simply love makeup brushes, I guarantee you will collect a whole lot of them in the future, once you start using MMU.

I guess I just covered the basics of mineral makeup. As we progress into the week, we will discuss more aspects of this new makeup trend. Please feel free to ask me any questions. I'd love to hear from you.

Have a nice week ahead,
Your Makeup Blogger

Happy Sunday!

There's nothing like Sunday, the last day of the week when you get to spend those last hours to recharge your energy as well as prepare for the next week. I hope you are having a nice Sunday when reading this because I am.

It seems like a long time ago when I posted my first entry but actually, it's not that long! I'm glad I finally write something about skin care and makeup, which I love, and share it with the world. I'm not a guru or anything, I'm just like you: someone who loves to beautify herself.

I have a plan for next week and it's something I hope will inspire someone. Ready?

Next week we are having our first mini-series ever called "Seven Days and Seven Nights" where I am going through a group of products that I've used and review them. Our first installment of "Seven Days and Seven Nights" will be about mineral makeup. I know there are other blogs out there that discuss about mineral makeup intensively but it doesn't hurt to read another one. I don't intend to turn this into a mineral makeup blog because I don't use mineral products exclusively. I have a mix of products to use everyday and I like to diversify my makeup stash.

I have a rough sketch of what I'm going to talk about next week for this series:

• Monday: Introduction to Mineral Makeup
• Tuesday: Bare Minerals, the company that started it all
• Wednesday: Everyday Minerals, my re-starter mineral makeup company
• Thursday: Silk Naturals, my love
• Friday: Aromaleigh, the funky company
• Saturday: The She Space, MAC alternative?
• Sunday: Urban Apothecary and their pigments.

If it feels like a mineral makeup boot camp next week then it is. Somehow I need to speak out about mineral makeup as there are many misconceptions out there about this line of makeup products. All six companies above, I've used their products and I don't have any monetary compensations from them to ensure you my candid and unbiased opinions.

So I hope you will enjoy this first installment of "Seven Days and Seven Nights". After this, if you feel that we need another installment, just let me know.

Have fun!
Your Makeup Blogger