Ok, lets talk mineral make-up, more specifically mineral foundation.

I LOVE the idea of it, light weight but with good coverage, easy to apply, better for your skin. Who wouldn’t?

Every time Bare Escentuals have a showcase on QVC I’m there, glued, staring at the screen in wonder at the transformations. It looks so easy, weightless, flawless.

So when the Body Shop joined the mineral bandwagon a few months back I finally purchased. At the time, they didn’t offer a mineral concealer in the range, not sure if this is still the case, so in the demo I have used L’Oreal Correcteur Mineral in 20. The Body Shop’s Nature’s Minerals Foundation SPF25 in 03 and their Minerals Cheek Colour in 01 Pink Quartz (a raspberry colour).

Now, brace yourself, below is a picture of me completely make-up free. I was in two minds about posting it, lets face it, we’re all pretty insecure when it comes to our slap free faces, but I thought it would be helpful to see that we really do ALL look a bit shite without SOME make-up

Enlarge at your peril!!

Is it a ghost?.... boo!

My problem is mostly in skin tone rather than any actual skin condition. I am pale but not in that beautiful English rose way, more a transluscent, partially jaundiced way lol. In the way where people say “You look a bit peaky, have you not been well love?”. When in fact I’ve never felt better. My natural self looks ill!

My undereye and lids are discoloured, as is my nose, they take the most concealing. I also have quite a few broken veins and pigmentation from sun bed use. Although saying that I fully realise I am not doing badly for almost 30 *cries at thought*, thats probably mostly genetics, my mum has quite good skin. The only acne I really get is hormonal and clears with little bother.

Now, getting back to the mineral foundation, I used L’Oreal Concealer first, brushing it into my under eyes, nose and chin area.

I then used the Body Shop’s large kabuki to apply the foundation is a circular buffing motion. It is buildable and so I coated my face twice. Finally I took the mineral blush and buffed it into the apples of my cheeks (a light hand is needed as its v pigmented).

End result, minus eye make-up, mascara & lip products

The result is very subtle, and herein lies my major problem with mineral make-up. Its too subtle for me really. You can clearly still see my under eye circles. It has evened my skin tone out but the coverage is just too thin to cover problem areas.

The blush is really very nice, gives a beautiful flush. However it is very “sparkly” and not really for every day use IMO.

It is also a messy application. With liquid foundation I squeeze a bit onto the back of my hand and use a brush to apply. Close the lid, wash my hands, job done.

With this, the sieve type layer in the pot that distributes product, just lets too much away. You have to transfer some into the lid and work it into the kabuki, tapping off the excess. Its impossible not to have spillage, and no matter how much you tap off you still end up with a cloud of fall out when you go to apply to the face.

Mineral Foundation also hates moisturiser, for obvious caking reasons. However I for one like to moisturise/ prime directly before applying my face. It just makes everything feel nicer. When I apply this my skin feels a bit tight.

Don’t get me wrong, I will use it, perfect for applying on a day when I’m just doing the school run or the weekly shop, but for events I will be always be a liquid foundation girl. The coverage is far far superior.

Let me know about your experiences with Mineral Foundation please, perhaps its just the Body Shop’s version that doesn’t perform fantastically? xox