Mineral Makeup Mess Tips

Found it pretty useful.

Tutorial: Pressing mineral powder/pigments

Decided to press some of the mineral powder/ pigments I have. So here's a quick tutorial on how to do it.

1. Get ready the following items:

- a scoop/spatula (this came from Silk Natural foundation kit. It's very tiny)
- your pigments/powder (I'm pressing my Everyday Minerals powder)
- a dropper for dripping alcohol (got this from Daiso. It's inside their cosmetic jar travel kits)
- metal pans (from Coastal Scents. Cheap if you just buy the pans. But it's better if you have a compact for storing them so you can consider their custom compacts too.)
- Isopropyl alcohol ( it makes you high! :D kidding....)
- toothpicks (missing from photo)


2. Sterilize your tools with cotton bud with isopropyl alcohol. Let them dry.

Warning. I use the "flooding" method and I don't try to press them until it's a full pan. I find it fuss-free. But the end product might not always be nice. I'll explain later.

3. Scoop powder into the pan. Then spread it evenly. Try to fill half of the pan.

4. Using the dripper, drip isopropyl alcohol into the pan gently (or else powder will fly up). Keep adding until you think it's enough to "melt" the powder inside.



5. Using the toothpick, stir the powder and the isopropyl alcohol. Keep stirring until the powder can no longer be seen, as if everything has "melted". You have to make sure it's stirred thoroughly or else when it dries and you use it, it will return to powder state.

6. Sit it aside and let it dry.



7. When it is about 80% dry, place a kitchen towel over the pans. As these are eyeshadow pans, place a 20 cent coin over the kitchen towel and press hard. This will force excess moisture out and make the pigments be pressed tight. (I didn't do this part because when I returned, they look super dry)



8. Leave them to dry overnight. If you are afraid of dust, use something to cover over them.

9. Put them in a nice compact. Tada!


Left side: Everyday Minerals concealer in Pick Me up Pink and Peach.
Right Side: Simply Naturals pigment in Sweetheart. Everyday Minerals concealer in Lavender.

I love the end product. But when I swatched it, it didn't turn out well. I'll wait for it to dry thoroughly and use it tomorrow. I've pressed them in pill box before and generally the Everyday Minerals concealers work fine when pressed.

I used the "flooding" method because it's neater that way. But it's a waste of isopropyl alcohol. And sometimes the powder doesn't get mixed up thoroughly. You can compare with the other method which requires you to mix separately in another jar until it's a paste form before spreading it on the pans. It's mentioned in this tutorial.



Pressing pigments (to me) depends on the brand of the pigments too. And sometimes luck.

For Everyday Minerals, isopropyl alcohol alone will do the job.
For M*A*D Minerals, it's not enough. The powder will crumble. You have to mix one drop of glycerin as a binder in the isopropyl alcohol (pour it out for mixing).
For Joppa Minerals, do the same as M*A*D. But it's not fool-proof all the time. Joppa doesn't seem to stay pressed well.

Generally, if you want to start, test with a pigment which you don't really like first. So that if it fails, you wouldn't feel so much of a pain. If you want to fill it to a full pan, try to press twice like in the youtube video. This will help to ensure that the entire pan is dry.

Good luck. :)

New Hauls: Silk Naturals

Received my mini haul today. Very excited.

I caved it because I wanted Precious. It's a dupe for Eve Pearl's Hunny Bunny. :)
Here's it.



Bought:

- Precious lip gloss (Clone of Hunny Bunny. Swatched only this and it was so pretty. Need to try this soon.)
- Sample Jamie Blush (something that I've been wanting to try. The shade is different from other Silk Naturals blushes I've got. They are about to remove it from the site)
- Sample Concealer Sleep In a Jar - Medium (Light Peach was too light for me)
- Sample Heavy Coverage Ivory Foundation Base (I want to mix my own concealer :D)
- Sample Glow Foundation Base (it's their new foundation base which is slightly more glow-y)
- Yellow Color Booster for foundation (It's SUPER yellow. I totally love it. I could totally tweak my foundation to the right amount of yellow now and maybe even do a yellow concealer for the undereyes. I've left posts asking Everyday Minerals to invent these pure colored bases so that it's easier for tweaking foundations but apparently EDM didn't hear me. But Silk Naturals did. Love them. I think I whined a little that when we have sprees for Silk Naturals, shipping gets expensive. And they added that FREE shipping for large orders soon after. :D Love love love how Silk Naturals respond to customers.)

Here's Jamie Blush and Sleep in a Jar - Medium upclose. Yeah I know the amount of samples in the 5g jar is so little. That's the only thing I'm not happy with. But as their ingredients are expensive and they are a small company struggling against other bigger mineral makeup companies, I guess we cannot complain.



Colours are a little off. But I kind of like the look of Jamie. The concealer looks promising too.

And here's the freebies.


Got the Green Goddess mask for making USD$10 of orders . It's a clay mask in powder forum. Not very exciting but I didn't mind trying. Silk Naturals likes to slip a freebie for customers to try. Don't want to complain but I got Tender lip gloss AGAIN. It's a little gross they give lipgloss, cream liners samples in a cotton bud bu oh well, at least it's a freebie.

If you are tempted to make an order too, just thought you would like to know that they give 5% discount off for first-timer orders. Just key in the code "friend" before checking out. :D

Review: Joppa Tinted Concealer Base

I realised I've lost interest in spreeing/online shopping recently.

Only ordered this tinted concealer base from Joppa Minerals. One item.



But you see two, or rather four items? No your eyes aren't playing tricks. I got a free eyeshadow sample along with my item. But instead of one package, two packages turned up at my door. Think I got lucky.



Sorry the ingredient list is blurred.

The tinted concealer base is recommended for those using mineral makeup concealer. It's suitable for those who find their powder concealer not adhering well to their face.

A quick review. The texture of the base is like lip balm in jars. It's not creamy, but rather dry in the pot and would need a good rub to get some out. But I find it moisturizing and spreads rather easily on the face. It gives a sheer coverage and goes on a little tinted. I think it might show up distinctly on very fair skin but for me, it wasn't obvious and helps to conceal a little bit.

Tested it with Everyday Minerals colour correctors for the undereye (Peach and Sunlight). I had problems with them for correcting my dark eye rings because the powder concealer just refuse to stick no matter how I applied them. And yes, with this, it works very well for me. But it's still very likely for the area to turn cakey if too much powder is used as the powder adheres to the base quite well.


Pros: Smooth application, moisturizing, powder adheres well to it.

Cons: Very unhygenic to keep digging your finger into the pot (I hate lipbalms in pots/jars)

Overall, I think it's not too bad since it works for me. But it does look like something that will dry out quickly.

Joppa is offering free shipping until 5 March 2009. Order your stuff fast if you want to enjoy the deal. :)

The She Space Cinderella Collection

I received it this package from The She Space few days ago. This package is way delayed. I think got lost somewhere during the holiday season so it never turned up after waiting for 2 months. Apparently I wasn't the only one who reported a lost package. Heather was rather prompt in sending out replacement packages for everyone. This replacement package turned up two weeks later. I think she hired more workers so it's a whole lot faster if you order from them.

The She Space's Cinderella collection is totally gorgeous. I regretted it when I didn't order it earlier in August last year. Luckily they brought back the whole collection at the end of the year. This collection has already been taken down off their site now. I would have ordered the whole collection in full sizes if I have the money, but I didn't. So it's just samples for me.



the neutrals, pastels, pinks are so lovely.



I don't really like the greens and reds(reddish brown). I think the blues were really gorgeous.

Sorry these photos don't do justice at all. The colours are way gorgeous in real life.

These photos will give a better idea.





The She Space eye pigments are really cheap at US$0.50 a sample. Usually, I will maximise the cart at US$20 so that it's really worth the US$2 shipping. However, it can be a chore trying to organize pigments in baggies. I'm having a headache over them right now.

I'm thinking of getting their Astrology collection some time soon too. Very cool collection. :)

Review: Maybelline Pure Mineral Foundation and Blusher

Source: http://www.puremineral.com.sg/

Earlier, I had received a PM from a cotter to help try out the Maybelline Pure Mineral products (it pays to be noisy on a forum :P )but I had declined because I'm allergic to Maybelline Angelfit (it makes me itch :( ).

But, later chiaberry passed me a sample of hers to try. :D So I managed to test it without having to let it go to waste. So here's my review. I got to test out shade Light Ochre OC1 and blusher was Rose.

So here's my thoughts. (I'm judging it with some knowledge in mineral makeup). It goes on pretty well, very light just like any mineral makeup will do. The foundation shade was a little off for (too beige and maybe a little dark) but it doesn't seem to be very "off" compared to real mineral makeup (which can be pretty obvious when you get the wrong undertones on). Also it gives a glow on your face, but it turns out to be over-glowy for me after a while. I suppose it's due to the bismuth oxychloride which is added in most non-mineral makeup to give a glowy look.

The blusher was very natural, not so glowy as the foundation. There are 3 shades to play with and I liked how they labelled it. If you are warm-toned, you can buy Peach. If you are neutral, you can get Rose. If you are cool-toned, you can buy Cool pink (honestly I forgot what's the third blusher called).

I do not own the Maybelline kabuki brush but I seriously think it is very rough when I touched it while testing at Watsons. There are better kabukis out there so if you need a brush to use with this foundation, buy a new one. I recommend Everyday Minerals because their kabukis are really soft and price is cheap (when you buy in kits. I can't get enough of their brushes. I'm still planning to buy more.)

Please bear in mind Pure Minerals is not true mineral makeup. Like L'oreal/Revlon/Red Earth mineral makeup, it still contains ingredients that are comedogenic. Bismuth oxychloride is one example that irritates the skin and it can lead to breakouts in some girls.

If you are already a user of real mineral makeup, I would suggest you to forget about this product. It is very likely you'll get a breakout from it when you switch from your powder to this due to the bismuth oxychloride. I did get a bump after using it.

If you are a user of commericial non-mineral makeup, and you wish to try this product, go ahead. I think it's still a little better than commercial makeup out there. There are currently 4 shades available. From what I remembered, it's OC1, W02, B01 and maybe R01. It's very limited shades and like one shade for each undertone family. If you can't find a match, don't buy it. Just wait for new shades to come. Foundation costs $25.90 and blusher costs $19.90.