I recently ran out of foundation just as pay day rolled around. Yes! I don’t get paid quite enough to go to a department store, or Sephora. I headed to my local Wal Mart. In two aisles of make up there are seemingly one hundred and one foundations to choose from! Ranging from one dollar or so to almost fifteen. I have combination skin with an oily t zone and dry cheeks. I have the occasional mega horrendous zit that needs covering as well. I’m not old enough to worry about covering my lines, wrinkles, and age spots just yet but I do like a decent SPF in my foundation.
I looked at liquids, pressed powders, and mousses. Then I found a couple of all in one limited edition kits just sitting on the bottom shelf! I picked one up to examine it. Hmm, L’Oreal Bare Naturale Mineral Make-Up. Kit includes Light Ivory foundation with perfectly coordinating Pinched Pink blush, and a refill foundation also in light ivory. For a whopping $25. Well it was payday. I was feeling pretty good about it. I mean you see those infomercials on TV all the time advertising the wondrous effects of mineral make up. Healthy glow, even skin tone, covers everything, but so breathable, call in the next thirty seconds for a free toaster, a $10 value, your’s free! So I figure the supermarket equivalent has got to be at least okay. I decided to try it.
I got home and called up a girlfriend of mine who lets me do just about anything to her face (in terms of make up!) We’re about the same skin tone, though she has some acne scaring and a slightly ruddier undertone. We pulled it all out of its plastic packaging and read the back of the box.
“First swirl the brush in the sifter, embedding powder in bristles,” it reads. Hmm. This sounds pretty easy in theory but it practice it was a riot! You take off the plastic cap and then unscrew the top that has the little mini brush attached. Peel off the protective sticker and then. . . . we draw a blank. Do you tap some out into the lid? Hold the brush to it and turn it upside down? Give it a little jiggle? We finally agreed to screw the lid back on, tip it upside down and then open it. Big mistake. We unscrewed the lid and powder fell out everywhere! My couch, her jeans, my pants, my hands, everywhere! Argh. After a little clean up we tried again. We gently swirled, tapped off the excess and I went to work applying it to her four points as directed; forehead, cheeks, and chin. I did a lot of swirling. She said the bristles were soft and soothing. Next I applied the blush. We tried to be a little more careful with it this time but with the same results. Blush. Everywhere. Argh. I applied it to her cheeks, and even after some intense circular motion it still looked a little clownish. I reapplied the foundation over her whole face. Perfect! The blush came through as just a hint of color, a nice flush.
We ran to the bathroom to check her face in a good horribly harsh light. She looked magnificent! Her scarring looked a lot less noticeable, her skin tone looked nice and even, it toned down her ruddiness as well! The blush looked great, she was pretty impressed. And it all took about 10 minutes.
The next morning I decided to try it out on myself. I did notice that it came out a lot easier and was not nearly as messy. Maybe it had all settled in the little tub and needed to be shaken up a bit. It went on very smooth and its very build-able. You can put a light layer on for light coverage and add as many layers as you want. It didn’t look cakey at all. I did have to put a light layer of foundation over the blush again. I tried to apply it with the lightest of touches and it was still just a tad too much, but with the thin top layer it was the perfect flush.
It wore quite nicely through out the day. It doesn’t transfer to clothes and it doesn’t rub off. I did however notice that my cheeks right by my nose looked a tad dry and flakey and gross by the end of the day. But now I put on a light oil free moisturizer before I apply it and it solved that problem straight away.
It’s a pretty good value if you ask me. The foundation usually goes for about $10 (at my local Wal Mart, I’ve seen them for about $15 online) for a 10gram bottle, and the same price for a 4.5 gram blush. Which is still better than the $70 starter kit from Bare Escentuals. And it has an SPF of 19!
All in all I like it though it has a few drawbacks. It does contain talc which can accentuate dry spots and wrinkles. And the box claims its travel friendly when I don’t even find it all that home friendly! It’s a bit messy but I’ve heard almost all mineral make ups are. It gives incredible build-able coverage that still feels light and breathable.
