This month’s Marie Claire Magazine had hidden away inside it a gem – a page entitling you to one free sample of BareMineral’s Original Mineral Foundation and a sample mini Kabuki brush. Although I wasn’t that keen on the magazine, I was pretty ecstatic when I flicked onto this page – let’s just say my friends around me couldn’t understand how or why I had gotten so excited about a powder [mineral] foundation.
The thing is I have been desperate to try this for such a long time now – but as someone who has always had a fear of powder foundations and with the price at £23 (which isn’t that bad, but steep enough for me to be stingy with my money) I had never really been brave enough to dish out the cash and try it. But now was my chance and I wasn’t going to miss out on it.
So off I popped to my local Bare Escentuals store, which isn’t that local actually, and handed over the page for my free sample. Unfortunately, after a colour match and shock horror at the shade one up above mine being stark orange, they discovered that they had run out of my shade, but rather kindly filled in an empty pot with some BareMinerals Mineral Foundation – only instead of the Original version, she gave me the Matte one…not exactly the one the I was after but what the heck! “I’ll give it a try anyway” – I said.
2 weeks on from having got the sample I have to admit that my fear of powder/mineral foundation has been blown out of the water…or maybe just in the case of BareMineral foundation. Although it is still ever so slightly powdery on my face, I don’t particularly mind, besides I think that may have something to do with the fact that the lady at the store gave me the Matte version instead.
Pros:
- Throughout the day it starts to mix with my skin type and turn from a rather matte, dry finish to a lovely glowy, dewy finish (the finish that I would rather it start out with)
- Has amazing staying powder…although I’m not sure whether this has something to do with the fact that it’s the matte version.
- Relatively easy to apply – swirl the brush in a small amount of powder in the lid, tap of any excess, and buff it into the skin.
- Don’t need that much product to cover the whole face.
- Pretty good coverage – especially for a powder foundation, which I seem to always have the preconception that coverage is poor.
- Or at least the coverage is better than most tinted liquid foundations.
- Has an SPF of 15 which isn’t bad – always handy to have in any foundation.
- It’s a mineral foundation free from chemicals that can harm the skin or cause breakouts…that’s always a plus!
- I even wore it to the gym once (admittedly not the best idea- but I’d come straight from work) and it still kept my face flawless looking!
Cons:
- The matte version is quite drying on my skin at first.
- Quite expensive at £23 (although available from feelunique.com for £18.80 delivered) for 8g of product.
- Small variety of shades available – there is a huge difference/gap between Fair (the lightest shade) and Fairly light (the next shade up)
- Fair is a tad warmer than my skin colour, but I can just get away with it as like a tanned version of my skin tone. However, fairly light almost looked bright orange on my skin tone – not sure what happened there…
- So far, my skin hasn’t had any massive breakouts, but I worry that the buffing process into my skin increases my chances of small breakouts under the skin due to the ‘exfoliating-like’ action.
Overall I think I’m at the stage where I can’t determine whether I love it or just like it…I think that I’d probably prefer the Originals version and so next month (that is the month of April) I will be purchasing the full size version of the BareMinerals Original Mineral Foundation and then ultimately compare it and see which I prefer.
The current verdict = Like it.
See below for the video version of this review:
Love it. Like it. Lose it. 