Loose Powder

Last month, the special Tarte for True Blood items arrived in Sephora stores. This exclusive, limited edition collection includes a palette, cheek stain, and LipSurgence lip tint. As much as I loved the packaging for the palette, I didn’t like any of the eyeshadow colors, so I just got the cheek stain and lip tint.

I like Tarte products because they contain fewer chemicals than other high end cosmetics. These two items are formulated without parabens, synthetic fragrances, phthalates, or triclosan. The LipSurgence also notes on its package that it is free of mineral oil, petrolatum, and sodium lauryl sulfate.

I really like the solid packaging on these products. The cheek stain has a twist on top and you push the bottom up to expose more product. The LipSurgence pencil has a cap that fits securely and you twist the bottom to get more product – no sharpener needed. It doesn’t seem like these colors have any names except for “True Blood.”

The True Blood LipSurgence Lip Tint is a muted matte red with slight iridescence. I didn’t find it to be particularly moisturizing and the scent was a little like waxy mint. It lasts a few hours for me if not eating or drinking, but I don’t feel like it left a noticeable stain.

The True Blood Natural Cheek Stain leaves a sheer wash of red for a healthy flush… and a whole lot of gold glitter. I love the color of the stain, but since I end up layering it, there’s a fair bit of gold glitter that also gets left on my face. Not a fan! I did notice that if I applied the stain with my fingers, there was less glitter transfer.

Here are some swatches and a photo of me wearing both products:

These products are my first tarte Lipsurgence and cheek stain items. I like them both and would definitely buy more from these lines in the future.

The cheek stain retails for $30 and the LipSurgence retails for $24. Tarte for True Blood products are available on Tarte’s website and exclusively at Sephora.

Last year summer, Stila issued four $10 travel palettes and is issuing four more this summer! The $14 Beach Palettes each contain four eyeshadows, a cheek color, and a bronzer/highlighter.

The first of these palettes is Stunning in Sayulita, which was issued in April. This palette has some very lovely neutrals and I was hoping the eyeshadow formulation was better this time around.

These are the colors in the palette:

Eye Shadows:
- Starfish
- Sandbar
- Getaway
- Palm Trees

Cheek Color (powder blush):
- Playa

Highlighter/Bronzer:
- Banderas Bay

The eye shadows from top left, clockwise are: starfish, sandbar, getaway, and palm trees. The top rectangular color is the cheeky color (playa) and the bottom one is the highlighter (banderas bay).

Here are some swatches:

From left to right: Playa, Sandbar, Getaway, Palm Trees, Playa, Banderas Pay.

These colors were a lot nicer to apply than the last Stila travel palettes. The eye shadows are not as chalky, but they’re still not that pigmented. However, for $14, these are some great neutrals and I like the powder blush a lot more than the cream convertible color form last year.

Stila Beach Palettes are available from the Stila website, Sephora, and Zappos.com.

Part of my first Eyeko order included a Cheeky Colour blush in My Coral Crush.  This peachy-coral blush has a very slight shimmer and contains both a lighter and darker shade.

The double-sided compact has the blush on the top side and a mirror and brush on the other.

The blush itself applies very nicely with a subtle wash of color that you can build up. Even though you can see some shimmer in the palette, it doesn’t really show when you’re wearing it.

My Coral Crush Blush is available from Eyeko for $14.

Eyeko is a brand from the UK that I’ve recently discovered via some beauty blogs. They have a small but specialized range of products, all in very cute packaging.

My first Eyeko order was for two Liptastik lip pens and a Cheeky Color blush. The Petite Polish was a free gift using the code on the site. The order arrived in about two weeks with no problems. I look forward to trying some of their other products!

I’ll review the polish and blush in future posts, but for now I’ll talk about the Liptastik Glossy Lip Pens. I ordered two colors: Loud Mouth and Lip Lover.

Loud Mouth is a rose pink color while Lip Lover is a scarlet red.

On their site, Eyeko describes this as a liner, color, and gloss in one. These are definitely highly pigmented. In fact, you’ll probably have a little trouble keeping it from getting everywhere as it smudges like crazy. I suggest a lot of blotting after you apply it. One thing I do like is that even after most of the product wears off, it leaves a bit of color stain on your lips.

Overall, I do like the colors of the Liptastik pens, but I’m not really a fan of the smudging and the transfer. They do look nice after blotting, though.

Alternatively, you can also use these as a cream blush. I just used my fingertips to apply to color on my cheeks and rubbed it in. Looked great!

If  you place an order at Eyeko, be sure to use my Ambassador code to get  a free gift with orders over $20: E13183

After reading a bunch of reviews online about various types of mineral powders with SPF protection, I decided to try Sheer Miracle. I purchased sample sizes of their foundation, finishing powder, blush, bronzer, and green and pink concealers.

The samples come in 1g jars, and they are sealed and clearly labeled. I was surprised to see that the foundation and finishing veils were full 1g jars with sifters. They were definitely worth the $2.50 price. It looks as though the foundation and mineral veils sample would last me about a month of daily use, since I only use a light coverage. The Green concealer and blush are also a decent amount, they are nowhere near full, but they do have quite a few uses in them. For the Pink concealer, since it is a cream it only comes with literally one tiny drop in the jar. For $2.50 I think that is a bit much. I’m sure there are a few uses in the sample, but it would be nice if the single drop were a bit bigger.

Mineral Foundation – Medium Light Neutral and Medium Tan

I generally use Medium Beige for Bare Escentuals foundations, and since I wasn’t sure what color I was for Sheer Miracle, I decided to try the Medium Light Neutral and the Medium Tan. Unfortunately, both colors didn’t work for me. The Medium Light Neutral ended up having a yellow undertone instead of a neutral undertone. As for the Medium Tan, even after being out in the sun hiking for hours, it was still a bit dark for me. Maybe after vacationing in Hawaii for a week, I can use the Medium Tan.

Aside from the poor color matching, the foundations are not matte so they still have a light shimmer to the powders, but not as much as the Bare Escentuals Original foundation, but the light shimmers does not bother me. The foundation gives pretty decent coverage and feels very light. Additionally, it is SPF 30 and I am all for longer sun protection for my face. It’s too bad the colors did not work for me. I would have loved to have had an alternate brand of foundation that cost less than Bare Escentuals.

Bronzer

Sheer Miracle only has one color for bronzer. I found the color to be a bit dark. I prefer my bronzer to be a bit lighter since my skin is already slightly tanned. But I guess with the darker bronzer color I just need very little of the bronzer, so the product would definitely last me a long time.

Blush – Sienna Rose

I picked Sienna Rose because it was recommended for those with Medium complexion. The sample has quite a bit of blush, and the blush is very pigmented like the bronzer. Just a very tiny bit of blush is enough to give your cheeks some color. I usually just tap the excess blush powder off of the cap and dip my brush lightly on the residual blush powder clinging to the cap for the amount of blush I use on my cheek, which is still ample color to give me a rosy hue. At first I thought it might be too much pigment to my liking, but the blush blends very well and gave me natural rosy cheeks with a hint of rouge.

The blush color is a rose color and has a bit of a shimmer in it, but when it is applied to the face, I don’t notice any shimmer on my face.

Finishing Veil – Matte

I really like this finishing veil. The veil is very light and you only need a little bit of powder for your whole face. Usually I would just dunk my kabuki brush once into the jar and that is more than enough to cover my whole face. This finishing veil kind of reminds me of the E.L.F. HD powder.

1g jar with sifter

Finishing Veil – Glow

Apparently, Sparkle is the new “Glow” because this finishing veil is SPARKLY. When I say sparkly, I mean sparkly because just after a dunk of my brush and a once over on my face, I looked like Twilight vampire. A couple years ago, this look might be fun, but if you do not want to look like the latest vampire fad. I would avoid this veil and stick to the matte. However, if you plan to be a sparkling fairy for Halloween, this veil would be perfect.

Concealer – Green

The Green concealer works pretty well, but because I wear such a light coverage of foundation on my face, I have to work a bit on blending the green in to prevent looking like I have splotches of green on face. However, the concealer does give decent coverage. I may prefer using this concealer under a liquid foundation, but that’s just me.

Concealer – Pink

This pink under eye concealer is a cream and “more than meets the eye” is the first thing that pops into mind when I see the little pink dot in the sample jar. The little dot sample of the pink concealer does go a long way because you need very little to get the coverage you need under your eyes. I’ve used this sample for a while, and I still have quite a lot of the tiny dot left. The light pink color works well to lighten the dark under eye circles and goes on very smoothly. Also because of the lightness of the pink it blends easily with foundation.

I found this Flawless Complexion Kit when I was browsing at Target and searching for a mineral face powder and blush. When I came across this kit, I thought it was perfect. The kit included a Mineral Face Powder, Matte Finishing Veil, and Blush all for $19.95, and they were all Talc-Free.  Just the mineral face powder and blush alone are about $25 total, so I figured this kit would be a steal even if I ended up not liking the Matte Finishing Veil.

I’ve have only seen two complexion colors offered in this kit: Light and Medium.  The kit I have is for Medium complexion.  The Mineral Face Powder is in Beige, the Matte Finishing Veil is in Translucent, and the Mineral Blush is in Nude Glow.

Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Face Powder – Beige

So far I quite like Physicians Formula’s Mineral Face Powder.  The powder is very lightweight and it feels as if I have nothing on my face.  The face powder includes a mirror and brush in the compact. I have to say it now; I loathe the brushes that come with the Physicians Formula compacts.  At first I thought they were handy to have, and they are when you don’t have access to a proper brush, but I found that using a flat mini brush to powder my whole face took forever, and I was paranoid about leaving streaks of powder on my cheeks or forehead.  So I tend to use my own powder brush to apply the face powder.   Aside from the brush, I like the face powder.  It gives me the minimal coverage I look for in a foundation powder and it manages to even out my complexion after applying concealer.

Mineral Wear Talc-Free Matte Finishing Veil – Translucent

This matte finishing veil is a loose powder in a container that has a brush attached to the head.  The idea of this design is for the powder to flow through the brush without having to go through the mess that comes with using a brush on loose powders.  Additionally, there is a small mirror on the cap.  I hardly use the mirror because it is very small, and I prefer using a mirror bigger than my thumb to apply my makeup.

At first I wasn’t sure if any powder was coming through the “flow through” brush, but after closer observation, I noticed that powder was coming out of the brush.  As you can see in the picture, it is lighter in the center of the brush where the powder flows through.  Eventually I could feel the powder on my face as well as I applied it over the mineral face powder. I like how it is a very light layer of powder, and it also helps to smooths out my complexion a bit more and eliminates shine.  But there have been times when I forget to apply the finishing veil or just don’t bother because the mineral face powder does a pretty good job by itself.  The matte finishing veil is nice to have, but not necessary for my makeup routine.

Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Blush – Nude Glow

Like the mineral face powder, I do not use the brush that comes with the blush, but aside from that, I like the color of the blush.  It is a pretty neutral color.  It’s a color that does not stand out too much, but it still gives color to my cheeks.  If you are going for the natural minimalistic look, this blush color definitely contributes to the look.

I recently started using this Flawless Complexion Kit as it was intended after I started to run out of my usual liquid foundation. Usually I used the products in this kit to complement other products that I already use.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by the final look achieved by just using these three products.  Previously, I was under the impression that with the badly blemished skin I have, I would need liquid foundation for better coverage.  But even without liquid foundation, the mineral powder and matte finishing veil managed to smooth out my complexion and give me a matte finished look. It was even able to smooth out my very blemished complexion. Please keep in mind to achieve this smoothness on my severely blemished skin; I would put concealer on my blemishes before applying the mineral powder all over my face. This combination manages to give me a final look that is very similar to as if I had used a liquid foundation, if not a more natural look because the mineral face powder is much more lightweight and does not clog my pores, and this is a plus in my book.

At the request of Cyn, I am posting before and after pictures of my test. I apologize in advance for giving anyone nightmares. First picture is me with a clean face. It’s quite horrifying. Again I apologize. Second picture is after I’ve applied concealer then applied the Flawless Complexion Kit. Last picture is after I’ve added bronzer and eye makeup.