Where The Heck Is The Eye Liner?
Many women have asked us if we will be offering eye liner pencils to our mineral makeup repertoire. And the answer is, they really are not necessary. This may seem odd that we would say this, especially for ladies new to the mineral makeup world, and are used to the conventional methods of eye color. But the reason is, our mineral eye color comes in deeper, richer shades that also doubles as an eyeliner. However, not to be confused with liquid eyeliner since this is a completely different application and the look is not 100% similar to pencils. One can get close to it, but it won’t have that exact effect of liquid eyeliner.
How You May Ask?
When you are researching a particular shade, especially those with a deeper tone, the pigment is extremely rich and intense. An example is our lustrous eye shadow shade, RAVEN. This is a deep blue black and works extremely well as an eye liner. Plus any of our shades that are deeper in tone in these categories of, browns, reds, blues, deeper shades and greens, all can be used to frame the eye for any look you wish to achieve.
Not to slight all of our other shades however, since it is also fun to use a multi-shading on the eyes by mixing more than one color to complete a framed eye.
Beauty Tip: Take a small dot of your preferred mineral eyeshadow shade and dampen the tips of one of our makeup brushes used for this task with distilled water. The best ones to use are our SLANT or our LINE and SMUDGE. Then dip the damp brush into the color and create the eye line you desire. As the line dries you can even begin to smudge it a bit for more of a smoky look. The staying power is quite remarkable.
Test It: If one is skeptical, test it on the inside of your forearm or the back of your hand. Allow to fully dry and then attempt to wipe if off with your fingers. You’ll see it will pretty much require water and cleanser to remove the pigment.
So again, we offer a time saving and money saving way to increase your mineral makeup repertoire by our minerals performing double duty for multiple tasks, whereby requiring fewer products.
Enjoy!
Craving Those Dewy Cheeks?
Mineral makeup with all of its wonderful diversity makes changing up a look as easy as pie. Many mature ladies, like their younger counterparts, still wish to refresh their appearance on a regular basis. Mineral makeup allows them to do this more than any other type of makeup on the market.
Those that are quite familiar with our products, know that the moist method of application gives the best look of freshly polished skin. Including the use of one of our perfect organic moisturizers for the ultimate in a flawless finish.
The Task Made Simple With Eye Color
For those that haven’t discovered this neat trick, some of our eye colors work wonders as all over face colors or as a boost to cheeks over their natural mineral makeup blush choice.
Next time you come in for a looksie at our eye colors, check out the descriptions for what else they can be used for. It takes only a tiny smattering of eye color on the tips of the brush placed perfectly on the cheek area, whether it is cheek bone or the apple to give them that added subtle, luminous glow. Never shiny or oily looking!
Once placed, then gently sweep over the areas you wish to cover, and you will instantly see a lovely dewy sheen. If you select a shade with more sparkle, this can be countered by moist misting once applied, followed by a light sweeping of the brush to lay the Mica platelets flat against the skin. So the sparkle is reduced and only a nice increased polished finish remains.
Just remember, some of the added sparkle as a face color really makes for a lovely complexion for an evening out on the town when visiting poorly lit venues. Play with minerals in every way possible. You simply can’t go wrong when using them since they are the most forgiving form of makeup available.
Experimentation has never been more fun and easy!
Mineral Makeup Eye Color Diversity
Many women still haven’t discovered the complexities of mineral makeup eye colors. The color you see in the jar versus on the eyelid, can appear completely different. Application techniques will also alter the appearance of your eye shadow. Some great ways to play up or tone down your shade are as simple as different methods of application for getting a soft or intense look each and every time without having to change the actual color.
Beauty Tips: Methods For Different Looks
- The Dry Method: This will make a shade softer, not as intense and if there is shimmer in the shade it may appear more sparkly.
- The Moist Method: (aka foiled) Spritzing the eyelid or using a damp brush with distilled water will intensify a shade, or take a pearlescent shade and make it appear more matte, removing the sparkle. A shimmery shade, the color will appear richer in tone increasing the shine without added sparkle, and the staying power is increased.
- Ultimate Application: This is using our Vitamin Rich Facial Serum as a primer for the eyelids. Simply massage a tiny dot into the eyelid and while the lid is still damp, apply the color of your choice either dry or with a damp brush and watch the shade really come to life. Shimmers become intense to the point of almost appearing metallic. The staying power is increased immensely, semi matte shades become rich and deep with luscious color.
What if the serum dries before I finish applying my eyeshadow?
Best part; with the our Vitamin Rich Facial Serum being used, you can simply reactivate it by spritzing the area with some distilled water, allowing you to finish the look you are going for. Not only will you enjoy incredible looking shades for creating gorgeous eyes, but you will also experience the benefits our facial serum has to offer.
Like all things you use, please check our list of ingredients to make sure your skin will do well and won’t contribute to any skin sensitivities you may be experiencing at the time.
Achieving Soft Focus Using Mineral Makeup
As all of our customers know, we offer a variety of ingredients that support the desire for achieving soft focus when using our mineral makeup. However, there is more to enjoying soft focus with our minerals, it is also to understand what exactly this means, and to what degree is soft focus truly achieved through the actual perception of this claim.
Reality Check
Soft focus is designed to soften lines and to blur life’s imperfections, making us look younger and revitalized. Although our minerals offer this, soft focus is also like the lens on a camera, it creates the illusion of perfection through microspheres that temporarily fill and soften lines and large pores, while the minerals help refract light (bounce back).
The desired effect is typically enjoyed from several feet away or more. There is not a single product on the market offering soft focus properties that can withstand scrutiny up close or when using a magnifying mirror. The perception has been that if we use mineral makeup products purporting to offer soft focus, that we are absolutely flawless under any and all conditions.
Another example of losing soft focus is up close and personal with digital photography. With this fabulous technology available today, there is no hiding the things we wish to without a touch of photo-shop unless the photo is taken from a few feet away. Meryl Streep at age 60, shows a perfect example of how distance from the camera gives her softer focus with seeing just a hint of her fine lines around her eyes and mouth, so her choice of makeup works for her, which is not ours to our knowledge. However, getting extremely close up, creates sharpness to the photo and her lines are now more defined, though she is still quite beautiful.
Keep Looking Beautiful
What also is important to avoid, is highlighting lines so they become runways to emphasizing our age by using products that don’t creep or shift into the lines or wrinkles on our faces. This is the beauty of our mineral cosmetics, they will not creep or budge once set on the skin after they are applied properly. Soft focus is achieved when using our mineral formulas, and one can enjoy the overall experience of looking youthful and invigorated, while also understanding, this look is enjoyed from several feet away, the equivalent of the hand we offer to that new person we meet, in the form of a handshake.
Beauty Tip For Aging Skin: As women mature and we develop more lines and wrinkles, extra care should be taken to buff well around the lines since due to the polymer nature of our minerals they can collect in lines during application.
For Example; around the eyes, be sure to get wide eyed to smooth the lines, or lines above the mouth, be sure to stretch this area over your upper teeth to smooth out the lines, allowing you to remove excess that may have gathered there. Blurring is fabulous, but can be negated if too much product remains in the lines around our mouth or eyes.
Additional Examples: Or you can go to our YouTube page and visit Katherine using her minerals. She was 52 years old at the time of filming these, and there are plenty of before and after shots so you can see the difference with and without her mineral makeup.
Mineral Makeup Primer…Is It Necessary?
This question has been asked by a few women as to whether or not they require a primer before using our mineral makeup. The good news is, a primer is not needed when using Sterling Minerals Cosmetics. Plus this defeats the purpose of keeping skin unobstructed from skin occluding ingredients.
The use of a primer in regard to our minerals, is actually counterproductive to the performance of our unique blend of mineral powders. Due to their composition, ours perform best and conceal beautifully when used with an excellent moisturizer and then spray misted to set, or applied with the mineral makeup foundation moist method of application. This method literally melds the minerals to the skin in the same fashion as a liquid foundation but without the occlusive nature a liquid can cause.
Why Are Primers Created Then?
Primers work wonderfully for liquid applications in order to prevent slippage or creeping, and to help fill scars or blemishes on the skin, basically creating a smoother surface. Some mineral makeup companies are now creating primers for their product line in order to improve performance of their minerals.
A mineral makeup primer might work well and maybe necessary for products that are made with just mica, bismuth oxychloride, colorants and minerals, and with little else in them. But these ingredients don’t perform well for long lasting coverage, whereby, perhaps making the argument for why some (larger well known) companies are now offering them to help with smoothing and staying power for an otherwise substandard mineral product. They may also assist with reducing irritation some mineral makeup can still cause women.
It also depends on the primer. Using a primer everyday can contribute to bouts of acne and since primers were designed to create a barrier between your skin and the makeup, this can cause problems for mineral makeup application. A primer may smooth the skins surface and aid in preventing melt out, but it will not allow for the natural melding to the skins facial oils or the moisturizer you used, making the minerals appear chalky, caked or appeared separated from the skin. Basically, sitting atop the skin instead of looking natural. In the long run, the skin may actually appear more aged than it is.
Why Does This Happen?
We investigated a variety of mineral makeup primers and in each and every one, they all contained some form of silicone derivative. Not just one, but a variety used in combination. As we have explained in another article, silicone acts temporarily on the skin to provide soft focus and can be an excellent pore filler, while also creating a seal over the skin, preventing skin adhesion of the mineral powders.
Again, due to the composition of our ingredient profile, the minerals combined with the other ingredients, including Jojoba Oil, contribute to perfect melding to the skin along with a propensity for having long lasting staying power and soft focus provided by our polymerized methicone encapsulated mica. Creeping, slippage or melt out just doesn’t happen with our mineral makeup, and this includes women with oily skin. Our products provide minerals and a primer all in one. They not only aid in keeping skin cool and dry, but perform nicely for all skin types, while helping to smooth fine lines and hide other facial imperfections.
They finish the face flawlessly and remove the practice of having to perform repeated touch-ups throughout the day.
Beauty Tip: For best results, we also don’t recommend using our mineral veils as a primer prior to your mineral foundation, since best results are achieved when application occurs after you moisturize. These are best used for a subtle finish on top of your foundation, and for humidity, perspiration and oil control.
Best Approach
Believe it or not, despite the popularity of mineral makeup, it is amazing how many women are still entering into the mineral makeup and natural skincare world for the first time.
They have read all the information across the internet super highway, and are still trying to understand the differences between all the many mineral makeup brands available. It is definitely a daunting task to be sure. We have had women searching for as much information as they can find on mineral cosmetics and skincare products, only to locate our site which continually updates and educates about all things such as ingredients, regulations, and the basics to learn how to approach making their first purchase.
Trial and Error
Of course, there is always going to be a certain level of trial and error, and finding that perfect color match or ingredient profile may take some time. Or they will nail it the first time around and those are the lucky ones. But sampling for a trial period is the norm, and is always the best approach to determine best color and best use for a particular skin type. Samples are easy, affordable, and allow for a small investment of time and money to make sure the products are performing for a particular skin type or purpose. Ingredient decks are always available with every mineral makeup and skincare product offered, so if there is a concern over a certain ingredient, it can be avoided.
And of course, when in doubt, we ask that they write to us or call us so we can answer any questions or concerns they may have.
Best Advice for Beginners to Our Minerals and Skincare
When beginning any new regimen of makeup or skincare products, even though you may purchase them all at once, we advise introducing them one at a time in order to identify the source in the unlikelihood of a reaction, especially those with known sensitive skin issues. Changing up a complete regimen can cause skin to have a reaction or slight irritation simply because it is too much for the skin to handle. And by introducing a product one at time, you can eliminate easily which product may be the cause.
Plus, by allowing skin to adjust and get used to the new products, what may have initially caused a reaction because it was all too much at once, may end up working in the long run because it was introduced gradually, allowing pH and skin to normalize to the new ingredients.
Many women are excited with their new purchases, but it is best to take ones’ time through the use of samples where available, to avoid disappointment or confusion on what works best, and this will keep the investment of time and money to a minimum before investing in full size products.
The smoother the transition, the happier you and your skin will be.
As women age, we tend to get areas on our necks and chest that crease or fold providing a spot for perspiration to gather and remain, sometimes causing discomfort in those areas. The skin can get irritated or even develop a slight heat rash. Women in menopause are all too familiar with this phenomenon.
Our Satin Rose Mineral Veil is not just fo setting your mineral makeup, but for using on areas, you wouldn’t normally think of placing it. Whether you are wearing your daily mineral makeup or not, just pick up a small amount of mineral veil on your mineral makeup brush and sweep it onto these areas or any other spot you have that tends to hold perspiration, and Satin Rose Mineral Veil, will not only cool those areas, but will help to soothe and absorb the perspiration, keeping those areas drier. Plus, mineral veil will also help with slip, whereby reducing friction on the skin and the irritation caused by it.
Some areas of concern, are the back of the neck, the area where the neck meets the collarbone, and down into the decollete. Satin Rose Veil also stands up to moisture by having hydrophobic properties, helping it to stay put throughout the day.
So next time you feel hot and uncomfortable, try a spot of Satin Rose Mineral Veil on those areas, and see if it doesn’t assist with keeping you cool and dry.
Also, on the days you do wear your mineral makeup, try placing some of your Rose Petal Foundation in these areas as well, followed by a layer of Satin Rose Veil for added moisture protection.
