Shining. (Bare Escentuals i.d. Bareminerals Foundation)

Member Name: Vaula

Product:	Bare Escentuals i.d. Bareminerals Foundation
Date:	22/06/09 (158 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 'Glowy' finish if you like that, easy to apply.

Disadvantages: Irritated my skin, too shiny/moisturising (for my sensitive combo skin),too glowy for my taste.

Bare Escentuals was the first mineral foundation I tried when mineral products started to show up on shelves everywhere. The foundation is in powder form and is packaged in a minimalist, stylish looking cylinder shaped pot, with a see-through bottom and black lid.

The powder is very fine, and is easy to apply with any soft mineral powder brush. The finish the powder leaves is what you could call 'glowy', due to the mica and bismuth oxychloride in it. The glowiness of the foundation is a bit too much for me, as the look of the finish is almost metallic. It will probably work well for fashion photography.

As my skin is a combination one, the foundation starts to look too shiny on my t-zone after I've worn it for half an hour. I wouldn't recommend it for oily/ combination skin due to this. I may work better on dry/ normal skin. What I also find a bit annoying is the way the foundation somehow manages to make pores more visible in some areas by sort of separating around them.

The product seems to irritate my sensitive skin, and made me break out a bit, so later on I tried mixing it 50:50 with my Lily Lolo mineral foundation. It still did it, so I've stopped using it. I recently found out that my skin getting irritated may have been due to the bismuth oxychloride in the powder, so I think I'll need to stick to products that don't have this in them. I would ask for a tester pot to use for a few days to see if your skin can take the foundation before buying the full size one, if you haven't used products with bismuth in them before.

9g pot of the foundation retails at £24.00, which seems to be a fair price if you like the product.

Ingredients: Bismuth Oxychloride, Titanium Dioxide, Mica, Iron Oxides, Zinc oxide

Summary: Didn't work for me, but it's a popular product, so must work for many non-sensitive skins.