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

Member Name: charby

Product:	Bare Escentuals i.d. Bareminerals Foundation
Date:	29/06/09 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Best foundation I've ever used, works very well, good value, good for your skin potentially

Disadvantages: None whatsoever

I hope that I won't turn many of you against me by saying this, but I have very clear skin. I've never had acne or many spots at all, and my skin is neither too oily or too dry. I do have the occasional spot or some discolouration, but in general the only thing that I don't like about the state of my face is the dark circles under my eyes. My clear skin has always been something that my friends say they're jealous of (but since most of them are prettier and skinnier than me, I don't feel too sorry for them). Anyway, I'm not mentioning this fact out of boasting, but to make you all aware throughout this review that I am not the type of person who feels that they have to cover up much on their face. This fact is probably important to bear in mind, as if you feel that you have many imperfections, you may not feel the same way about this foundation as me.

Since my skin is generally ok, I usually find that lightly tinted moisturiser is enough to brighten my face when I want to look a bit better than average. There are times, however, that I want to look my best, and on these occasions I've found that tinted moisturiser and all previous foundations that I've owned simply won't do. One of my friends recommended Bare Minerals to me, and since her makeup always looks great and I'd read many positive reviews of it on Dooyoo and Ciao, I decided to take the plunge and buy some for myself. I was still fairly wary, however, as the last foundation I'd bought had also been on a friend's recommendation, and whereas it looks great on her skin, it appeared blotchy and streaky on mine.

Fortunately, I didn't have this problem with Bare Minerals SPF 15 foundation, and have to say that it is the best foundation that I have ever used. I got two small 2g pots of foundation as part of a Bare Minerals Get Started Kit, which I thought was excellent value at £38.25 for two pots of foundation, one pot of bronzer, one pot of mineral veil, a bottle of Skin Rev-er Upper and three makeup brushes of varying sizes. Since to buy the three individual brushes separately would have cost in the region of £60, and to buy full sized foundation, bronzer and mineral veil would have cost me over £40, the Get Started Kit is definitely the thing to buy if you're a Bare Minerals virgin. The set also comes with a handy booklet explaining the best ways to apply your new makeup as well as a DVD, which makes getting started so much simpler.

Anyway, onto the foundation itself. Since I had ordered a kit for light skin, I received my foundation in the shades 'light' and 'fairly light', though rather confusingly 'light' is darker than 'fairly light', whereas I thought that it would be the other way around. Since I am pretty pale, and my friend who is more tanned than me suits the 'light' shade, I started off by trying the paler shade that I received, and was happy to discover that it matched my skin tone perfectly. The handy booklet suggested using the flawless face brush for applying the foundation, and so this is the one that I used.

Since I have never used powder or mineral foundation before, I was fairly nervous before attempting to apply Bare Minerals foundation for the first time. After all, I didn't want to find out that I'd wasted £38 on something that I didn't know how to use! Fortunately, the booklet gave a handy step by step guide on how to apply it. Firstly, you take the pot and open it (quelle surprise) and you will see a plastic cover with small holes in it half way down the pot, with the mineral foundation underneath. To get some of the foundation out, shake the pot gently (with the lid on if you want to be careful), and then tip some of the powder out onto the lid of the pot. Then, take your brush, and swirl the brush in the small amount of powder you have onto the lid, and tap off any excess before applying it to your face in gentle, circular motions. You then repeat this process until you have applied foundation to all of your face, and voila!

I have to admit that I felt rather pleased with myself after I'd finished putting on this foundation for the first time, as not only had I managed to do it without making a mess or making myself look ridiculous, I was also very happy with how nice my face looked with it on. Although my skin didn't look terrible before application, with this makeup on my face looked much smoother and brighter, and any signs of discolouration had gone. The only real problem left was that I could still see the dark circles under my eyes, but fortunately they weren't going to be there for long!

The booklet in my kit also suggested that you can use the mineral foundation as a light concealer by using the Maxcoverage Concealer brush dipped in some of the powder, and so I decided to give this a go as well. Again, by getting some of the foundation in the lid of its pot and dipping the smaller brush into it, I had enough powder on my brush to apply a healthy amount to the dark circles under my eyes. After spending a few minutes building up the coverage slowly, I found that my eyes had never looked better, and that using this foundation with a concealer brush was even an improvement on using my expensive Touche Éclat concealer pen! To say that I was delighted was an understatement.

While I have only been using this foundation for two weeks now, I feel that I should share with you all how much I love using it, and how much I would recommend it to all of you women out there (and men, who am I to judge?) as it is the best foundation that I have ever used. Since Bare Minerals SPF 15 is mineral makeup, it's in no way bad for your skin, unlike many other foundations on the market, and since it contains sun protection it can also help to stop you from burning in the sun.

Like I said, I have been using this foundation for two weeks, and am less than a third of the way through my small 2g pot, and so I reckon that I won't need to buy any more for another month or so. Since the full sized foundations available are 9g (yes, this foundation is extremely light) then, mathematically, you should only need to replace your pot every six months or so. These pots have a RRP of £24, but most websites that stock it charge less than £20 for it, so you won't even have to spend £40 a year on perfect foundation if you use this brand. While this may sound like a lot if you're used to a cheaper brand, to me it's definitely worth it for the quality and the fact that it's mineral.

Before I finish this review, I will just quickly mention the couple of bad points about this foundation. Firstly, I've found that sometimes when I shut the pot after use, I am greeted by a small cloud of powder escaping from the top, and every time I see this, I am worried about how much of my makeup is escaping this way. Secondly, it's sometimes difficult to control how much foundation you get onto the lid of the pot, which can mean that it's sometimes hard to get enough foundation to cover your face, and that other times you may end up with too much in the lid, and then it's hard to get the right amount onto your brush and avoid looking like you've used too much. I must stress that these are only very small problems, which only occur rarely, but for the sake of a balanced review I felt that they deserved a mention.

So, to conclude, I couldn't recommend this makeup more. It's easy to use, very high quality, and only needs reapplication during the day if you have very oily skin or have been sweating a lot (nice, I know), and is definitely worth the price. I would suggest buying a Get Started Kit if you are interested in using Bare Escentual's cosmetics, as it comes with all you need to start off with at a much more reasonable price. The RRP for this set is £45, but I managed to get it for £38.25 on Feelunique.com, and there's really no need to pay more. I use one of the palest shades, though they have foundation in a wide range of shades, so you are unlikely to be disappointed even if you have dark skin. A list of all shades can be found on the Bare Escentuals website. Although I have fairly clear skin to start with, friends who are less happy with their natural skin also rave about this foundation, so whoever you are and whatever skin type you have, I urge you to try Bare Minerals, and doubt you'll ever look back!

Summary: A fantastic mineral makeup - definitely lives up to the hype