I moved to LovelyGood.com

Hey all, good news! I moved my blog to my very own domain yay! So now this blog is hosted at www.lovelygood.com and had a whole new look. So I'll see you there. :)

List of Current Mineral Makeup sales

Here is a list of a few sales being offered right now on Mineral Makeup and Cosmetics:

Lumiere:

• 20% off until the end of the month. 10% of the profits will be going to the American Heart Association. Code: Louie

Milan Minerals:

• Save 30% when you spend $30 or more code: School07
• Spend $20 or more use code: Milan15

I am pretty excited about the Lumiere one, I really love thier brushes. Their synthetic Kabuki is the nicest one I've seen, so now is a goo time to stock up!

Best Budget Beauty Finds

I just love a deal! And there are so many deals to be had out there if you aren't shy of doing some internet shopping.
Here is a list of my favourite budget beauty finds (so far, Keep checking back as I'm sure that this list will grow):

Mineral Makeup:

• Everyday Minerals: Custom kits, Starter kit. This kit contains everything you need to get started in using mineral makeup. It comes with 1 brush, 2 foundations, 1 blush or face colour, 1 concealer, and 1 finishing powder. This is the brand that got me addicted to Mineral Makeup. I love their original glo foundation, and their blushes go on so subtle. My only advice when ordering this kit is to avoid purchasing the kabuki. I have heard poor reviews on their kabuki's I would suggest instead, purchasing the fat-top as a part of the kit. Although not my favourite brush (It doesn't even compare to Lumiere's kabuki) it is my favourite EDM brush. (Rumour has it that Everyday Minerals will be coming out with a line of synthetic brushes, so keep your eyes peeled) This kit is a great deal at under $30 (at the time of this post). Oh yeah and they offer a free sample kit (a must to find your foundation colour, as I find that they colour swatched on their site aren't accurate)
  
• Taylor Made Minerals: Ok, so their website isn't very pretty, i know. But don't let that stop you. They have an amazing selection of mineral makeup eyeshadow colours. Just click on "eye pigments," most pigments are under $4 in price so go crazy . They also offer generous samples for $0.75 to $1.25.

Cosmetic Brushes:

• Coastal Scents: Check out their brushes, they offer a tonne of brushes for great prices. Some are better than others, but for the price you can afford to take a bit of a risk. i have the crease brush and the badger hair buffer brush and a love both.

Fragrance & Fragrance dupes:

• Pittsburgh Street Soapworks: I found this company while looking for an alternative ti Falling in Love by Philosophy. I lived the scent just not the price. I heard through the grapevine that they carried a line of Philosophy dupes. So I bought some samples (see previous posts) and I have loved the quality. They offer a wide array of fragrance dupes for more than reasonable prices. This site is also a little difficult to navigate, and they don;t offer a shopping cart (you have to email them) but perservere and you will get some great products for an amazing price.

Please not that all of the prices may have changes since posting this.

I hope you get some use out of my growing list of beauty deals. I'm sure this list will grow with time!

Pittsburgh Street Soapworks

I received my Pittsburgh Street Soapworks order today, and the smells are to die for! I haven't had the opportunity to try them all yet but the ones I have tried have great staying power! I applied a few scents before my morning shower (in case I didn't like them) and even after my shower I could still smell them. So far I have tried:

• Eqyptian musk- can't say that I like this scent too much, I'm not a huge musk fan but I though that I would try it. It's a softer scent than I expected.
• Citrus Spice - This is a nice cheery scent if you like citrus smell than this is a must-have
• Vanille Abricot - I LOVE this scent, the vanilla scent stays so pure (I find that a lot of vanilla scents smell artificial on me, and therefore make me head-achy) but this scent smells like vanilla even after it had melded with my skin. This is my fave so far (but I do still have 9 scents left to try).

Pittsburgh Street Soapworks offer sample packs of 6 small mister viles of fragrance for a reasonable price, so you can sample before you buy. They also offer all kinds of bath and body products. As soon as I narrow down my favourite scents I'm putting in an order of their Complete Bath Set (great deal) and a few more solid perfumes.

FOTD and CS brushes

I got my brushes in the mail today from Coastal Scents, I have to say that I'm very suprised of the quality of the brushes for the price. They both have a nice weighty feel and are quite soft and full. I purchased the badger flat top and the crease brush. It was a great buy for the price!

Here is my first face of the day, all you girls are so pretty I have to admit that I feel a bit intimidated. But here they are anyways:

Face:

• Monistat anti-chafing as primer
  
• EDM medium in original glo
• EDM medium concealer
• EDM blush Nick Nack

Lips

• Wet and Wild Mega Slicks in Rose Gold
• Bonne Belle lip liner in toast

Eyes

• Joelle's (me) Nude Peach (wash)
  
• Joelle's Sunset (crease)
• Joelle's Smooth Grape (wide liner)
• Lure Beauty's Hazelnut (thin line)
• Lure Beauty's Hazelnut as a brow filler.

Pittsburgh Street Soapworks

My Pittsburgh Street Soapworks ghost cart is no more. After days of agonzing over the miriad of scents I finally setled on 12 to try and 1 full sized to buy. Here is my order:
------------------------------------------
15 oz. Net Wt. Solid Perfume~$6.50 in Head Over Heels

Lot of 6 misters (your choice of scents) WITH product order...3.50

1. Almond Coconut
2. cupcake
3. Amour de Cacao
4. Creamy Coconut
5. Egyptian Musk
6. Gingerbread

Lot of 6 misters (your choice of scents) WITH product order...3.50

1. Un Bois Vanille
2. Princess
3. True Bliss
4. Citrus Spice
5. Pink Sugar
6. Vanille Abricot

------------------------------------------
I can't wait to get all of those smells!

On another note I finally made some more eyeshadows. My sister was no so subtly hinting that she wanted some more next time she came to visit. Aparantly she's been getting a few compliments on the colours she's worn. Here is a pic of what I made today:

I Couldn't Resist

I've gone and ordered 2 new brushes that I absolutely, positively, definately not not need I am now the proud owner (at least when the mail arrives I will be) of 2 new brushes from coastal scents, a badger flat top and a new crease brush for a grand total of under $10. Who could resist that kind of a price?

I have now completely given up on OCM. I'm convinced that it was the oil breaking me out. I have now switched over the using St. Ives Renew Cleanser with Alpha Hydrox and my skin is almost totally cleared up (YAY). Too bad OCM wasn't for me though I really liked the idea.

I'm still eyeing the Azulene Veggie Cream from GOW (Sample Program is up and running now. Ohhh Nooo $$$) and thanks to Ruby2 I have now discovered Pittsburgh Street Soapworks and have an imaginary ghost cart with 12 samples of their misting perfume (they have a dupe of Philosophy's "Falling In Love" (another Ohhhh Nooo $$$$$). I am definately going on a no-buy. after this

Lumiere Travel Brush Set

I got my Lumiere travel brish set today. It seems smaller to me than what I imagined, but perfect for my Walt Disney World Trips (I am also a huge WDW addict, check out the DIS boards if you like visiting the "mouse" too). I imagine that I will get the most use out of the powder brush, blush brush and crease brush.

Speaking of brushes, has anyone tried TKB's new brushes? I would like to try the Goat Hair buffer. The price is really good at $2.75 (this is just the intro price, I think they will go up). Also their Kabuki is $3.50 (also intro price), this might be a good option for someone starting out, or as a gift (if you are trying to get someone else addicted LOL). I am really interested in the quality of these brushes.

I Love Mail!

Yay, I finally got my EDM order in the mail today.
It seem like I have been waiting for EVAH! I took 2 weeks and 1 day, from the shipping date, to arrive. Usually, for me, it takes about a week. The only thing missing was the blush, I guess it was backordered. Oh well, now I have something else to look forward to in the mail.
I haven't tried the tinted silk dust yet, or the concealer. I'm crossing my fingers that they aren't too dark. They do look pretty close in darkness to the foundation though, so here's hoping.

I have to say that my collection of leave-in hair products rivals my collection of MMU. I am constantly on the look out for the perfect gels, lotions and leave-ins. Specifically I'm looking for a defrizzing cream that has some hold to it. I thought that I'd try out a bottle of Sunsilk defrizz lotion. I can't say that I'm too crazy about it. It's sticky and makes my hair look a bit greasy, not a great look. Any recs?

I'm still sticking with OCM, but now my skin is breaking out a bit (almost a rash on my cheeks), not sure if it's the OCM, Meow FF, or just hormones? I'm hoping it's hormones because I really like Meow FF and OCM.

Now the only thing I'm waiting for in the mail now is my back-ordered blush from EDM and my Lumiere brush set. I'm trying for a bit of a no-buy but now that my skin is going a bit crazy GOW is looking pretty good (hmmmm, here's my imaginary cart; GoW Vegetarian Azulene Base Cream, GoW Takrai Lemongrass Cleanser, GoW Cobalt Foaming Cleanser, Carrot Seed Oil, Carrot Seed Hydrosol).

Oh My Goodness!!

Did anyone elso go into a complete panic last night when Lumiere's website went down? Just as I was hitting the "Pay" button the site crashed, my DBF was looking over my shoulder saying "Maybe it's a sign that you shouldn't spend any more money on makeup." What I said:"Maybe it's a sign that I need to reavaluate my purchases to make sure I didn't miss anything." ;)
I didn't buy much, I already have way more foundation that I'll ever need in my entire life. I did end up buying the 9pc brush set I hope it's good, I was caught between buying that and just a blush brush, as I really don't need any of the other brushes. But it does come with a cute case (that's reason enough for me!).

I got my Meow order today, Munchkin in frisky Sphynx FF and a few samples. I haven't had the chance to try it yet. I'll probably try it tommorrow.

I also finally tried my MAD eyeshadow samples, and I must say that their eyeshadows have the best colour payoff that I've seen so far! Definately a winner in my books, if I didn't have so many darn TKB micas I'd be placing another order. I wonder how they get the colours to be so intense, mine end up look a bit dull (mmm, i mean neutral).

I'm still using the Oil Cleansing Method. This is definately my HG nightime cleanser! It seems to stop my zits from appearing I'll see one starting to form and before it even appears it's gone. I've also been using pure unrefined Shea butter as my nightime moisturizer it works great, although it's a bit greasy, it smells incredible.

EDM

Last week I recieved my newest sample kit from EDM and finally narrowed down my HG mineral foundation colour for summer YAY!! And just in time to use the Yahoo group coupon code (I'm not sure if we can give it out, I think you have to be a Yahoo Group member.) You can alway sign up at the Yahoo group to search for the code at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/emusergroup/ it ends tommorrow and is for 10%, My summer colour is cool medium, I really find thier colour names and swatches to be innacurate as I'm usually a med/light, so I find that with EDM I really have to take advantage of thier free sample kit.

For the last little while I have been trying out a few different things. I have recently started the OCM and after an initial "purging" my skin is starting to look more "glowy" and is settling down nicely. After trying a mix of 50% mix castor oil and olive oil, I've settled on using closer to 10% castor oil to 90% olive. I was getting dry skin form the first mix. I think that I might try adding some almond oil to the mix after I find some at the grocery store.

I've also started using Monistat Anti-Chaffing gel (Soothing Care, unscented) as a primer and so far I like it. I've only worn it a few times so I can't coment on whether it has broken me out (Lumiere's did, do I'm really crossing my fingers), but I have found that it allows for smoother coverage and keeps the colour of the foundation truer (I find that sometimes when mineral foundation melds with my skin it can turn a bit darker/orangy).

What I'm waiting for in the mail:

EDM starter kit, with siesta blush, cool med foundation, medium concealer (I hope it's lighter than it looks in the swatches), tinted balancing powder & foundation brush.

Lure beauty:
Sample sized Mango face and body cream, Body butter in coconut, Eyebrow Fillers in Espresso and Hazelnut, Mineral veil.

Meow:
Frisky Sphynx FF in a munchkin jar.

What I want after my "no buy":

GOW (in the far future):
Lemongrass cleaner, Veggie base cream, Camellia oil.

TKB (in addition to supplies, when I need them)
Pearl powder sample, lip balm base sample, lipgloss tube x 1, apricot kernel oil sample.

Yay!!!

Yay! I didn't miss the Meow sale!!! I ended up purchasing a Flawless Feline munchkin in Frisky Sphynx and a few samples. I really can't wait to get it!

I was visiting my baby sis in the big city this weekend, and we had a lot of fun. We ended up catching the movie Ratatouille (super cute movie, the audience was even clapping and cheering in different parts, including me) and doing some shopping. My sis is just as addicted to hair products as I am to MMU, so I brought her a bunch of baggies of my creations and she sent me home with a few unused bottled of some hair concoctions (thanks sis). Well when her and I were applying our MU she looked at me and said "That foundation makes you look pale", she made this comment as one might say "oh, look it's sunny out" or "you have a fluff on your shirt" and of course I hear "You now have to start sampling all over again, and have been looking completely foolish all of this time, why didn't someone tell you that you've been looking like a mime, what will you do with all of the complely unusable foundations that you have amassed?". Now that I've come to my senses a bit I have realized that she may not have been completely accurate in her assessment, and since I did most of my sampling during the winter a lot of the colours can be used as winter colours (thank goodness for their long shelf lives). I have been suspecting that my winter colours have been making me look a little pale, so I had already started sampling a few darker colours from EDM.

I have been lusting after everyone's brush sets, I came ----><----- this close to ordering the Lumiere 9pc brush set but I really have to wait until next pay, I already spent way too much on my weekend away. Oh well. :( But now I don't have to worry that I'll run out of things to buy ;)

Lumiere, and patchwork faces

So, I gave Lumiere a better try. I think that last night I got a little carried away and applied it like I do Meow Purrrfect Puss, with a heavy hand. This morning I did my usual routine (moisturize, silica, concealer and foundation) and applied it with a lighter touch. The result was reallt smooth coverage and no "masky" feel. I find this foundation a bit more matte than EDM original glo, but goes on more "moisturizy".
I had a lot of fun last night re-trying all of my foundation samples, every time I get a new foundation in the mail I go swatch crazy and put just about evey half-decent-match-colours on my face in little patches on my face. my poor BF then gets recruited to pick the best match.

Here is a typical exchange:
"Which one matches best"
"I don't know, where are they?"
I point to my jawline.
"Ok, that one"
"Now look in natural light, which one now?"
"Maybe this, one" He looks at me to see my reaction "Well...maybe this one." then looks around me at the computer, I guess he considered that an acceptable answer.
"Your not taking this seriously, are you looking at my neck or my face?"
"Your face" he guages my reaction "..... well your neck....ok both"
Are you comparing it to my overtones or undertones?!?"
"what are those?"
"UUGGHH!" I stomp away, and pick my favourite one anyways.
(so far it's still Frisky Sphynx, boy am I ever hoping that Flawless Feline is my HG formulation).

Have I mentioned how much I love Cheval by Taylor Made? It's makes such a great wet liner! It's a dark browny plumy colour and it's matte and opaque. I have to get myself a full sized version of this, since I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to dupe this without a grinder.

New Colours

I've been on holidays the last couple of days, Yay! That's why I haven't posted a new entry in a little while. But I have been reading and catching up on the message boards, getting new ideas on how to spend my money. Today we took a trip to the city and ended up buying the much touted Urban Decay Primer Potion, (I must say that this stuff had better be good because it sure isn't cheap!) and some cute shoes for $20 (I love a bargain!).
I had some really good intentions to get get a lot done this weekend, although I procrastinated on a lot of chores I did end up formulating a new eyeshadow/liner colour in a dark blue-brown-purple colour and a pretty pinky mauvy blush that goes on pinkish-red.

I still can't get over how much different product you can get from just a few colours. I think that formulating my own colours have slowed down my spending on MMU a (teeny-tiny) little bit. Now when I see a great colour I try to dupe it before I buy, some times I don't quite get it and some times I get pretty close, but even if I get it wrong I still come out with a wearble colour. Now most of my spending is on lipgloss, and trying to find my HG foundation.

On another note, I am really liking wet n' wild lipglosses, I find that they have pretty good colour payoff for the price and they smell pleasant (vanilla maybe? it's definately a sweet smell). Some people might find the gloss a bit sparkly but I like a bit of sparkle for the summer, my fav colour so far is Mega slicks in Rose Gold. I also tried N.Y.C. lipglosses they also have nice colour, and are shimmery but don't smell as nice. You definately can't beat the price!

Money, Money

I've been thinking about how much money I have been spending on MMU. I did an informal tally of how much I have spent on MU in the past 2 months, and even with being generous (I mean, you can't really count brushes, right?) lets just say it was pretty heart-stopping. Especially for someone who's entire yearly budget was around $20 (not I'm not kidding if anything I am erring on the high side). This recent addiction is costing me a few pennies, and my list of "must-tries" is getting longer and longer by the day! I really must go on a "no buy", but every time I do another sale comes up, and then there's the fact that I still haven't found my HG foundation yet, and I'd love too try some MM lippies and.... well you get the picture.

Oh! I almost forgot. I got my travel sized Lumiere foundation in Flawless Face in med/light beige, and a sample of med/light cool. I'm having a hard time telling which one matches best, my face seem to have both pink and yellow undertones, and red overtones, plus my neck is a little bit more yellow. So far I'm leaning towards beige as a closer match. But I'm not sure if it's just becase I have a full travel jar of it. So far I'm finding the feel of it a little masky, but I'm reserving judgement until I give it a fair shake.

Storage and Brushes

I always like seeing other peoples storage and tools. I'm always on the look out for more things to spend my hard-earned money on (aren't we all ). I decided to post up my storage and brushed in the hopes that others will join in with their pics. Here is my storage case, right now I am using a Caboodle that I've had since I was 13 making it about...well let's just say a few years old. The other case you see is a little tackel/craft box I bout at the dollar store, I use it to store my own creations.

Here are my brushes:

On the top row is my Rimmel Kabuki & Lumiere Kabuki, from left to right on the bottom row is my Put Minerals Chisel brush, Clinique smudger, Pur Minerals Powder brush, some random eyeshadow brush, Clinique Blush brush, Everyday Minerals Flat Top, generic eyeshadow, American Painter #6 brush (which doesn't work well for wet application which is what I bought it for), 2 more generic brushes, & an American Painter 4300 Shader (which is awsome for wetlining).Well, there is my storage and tool stash, It's not too big yet but it's growing pretty darn fast!

On a different note;
I can't believe that I missed Meow's Fathers Day sale! I've been lusting after a Flawless Munchkin (what non-MMU people must be thinking I'm talking about )

Here is my current (ever expanding) list on what I'd like to buy:

GOW:

• emu oil
• squalene
• Lemon grass cleaser

Meow:

• Frisky Sphynx in Flawless (Can't believe that I've missed the sale!)

Taylor Made:

• Cheval eyeshadow

Everyday Minerals

• I'd like to sample some cool colours: Fair Med, Light Med, Sunkissed Fair.

TKB

• Extra Bright White mica
• Radiant Gold mica
• Oriental beige
• Sparkle turquiose
• More Soft colours
• Maybe some reflect colours
• And maybe another Sampler kit
  

Wow I've got to start saving some greenies!

Makeup Making Mania mmmmm...

Last week I went a bit loco. I was surfing TKB trading, drooling over their selection of micas,and thought to myself

"Surely I could make my own mineral makeup, It can't be too hard." Fast forward to last Friday, and what did arrive in my little back mailbox, but a huge envelope stuffed with makeup making ingredients. I've spent this weekend mixing up batches of eyeshadows and blushes.To make my colours I used TKB's Matte Eyeshadow Base , TKB's Softcolours (pre-mixed iron oxides, so that you don;t have to use a shearer) and various micas.

Making the eyeshadows and blushes are pretty easy (simply mix up various micas and iron oxides to create your colour and add some eyeshadow base, see this link for info on using the base: link ). The problem was with mixing the colours. It's way too easy to just keep adding colours, and end up with a muddy mess (I like to call them neutrals). I had to keep reminding myself to stick to mostly two primary colours to get the truest colours.

I really had a lot of fun making makeup, and if you've been thinking about trying it I'd really urge you to take the plunge. Now I've just got to find a cheap jar supplier (I'm almost out already).

Tips for newbies (or learn from my mistakes)

Welcome to my new blog. It's about my adventures in trying out Mineral Makeup. I never used to wear makeup, I was never able to find a match, and found putting on makeup way too time consuming. Since discovering Mineral Makeup I have become a total convert. Even to the point of ordering some some ingredients off of TKB to try my hand at formulating!
Here are a few tips that I have picked up:

• sample your booty off, not all MMU is created equal, and neither is skin, what works for some may not work for you and vice-versa.
• Don't buy the first foundation that matches, you will probably end up with a full jar you never use. Try a bunch of different foundations from different companies before commiting (I've done this, see below).
  
• Sample at least 3 different companies, 3 different colours from each company, and 2 shades from each colour. (read-up on companies on MMU message boards, and blogs to choose the brands you want to try, see the side bar for links) This will save you time and shipping costs, since it is so difficult to tell colours on your computer screen, it's best to order a tonne of samples.
• If you are stuck, and If you are comfortable with this, post a picture of your self on Mineral makeup Mania, with a request for foundation color help. Or if you are really stuck you can email the MMU company directly for guidance.
• When you've sampled yourself silly and found what you think is your HG don't order a full sized right away, try out a travel sized for a few weeks and see if you feel the same way later.

I've tried Everyday Minerals, Meow and Lumiere.

The first foundation I tried was EDM and ended up settling on Multitasking, it wasn't the perfect match, but being used to buying my makeup at the drugstore it seemed great! Well now that I've done a lot more research and more sampling I have found that I can get a perfect color match. Now I feel a bit guilty, I ended up getting the Starter kit (which is a great value at $28, if you can find a match) and now I have two full jars of foundation that is a little too pale....oh well I bet that it will make a good winter color, and I got a few other great products in the kit. BTW I really liked the coverage, it was light to medium and glowy looking. I only with that they would group the colours together better, it's hard to tell which colour would be a slightly darker version of multitasking.

Next I tried Meow Cosmetics. Because of a really good sale (free shipping, who could resist!) I took a risk and after asking just about everyone for advice I bought a full sized version of Frisky Sphynx in Purrr-fect Puss and a few samples in other colours. Sphynx was a perfect colour match I only wish I would have sampled Flawless Feline because I found the coverage of of Purrr-fect Puss a little light (although now that my skin is starting to clear up a bit, thanks to squalane, it looks like it might be a great choice for everyday wear) I am starting to like it more and more. I love the way that thier website is organized, and they have nice explanation of what thier colors are.

I just ordered some foundation from Lumiere. Their ingredient list for Flawless Face looks so nice! I ended up ordering Beige in Medium-Light. I hope it's a good match!