This review is about the Bare Escentuals bareMinerals 9-piece Get Started Set. Wow, that is a mouthful. I purchased this about a year and a half ago from Sephora for $72 Canadian. I believe it retails for $60 U.S. in the States. The kit contained 2 bareMinerals SPF Foundations (I believe it was Fair and Fairly Light), All Over Face Colour in Warmth, the Mineral Veil, Full Flawless Face Brush, Flawless Application Brush and the Maximum Coverage Concealer Brush along with an instructional how-to DVD. The package says that the product is award-winning and offers impeccable coverage for every skin type and tone. Ahem.....
I apologize in advance as this will likely be my cosmetic rant of the month, if not the year. I purchased this because I have a good friend that uses this stuff and swears that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. She still purchases it to this day. I would have loved for this stuff to work for me, but we will get to that in a moment. Think how nice it would be to not deal with liquid foundation every day and to able to let you skin breathe all day long with a simple swirl of some wonderfully covering powder all over the face. Sounds like magic. Sounds like a fairytale. I told my friend I didn't see how in my wildest of dreams that a powder could offer the coverage and dewiness of a liquid foundation, last all day and look great. I was a total sceptic, and obviously for good reason......
So my friend talked me into buying it. Swore it was fantastic and that I would be converted to the "other side" so to speak. I even watched the stupid video. I thought $72 was steep and that this better pay off. Worse case scenario, I thought I would get some free brushes out of it. I followed the directions to the letter. My friend said less is more with this stuff. So I went with less. Swirled my little heart out. Applied the product. Took my sweet time. Looked in the mirror and saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was my unmade up face staring back at me and I looked really tired. More tired than I looked before the application. Ok, I thought, less wasn't more. So I used more. Kept swirling. Application after application. Kept looking in the mirror and saw no change, but I started to look powdery. I used the concealer brush to cover my blemishes. Used a little, then a lot. Covered squat. Applied under my eyes. Nothing doing. I washed it off and picked up my liquid foundation.
Not to be totally deterred, especially after spending $72, I tried it again a few days later. Maybe it was my technique, the lighting. my eyes etc. that first day I thought......Again, nothing. Zippo results. A mildly powdered face and zero coverage. I watched the video again to see if I missed a step. I didn't. I waited another few days until my skin was looking good, tried it again, same thing. I looked tired and like I was wearing no make-up. I decided enough was enough. If I wanted a no makeup look, I would wear no makeup! I would also save $72! This is the most pointless makeup item I can recall in recent years. I even tried the warmth powder, no change, just looked browner. Tried the mineral veil too over everything. I got nothing. I even went out in public one day with this stuff on thinking it was my house lighting making me look bad perhaps. Looked in the car mirror, looked in the store mirror, I looked like crap and went home. Funny, I don't have a problem with my lighting at home when I wear normal foundation.
My friend who loves this stuff, told me it takes patience and a few tries and that she would come over and swirl for me. I told her not to bother. It was obvious that we weren't going to go from 0 to perfection with a flick of the wrist with this stuff. So you know what I did? I sold the foundations to my friend for a cut rate price and old the "warmth" on eBay. I kid you not.
I have heard that this stuff has improved in recent months. I am not going to try it to find out as I highly doubt it has improved even 5%. The eye shadows do peak my interest though. I may try one of them or the new pressed eye shadows at some point. The best thing I can say about this kit was the brushes were quite nice. I liked them a lot. I say liked, instead of like, because I lost them somehow. I think they must have fallen off of the bathroom counter into my garbage can in the bathroom one day and I never noticed. I was upset about that and I am still sad. I really liked the brushes. I could use them for other purposes.
Also, and maybe someone can explain it to me, why on earth would a product marketed to be more natural and low maintenance, require you to use 3 or 4 different powders just to get a basic face on? Let's face it, the colours for the foundation are weird. Heck, that is why they sell you two! They are either too yellow, or too pink. You have to mix them. No one has that type of colouring. Then more powder on a powder?! Totally insane. My friend that loves this product has a mild case of rosacea. Other than that, she has no blemishes, no pigmentation issues and no dark circles under her eyes. Her skin is very good. She says this product covers her rosacea very well and it lets her skin breathe. I suppose if rosacea is your only problem or if you have perfect skin, maybe this is the product for you. For the rest of us, it is simply useless. If I had perfect skin, guess what? I wouldn't bother buying these powders. I would go au natural.
As for the primer.....huh? Let me get this straight. They are now suggesting that you put on your moisturizer, then this primner goo, then swirl 4 powders on your face just to walk out of your door. I don't even have words for this. I can just apply foundation over my moisturizer and walk out the door...why the 50 steps? Completely time consuming and the product goes everywhere! A powdery disaster.
I had another friend who tried this and her feelings were the same as mine and she has far better skin than I ever have. Have you ever seen any makeup gurus on the Internet or TV doing a full face of event makeup just using this powder??? Hell no. What does that tell you? I know other people who use this product and sometimes they look ok in it, sometimes powdery, but never fantastic. Never dewy. The boyfriend of a friend of mine who uses this says it drives him mad when they travel together and the powder gets all over the bathroom. I am going to shut up now. I think I have said more than enough.
Rating: 2/10 (2 is for the brushes)
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