Pure and Me with Purely You Minerals Makeup

I used to not be a fan of mineral makeup way back in the day, but I was slowly won over by some awesome brands (Alima, Silk Naturals and Au Naturale to name a few) and I’m happy to announce Purely You has joined the group!

Purely You Minerals was started by how so many natural beauty companies are started – people with skin issues getting fed up with chemicals! Their ingredients are very basic, a huge bonus in my book. Having very sensitive skin myself, I appreciate lines that purposefully try to be basic.

I was sent a bunch of samples to try. Being the fair, pasty girl I am, I received:

-Neutral Fair Foundation
-Translucent Light Silk veil
-Blushing Lip Gloss
-Bare Eye Shadow
-Vanilla Latte Eye Shadow
-Purely Mauve Blush
-Purely Bronze Bronzer

First, the foundation. The neutral fair foundation is the lightest color they offer, and a great match for my fair, neutral-toned skin. I’m about a NC15-20 (with it being winter, I’m more on the side of 15). I’m a Beige 1-2 in Alima (once again, more along the lines of a 1 right now). This is right along those fairer colors. Many mineral makeups can be either too ashy or way too yellow, this is a perfect neutral. It also has impressive coverage. Many mineral foundations I’ve tried and own go on sheer, but can be buildable. If you ‘build’ it too much though, it will look cakey. Not this! Achieving full coverage with this foundation was easy, and didn’t look cakey. Jenn, the makeup artist extraordinaire and my cousin, and I were very impressed with the coverage that this foundation provided. I was originally sent two samples, and this was the better match. Jenn is also fair, but a little darker than me and was very excited to be able to use the other sample for herself!

The Light Silk Veil is nice. It acts like most finishing powders do. I usually do not use finishing powders on powder foundation, its just too much powder for my personal preference. But I do like it over liquid foundation. It helps set it and achieve a soft finish. It doesn’t keep oilies away all day, but I have yet to find a finishing powder that does!

Blushing is a nudish pink color with gold sparkle.  While in the container it appears to be about the same color as my natural lip color, it applies a little lighter – I think due to the sparklies. I have to say I am impressed with how long this lasts on my lips, even Jenn noticed that it seems to last longer than most lip glosses – natural or not. It has a peppermint taste that’s not too strong or too sweet, I find myself licking my lips just to taste it :o) Knowing it is made with natural ingredients (listed below) makes me feel better about wanting to lick it constantly! haha The only downside to this is that it contains mica (what causes the sparkle), and I feel like mica in lip gloss can make it feel a little grainy. Nothing crazy like my lips are covered in sand or anything, but the lip gloss is not super smooth. This isn’t a deal breaker and is pretty standard for any lip gloss with mica, but its worth mentioning.

I received two eye shadows, Vanilla Latte and Bare. They are described as:

Bare: Gorgeous pearlescent Taupe with slight purple undertones

Vanilla Latte: Great neutral hi light eye shadow with sparkle.

Bare is interesting in that it can look like a taupe-brown but then can also look more grayish like a charcoal. I do agree with the purple undertone though, it does shine through whether the eye shadow appears more brown or gray – it always seems to have that purplish tinge. While it is dark, it actually applies sheer. So it can go on for a sheer wash of color or really build it to be quite dark. When I did not wear a primer on my lids, this applied beautifully and sheer. Unfortunately with a primer, the eye shadow’s sheerness seemed to be a disadvantage. It sort of stuck to my primer more heavily in some areas than in others, making it appear blotchy. A thicker coat of the eye shadow completely fixed this, but then it was very dark. So if you plan on wearing it for an eyeliner or very dark as an eye shadow, you’ll have no problems. But I do not recommend trying to wear it sheer with a primer, it just didn’t seem to apply well (or at least, I never got the hang of it).

Vanilla Latte is a beautiful off-white, exactly what you would think of the color vanilla. Because my skin is so fair, this doesn’t work as a highlight, its the same color as my skintone ;o) Which also makes it hard to see in the swatch below. BUT, I *love* this eye shadow. At first glance and first application, it comes across as a normal, everyday vanilla color. But then, when the light hits it just right, it sparkles. Not crazy glittery in-your-face sparkly, just a subtle sparkle that makes your eyes pop. Jenn noticed it first and we were instantly impressed! Unlike Bare, Vanilla Latte goes on almost complete opaque and I did not have any problems with blotchiness or wear. It truly is a beautiful color.

Swatches of the two eye shadows

The blush is like the silk veil and lip gloss- it does its job and does it well. The color ‘mauve’ makes me think of the dark purply pink from the 90′s. I don’t really think this is quite dark enough to call a mauve (thank goodness for me since I’m so pale!). I would describe it as a cool-toned, light pink with a purplish tinge and sparkle. The sparkle isn’t too crazy thankfully, it can still be used during the day. The color is surprisingly sheer though. The color looks a little dark in the container, and I was worried it would be too dark for my skin but it wasn’t at all. If anything,  I had to apply it a little heavy to show. This can be really nice for fair skin ladies though, since many blushes can be too dark. Having a sheer blush where you can control the amount of color is always nice.

The swatch below shows the blush to be a little peachy in color, but that tends to happen on my skin in pictures. It really is a cool-toned pink.

Now my other favorite part of this collection – the bronzer! Finding bronzer for fair skin is HARD. Ok, almost impossible. Either I look like I slapped mud all over my face or I’m pretending to be an orange Snookie-monster. Mud and orange-Snookie is not really a look I’m going for. I’m pale, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to look like I have SOME color. This bronzer is perfect for fair skin. It actually is more of a peachy color than brown, and goes on sheer to help it look more natural. Purely You only has one bronzer, this one, which is pretty cool that it is lighter in color rather than super dark. Very tan ladies though may find this too light – but if you are very tan, do you really need a bronzer anyway?  This was an instant favorite of mine and Jenn’s, and I have been wearing it almost every day since!

Swatches of the blush and bronzer

So now for the ingredients!

The mineral eye shadows and blush  include a mix of: Mica, Pigments, Titanium Dioxide, and Magnesium Stearate.

The foundation is a bit different and includes a mix of: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Boron Nitride, and Pigments.

The silk veil is very fancy and actually includes silk powder! Silk Powder, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Boron Nitride and Pigments.

The lip gloss contains: Castor Seed Oil, Cetyl Stearyl Alcohol, Olive Fruit Oil, Beeswax, Glycine Soybean Lipids, Lauryl Laurate, Carnauba Wax, Candillia Wax, Mica, Rose Hip Seed Oil, iron oxide, Vitamin E and flavoring (may contain carmine and tin oxide). Because this is an oil-based product, it does not need preservatives like water-based products do. The Vitamin E will help it last longer though, by preventing oxidation of all those oils.

None of their makeup includes talc, powdered starches, clays, bismuth oxychloride, parabens, gluten or nano size particles – a definite bonus!

The samples I received were loose minerals but they are transitioning most of their products to pressed, which is pretty cool! Very few lines of natural mineral makeup are pressed. While I’ve gotten used to dealing with loose powder, that doesn’t mean it’s not a pain. Often times, pressed means the addition of chemicals but through some fancy process they are able to press it without chemicals through cold-pressing. Don’t ask me how cold-pressing works, I just know it doesn’t contain chemicals and that’s all I have to hear!

What could be the coolest part about Purely You – the price! $6 for a blush? Why thank you very much and sign me up for 2! I love when good makeup is at a great price. Who says natural makeup can’t be affordable?

Ok, perhaps something even BETTER than a decent price? They offer free samples! Now those who know me know I am a SUCKER for free samples. I’ll buy $150 worth of stuff to get 3 samples I may never use. But you don’t have to buy anything to get these free samples, they are just giving them away for free! I don’t know how long this will last so I highly recommend you take advantage of it NOW.

I also have a little surprise coming up, so stay tuned!

So now that I’ve talked your ear off about the line, check out the video that uses all of these colors!

Disclosure: Samples were provided to me by Purely You Minerals to try. Opinions and the choice to review are 100% my own! I’m not compensated for anything I write.