belles on style

Welcome to Belles On Style, a fashion and beauty blog written by sisters Amy and Sarah. Living in London & Glasgow.

Sunday 16 October 2011

Bare Minerals Get Started Kit by Bare Escentuals, perfect for sensitive skin


Frustratingly, my skin can never make up its mind over which skin type category to stake its claim. Sometimes I have dry, flaky patches around my eyes, other days I have an oily and shiny forehead. My skin is also very sensitive to my emotions. A year ago, after a stressful and worrying day in my new job, I woke up to find sore, itchy red patches on my eyes, cheeks and neck. A quick trip to the doctor made me see that when I'm stressed, worried or anxious my skin reacts accordingly. The doctor gave me simple, but stern advice: I must keep calm and find an outlet to deal with stress in a sensible way.   

One year on, I'm a Bikram Yoga devotee and have been fortunate not to experience another angry flare up. To conclude, I have very sensitive skin, hence the reason I was reluctant to try out Bare Minerals Get Started Kit. I foolishly believed that my sensitive skin, prone to dry flare ups would not take kindly to a "powder". I could not have been more wrong.



Each product looks like a powder but actually comprises of tiny particles of rock mined from carefully chosen regions in the US, 100% pure, completely chemical and preservative free. One of the key ingredients found in the foundation and concealer is Zinc Oxide which is calming for skin, promotes healing and can reduce spot size. The products are light reflecting and contain SPF15. 

 Medium Beige foundation, Mineral Veil, Warmth and Summer Bisque concealer

I've been using the starter kit for the previous five months, I've applied the products every day, sometimes a few times a day, I've used the products on my friends multiple times and I'm still nowhere near finished. For £48 I received two foundations  (one darker for summer skin, one lighter for winter), a bronzer, a concealer, one "Mineral Veil" (to finish and set make-up) and three (amazing) brushes. In terms of value for money it really doesn't get better than this (it would have been over £120 to purchase the products separately).

I've found that the foundation gives an amazing level of coverage while still allowing my skin to look natural and bare. For best results I apply Boscia B.B. cream followed by the foundation and lots of the beautiful "Warmth" bronzer. Unfortunately my eye area is still a little too sensitive and dry for the mineral concealer so I stick to YSL Touché Éclat for this area. 


My essentials: Boscia BB Cream, Bare Minerals Medium Beige foundation, YSL Touche Eclat

The starter kit comes with a DVD with helpful application lessons from CEO Leslie Blodgett. The DVD is very stylised and a little too American-cheesy, Leslie opens with the line, "Congratulations, you have made a healthy choice for your skin. You are now ready to set yourself free of old make-up options." A DVD with a British audience in mind would be good!

I'm now a complete Bare Minerals devotee, the application is quick and easy, the products last forever and the coverage is perfect - photo ready but still totally natural. I highly recommend this brand for those, who like me, have sensitive, sometimes dry, sometimes oily skin, I’m sure you will be impressed.

 Next on my Bare Minerals wish list!



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