Full Review of Bare Minerals BareSkin Serum

It dawned on me, that as a blogger I have not registered "consistent" to my vocabulary. Rambling is a tendency of mine, without truly informing about all of the products I have been using.

Where I am going with this, is that early May I purchased Bare Minerals Bare Skin serum. I made a scant impression post, utilizing a streak that was on my face and then never went back and revisited my feelings on it. On my phone lived nearly a month worth of notes on the product, and enough to pack in a great review. Somewhere after that month, I purchased the smallest sampling kit available of the original Bare Minerals foundation, and my BareSkin has been used only sparingly between.

So how about now? Months after, lets review the product!

Within my notes I had a log, describing how many drops I used and it's lasting power.

Let's start.
Wednesday May 7, 2014.
I accidentally shook the bottle while the lid was not secure. It gushed about 8 drops. This provided complete coverage, but was definitely way too much. Andrew told me he liked it anyways. All this was layered over an SPF ++50 Moisturizer and Lorac POREfection.

The first and last picture is likely a difference of 7AM to about 3PM, while I was waiting for Micro.

Thursday May 8, 2014.
the drops were adjusted to six; two for each half of the face, and one on the forehead and chin each. This still was too much, and clung to the dry spots of the t-zone but settled too dewey at the chin. Despite the flaws, and the greenhouse holding in a temperature of 90˚, my foundation remained from 8 in the morning until 8 that night.

Thursday.

Friday May 9, 2014.
Using five drops, making a similar mistake to wednesday this coated my face rather opaque. Instead of starting at the chin like I did on previous days, I started at the cheeks and it looked much better. The mouth area still looked off though. Again this lasted all day, in a humid greenhouse.

Friday.

Saturday May 10, 2014.
My log only extended until the day I got my droplet amount figured out. Three drops, one for each half of the face and then one to go over the chin and anything missed on the forehead. Applying at 3:30am without primer even, this got me through my entire work day which ended around 4. 

Unfortunately this bad boy had some flaws. If you touched your face you would get product on it. If you touched your clothes, you would transfer product. If you X, you would Y. I went this solid month without setting it once. I would repeatedly get frustrated by it's finish and where it would cling to dry skin patches that I had no idea existed. This is all using moisturizer and primer. When June was starting up, I pulled this out to do my makeup for a funeral and I remember clearly being irritated because I could not get it to work with me.

Not 100% opaque, as freckles still evident but this is flawless for me.

It was around then I just started to use my tiny powder sampler exclusively. Finally it all became clear. YOU HAVE TO SET THIS MOTHER?! WAT?!

From then on, whenever I would want a nice bit of cover and a flawless face I did the process correctly and set my face with mineral veil. It's funny how much frustration I would have saved by simply watching the video of one of my favorite Bare Minerals fanatics.

Like so.

For today, I am going to take a photo of my very broken out pre-joyous-ladies-thing face, and then detail my process using BareSkin. Another thing to note, perhaps I should pick up Bare Porcelain before winter hits. If I have used sun protection enough, then my face should be just as pale, but when I was shade matched both looked rather swell.


Perhaps I will do a video, but look out for that.

Value: $29, coupled with the brush for +$28
Shade Range: There is 20, and they're awesome! (my shade is 03 Bare Linen, but I can move fluid between 01 Bare Porcelain.)
Application Time: Fairly Brief, but requires blending galore.
Comodegenic: Not on my skin at all. Does have tendency to cling to dry patches, and can settle in oily areas. Likely best for normal skin without a lot of blemishes to begin with.
Overall Rating: 8/10. I dock points because if your skin is not smooth it will show it. Honestly, I prefer a powder at this point. But this is amazing and does not make me break out like lots of BB creams I have tried. It also lasts all day for me, even before I set it. If I rank Bare Minerals original foundation as a 10, this is definitely an 8. I look forward to any reformulations they come up with.

Acquisitions

Rightly so, I would like to congratulate myself for producing as many entries as I did this month. It would seem that I am getting the hang of this endeavor. Beauty Blogging mo'fruggah.

My friend and I zipped on over to Ulta this past Friday and boy. We were like chicks in a makeup store.

Crickets? Yeah.

Tarte Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Angelic Nude

This feels absolutely amazing! It's more amazing than I could have guessed. Starting with it's scent, it reminds me of something that I cannot put my finger on. Sweet, and comparable to to Bare Minerals Marv. Moxie in Get Ready. Vanilla mint, which gives a cooling feeling to lips.

On the lips it's very slippery, but packs intense pigment. Some of the colors had sheer pigment from what I read on reviews, but this one hits the mark. Beautiful color and beautiful moisture.

Not without flaws, if you even think about eating this will disappear. Drinking will eliminate color. Crumbs will act like rocks, stuck in the lipstick and you will wipe it off. Even without external forces, this gave my lips roughly two hours of wear time. Although, I love the feel and smell enough to where I don't even mind reapplying.

Final notes: Tarte packages everything perfect (except for the mascara that looks like it's in a tacky faux leather handbag), these lipsticks are no exception. They are perfect.

Bare Minerals Ready 4.0 Eyeshadow in The Happy Place

Originally, I did state I wanted a 2.0. I swatched it and realized it was not what I really was looking for. Back to the drawing boards! The Happy Place bridged the gap between my ventricles.
The color descriptors off Bare Mineral's website are as follows [muted apricot/rose gold/smoky taupe/eggplant]. The other one I considered was The Designer Label, which contained an apricot, olive, nude and a dark brown. As per usual, I have amazing luck with the pigments on this palette. All of the colors are versatile and can nearly complete a look.

My only con is that it lacks a browbone highlight shade, but I would not trade either color for something that I can easily use another portable palette for.  Love this!! I will have a hard time not packing it with me in my makeup bag every day.

Urban Decay De-Slick Double Shot Travel Size Makeup Setting Spray 

My friend and I split the pack, each taking one. This will happily live in my purse until it runs out. After a spritz of this, my face feels nice and refreshed. Also It really seems to lock in even more than just setting powder alone. Today I used my Tints & Sass tint, and I could see all day where I was dissatisfied with my blending on one cheek. That blunder ended up a wonderful testing tool. I am quite sure I will repurchase one of their sprays later on, and maybe it will be the full sized cooling one. For trial purposes and budgets, this one was a much better option. 

Lorac Pocket PRO Palette (x2)

Yup. I bought two of these. One of them went into my basket, after hearing so much about this brand. After using it once, I knew that I needed to own one of the full sizes. The second one was purchased just Wednesday as part of a gift for my sister's birthday. Truthfully, I should have bought four of these and save them for Christmas for my three sisters and my mom.

In a pinch today, I forgot my eyebrow materials and I used the dark matte shade Espresso. A bit darker than the normal taupe I've been using, but it looked really nice I think. My eldest sister even gave me compliments on my whole look today. Credit could go to the brows.

AND THERE IS LIKE NO FALLOUT WOW.

Lorac Pro Palette

Now this big mother. Prior to this, I was considering Naked of some sort, but for $12 less before the sale, I can get more colors (in smaller pans mind you), of supposedly higher quality. I will take that. Ultimately I decided on this one based on this review from one of my favorite bloggers. While I do own many nuetrals, and across my UD palettes I can makeup half of Naked and Naked 2, Lorac PRO had a lot to offer me. One being those flipping shimmer shades like Garnet. My arm appreciated the swatches. This palette has a good range of darker colors, highlights and midtones.

Maybe it's a con, maybe it's not but I have two of the shades already in my Pocket Pro that was less than a week old before getting this one. Duped shades sometimes stink, but the idea that I can carry the Pocket Pro in my pocket and achieve an abbrievated look with that same high quality shadow... well it's just great.

Unfortunately, I have not used this yet. I almost don't want to until I work on more of my current product. This will likely last three weeks tops.




My recent acquisitions did set me back from my allocated spending funds, but I am so satisfied with every item.

Grabby Hands

No matter how hard I try, I always seem to use my alloted spending money on frigging cosmetics. Mere six months ago, I was using old mascara and eyeshadow without primer. My liner always traveled to where I would have a darker set of eye bags than I really do. Breakouts would have to be suffered through, with pock marks in their wake. Then came this revolution. This revelation.

My first Prestige product came in the form of a lipstick, via Ipsy. Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie smelled so good and rolled on my lips so smooth, that I was hooked instantly. Then came the Urban Decay eyeliner and the Urban Decay palettes. The Ulta. Oh my gosh how fun this world of makeup is!

That being said, I use a lot of Bare Minerals products in my every day, but I have a lot of drugstore level brands. With the prospect of 20% off everything at Ulta, my brain sort of melts. What could I get that will stretch the dollar more. Without just grabbing everything, I made a list. It's somewhat my limitations, as these are products I have been curious about and would not break the bank. Would I buy all this in one shot? Nope, but this will serve as reference.

Bare Minerals Ready 2.0 Eyeshadow in Guilty Pleasures $20

My experience with the 2.0's has been favorable. Beautiful pigments, and really great portability. Peach colors have been trending or something, so naturally I want peach eyeshadow too. Swatches of this one look gorgeous and this would make a great addition to my charcoal/silver duo and my neutral.

Lipstick Queen  in Hello Sailor $25

I swatched this on my hand and was not impressed for about thirty seconds. It feels so amazing on my hand that I want it on my lips now. Apparently it layers to a very light sapphire to turn your lips a slight berry. Also, it should make a good tint to any shade.

Urban Decay Chill Makeup Setting Spray $30

Having heard nothing but rave reviews on UD's setting sprays, I of course would love one. Price tag on the travel sprays seem much nicer, but honestly anything with chill or cooling is instant wantable for me. Liiiike this next thing!

Bliss Micro Magic $48

This is mostly on the list as a taunt. Ulta send this with their samples, and oh my goodness... I cannot describe how much I gushed every time I used my foil packet. Carefully I paperclipped the packet and managed to squeak out 7 uses. And immediately I wanted more. It exfoliated so perfectly, leaving me smooth faced. Additionally the aloe coooooled so nicely and felt relaxing. Love! That frigging price tag though..ew.

Tarte Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Angelic Nude $16

Much nicer price on this, as compared to everything else. Any lip product with Butter in the name, I want it. If NYX had good lip butter, then Tarte's must be amazing. Swatches I have seen of this product are so appealing, and it's unique to my collection of mauves and nudes.

Benefit They're Real Push-Up Liner $24

I did play with the tester in Ulta. Twice. It left me disappointing the second time, because I think it was empty. Truly this seems like a terrible product to price ratio, but it seems so easy. I enjoyed the successful swatch I got.

And those are my wants. Now if only I was actually sent this mythical 20% off coupon, ha. So if I had to choose two? It would be a tossup between the lip products and the eye products. So that's four.

FOTD.

Going to try one of these blog types. 

My face of the day was literally touching up yesterday's makeup. Hygiene bros. hygiene. 

I've been chilling with Dallas. We vacuumed Nightshade's recent shedding (baby's first birthday tomorrow. Finally blowing his coat for the first time.) We even trimmed his hairy toes. The front ones only had tiny trims heretofore, but the hind paws were untouched and grinchy. 

Cropping these pictures made my heart hurt. Obviously, I could use more practice on grooming this scruffly pup, but it's a start. 

So I touched up the makeup for fun.  

For the blush I used Ulta's dupe of those Tarte cheek stain things in the shade tickled. Two swipes each cheek appears too much. That was followed with bronzing also with Ulta's minerals bronzers. This product is one of my faves, as it's warm enough and light enough. 

For my eyes I threw on a few contour shades using my Coastal Scents Revealed 2 palette, but I did not stop there. Last Call from UD's Ammo pallete filled the rest of the lid. Oil slick went under the bottom lash line. 

Be a Bomshell mascara layered on heavily. It's an okay mascara, because for me it refuses to clump. Maybe it's better for an au naturale day (like I ever have those). Then a nice uneven wing with Chella's indigo liner. Finally the lips were Ulta's American Girl lip crayon, which reminds me of UD's Naked hi gloss lip crayon (sans the high gloss). Layered overtop was Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Spark Plug. 

It was an easy few minutes look.

Certainly though, I miss borrowing my sisters camera. Back to bad lifting phone shots. 

Sales

No hide, nor hair for a while eh?

Barring the details, we had a death in the family and it hit pretty hard as the finality to a generation. Among the other issues going around, let me just say I am breathing easier knowing how far I have progressed with my schooling. I even made contacts with a partner and the head funeral director/embalmer for a potential internship/job shadow. 

Also my other dilemma is to complete the  full year program in a year (as 19,18, and 18 credit hours per semester versus 10,7,11,8... So on) have to make that decision. 

Additionally the closing of May is the busiest time of year. Much work and sales. 

Enough about me though, let's get on to the makeup! Around Memorial weekend, BareMinerals and Urban Decay both offered flash sales. I had to take advantage of it! From. Bare Minerals I gleaned one of their 8.0 palettes that I have lusted for. It came in a set with a loose powder blush, flathead eyeshadow brush, and a full sized Mascara. Also some sample packets of Marvelous Moxie gloss and a lipstick I already own and love. In addition a sample of the Bare Skin serum. Already having 03 Bare Linen, I elected for 04 Bare Ivory. I am curious if it will match or mud, as I do not remember if we tested that one I shade matching. 01 Bare Porcelain matched very well though. 

Onto the September Issue. 

Regularly this bad boy is $40, when it was in stock. Likely the sale was to clear out some overstocked product. I am not offended. The receipt of my transaction gave this a $10 value. The other products had various under $5 values. 

About the shades, each is beautiful. My favorite is surprisingly Glitterati, as it's peachy with a soft baby pink reflection. It's very pigmented. 

This photo is not an exclusive set of swatches. It also includes my four other Urban Decay palettes. 

While each shade does lean towards buttery, the shimmer shades tend to give more color to skin. I found a few shades inching on the less than opaque after applying them to my arm. Regardless, the registered beautiful for the looks I sought out. I had to dump my camera to my computer so I can post a few looks I have done. 

My biggest excitement with the palette is that there is no fallout, and if there is it's negligible. Fallout never really bothers me, as I can clean it up easily before leaving the house. Not having to do that though is pretty awesome. 

With primer the colors will stay all day, and I tested yesterday that on hot days without primer it will crease. I am not sure when it started to crease, but at the end of a sweaty ten hour day it was creased. Greenhouse work man. 

The blush is lovely, and softens up a face nicely. The mascara went into my cache of samples that I've acquired. Finally the brush works great for the crease. It's big. 

I will save the UD haul for another post. 

Bareskin Pale.

I stayed late at work today with the express purpose of stopping at Ulta for a shade match with my budderoo.

That Bareskin though.
Almay makes a pretty decent foundation, but man it's not been what I really hoped. It's not the Holy Grail. It's not the carpenters chalice, the cup of the everlasting. Eh.

Ulta today our saleswoman was awesome. Normally Christina and I have been lucking out with fabulous employees, and only one we aren't that thrilled to see. We call her "That vampy lady" because her tightly pressed together lips are always vamped. Basically, she has some miserable disapproving look on her face as my frand and we browse.

Onto the shade matching, I was lined up with the lighest of all shades, 01 Bare Porcelain or 03 Bare Linen. Holy shoot am I that pale? Bare Linen has a nice nuetral tone, whereas Porcelain is of course cool. The neutral would make more sense in the high likelihood I am outside ever in the next few months. Plus, it nearly dissapeared on my face. Any redness I had made like the snow and was out of here (but dang. I'm in Michigan. We beat our snow record, and it could snow in May.)

See where the red starts on my cheek? That's where the serum was not. Holy flip.

Feeling splurgy with my monthly allowance, I also bought the brush. I asked if anyone mentioned the small size as a con, and she said that a lot of folks were rather pleased with it. I'll see how it goes.

I sort of bombed the whole "I do not need anymore makeup in May" thing.

Since this is a new product, finding a review was impossible. I read all the ones I could find, and while they were somewhat mixed - there were quite a few that convinced me to at least shade match. For my skin, I will say it's a win. It feels light - like nothing, and it airbrushed my cheek. Underneath the Bareskin, I know there were a few blotches. I just know it...

Of course, this I have not tested outside yet. In a week I will have a better feel for it. At least the price point is fairly reasonable. With the amount you use for each application (I may be a 2-4 dropper. IDK) for the $29, it seems like a product that has a lot of bang. Some other foundations I spied were easily $10 more with a lot more product usage. Granted, one of those worked perfect on my friend, whereas the Bareskin registered too sheer. Let's you and I see how well the value holds.

Did I just frifking spen $30 on a gal-dang foundation? Hot dang I did.

Tomorrow, we will try this over Lorac primer that we have.