Review: Everyday Minerals Shimmer Eyes & Blush

A while ago I got one of the old sample kits from Everyday Minerals for the foundation which included Sandy Medium and Medium Tan which worked out well for me. Since then, EVM has come out with free sample kits that you can customize but they haven't gotten the colours that I would need to try out in stock. The blushes have long been something that I've been wanting to try out but given my holdout for the foundations, it's been a long while since I've had the chance to try them out.

From left to right:
Midnight Mystery &
Glam Guru

This is where Maria (of Kara's Way fame) came in and handed me a sample of the eyeshadow in Midnight Mystery and one of the blush in Glam Guru. Midnight mystery is described as a "coppery deep undertones with splashes of gold," and the Glam Guru is a "soft and earthy pink pigmented blush."

As you can see from the swatches, the Midnight Mystery is barely coming up. The Glam Guru on the other hand is coming up very well. I wasn't sure how a whole face look would work out but I gave it a try.

Yes, I'm wearing monkey ears.

The Glam Guru was very light but still gave just the right amount of colour. I have to admit that if I saw this on the website and it were my choice, I'd probably pass on a colour like this. That's just upon first glance though. Looking at the swatch gave me a bit more hope and when I saw it on my face, I was quite pleased with the way that it worked out.

The eyeshadow didn't really show up which made it a bit harder to work with, even over a primer.

You can kind of make out the shimmer of the Mystery Midnight in the picture on the right but just barely. In order to really blend it I had to use some colours from the Kat Von D's True Romance Beethoven palette. Specifically you're seeing the colours Tequila (a metallic cornsilk shimmer) and Leather (a matte dark brown). The brown and the cornsilk from the palette really brought all of the colours to the look and the EVM eyeshadow provided the shimmer.

The other items used to complete the look were e.l.f. Essential Liquid Eyeliner in black, a bit of NYX Retractable Eye Liner in black, and Physicians Formula Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Jumbo Lash Mascara in black.

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These products are slated to be featured in an upcoming Kara's Way box and was given to me complimentary for my evaluation.

Product: Everyday Minerals Shimmer Eyes in Midnight Mystery & Blush in Glam Guru
Price: I had a sample for both. For the blush a mini size would be $6.99 and a full size is $10.99. The eyeshadow is only available in the mini size for $8.99.
Would Recommend? The blush, yes, as it is very pigmented and comes off soft and lovely. The eyeshadow is another case -- since it barely came up at all, I'd recommend against this particular colour.
Takeaway: The blush is great as I mentioned above. The eyeshadow, particularly this colour, needed a lot of help from other eyeshadows given my skin tone. The brown and beige colour that came through were mostly from the Kat Von D palette with the shimmer coming from the EVM samples. I think another colour might work out better.

And I'm Back!

The last month was a nice breather for a lot of the things going on in my life -- I had decided to take a slight break not only from blogging (well, seriously blogging -- I was still having fun over at Etceteros), reading (120 books for the year), knitting, and crocheting. I was idle and it was awesome but now I've got to pick back up on something. During the month of August, I really didn't experiment much but I did notice a few things that I wanted to touch upon. It's time for Product Updates!

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Eyes

I went easy on the eye makeup and only used mascara here and there, the one stand up champion that I loved was Physicians Formula Organic Wear Jumbo Lash Mascara. I have long lashes and generally when I'm wearing mascara, the only thing I'm looking for is a slight pick me up to widen my eyes and darken my lashes a bit. A lot of formulas I've used have been on the clumpy side but this one does the trick without looking like it's too much.

Part of the reason why I haven't been using too much eye makeup is because my eyelids have been a bit dry (whereas the rest of my face has been acting oily). As a result, every night I put on some eye cream and I've been using Avon's Anew Retroactive+ Repair Eye Serum. I've had this bottle for quite some time now and it refuses to finish but overall, I do love the results that I get with it. This particular product is discontinued though but once I finish it out, I'll be switching back to 100% Pure eye cream.

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Hair Care

I've been switching back to my standard hair care routine -- no parabens, no silicones, and low sulfates (or no sulfates). During the month I finished out the last of my Renpure Organics then realized that the other bottles I had picked up had either parabens or silicones. I ended up returning them and I've been sticking with Garnier Pure Clean (which is not sulfate free, but it free of parabens and silicones -- my hair does not like silicones so it was a compromise I was willing to make).

Items I ended up getting rid of are the Bumble and Bumble Curl Conscious Defining Creme and the Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo. These items are not inherently bad but as my hair has gotten longer, they really aren't working the way that they should The Bumble and Bumble Creme was actually weighing down my waves (or wurls) and wasn't giving me the lift I desired. My hair is thick and fine though so I imagine that it would still works for others, just not me. As for the NYM's Dry Shampoo, I prefer the cornstarch method now that my hair a little bit longer since it felt like it was weighing my hair down.

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Foundation

As I mentioned, I'm trying to go natural (again. A quick note about this, I had gone natural but stopped for a bit in order to incorporate SPF into my routine. As a result, I ended up drifting away but then realized, I had drifted away from SPF makeup as well which meant that I should probably just go all natural again). I've also been experimenting a bit more with different foundations as well.

Although I love and adore CoverFX, I finally did get my hands on the right Everyday Minerals foundation that matches me. So as a result for the last month I've been using the EDM foundations in lieu of the CoverFX. (And please note that CoverFX has SPF 10 and is paraben free, oil free, fragrance free, wax free). Anyhow I found that two of the EDM foundations works and I ended up ordering a bunch of foundation samples from Meow Cosmetics. I still think that CoverFX is the best so far but we'll  see what happens when I start experimenting again.

I did end up giving up my Illamasqua blush -- I was very happy with it's overall performance and pigmentation however I decided that I really wanted to stick to my goals and ended up getting a Tarte blush instead. I'll be working on a review for the Tarte item(s) later on.

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Well, I think that's it. My Guest Bloggers are missing in action but I do know that a lot of them are getting into the busy season so I can offer them a little bit of leeway. ;)