REVIEW: Bare Escentuals bareMinerals Blush in Beauty

Product Brand and Name, Price (CDN), Where Purchased

Bare Escentuals bareMinerals Blush in Beauty, $24.00 (CDN) @ Sephora.ca

Reason for Purchase

I have had this blush for a few years now. I bought it because, at the time, I was obsessed with Bare Minerals makeup.

Notable Features

Like just about all of Bare Escentuals products, this blush does not contain any parbens, sulfates, synthetic dyes or fragrances, petro-chemicals or pthalates.

Here’s what is written on Sephora’s page about this product:

Discover fabulous, good-for-you cheek color. These creamy, 100 percent pure bareMinerals Blushes give you a beautiful, healthy tone that looks natural, because it is. Create a soft, radiant glow that's ideal for all skin types, including sensitive and problem-prone skin.

Packaging

This blush comes in Bare Escentuals standard plastic jar with a black plastic lid. Once you’ve opened the lid, there is a porous plastic inner lid to limit the amount of product that can be dispensed at once.

Experience Using Product

I recently started picking up my Bare Escentuals products again (after a long period of not using any of them at all), and this blush in particular, as I find I am growing more and more fond of mineral-based makeup. I like the fact that this type of makeup applies sheerly and I can easily control how much or how little color I want to apply to my face.

In the past, me and Bare Escentuals have had a bit of a rocky relationship; I was massively allergic to their original formulation of powder foundation (hives, anyone?) and that quickly turned me off of the other products of theirs that I own. However, I have always had great success with their eye shadows, eye liners, and brow color.

I picked up this blush again because I really love the color; it’s an every-day friendly pink. Here’s a swatch:




The blush has a satin sheen to it, leaving my skin with a pretty, fresh-faced glow. Like I mentioned, I can easily amp-up the color if I want.

I have been relying on Beauty a lot lately, and am enjoying using it. It’s basically become my everyday blush shade. I don’t feel like I’m wearing blush when I’ve got it on - when I look at myself in the mirror, it just looks like I am naturally flushed.

Would I Re-Purchase, Recommend, or Reject

I am slightly ambivalent about re-purchasing this product; I think I would if I were in Sephora and saw it. I can also get similar mineral products to this where I live, so I can see myself opting to try out one of those brands first before deciding to re-purchase this shade. For that reason, I can’t really recommend this to you. If I’m not in love with it, I don’t feel comfortable recommending it to you to buy.

You can learn more about this product and purchase it from Sephora’s website; alternatively, you can also learn more about this product and buy it directly from the Bare Escentuals website.

What's in my Travel Makeup Bag?

I was trying to think of a new post that nobody really does, and this is the first thing that came to my mind. A lot of people post what they carry in their regular kit, professional kit, and purse - but nobody really does their travel kit. So, that's what todays post is about!

The kit (brush roll + bag):

My brush roll is miniature; my mom got it for me for Christmas from Sephora; it's by Bare Escentuals and comes with four mini brushes (powder, blush, eye shadow, liner):

I love that the brush roll is lined with pink fabric and that the tips of the brushes are pink - the bright color makes me happy!

My travel makeup bag is actually a Clinique 'gift with purchase' bag that I got the other day, which contained minis and sample products. I took most of those out (left in a mascara) and replaced it with the contents of my rather run-down and old makeup bag.

Here is what is in my travel makeup bag:


- NARS Blush/Bronzer Duo in Sin & Casino - Full Size
- NARS Essential Eye Palette 9952 (Unconditional Love, Night Star, Galapagos, Nepal, Ondine, Thunderball) - Full Size
- NARS Bronzer in Laguna - Mini (.08 oz/2.5 g, same size as their single eye shadows)
- NARS Makeup Primer with SPF 20 - Full Size
- NARS Multiple in Orgasm - Mini (.14 oz/4g)
- NARS Illuminator in Orgasm - Mini (.29 oz/8 mL)
- The Body Shop Blush Dot in #4 - Full Size
- Clinique High Impact Mascara in 01 Black - Mini (.14 oz/4g)
- Smashbox Photo Finish Lid Primer - Mini (.02 fl. oz/.5 mL)
- Cover Girl NatureLuxe Foundation with SPF 10 in 305 Alabaster - Full Size
- Clinique Super Balm Moisturizing Lip Gloss in 01 Apricot - Mini (.24 fl. oz/.7 mL)
- Bare Escentuals Buxom Lips in Zena - Mini (12 mL)
- An Eyebrow Razor - Full Size
- Maybelline New York Gloss in Shade 130 (.8 fl. oz./2.4 mL) - Full Size
- DKNY Be Delicious Eau de Toilette (.05 fl. oz/1.5 mL) - Sample
- Marc Jacobs Lola Eau de Toilette (.05 fl. oz/1.5 mL) - Sample
- Tocca Colette Eau de Toilette (.05 fl. oz/1.5 mL) - Sample
- Lip Smacker Natural Lip Balm in Vanilla - Full Size
- Pantene Pro-V Mirror Compact (free with a bottle of shampoo!)

Here is a better look at what the Sin/Casino Duo looks like, as well as the 9925 Palette.

Sin is one of my favorite blushes, and Casino is an amazing dark bronzer, perfect for the summer or as an eye shadow!

This picture makes it look like I haven't used any of the shades, but I swear I have!

These products are both full size, but I don't mind carrying them because they both contain more than one product, which gives me lots of options while taking up less space than brining the individual items contained in the palettes.

Almost everything I carry in my travel makeup bag and in my toiletry bag (not pictured) is a miniature version of a full size product, or is a sample size. I try not to pack too many full-size items with me when I travel. The great thing is that a lot of cosmetic companies are recognizing this and they're starting to produce miniatures/travel sizes of their most popular products.

What does your travel makeup bag look like - or do you even have one? Do you just reduce the items in your normal kit to the bare necessities and take that with you?

I hope you are all having a good week - thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

Haul: Sephora

I was thrilled to see a parcel card in my post office box this afternoon - especially when I haven't received any e-mail notification from Sephora to let me know that my order was shipped.

My Naked Palette came today! Along with a few other goodies I decided to buy at the same time (I couldn't help it!).

Here's a picture of the haul:



And here's a breakdown of what I ordered.

The Urban Decay Naked Palette



This set comes with 12 shadows (Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal), a Good Karma Shadow Brush, and a 3.7 mL/.13 Fl oz. bottle of Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion.

BareMinerals Tutorials Kit - Eye Lining by Bare Escentuals



This set comes with two powder eye liners: Minx (a black with multi-colored shimmers) and Sable (a matte dark brown). Here's a swatch of what they look like:



It also comes with a Brush Pouch containing a Magentic Multi-Liner Brush with three interchangeable brush heads (full-edged liner, pointed liner, soft edge liner).

BareMinerals Tutorial Kit - Rocker Eye by Bare Escentuals

This kit comes with on powder eye liner and two eye shadows. The liner is Black Leather (a matte black with a little bit of shimmer); the two shadows are Rock Star (a grey with multi-color shimmer) and 1980's (a taupey/mauvey/silvery shimmer). Here's a swatch of what they look like:



The kit also comes with the Rock 'n' Roll Brush, which is double ended. Here is a picture of the brush, and what each end looks like:







I also got an added Freebie, for having 500 points in my beauty bank.

I received the Smashbox Perfectly Polished Lids Beauty Insider Kit. Here's what that looks like:



The kit contains cream eye liner in Midnight Brown (.06 oz/1.7 g), an eye shadow trio in Vanilla, Champagne and Brazilian Bronze; a mini-size Photo Finish Lid Primer, and a Mini Size Lash DNA Mascara.

I am really excited to try everything out! I will post reviews as I use everything.

I hope your week is going well!