I was excited to try L’Oreal Bare Naturale Minerals, way back when they first came out. They are a good drug store brand, easy to find most everywhere. And reasonably priced.
I liked the idea of their packaging: each product has a brush on the top, specific to the product. I thought that would be easy to use. I thought the product would feed up through the brushes, but it does not.
Plus their colors were good for me. Better than Bare Essentuals foundation colors which are too dark on me. (I felt they capitalized on BE name by calling theirs Bare Naturale — clever, really.)
I tried one foundation, one all-over mineral glow, and one blush.
Foundation Soft Ivory 456
I was right, the foundation is a better color. I am currently using up my BE (mixed with some AL to lighten it) on my neck. Then, I’ll likely use this up on my neck too, with or without having to lighten it. I’ll just have to see at the time.
It covers well. It didn’t irritate me.
The texture is a little different: it is like tiny balls of foundation before you put it on with the brush. It smooths out just fine.
All-over mineral glow Pink Glow 426
This product compares to BE radiances. There is quite a bit of micro shimmers in it, which I like. I also like the color really well. The brush with this is a FO, which makes sense. It is good for highlighting the face or even as blush at times. And this brush is nice enough to use with other glow or radiance type products from other brands, see below for how I use it.
Gentle Mineral Blush Pinched Pink 486
This is a very pretty color. I like it a lot. The brush for this is a little shorter and denser. It works great.
My take:
I rate the products I tried a 5. They are very nice in every way.
Here’s the problem
I rate the packaging a 2-3. What I had hoped for the brushes is not easy to execute. The products do not feed up through the brushes. (I’ve been tempted to drill holes so it would — I have a BE container that feeds up through the brush, and I like the way it works a lot. But I’ve been afraid that if I did, it would destroy the glue that holds in the fibers/bristles.)
Most products that have separate brushes have a lid you can use to put product in, then use the brush to transfer it to your face/eyes. You cannot do that with these, because the cap is too deep (and small around) to easily (or at all) to put product in the cap, then use the brush. This is because the cap is designed to cover the brush.
So where do you put the product to use it? Good question.
I have a separate flat plastic cap from another product’s packaging that I use with all my loose ziplock facial minerals. (Generally I dip my shadow brushes directly into mineral shadow sample ziplocks. It takes so little to use that sprinkling it out means needing to put it back into the ziplock. I don’t want to lose a speck.)
I don’t sprinkle it into my hand to use.
Still is is not as convenient as a self-feeding system, unless it would feed too much product.
Pictures, please!
I promise pictures the next time I use these. Maybe I’ll use these for my weekend look tomorrow and post pictures at that time.
What do you think?
Do you use any of L’Oreal’s minerals? Let me know your faves.
I’ve never tried their shadows. I love AL and Meow and other brands of shadows so much that I just haven’t tried any. Have you? What did you think?
Karin
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4 comments ↓
I’ve tried both Bare Essentuals and L’Oreal’s minerals.
I like the convenience of being able to buy L’Oreal’s at the local drugstore. And it’s never irritating to my skin. I’ve been using the Soft Ivory 456 foundation, too. It seems just right for my skin tone.
No, I’ve never tried their shadows.
It will be interesting to see your pictures the next time you use the L’Oreal’s products.
How do you get the product out? Do you sprinkle it on something else? Do you wish the brush was self-feeding?
Good to hear from you!
Yes, it would be nice if the brush was self-feeding.
I usually shake the container enough to get some of the product into the cap, and then use one of my Bare Essentuals brushes for the application. That works, but is not the best solution because of the shape of the cap, as you mentioned.
I had not thought of using ziplock bags before, but after reading your article I put a couple of different products into ziplock bags and found that that works much better for me. When using the ziplock bag, it’s easier to get the smallest amount of product onto the brush for a more even application. And there’s no waste and no messiness. Thanks for the good idea!
That’s neat. Most of the mineral niche lines sell samples of their products that come in small ziplock bags. I ended up putting all my full size jars of glitter from Girlactik into ziplocks as it was a whole lot less messy. I haven’t done that with any of my full size AL’s, but I expect if/when I use up a ziplock, I’ll just transfer some from the jar.
I notice that with Strawberry Despair I have to be very careful because I only have a full size, no ziplock, and I was close to making a mess and losing some of the product. I’d hate to do that with this one especially!
Today I thought perhaps I could dip the foundation brush into the top of the lower half of the container (which is likely how they expected it to be used.) I was using my Lancome mineral foundation brush, though, so I didn’t.
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