We’ve asked our Skin Team Leader, Lauren, along with our skin team, to share everything they know about mineral makeup – the good and the not-so-good!

5 BENEFITS OF USING MINERAL MAKEUP

1) Mineral makeup can make your skin healthier

Mineral makeup doesn’t clog pores, meaning it won’t cause breakouts like many of the big makeup brands do. Jane Eredale especially, is great for acne-prone skin, rosacea, and oilier skin as it can help ‘mop up’ excess oils, helping to give you a ‘glow’ as opposed to a ‘shine’. 

Handy hint – choose the right type of makeup for your skin type, e.g. you might want a “healthy glow” but have oily skin so choose a Pressed Powder Amazing Base, this will help mop up the excess oils produced throughout the day and will give the radiant finish you are wanting. Comparatively, if your skin is dry, you will want a product that has some hydrating qualities, such as a BB Cream. These are called Glow Time for a reason, they have hydrators to ensure that your complexion is flawless throughout the day! 

2) Mineral makeup provides better coverage with less product

Traditional cosmetics often contain talc, a bulking agent that leads to a formula that’s heavier on the skin and less pigmented. With a poorly pigmented foundation, you might find yourself layering on more and more product to get the look and coverage you want, only to end up with a patchy/streaky finish that is less than flattering. With Jane Eredale mineral makeup, the less is more rule applies. Often first time users apply too much product, as they are used to using inferior quality products that have poor ‘colour pay off’ so will apply the usual amount and are often surprised when they find they end up with a very full coverage from a small amount of product. 

3) Mineral makeup won’t settle into fine lines

The best foundation is one that you apply and forget. However, many traditional foundations contain talc, which feels heavy on the skin. Traditional foundation also commonly settles into fine lines and wrinkles, causing creasing. Mineral makeup is like a second skin, with a barely-there feel. The minerals are “micronized” or milled to a very small size, this process results in a smooth and sheer coverage. Don’t confuse “micronized” with “nano-sized” The use of nano-sized particles in cosmetics is a controversial one – Jane Eredale have chosen not use them and all of their products are “nano free”.

4) Mineral makeup is safe to wear after an injectable treatment (Botox)

We use only Jane Eredale mineral makeup after our injectable treatments, because of its skin health benefits. Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide help to soothe the skin and calm erythema (redness). Zinc Oxide is also anti-microbial, further reducing the chance of infection.

5) You can wear mineral makeup whilst exercising

The skin’s health relies heavily on a barrier defense system, which protects it from external factors such as viruses and bacteria and maintains a healthy fluid environment within. Skin cells need a hydrated environment to communicate and carry out their functions effectively. If the barrier defense is disrupted for a prolonged period a cascade of events begin that eventuate in breakouts, redness, dry and generally impaired, damaged skin.

Poor quality skin care and makeup may contain emulsifiers and surfactants that disrupt this essential barrier by lowering the surface tension and allowing water loss. This then leads to the breakdown of essential nutrients and oxidative stress or damage to the skin. In addition, standard makeup may contain preservatives, fragrance, colour pigment and fragrance-fixing agents that also exacerbate this process and lead to inflammation. The inflammation may not be visually obvious but at a cellular level it causes critical damage to the skin cells.

I recommend that anyone that cares about their skin wear a 100% mineral makeup all the time. Mineral makeup will not inhibit the skin’s natural mechanisms while exercising or exacerbate epidermal water loss that leads to dehydration. Whilst exercising the skin actually produces more damaging free radicals as part of cell respiration, so putting it under the added stress of wearing poor quality makeup will encourage further inflammation and accelerated water loss from the skin. The chronic use of poor makeup can eventually lead to severally dehydrated skin, which leads to inflammation, which leads to oxidative stress, which can lead to pigmentation, sensitivity and the breakdown of collagen and elastin.

5 DISADVANTAGES OF USING MINERAL MAKEUP

1) Mineral makeup has limited colour options

Because pure mineral makeup contains no added dyes or coloring agents, there are not as many colors and tones available as there are with traditional/big brand makeup. This can especially be a problem for those with darker skin, as darker skins often have several different tones in them and will require custom blend to suit them.

Fortunately, Jane Eredale is used in over 40 countries, so there is a huge selection of colours available compared to other mineral makeup. 

2) Mineral makeup is harder to find

Because there is less out there, good mineral makeup is harder to find, although now as more and more people are becoming aware of the benefits of mineral makeup, and more brands are producing it, it has become a lot easier to find, but buyer beware, just because it says “mineral” doesn’t always mean that’s what you are getting.

Handy hint – always research your brand and the amount of mineral content in the product you intend on buying, as often it can contain a small amount of mineral, yet still have all of the other ingredients that you don’t want. The minerals SHOULD appear at the top of the list of ingredients, in descending order with the largest amount listed first. There should be as few technical sounding ingredients or product numbers as possible.

3) Some mineral makeup can be irritating

Some brands of mineral makeup use Bismuth Oxychloride in their cosmetics, a natural byproduct of lead and copper processing which is also a known skin irritant. Fortunately, Jane Eredale doesn’t contain Bismuth Oxychloride (always check the ingredient list). 

4) Some mineral makeup can be messy!

Any makeup can be messy! We have all spilt the loose powder everywhere when in a hurry, and mineral make is no different, that being said there are some simple tips to avoid the dreaded powder spillage, If you are using a Jane Eredale Loose Powder Amazing Base, only poke a few holes into the plastic disc on top of the container, add more holes to allow more product through as you need them. Also, use the Refillable Handi Brush – this genius little brush is refillable and has a cap and locking mechanism so you don’t have an accidental blizzard in your makeup bag.

5) Mineral makeup can cause a powdery finish 

If you are getting a powdery finish, it is most likely your application technique. The micronized particles in the Jane Eredale makeup have very good adherence and coverage and tend to sit like fish scales on the skin, if you buff them into the skin you will always get a less than flattering finish,

Handy hint – use the correct brush for the product you are using and use long strokes to lay the product on the skin, especially if you are using the Amazing Base Loose Powder & Pressed Powder. And, ALWAYS finish with the correct setting spray for your skin type to ensure that the product is ‘set’, it also adds vital hydration to the skin and allows the product to integrate much faster with your skins natural oils and turn its true colour.

Come in to see us to get a 15-minute complimentary colour match of Jane Eredale! 

Best wishes,
Lauren
Skin Team Leader