Category: BellaPierre

Salvaging pulverized eye shadow

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

In my previous post, I mentioned that my NYX eye shadow in Golden Bronze was completely pulverized. I then transferred the eye shadow to an empty sifter jar.

Bella Mineral Shimmer Powder Nine Stack from BellaPierre
$90 list price for this set! Read what I wrote in my article on BellaPierre about bogus pricing.

Here’s where the fun began: I decided to mix my own color. I added a little gold powder (second row, right – the image does not accurately represent the shade) from the Bella stack of shimmer colors by BellaPierre to the pulverized NYX eye shadow. I then added a touch of black (bottom row, center) to the mix. The result? A shadow worthy of the unrefined rocks and crystals that were the inspiration of Dick Page’s Rich Rocks holiday 2009 collection for Shiseido.

Unfortunately, I forgot my own advice to place a sheet of wax paper underneath the loose powder: it spilled onto the countertop and even onto the carpet.

Today’s makeup look – romantic #Beauty

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

On Thanksgiving, I was grateful for a day off. I had proven to myself and others that I can make Thanksgiving dinner, and since that Thanksgiving, I haven’t felt the need to prove my abilities again. I would have been happy to cook something simple at home or eat out at an Indian restaurant, but my husband suggested that we go to the Thanksgiving buffet at a nearby hotel.

Sometimes I think that I’m one of the few people who still makes a production of going out. I chose a 3/4-length sleeve pullover sweater in cream (pure white is not my best shade) and a flippy skirt with a mesh floral print overlay. To adorn the outfit, I chose the Victorian-inspired Anna Sheffield for Target Filigree Charm Necklace that hangs from a delicate rose gold tone chain.

Anna Sheffield for Target Filigree Charm Necklace

I then complemented my outfit with a romantic makeup look:

I first used Paula Begoun’s Skin Balancing Super Antioxidant Mattifying Concentrate as a primer, which left a soft-focus finish. Once again, I used Daniel Chinchilla Flawless Finish Liquid Foundation. I pressed facial tissue on my face to remove excess makeup. I then pressed loose powder on my face with a cotton round to set the makeup, and buffed the powder with a face powder brush. I skipped blush, as I had plenty of color on my cheeks.

For my eyes, I used Pantina trio eye palette in Chichi Merlot, applying Veil (dusty mauve) on the lid, Spicy Currant in the crease and outer corner, and Black Currant cream eyeliner. Rite-Aid sometimes features tabletop displays of Pantina cosmetics.

You needn’t use a mascara with a round spiky brush head such as Givenchy’s Phenomen’Eyes and the copycat from L’Oreal Paris to coat every last lash. You can get the same effect by holding the wand at right angles to your eyes and applying mascara using the tip of the wand – just remove any gunk on the tip first.

I applied Color Comfort lipstick in Golden Berry from Sally Hansen Natural Beauty inspired by Carmindy on my lips with a Q-Tip to create a stain. Carmindy’s lipsticks have good color payoff and a smooth finish, as the name implies. To add a little shimmer to my pout, I applied a touch of loose gold mineral powder from the stack I bought from the mall kiosk for BellaPierre.

Mineral madness

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

I was shopping at the mall, when I discovered a kiosk for BellaPierre mineral cosmetics. A young man called out to women asking if they would like makeovers. Most shook their heads and walked on. As editor of The Style Page who’s always on the lookout for a story, I chose to stop.


Promotional material from BellaPierre
scanned by The Style Page

The young man showed me stacks of mineral powders (Pure Colors and True Colors also sell these stacks) and how one could use them for eye shadow, eye liner, lip color, and even nail color, with the help of mixing products such as eye shadow base, lip gloss, and clear nail polish.

Bare Escentuals is the leader in loose mineral powder cosmetics. How could BellaPierre distinguish itself from Bare Escentuals? For one thing, Bellapierre’s powder foundation doesn’t contain bismuth oxychloride, which the young man described as irrtating. Is this true? Check out Paula Begoun’s Special Report on Mineral Makeup, which states:

bismuth oxychloride can cause slight skin irritation (Source: http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-Bismuth_oxychloride-9923103). Although talc has the same potential for slight irritation, bismuth oxychloride is more likely to cause an allergic contact dermatitis due to its pearlescent nature (Source: http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic502.htm). This is more of a concern when bismuth oxychloride is the main ingredient in a cosmetic, as it is for many mineral makeups.

So maybe there’s something to BellaPierre’s claims, but it seems that its claims are overwrought. I noticed some irritation on my eyelid soon after using BellaPierre’s shimmering mica powders, and wondered if it had to do with the mica particles, but the irritation went away in a day, after I had cleaned all my eyeshadow brushes and applied a little opthalmic ointment to my lid.

Bare Escentuals has associated “mineral” with “pure,” and it’s something that other cosmetics companies have picked up on to market their products. The term “mineral” had referred to loose powders, but now it’s being associated with products such as lipstick, liquid foundation, and pressed powders that contain other ingredients in addition to minerals. Thus, all cosmetics can be considered mineral cosmetics! Be critical, and recognize that “mineral” is just another marketing construct.

I walked away from the BellaPierre kiosk with a stack of 9 shimmering powders – 3 pinky browns of different intensities (great for eye shadow), 1 dark brown, 1 coppery shade, 1 gold, 1 red (great for lip color), 1 white, and 1 black – and two itty-bitty cubes of lip gloss and eye shadow base. The young man claimed that I was getting an additional 5 for the cost of 4, but I attributed that to bogus discounting of already overpriced products. Sixty dollars for 4 tiny cubes of color would be obscene, but sixty dollars for nine at least makes it comparable to the price of $55 that True Colors and Pure Colors charge for a stack of eight. I’m having fun playing with the loose powders, which can be very soft.