Chilliwack is da bomb!

This past weekend was wonderful fun. Gen and I head up to Chilliwack, BC to teach a weekend chock full of dancing goodness.

We got stopped for a full search at the border which was scary. I mean, had I brought a ton of stuff to sell at the workshops as I usually do, we would have been in a very awkward position, surely. But we didn't, so the car search didn't implicate us in any way. And the immigration guy was so very nice, and we chatted him up a little bit about bellydance and the workshops we were going to... Puts the fear o' god in ya, lemmie tell ya.

Everyday Minerals continued

Well, got my full size Everyday Minerals today. Actually, it was on the dining room table when I got in from class, so before I put away groceries (Mother Hubbard's cupboard was BARE!) or changed out of my dance clothes, I had to try them. ;)

Love the Chamomile shadow--it is really versatile. Dust it on for light effect, or swipe it on with a fingertip for more drama. Pretty creamy golden color. I predict I will use it a LOT.

Mystic Night...the dark purple...it is also lovely, but I think I will blend it with maybe the Chamomile or something else to get a lighter effect. As it is, it looks really lovely, shimmery purple up close, but just dark from a distance. I hope to pop more of the purple through blending. I do have it blending in with the Comfy, which I put on a little dark tonight as a test for class, so that could be affecting it somewhat, but I suspect blending will be require regardless.

And the Weekend Getaway blush is just what I hoped it would be! Just enough peachiness to it, without screaming PEACH/PINK, which I don't like; and it is also a bit mauvey-brown to add a little warmth. Yum.

WANT MORE.

Tonight I did the full spread on the makeup to show Lauren and Celise, and then the snow kept everyone away. *sigh* I did it with my foundation primer this time (but still no shadow primer), and one more pass with the foundation to get the coverage I wanted. Then a spritz of lavender water to set. Looked really nice. As I said above, I put some Comfy on the lids, with a bit of one of my fave colors from Aromaleigh dusted on the brow bone. Looked natural and put together without looking like I was "all made up" for class. No class next week (darn MLK holiday closing the building!), so it will be another week before I can show it off! :(

RE: Snow Night: I had 8 students in each class, which is good enough for me. We got to work on quads and leader changes, as well as Double Egyptian and SHOULDER SHIMMIES! Yes, we WILL master those shimmies, dammit! :) The new class format in Level 1 is tricky still. I feel there is just TOO MUCH information for one six week session, and paring it back accordingly will take time. I don't want to overload Level 2, which already has too much to cram into 12 weeks of classes!

I need more levels. LOL

Hope everyone is home warm and safe tonight!

Everyday Minerals

Due to some recent positive postings about it, I decided to get a sample kit from Everyday Minerals, which is another bismuth-free product. And after three days of testing so far, I really like it! It has that "glow" I liked from BE, has the creamy texture I like, and less transfer than the Aromaleigh. And the little printed brown lids are cute. Never let it be said I am not a slave to packaging.

They have an "Original Glo", which I prefer, and then Semi-matte and Matte.

It also includes a choice of one of the eye shadows, so I have been trying that out. The pigments are much deeper than Aromaleigh. I never liked Aromaleigh's shadows, but kept getting samples in hopes I would one day find some version that I would like. Never did. But this stuff I liked instantly. I am testing the staying power now. I wore it last night through class and it lasted (no shadow primer, to see how it holds on its own), and have some on today as well. Will report back. I tend to rub my eyes a lot during the day, though, because I don't normally wear eye shadow except at night or for performances, so it may not be the best time to be testing the "wear".

One thing I found on their site was interesting though:
"Skin Redness? If you tend to have a redness to your complexion, apply a light dusting of Light Pink Blush all over your face after you apply your foundation. This will help reduce redness and even out your skin tone while boosting your complexion. If you don't like the sparkle you can use either Pick Me Up Pink or your Mint Color Corrector."

Really? If my face is red, I should try and even it out by making everywhere a little more red??
At least they mention color corrector at the end!

Anywho, so far so good, and just wanted to report for anyone who is interested. I know, Lauren, that you were taking notes the other night on my Aromaleigh experiences, so I thought I should pop up and say I *might* be switching to Everyday Minerals. I will be sad to leave Aromaleigh after two-plus happy years, as I felt attached to the small, woman-owned operation--the kind where they write personal messages on every invoice, and send three to four random free sample baggies of lip gloss and shadows with every single order. And they always shipped fast, too, which impresses me, the one who hates shipping the most of all duties of online sales... But I am feeling a pull to Everyday Minerals, and may have to give it a shake out for a little while...

Aromaleigh vs. Cream Make-up

So let me start by saying that I have always loved my cream based makeups. No complaints. Except when I started getting adult acne breakouts (ARGH!), and wondered if my make-up was contributing. I changed brands, to no avail, and most lately it's been the MMU experiments (MMU=Mineral Make Up). So since I am on vacation today, and have nothing else I have to do, I decided to do one side of my face in my cream make-up, the other side with my Arromaleigh, and see what the sides look like compared to one another, same day, same face.

So here are the results:
Both sides: Oil of Olay moisturizer, Smashbox Photo Finish primer, Mac Eye paints eyshadow primer, Mac brow shadow
First: Smashbox cream foundation, Clinique translucent finishing powder, Maybelline blush, Cover girl eyeshadow
Second: Aromaleigh foundation, 'Luminous' blush, 'Illuminator' finishing powder, Aromaleigh eyeshadows


Honestly, I like both sides. And on close inspection, one doesn't look excessively more "made up" than the other, in my opinion. Chris kept saying "this side (the mmu side) looks more red". And I said he was right--my natural skintone shows through more on that side. But it doesn't look *RED*. It just looks more rosy than the cream make-up side. I also feel the MMU side appears a bit "warmer". But all-in-all...I wonder if the effect is worth all that... I don't think I look less made-up on the right, honestly, which is what I was going for. What do you think?

Also, RE the rub-off factor...I ran a tissue over my face on both sides. Cream side barely had anything rub off. MMU side had the rouge color rub off a bit. Not excessive, but surprisingly, the cream side left less rub-off on the tissue...

So what does this mean? Hrm...wonder if the MMU stuff is really so spectacular. I really like the finish, regardless. But I think largely, the Smashbox foundation has been my favorite foundation *because* it doesn't look too bland/washed out on me. It has a soft look to it, and doesn't accent my pores. Now the question is, will the MMU decrease my breakouts over time? We'll see...

I will continue to report!

Aromaleigh Day 2

Day 2, and just getting ready to run out the door to take my family-in-laws to the airport for their Turkey Day in SoCal. Here are the quick n' dirty pics.


LEFT: just foundation
RIGHT: full meal deal



Foundation went on fine, but I am noticing a lot of dry, flaky patches on my skin. This is mainly due to the acne cleansing routine, but the minerals seem to accent it a bit. Cream based foundations tend to..well..moisturize a little. They have moisture in them, so it not only avoids accenting dryness, but tends to alleviate it more. I wonder what longterm use of minerals will do for the dryness factor. It was so bad on my "first run" this morning, I washed it off, put on the heavier moisturizer again, and started over. Still there are some dry patches, but likely mostly noticable to me and/or up close.

So, regarding the right "full meal deal":
Put on the raisin lipstick again, this time with liner first and without Lip Injection, to make sure I get a sense of wear, feel, lasting power without any other ingredients. Like the color a bit better without the Injection, as well. It is pretty intense color, needing only a tiny bit to get results, and adding the Injection boosted the pink tones more than I would have liked. So far it feels good. Non-drying, but fairly matte.

In the right hand photo, I added a tinge of warmth-like powder from the Ebay vendor, to darker up a smidge. Just nice to hit the sun-kissed points of the face with it. Still like the BE Warmth better, and hope to find a comparable color in Aromaleigh if this works out.

Still don't like zinfandel. It's like I am not wearing it at all.

I love the Brocade as a base and brow highlighter. I noticed in the sunlight today that the perle is fer realz. It is somewhat gossamer--that pearlized tone that many make-ups are implementing these days. It is very subtle and lovely. I dig.

Oh I forgot to mention that Aromaleigh does not claim the SPF 15 that most other brands do. If you look it up on their website, you will find that they have not had the $ to do lab studies to back up such an assertion, but that their ingredients are much the same as other companies who do claim SPF 15. So I wonder if it DOES have it, but they just can't legally say it at this point. I would like to know for sure, as it would affect the moisturizer I would use under it (SPF or not).

Anyway, gotta go pick up the fam. Will let you know how it wears. Last night at the video night it survived the hot tub and several hours of video watching in a warm studio with no signs of creasing or fading. I wonder what a whole day will reveal...