A while back I ordered some samples of Sweetscents Mineral foundations. I made some swatches and photographed them for you. It's the best I could do at this time of the year, I have been waiting for months for some kind of bright daylight but the only few times we had that I was busy. Now it's April and snowing, so I'm giving up!
 |
| The swatches are in the same order as the sample baggies |
Foundations:
The website makes it pretty difficult to chose the right shade so I based myself on the reviews in forums. Fortunately Joan was really nice and sent me much more samples that I ordered (plus, samples of green tea minerals, eyeshadows and more)! I have to mention that the samples are very generous, so it's totally bang for your buck.
Sweetscents foundations smooth out the pores and give an even look to the skin. They are also really good at absorbing oiliness. They are low-coverage and don't hide much imperfections. If you don't need much coverage you can use them as foundation, they don't need a finishing product. If you do need more coverage, they are great to layer on top of (or mix with) heavier mineral foundations to get that pore-smoothing effect and extra oil absorbing powers. I was using them as a foundation and wasn't happy because I do need more coverage, but then I started experimenting and see that they work really well as a finishing layer on top of foundations. Another great thing about them is that they stay smooth all day long and don't gather into lines, so they also work well as a primer for foundation.
The normal foundations are almost matte and light coverage, and come in warmer and cooler shades. The "Glo" minerals give an even lighter coverage, and give a luminous effect; there are no sparkly particles so the glow is subtle and natural looking.
The best match for my face were Beige Glo and Perfectly Tan. However I noticed something peculiar about Perfectly Tan: it turns orange when it gets into contact with water. I use water to seal my mineral makeup and give it a natural look, and was pretty surprised to see the very orangey shade on my face. Even if you don't use water, the sweat of your face will make you look as if you have been to the solarium after a few hours. So I use Beige glow. Beige matte is darker than beige Glow and kinda orangeish. Warm Olive is decidedly warm, Bisque is one of the lightest I tried. Tan is the darkest.
Eyeshadow
Sweetscents mineral eyeshadows are extremely easy to work with, they glide on so smoothly and are a dream to blend! Also, they are highly pigmented so the colours are true: what you see on the packet is basically what you get on your skin. This blog has also a couple of swatches that demonstrate the intensity of the pigments. Anyway, this was my first time using mineral eyeshadow and I was really pleasantly surprised! They are absolutely superior to conventional eyeshadow except for the convenience a hard-pressed pallette brings.
Face and Body Glow and Bronzer
I wanted to add swatches of the Starstruck face and body glo and the Bronzer glow. Starstruck is a shimmery powder which can be used to highlight the face, or decollete / collarbone. It is whitish which delicate sparkle, delicate enough to be used during daytime.
The bronzer also has sparkle in it, the shade is neutral on the warm/cool scale. As you can see, it is not meant for skin tones much paler than mine.
Coloured Correctors
I got the green and the yellow one. They are very light (as opposed to heavy) and very "powdery". They are easy to use on moisturised skin, however they are too dry for dry skin.
If you are interested in more stuff from Sweetscents, here is my review of Sweetscents Green Tea Minerals.
As I mentioned before, the layout and not exact photos on the website can be a turnoff, but it is totally worth ordering some samples. Joan is really nice and you can always mail her your questions.
Have you tried anything from Sweetscents? How did it work for you? Do you have a favourite brand of mineral cosmetics?
Have you tried anything from Sweetscents? How did it work for you? Do you have a favourite brand of mineral cosmetics?
