American born Julian, with a rich red-brown Island complexion

We had a customers recently email us, asking how Monave Mineral Makeup is different than other brands for African American women. The answer stretches back in time to the origins of the line itself. As a multi-ethnic woman, I found it virtually impossible to find a foundation shade to match my light olive skin. I still remember (and always will) braving for the first time, a makeup counter in the mall to try to have a salesperson from Prescriptives custom blend a shade for my skin. Her opening statement was something to the effect that my skintone was ’sallow’, and that she would create a ‘pinker’ shade to ‘fix’ it.  Many years later, I went to another custom-blend business and had the owner tell me exactly the same thing. I insisted the second time that she match my complexion exactly, because I liked my skintone. I can say from this experience, that it hurts when someone in the beauty industry tells you that something intrinsic to your heritage is unattractive, and needs to be ‘fixed’ or ‘covered up’.

This pervades many aspects of beauty and how we see ourselves, including our body shape (naturally curvy?), facial features, and for women from the African diaspora, hair texture. In pop culture, icons such as Cher (Sarkisian), or Michael Jackson do nothing to help with multiple plastic surgeries to create more mainstream facial feaures, or lighter skin. I have cousins in my family who all have exactly the same perky ski-slope nose created by a plastic surgeonto replace the beautiful, signature Armenian shape. It takes someone telling us that we are beautiful growing up to believe it, but oftentimes, it is our mothers, sisters, aunts, and grandmothers telling us to fix what is naturally beautiful. So we grow up never really believing in our own beauty. We may look in the mirror and see something pretty, (or not!) but we have nagging, persistent image problems that pervade our personal relationships, and our core beliefs about our self-worth.

There are many deep-rooted problems within beauty industry when it comes to the African American diaspora. Essentially, the industry doesn’t understand it from the get-go. “African-American”, or “Black” is a label that by definition uses the rascist concept of  ‘one drop’. This concept creates a classification that has nothing in common with color theory. So many makeup lines don’t recognize the huge range from light to dark, the huge variation in tones from pink, yellow, olive, copper, red, chocolate, and blue, and the dual-tone aspect of medium-to dark skin tones. There is a tendency to be heavy on the darker end, and to focus only on red and yellow undertones. In addition to this, traditional makeup from larger brands use dyes and cheaper pigments which  have a matte finish. This does not bring out the natural glow that darker skin tones exhibit.

All of these mistakes in the industry are fueled, in my opinion by poor formularies that are generated without the crucial relatioship of formulator, and client, as well as pervasive rascist classifications of people within the American identity.

Why is Monave different? I’m not a chemist. I’m a makeup artist, and my specialty is color blending, and mineral makeup. So, when I first started creating makeup, I was doing it from a void of formal education. This gave me the fantastic advantage of working without boundaries, and intellectual hindrances. The first Monave foundations (Keaira, Ashlie, Teporah, and Yolanda) were made at the Monave retail store in Baltimore in 2000, which had a clientele that was at least 50% African American . With limited access to pigments, and a simple coffee grinder, I learned from scratch, from mistakes, and from repeated applications on my clients, what worked, and what didn’t. This process led to unique formulations that have been mimicked by many smaller brands who recognize the benefits of pricier pigments. The larger brands can’t really ever compete with what we do, because their top priority is profit. Monave’s top priorities are quality and healthy ingredients.

monave mineral powdered foundations

So, what are the advantages of Monave for darker African American women?

1. Monave offers a huge range of mineral makeup foundation shades, natural lipsticks and glosses, as well as matte, and shimmer shadows for light, medium, medium-dark, and dark skin tones.

2. Monave has a unique formula that complements the dual-tone aspect of darker skin tones. This unique mineral formula uses two types of pigments that co-exist within the product. One mimics the darker chocolate tones around the jawline and forehead, while the other highlights the gold, copper, and red tones along the tops of the cheeks, forehead, and nose. The finished face never looks matte, or mono-chromatic, but looks just like real skin.

3. The finest pearlescent pigments are added at just the right quantity to accentuate the beautiful glow that is natural for medium-dark complexions.

4. Many African American women are health concious, and Monave uses only non-irritating mineral ingredients in the formulas. They are soothing, and skin-loving formulas that cover blemishes while removing irritants found in mainstream, and even mineral makeup brands.

5. Monave mineral make up covers! Some African American women have skin discolorations and variances that they want to even out without chemicals. Monave mineral makeup foundation offers medium coverage with a bare skin look, that never looks pasty. For even heavier coverage for more challenging blemishes, there is a special formula, called the concealer foundation formula.

6. The understanding of the true nature of the mult-ethnic complexion blend labelled ‘Black’ in this country, provides a complete selection of shades from lightest of skin tones to darkest chocolate complexions that represent the variety of undertones and overtones present in this slice of the American population.

7. Monave respects and honors the sisterhood of all American women. We do not conduct market research to determine whose dollars matter, and whose don’t. Our line is inclusive by necessity and nature, not by design, and invites all women to experience the quality of micro-formulated mineral makeup.

So, I hope this answers the question well, as to what makes Monave different for African American women. W strive to offer only the best for all women.

Teporah Bilezikan,
President, Formulator, and Founder

Working at Monave enables me to get first run colors straight from the lab and last month was no exception when the new Crystal Collection came rolling out! Mineral eye shadows with names like Tourmaline, a rich green, Carnelian, a vibrant orange and Peridot, an apple green were a sight to behold! Not far behind were two new mineral lip colors, Crimson Agate and Rose Quartz. I have been wearing both the Tourmaline and Peridot mineral eye shadows non stop since I’ve gotten them. Tune in next week when I give a tutorial of two of these fantastic new mineral eye shadows and the mineral lip glaze I pair with it!

Armed with my Oval Fluff eye shadow brush I proceeded to put the look together. After lining the eye with Espresso eye liner I applied the Driftwood from the corner to the middle of the eye lid. Be careful to get the excess shadow off the fluff brush before applying as it could get messy. After applying the Driftwood, dip lightly in Gold eye shadow and apply to outer lid and brow bone. Blend to create a seamless transition of color. Voila! A beautiful Golden Chocolate look!

Armed with this mission, I skipped with glee to the makeup studio! Now being a woman of color, I decided the pale complexion would not be a part of the look…ashy is not my favorite look. Sultry is the name of the game. So the eyes and the lips would be the main focus as I wanted to translate the look to women of color.

Since the eyes had to have a smoky eye effect with a matte base and shimmer overlay I looked to the Ultra Mattes and the Sultry Collection in our Versatile powders. For the matte color I chose the Charcoal Satin #120 and for the shimmery overlay in mineral eye shadow I chose Hypnotic#78. Moving on to the lips, I went to a color that is rarely used in our line but has its moment to shine this season, Hoochie Mama #155. This color is remniscent of Mac’s Vamp but with a darker edge to it. Lipsticks are the rage this season too, so go retro!

Now that I had the colors that I needed to achieve this look  I proceeded to apply. First the eyes, Charcoal Satin #120 is applied to the lids on the outer corner up to the crease. Hypnotic #78 is then applied to the inner corner pulled to the middle of the lid and up to the brow bone. Everything is then blended to achieve a uniform look with no lines.

 For the lips, line with Lip liner Blackberry, then apply mineral lipstick Hoochie Mama#155 Wow, now I was ready for a night on the town!

I’ve been wearing this look for a couple weeks now at night and I never fail to get compliments. If this look is too bold for you,  just rock it for Halloween night! Happy Halloween!

 A common complaint for women of color when using Mineral foundation is the fact that their face looks ashy and dry. The most dreaded condition for Black women is ‘ashy skin’! That is the absolute worst….and for it to occur on the face! ‘Ashy skin’ is the result of not enough moisture in the skin and the skin looks grey.

Loose Mineral foundation are dry, powdered products with no fillers that add moisture to the skin. This means the skin needs a good skin care regimen especially a good moisturizer before application. Even if the skin is oily there needs to be some form of primer for the foundation to adhere to. A lot of women of color have oily skin hence the slow aging process we enjoy. A lot of the skin care for oily skin in the commercial beauty industry actually strips our skin of the oils, this then creates a problem as the skin then produces more oil as it registers that it is dry. So, by midday we have an oil slick on the face.

My skin care routine is very simple…cleanse, tone, moisturize. Since I break out sometimes, I alternate between the Green Clay Bar and Honey Clay cleanser. The Green Clay bar is awesome for acne prone skin and the occasional breakouts at that time of the month. It has litsea cubeba, an essential oil, that is a great anti inflammatory while the green clay removes toxins from the skin. Honey Clay Cleanser is great for balancing the skin’s ph and won’t dry the face out. It’s also excellent as a weekly mask…we got an award from Natural Solutions magazine for this cleanser! The next step is using the Lavender Toner, it has aloe vera, Vit E and lavender hydrosol. A hydrosol is the aqueous solution of essential oils obtained by steam distillation of aromatic plants, in this case lavender buds, it retains the scent and content of the essential oils. I like to keep it in the fridge as it gives a refreshing boost to the skin in the morning not to mention taking the stress out of waking up in the mornings! Mmmm! My final step is moisturizing….I use Oil Control Humectant Light which  actually controls your oil production throughout the day and gives you a matte look without the greasiness of regular moisturizers. I am now ready for the application of my foundation…Alicia!

 Monave Flat Top Foundation Brush

The other key to a perfect look when using Mineral foundation is your brush! Yes… your brush, with our foundation I love the flat top foundation brush. This brush allows the product to settle in the bristles for full coverage when applied. Most mineral companies recommend the Kabuki brush, but I find the brush bristles are too loose and the foundations goes everywhere but the face

 So try these tips that I’ve given you and I promise you a flawless and natural complexion.

Julian wearing Charlene Mineral Foundation

Joi

Foundation for women of African descent has always being problematic not because they are not out there but they never seem to match! Every major makeup company has tried to cash into this billion dollar Black cosmetic industry. But no one seems to really look at the skin tones and the different overtones that we see in the multitude of variations that is the  Black woman’s skin.

Brandy Mineral Foundation

There is a richness and warmth that is never taken into account when you look at the skin from the diaspora. The deep golden tones, the bronze patina, the yellow overtones and a combination of them all are plainly visible but discounted by these companies. Situated in Baltimore, Monave wanted to address this problem as there is a high population of African American women here and in the surrounding areas of Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh to name a few. To that end we have 11 shades of foundation available for purchase on the website, www.monave.com .

Beverly Mineral Foundation

How do we come up with our foundation colors? All our colors have names of women who actually sat in our makeup studio while we developed the shade from their skin tone! How fun is that! We love when a new client comes in and we don’t have their exact shade! It’s another new color for our line, in this way we are constantly expanding!

Toni Mineral Foundation

Need help choosing the right shade? No problem, just contact me at sharen@monave.com .