Although I always, always wear my monave mineral makeup foundation, which keeps my skin protected from UVB and UVA rays, I still get a little color, so I ramp up from Caroline to Teporah. Now I’ll have to refresh my supply of Caroline and start blending them together.

The beauty of loose mineral foundation is that you can easily blend two colors together. There are a few different ways to do it. You can apply the lighter shade first, and then top off your look with the darker shade.

Another method is to use a small ceramic dish and tap a few crumbs of the two shades into the dish, and swirl it around with your brush. As you apply it, and begin buffing your mineral makeup foundation in, the two shades will easily blend together and create a natural looking blend.

One more method is to pre – blend your makeup by taking equal parts light and dark and rolling them around in a ziplock bag. Then gently pout it into your cosmetic jar. You may need to adjust it by adding more or less of one of the shades until you find the right match. I personally prefer the second method, because my skin seems to change color often, and I don’t like to mix too much of it ahead of time.

And one final trick is to use Rum Bronzer either on the cheeks over the foundation, or gently mixed in using one of the techniques above.

Also don’t forget, as the season gets drier, you’ll need to up your moisture a bit so as not to become dehydrated!

Teporah

Monave Mineral Makeup made the decision from inception to use ingredients that were benign and beneficial to the skin. To that end our mineral foundation is produced with the highest quality ingredients possible. Two of our main ingredients are Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide. Titanium dioxide is a naturally occurring oxide that has a variety of uses, from toothpaste to ceramics to sunscreens. Titanium Dioxide has a high refractive index and strong UV light absorbing capabilities. The other important ingredient is Zinc Oxide it blocks both UVA and UVB rays and is water resistant. Both of these ingredients cannot be absorbed into the skin so they are non irritating and non allergenic.

However, sunscreens today use micronized particles of Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide which does get absorbed into the skin. There is a theory that these nano particle sized ingredients gives rise to cellular malfunction causing cancer.  Monave Mineral Makeup does not use micronized particles in our regular loose mineral foundations making them safer for the skin.

With all these wonderful factors is it any wonder that mineral foundation is best when used in place of a conventional sunscreen? Pick up yours today for the health of your skin.

Green Clay bar and the Luxurious Lavender bar are in!! As some of you may know our original soapmaker recently had to put her business in hiatus as she nurses her husband back to health following a serious health crisis!  We were lucky to find Geralyn, a soapmaker from Charm City Soaps. She does beautiful soaps and was able to perfectly execute our soaps! Go Geralyn!  So visit our site www.monave.com and stock on some old friends.

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!

Monave Mineral Makeup is having a Memorial Weekend Sale! Sale starts on Friday May 28th to Sunday May 30th!  So if you have been putting off getting your mineral foundation or trying a color from our new collection of mineral eye shadow now is the time to do it! The sale is 30% off the entire retail site, only retail customers are eligible not wholesalers.  To take advantage of the sale input MONAVE30 in the Promo Code box when placing your order! Have a safe and wonderful weekend!

Many of the studies quote animal testing, which I find painful to read at best. The Campaign states that it does not support animal testing, yet it quotes study after study in which very tiny animals (rats, mice, and rabbits) have ingredients injected or fed to them, that then make them sick. I believe that quoting these studies in and of itself, is an implicitly implied support of animal testing, in complete opposition of the Campaigns public statement against such testing.

Here are some specific errors that I find in the tabulation of evidence. I used zinc oxide as my example:

1. Inclusion of other minerals in the list: Several of the quoted studied referred to ‘zinc compounds’, instead of zinc oxide. Zinc compounds are not the same as zinc oxide and should not be included.

2. Tacking manufacturing practices onto the end user (end user being Monave in this case): This is especially evident as it relates to ecological concerns that are raised, ie, that if large quantities of zinc oxide are dumped into waterways, that contamination and degradation of wildlife occurs. This is the case with any ingredient dumped into waterways. For example, in Baltimore, there is runoff from yards, and farms into our Bay, and that runoff includes fertilizers. It doesn’t matter if they’re natual, or synthetic, the concentrations of fertilizers, combines with warm water in the summer, creates an overgrowth of algae, called an algae bloom. Then all of the fish go belly up, because there isn’t enough air for them to breathe. Is the fertilizer at fault? No, it’s a multitude of factors that cause this problem. So people fertilizing their lawn, and the manufacturers are not at fault, it’s lack of public legislation that would prevent and control these factors. So, back to zinc oxide, what would prevent contamination of aquatic life would be legislation prohibiting manufacturers of mineral compounds, and mining companies, from having access to waterways for waste removal.

3. Testing that uses routes of entry unrelated to normal consumption of end product: One of the studies quoted this as a concern

Developmental/reproductive toxicity

It begs these questions:

How was a high dose administered? Was it injected into a rat? Was it fed to a mouse? Do we eat it, or inject it into our veins? It’s placed on our skin, and doesn’t absorb. That’s the beauty of minerals is that they don’t absorb, as do carbon-based ingredints. That’s the main reason why mineral makeup is easy on people with allergies, because it sits on the skin as opposed to entering into it.

So if a poor mouse in a lab who weighs a few ounces developed problems from high doses of zinc oxide injected or fed to it, how high of an amount would you have to consume to have those results, and if you apply a mineral makeup with zinc oxide in it to your face, does that have anything realistically connected to such data?

4. Quoting industrial inhalation risks as a concern for end users: This relates back to point number 2, in that industrial inhalation can cause cancer. As far as I know, any large inhalation of dust particles will cause lung disease. There is a litany of them. Again, this points back specifically to the regulation of the chemicals production industry itself. There are strict regulations concerning allowable levels of  particulates (dust) in a workplace. Proper ventilation is required, as are personal items, such as masks. If a company is not following these procedures, there are consequences that can be enforced by the regulating agencies, whose job it is to check on manfucturers.

So, the documentation in the Skin Deep database implies that if Monave Mineral Makeup contains zinc oxide, then our products are connected to cancer. No so. You cannot get cancer from putting your makeup on each day, and my lab has an industrial ventilator that control our particulate levels to maintain a healthy work environment.

That data needs to be tacked onto the manufacturers of said minerals.

If you’re still reading this, you are a dedicated learner. Please feel free to comment. In summary, while the goal of the Safe Campaign and Skin Deep are laudable, the data base itself is faulty, and many of the small companies that were with the campaign from its inception have signed off, and will no longer support the efforts. I for one, hope that someone knowledgeable in this industry, will begin to sift through the data,  and either explain it to the cusomters browsing the site, or remove erroneous, or unrelated studies.

Deb

There are some new gems being mined at Monave Mineral Cosmetics this Spring! Our new Crystal Collection have a total of four new mineral eye shadows and two mineral lip colors. The mineral eye shadows are, Tourmaline, a rich verdant green, Peridot, a delicate  apple green color with a shimmer of gold, Carnelian, a fiery orange and Smoky Opal, a pearlescent smoky pink! These new mineral colors are awesome with a shade for everyone no matter what skin tone you are!  The mineral lip colors are Crimson Agate, a lush cranberry and Rose Quartz, an opalescent pink.

We incorporated these new mineral shades into our Spring/Summer Collection. We have a Pastel palette which has a couple surprises. Babe Pink, normally a mineral lip color, Lilac Mist, normally a mineral blush became  semi matte  mineral eye shadows along with the new Peridot! The lip color, Rose Quartz rounds out the collection.  Our Vibrant palette is the Tourmaline, Carnelian and an old favorite Dragonfly,  a shimmery purple haze with Crimson Agate complementing the gem like versatile powders. So step into fashion with these new additions to Monave’s kaleidoscope of mineral colors!

Wearing Canela, Radiant Illuminizer, and Monave Candy Apple Lip Glaze

Our new friend Andrea has a You-Tube Channel, and asked if she could review. We sent her samples of some Monave Mineral Makeup. You can watch the full review here: Andrea Chavez\’s Review of Monave Mineral Makeup

See her beautiful face in before and after photos

Andrea Chavez before applying Monave Mineral Powdered Foundation

After the number of years I’ve been in this business, I am still amazed by how much I learn from the brilliant women that are featured as speakers at our twice-yearly Mineral Makeup Crafting seminar.  This year, Kimberly Platko was the main speaker, besides myself, and Julie Edwards stepped in for a mini-workshop. In previous years, she’s conducted two-hour workshops that seemed short!

I have very deep respect for the vast knowledge and experience these women have to offer. Kimberly has the most amazing tricks for making hand-made products look professional. During one of her workshops, she showed us how to make a pressed shadow look like a million dollars, the first step being to roll the product into a little ball, using gloves of course, and then using a calibration weight, and tiny piece of cloth, to create a perfectly formed eye shadow. What a creative technique. And how wonderful that she’s willing to share these tricks with ‘newbies’ and the rest of us as well.

If anyone missed this seminar, we are going to stream it again in a few weeks, on West Coast time, so please check back for news on the site.

Deborah