6 Things You Should Know About Mineral Makeup

Min­er­al make­up has become the make­up indus­try’s top sell­er, but few peo­ple know why. 

Here are some inter­est­ing facts about min­er­al make­up that you may not know. 

1. Min­er­al make­up is inert, which means it is not able to be changed eas­i­ly by a chem­i­cal or bio­log­i­cal reac­tion. This means that it is ben­e­fi­cial to the skin in two ways; the first is by imped­ing bac­te­r­i­al growth which makes it great for acne­ic skin, and sec­ond­ly, it reduces the chances of irri­ta­tion, espe­cial­ly for sen­si­tive skin types. Pure min­er­al make­up can be used on the most sen­si­tive skin types, even skin that has been fresh­ly waxed or exfo­li­at­ed. It’s sta­ble, non-reac­tive, and great for all skin types. 
2. Not all min­er­al make­up is cre­at­ed equal. There are many claim­ing to have the best min­er­al make­up line and prod­uct, who do you believe? Of course, it may be just a mat­ter of opin­ion, but be aware of mis­lead­ing mar­ket­ing claims. For exam­ple, there are labels that read ​“con­tains 100% min­er­als”, which leads you to think it IS 100% min­er­al make­up. What it real­ly means is that it has min­er­als in it that hap­pen to be 100% pure, but not that every ingre­di­ent in that prod­uct IS 100% pure min­er­als. Many CON­TAIN min­er­als along with fil­ters and oth­er ingre­di­ents, but they aren’t com­plete­ly pure. 
3. Not all min­er­als are good min­er­als. Just because it’s pure and nat­ur­al, does­n’t mean it is good for the skin. A few years ago, some min­er­al make­up com­pa­nies began remov­ing an ingre­di­ent called, bis­muth oxy­chlo­ride, from min­er­al make­up because they found in some indi­vid­u­als, it caused an aller­gic reac­tion that mim­ic­ked acne rosacea. Bis­muth oxy­chlo­ride is a pure min­er­al, it’s used as a light reflec­tor main­ly in eye shad­ows, but it can be harm­ful to some. Many of the more rep­utable min­er­al make­up com­pa­nies have com­plete­ly removed it from all their prod­ucts, so check the ingre­di­ent label. 
4. Min­er­al make­up is dif­fer­ent from reg­u­lar make­up pow­ders and foun­da­tions. For peo­ple who are used to full cov­er­age make­up, it will take time to get used to a more nat­ur­al look. Min­er­al make­up won’t com­plete­ly cam­ou­flage imper­fec­tions, but it will soft­ly blend uneven tones. Pure min­er­als let the skin’s nat­ur­al col­or and tone come through so it looks nat­ur­al and fresh. Most peo­ple feel the light­ness and pre­fer the look once they try it. 
5. It is true that it is eas­i­er for nor­mal and oily skin types to wear min­er­al make­up than dry skin. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it is just the nature of min­er­al make­up being a ​“dry” prod­uct, so it has a hard time adher­ing to dry skin. But dry skin types can use min­er­al make­up when they apply it prop­er­ly. I rec­om­mend that they first apply an emol­lient day cream right before they apply the pow­der. The cream will act as a nat­ur­al adhe­sive, help­ing the min­er­al to ​“stick” to the skin. And if the min­er­al make­up line car­ries a set­ting or hydra­tion spray, use it fol­low­ing the appli­ca­tion to help it look hydrat­ed and radiant. 
6. Min­er­al make­up has nat­ur­al sun­screen! All min­er­al make­up usu­al­ly con­tain two ingre­di­ents which act like good UV fil­ters; tita­ni­um diox­ide and zinc oxide. So when you are reap­ply­ing your pow­der through­out the day, you are also reap­ply­ing your sun­screen. Most women find this an eas­i­er way to reap­ply their SPF than reap­ply­ing a cream based sun­screen mul­ti­ples times a day.

And last­ly, high­er grade min­er­als and high­er stan­dards of ingre­di­ents can make min­er­al make­up more expen­sive. But most feel that find­ing a make­up that is healthy for your skin, com­pli­ments your skin tone, and gives you extra sun pro­tec­tion is worth the extra cost.