The big news in Bare Minerals land is the launch of the brand's first skincare line, simply called 'Skincare'.
Sure, its sister company MD Formulations has been producing well-respected products for years but this is the mineral makeup brand's own suite of creams and cleansers. The point of difference here is the use of a rare minerals active soil complex, which say the brand, has been distilled from soil samples gathered from all over the US.
Steady now, my brows were raised too. People ain't plants and I'm pretty sure our skin doesn't perform the way roots do, but as ingredients, the actives are things like skin-beneficial minerals and the brand has conducted studies to prove efficacy. So, is it any odder than the other bonkers ingredients other skincare companies like L'Oreal and Estee Lauder routinely trot out as a point of difference for their products?
No, I don't reckon so - soil's still a new one on me - and given the zealous fans this brand has, I am sure the range will probably do nicely for them. Packaging is pretty and will look very nice in your bathroom, textures are good, the line is well thought-out (with two types of cleanser, for example) and skin types seem well catered for.
Oh - except for one, huge, massive, colossal, glaringly great gallumphing elephant in the corner.
There's a tinted powder product in the line. Yeah, what's so weird about that? Oh nothing much ladies, except for this: YOU USE IT LAST THING AT NIGHT. Yeah, you know, right before bed. Designed to reduce pore size, increase firmness and elasticity, you buff it on like you would regular mineral powder foundation and because it's tinted, you get some imperfection-blurring and make-upping while you're at it.
Brilliant isn't it, enthused the brand reps at the meeting I attended to launch the range to the Irish press. The message coming across was that this would be great if you didn't ever want your husband or boyfriend to see you bare-faced or you were a bit self-conscious, and this product would be the solution to that.
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This is also the message I am seeing in other reportage on this product, and no one seems to be questioning it much. Isn't it a brilliant step forward altogether, was the inference at the meeting; what a fab new innovation! And not, clearly, a step back into the frightening, horrible dark ages where men were men and women were, well - absolutely nothing, actually. Certainly not their own legal entities or capable of making their own decisions.
Giving women the message - the firm, clear, in their face message by creating a tinted night powder product for buffing on pre-bed - that they need to even out 'imperfections' before they catch their zeds (a time when er, it's dark and the lights are off) with a tinted product is in my opinion 100% wrong. And I spoke up then and there and said that, as a feminist, I felt that this not the right thing to be encouraging at all, at all.
That was refuted by the brand with one of the arguments being the soil complex itself is somewhat yellow-toned - and of course they have their opinion as I have mine - but hey, as far as I'm concerned the evidence is out there and it's being sold for €56 a pot. To be fair, you can buy this in a non-tinted shade if you like the sound of the benefits it gives, and then to hammer the nail into the coffin, there are three other colours too just to make sure all skintones are well catered for.
Groan.
If you are in a relationship where you need to hide your bare face from your partner, then honey, makeup - or sorry, tinted night treatments - ain't gonna fix things.
But why was it deemed necessary by the brand to create such a product in the first place? I have no official confirmation but I have an inkling I may know where this is all coming from. One of this brand's mantras is 'makeup so pure you can sleep in it' - and sadly it seems that possibly lots of Bare Minerals fans are doing just that, and feeding back to the brand that they want even more products they can also sleep in, lest the delicate manly flower who is the love of their life takes fright and leaves them because he can't cope with a bit of powder-free skin.
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This is of course, just my opinion on the product. What do you all think? A big issue for beauty or no big deal? Lets discuss in the comments.
