The last time I tried mineral foundation was back in college. I had purchased the BareMinerals Matte Foundation on a whim while looking for something that would look natural, plus be quick and easy to apply before classes. But despite all the hype around this foundation, I couldn’t get it to look right on me. I tried different shades, brushes, primer, no primer – no matter what I did, it always looked somewhat patchy and drying, and never the right shade for my skintone.
Now, 6 or so years later, I decided to try out mineral makeup yet again after coming across several amazing reviews of Everyday Minerals on green beauty blogs. As a little intro, I ordered two of their sample sets. These sets gave you a generous amount of product to play with, plus they cost next to nothing (all you have to do is pay for shipping – mine came out to ~$2.50 for US).
In total, I tried out 4 jojoba foundation bases, 2 primers, 2 bronzers, and 2 finishing powders. I’m going to share swatches of everything I sampled, but will focus more on the real stand out here – the Everyday Minerals Jojoba Base Foundation. Let’s start out with a little overview of Everyday Minerals’ foundation offerings, including bases and shades.
Everyday Minerals Foundation Bases
Everyday Minerals offers foundation bases in 3 finishes: matte, semi-matte, and jojoba. Since I have combo skin and prefer a satiny-dewy look, I opted for their Jojoba base, based on the website’s recommendations. Here’s a full rundown of recommendations for the different skin types:
- Dry – Recommended Base: Jojoba
- Oily – Recommended Base: Matte
- Normal – Recommended Base: Jojoba, Matte & Semi-Matte
- Combo – Recommended Base: Matte and Jojoba
Everyday Minerals Foundation Shades
Everyday Minerals offers a wide range of shades and undertones on their website, including warm, neutral, and cool tones. They use a number and letter system, where the number indicates depth of color (0 is lightest and 7 is deepest), while the letter indicates the undertone (W is for Warm, C is for Cool, and N is for Neutral).
Considering the low cost of the samples, and the fact that I wasn’t 100% sure what my skin’s undertone was, I decided to get two kits so I’d have 4 foundation shades to experiment with. Here are the shades I picked up, along with side-by-side swatches.
Shades I tried:
- Golden Beige 3W Jojoba Base
- Medium 3N Jojoba Base
- Biege 4N Jojoba Base
- Rosy Medium 4C Jojoba Base
For reference, I’m NC25 in MAC, ‘Light-Medium Neutral’ in Tarte’s Amazonian Clay Airbrush Foundation, and ‘Light’ in BareMinerals Foundation. I found Everyday Minerals’ 3N to be too light and 4N to be too dark/yellow. 4C (Rosy Medium) ended up working the best for me.
Ingredients
The jojoba base formula contains ‘premium mica crystals for luminosity and jojoba esters for an ultralight buttery feel’. It differs from the Matte and Semi-Matte base formulas by having one extra ingredient – Jojoba Esters. Here’s the full ingredient profile:
Mica, Jojoba Esters. May Contain (+/-): Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)
While most ingredients are safe, there is a concern with Titanium Dioxide being a possible human carcinogen when it’s on a nano-scale and inhaled. Fortunately, if you look in their FAQ section, EM states that they do not use nano-technology nor nano-particles in their products. (Still, I like to be cautious and always try to limit breathing in any dust while applying the powders.)
Furthermore, Everyday Minerals’ Jojoba foundation formula does not contain other harmful additives like carmine, lake dyes, bismuth oxychloride, petroleum, paraffin wax, mineral oil, sodium lauryl sulphate, fragrance, EDTA, and silicones.
Here’s BareMinerals’ Original foundation ingredient, just list for comparison:
Active Ingredients: Titanium Dioxide 12.6%, Zinc Oxide 21%. Inactive Ingredients: Bismuth Oxychloride, Mica, Iron Oxides, Zinc Oxide, Titanium Dioxide
How to Apply Everyday Minerals Foundation
- Sprinkle your choice of mineral powder into the lid of your jar (or a bowl to minimize the mess)
- Lightly whirl your brush through the minerals
- Tap the brush a few times to infuse the minerals completely into the bristles
- Glide your brush onto your skin, using circular sweeping motions
Tip: Start by using less mineral powder than usual, and then gradually add more if you feel you need more coverage.
My personal tips:
- Want a dewier look? Mist your face with a facial spritz after applying the foundation. (I find that after the two mix together, everything sets to a smooth, almost satiny finish.)
- Make sure you are using the right type of brush for the most natural looking coverage. They have a Flat Top Brush for ~$15 and a Plush Mineral Brush for ~$12, which I’ve heard both work great. I personally use my ol’ Bare Minerals Flawless Application Face Brush – basically you just want something that’s not too dense to allow for even coverage that you slowly build up.
Everyday Minerals Jojoba Base Foundation Review
Coverage – The coverage was much better than I thought it would be. All three base types claim to provide full, even coverage by gradually building them up, and while I wouldn’t say the jojoba gives off completely full coverage, it definitely does provide enough to cover imperfections and redness, and generally even out the skin.
My skin is in pretty good shape, and for me, the first couple of swipes provide light, even coverage that hides facial redness on my nose and cheeks. Another 3-4 swipes later, my skin is completely evened out, with coverage that still looks very natural.
The formula also builds up really well without looking cakey, patchy, or dry. You do have to be careful to maintain balanced skin though (i.e. exfoliate and moisturize well), or else the foundation will sort of ‘attach’ to the dry flakes and make them look more obvious.
Application – These can be a bit of a mess to work with at first, until you get the right routine down. My tip is to keep a clean bowl at your vanity/sink/wherever you apply makeup, and lightly tap some foundation into it. Swirling the brush in a bowl rather than on a flat surface also helps prevent the ‘kicking up’ of pigment as you move the brush around.
My favorite thing about the Everyday Minerals Foundation is just how quickly and easily it is to put on. In literally 1 minute, I get light-medium coverage without the clean-up, plus I don’t need to set it like I would a liquid.
Before & After
As you can see, the Everyday Minerals Jojoba Base Foundation helps to mattify my skin a bit, while settling to a smooth, satiny finish that looks just like skin.
Summary
PROS:
- Extremely short ingredient list (shortest I could find in the mineral foundation category), with no use of nano-technology/nano-particles
- Natural looking, sheer to medium coverage
- Buildable without looking cakey or dry
- Large variety of shades and formulas to choose from
CONS:
- Somewhat messy application (a bowl really helps!)
- Can emphasize dry skin (however, this is easy to remedy with a good exfoliation routine)
More Everyday Minerals Swatches
As I mentioned a bit earlier in my review, in addition to the foundation samples, I also tried out 2 primers, 2 bronzers, and 2 finishing powders as part of the sets. Here are all the swatches!
Primers
These primers help prep the skin before applying foundation by adding an extra glow and/or color correcting the skin. I don’t always use them (the foundation still looks great without a primer), but do like the color correcting abilities. Shades include white, yellow, peach, pink, rose, and brown.
Finishing Powders/Dusts
The Everyday Minerals Finishing Dusts are silky powders that set makeup with a matte finish and work to beat excess oil and shine. They’re created with blackcurrant fruit, soft cornstarch, and mineral pigments. Comes in the regular Finishing Dust formula, plus Sunlight, Bronzed, and Pearl shades. (I do use these when my skin is on the oilier side, particularly in the hot summer months).
Bronzers
Everyday Minerals offers three bronzers – Gimme a Kissimmee Bronzer is the darkest (not shown), Lanai in the Sand is the middle shade (a very warm shade, likely best for light to medium skin tones with a yellow undertone), and Poipular Shores is the lightest (great for fair to light skin with pink undertones).
SHOP THE POST
Have you ever tried mineral foundation? What’s your favorite foundation formula – do you prefer liquids, creams, or powders?
