resisting ELF.....

....led me to a Bare Escentuals binge instead!

Good news: US Sephora is a go with the iPhone app.

I got into mineral makeup with the high end Jane Iredale. It was my first mineral makeup experience and it was an expensive trial and error period for me. Right after finding my best shade and the best JI product for me, I discovered ELF. Going drugstore with ELF on my makeup was a major gamble considering my skin condition was still very precarious. So far, I think it's been mostly hits rather than misses with ELF. In terms of the mineral makeup, I have loved it. The Blemish Kit I got is nearing empty and I love the mineral foundation and concealer both in the shade warm. I am leaving Jane Iredale behind for good.

However, before making a full commitment to ELF, I figure it is time I dipped my toes in with the Bare Escentuals bareMinerals crowd. If there is ever a major minerals makeup line with a vocal and almost fanatical following, it's the bareMinerals devotees. Honestly, I can't really think why I never started with this range first. I remember thinking it's pricey but that argument certainly doesn't bode well for me since JI is pricier than both BE and ELF.

Since I'm basically trying desperately to stop myself from buying ELF, ELF, ELF all the time, I ended up looking around and found out about the BE bM "Try. Believe. Love." kit. It is basically an introductory kit for people who are skeptical about bM I guess. Like a tasting palette for mineral makeup.

The kit comes with 6 products. I got mine in the shade Medium Beige. The Original SPF 15 Foundation, Matte SPF 15 Foundation (very intrigued by this for my 'shiny' skin) and Mineral Veil Finishing Powder in Original are in 0.03oz containers while the SPF 20 Concealer in Summer Bisque comes in a smaller jar I estimate about 0.01oz. It also contains a Mini Full Flawless Face Brush and a Mini Concealer Brush/Light Stroke Brush. And all this is priced at USD20. It's an inexpensive way to try multiple BE products without hurting the wallet. At least I can honestly say I've tried the popular mineral makeup brand and loved the drugstore line better - if that is the case, of course :)

I was also intrigued by the bM Blemish Therapy Kit which goes for USD18. Compared to the ELF Blemish Kit which goes for 8 bucks. I like the ELF kit though I'm not entirely sure it is helping my skin along or not. But I have been religiously mixing it with the ELF Mineral Foundation SPF15 in warm and it does not appear to be doing my complexion any harm. Yet, I just want to be an informed consumer and try out the original blemish kit from bM. There is a limited edition kit called the "Heal & Conceal Kit".

I got this in Medium. It consists of 2 powders in 0.03 oz containers. First is a full size container of the blemish therapy and you also get the concealer in Summer Bisque. It also includes the Heal & Conceal brush, Mini Maximum Coverage Concealer brush AND all this is packaged in the Heal & Conceal bag! For the affordable price of USD25.

Since my order is already $45 and I just need 5 bucks more to qualify for 3-day shipping, I decided to round up my total with the Tarte Clean Slate Deluxe Primer Trio.

Basically this set contains deluxe sample sizes of Tarte's most popular primers. It comes with an 0.09oz Clean Slate™ 360° Creaseless 12-Hr Smoothing Eye Primer, 0.25oz Clean Slate™ Poreless 12-Hr Perfecting Primer and 0.25 oz Clean Slate™ Flawless 12-Hr Brightening Primer. For 9 bucks, I think this is a deal.

To be honest, I actually tried to get this stuff last week via Ulta but the whole CC billing add not matching thing stopped me. Also, when i tried getting just the BE stuff direct from bareescentuals.com the same thing happened. Sephora was just my last stop to see if I would have similar issues. So far, it's looking good that it'll pass since I've received my order confirmation and all.

Personally, I know what compelled me to get this even though I have tons of stuff still. Aside from the price, is cos my girlfriends and I were talking about makeup recommendations and since I know so many brands they were looking at me for advice. I gave it to them but realized that I haven't tried a number of the stuff I recommended.

Since I'm now such an advocate of mineral makeup and was recommending BE as the best even though I hadn't used it, I felt guilty and thought I should at least try it out before telling people to buy it. I also mentioned the Jane Iredale products I used. Why did I not recommend ELF? I guess, despite my loving the brand, I know my friends wouldn't trust a drugstore brand at the prices ELF sells their stuff. I'll say it - they are brand snobs :D.

Also, I recommended a Tarte primer based on other people's reviews and I don't even own a single Tarte product! At least I do have a sample of a bareMinerals lip gloss which I do like so I have experience with the brand (I know I'm stretching here :D).

All in all $54. That brings the total spent today to $75.90. I'm out!.

DISCLAIMER: All images screen capped from Sephora.com.

P.S:
I forgot to mention I used coupon code MOBILE and got myself a free Sephora iPad felt sleeve. I figure since I couldn't find any discount codes, aside from free samples, free stuff would also do :D