http://www.which.co.uk/reports_and_campaigns/health_and_wellbeing/reports/cosmetics_and_beauty/organic_beauty_products_news_article_557_115580.jsp

Britons’ growing taste for organic is extending to beauty products, research out today says.

Around 200 new organic and ‘all natural’ toiletry goods have launched in the UK already this year.

That figure more than doubled the 73 organic beauty products launched during 2006, market analysts Mintel said.

The UK accounts for 19 per cent of this year’s global organic and all-natural beauty product launches.

A growing interest in organic food and drink is said to be fuelling demand.

Granted this is a British report but I do think that the demand is growing in the USA as well. I recently have started switching to mineral makeups where I can.

BUYER BEWARE, there are many new products on the market that say “mineral” when in fact they pretty much have all of the same bad ingredients in them as their “regular” counterparts. An example of a mineral FAKE: L’oreal L’Oreal Bare Naturale Gentle Mineral Makeup
Ingredients: Talc , Boron Nitride , Dimethicone , Carnauba , Carnauba Wax Cre De Carnauba , Cetyl Dimethicone Trimethylsiloxysilicate , Trisocetyl Citrate , Mica , Titanium Dioxide CI 77891 , Bismuth Oxychloride CI 77163 , Iron Oxides CI 77492 , Iron Oxides CI 77491 , Ultramarines CI 77007 , Carmine CI 75470 , Red 30 CI 73360

READ INGREDIENT LABELS if you want to be sure you’re getting what you think you are. Right now there are a lot of products riding the marketing hype because there’s no regulation on certain terms like “Mineral Makeup” or “Natural.”

I will eventually review various quality brands and products as I get a little more familiar with them. Meanwhile, Burt’s Bees has started a campaign to set a “natural” standard. Check it out:
http://www.burtsbees.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Burts2/thegreatergood/index.html

Material Needed:
– small plastic container that seals. You can typically find something like this at the craft store in a paint isle. If not, shop around online a bit.
– eyeshadow or pigment your choice of color and brand.
– liquid highlighter there are many options out there, some come in white which can be a bit harsh. I have a neutral skin toned colored one that Revlon used to make and a pink tinted one from Red Earth Cosmetics which is what I used for most of my current mixes.

This is best done in the bathroom because you may get a little powder on the countertop during this process.

For the cream eyeshadow:
I literally scraped some eyeshadow from a pan using a knife into the container and then mixed in liquid highlighter. It was about 1:1 with maybe a little more highlighter than eyeshadow. If the color isn’t right, add in more eyeshadow slowly but keep in mind that your cream eyeshadow will be lighter than your original eyeshadow.

For liquid eyeliner:
I used a lot more eyeshadow than liquid highlighter … I tried to mix in as little as possible of the highlighter without it being dry or clumpy because I was going for something that would be a little thicker and apply more like an eyeliner would. With a very deep black eyeshadow, I created an eyeliner that was very similar to Mac’s lithograph shade and consistency.

Both the cream eyeshadow and the liquid eyeliner do have good staying power but they aren’t waterproof.

I’m also finding that if I have something too dark or too bright I am able to turn it into something a little more usable (though if fushia isn’t your shade, mixing fushia with highlighter isn’t going to help that too much.)

If you’re couragious you can also experiment with mixing colors. Maybe create a brown cream shadow with some added gold pigment. Or maybe take a color you don’t actually like and mix in something that you do to see if you get a better shade – one that you will use. 🙂

UPDATE: I had a few of these dry out a bit. Added a little water and mixed and voila, good as new.

Recently I sent someone on MakeupAlley.com some lipgloss pans – they wanted them to press pigments into. I finally got around to asking exactly how one goes about pressing pigments into pans and she pointed me to these two tutorials:

http://community.livejournal.com/mac_cosmetics/13855130.html

http://community.livejournal.com/mac_cosmetics/19940521.html#cutid1

Here’s a neat little trick to applying waterproof mascara as an eyeliner:
1) Take a fine tipped brush (see my previous post about buying brushes at an art store if you don’t already own one.)
2) Open your waterproof mascara and pull the mascara brush out.
3) Get some of the mascara off of that brush with your fine tipped brush and apply to your eye.
4) Give it a second or three to dry and set.

Easy as that. You’ll need to clean the fine tipped brush after use but it’s a cheap quick way to get a high quality waterproof liquid eyeliner.

Higher end solution for waterproof/smudgeproof liner (with more color choices): Mac fluid liner pots or Estee Lauder Pure Color liner (love the plum color … can’t get that in a waterproof mascara.)