Why mineral makeup rocks
Not everything that looks good is actually good for you. This applies to many things, but in this case let’s keep it strictly about makeup. That powder foundation in the fancy compact that keeps your face shine-free all day? It may contain talc, which smooths and softens the product and makes it opaque — but it can also dry the skin. While the dangers of talc are inconclusive, why use it when you have alternatives that work quite as well? For those who take their skincare seriously, as in really, truly seriously, Jane Iredale is a brand that you might just fall in love with. The brand calls itself the “skincare makeup,” but Hollywood makeup artists call it the “celebrity makeup,” because, celebrities would whip it out of their tote bags during shoots and ask them to use it.
Shawn Towne, global educator for Jane Iredale, recently visited Manila to bring us up to speed with the brand’s latest collection of makeup, which focuses on matte shadows, blush, and brows, all carrying mineral ingredients Jane Iredale is known for. Jane’s philosophy is grounded on purity and skincare. Shawn explains, “It’s not what we put into it as much as what we leave out. Jane is a stickler for quality ingredients. One time I was asking Bob Montgomery, Jane’s husband, why our product is a little bit more expensive than other brands. And he said, ‘If you wanted to create your own makeup line, you could go to a number of vendors around the world to buy ingredients and what ever ingredient you buy from any manufacturer, they’ll give you a menu of different grades of quality of ingredients from one being the purest and the highest quality to 10, being the lowest quality and least pure. Remember that Jane and I only ever take the one in quality. We never compromise.’ That’s one of the reasons why our product has been successful, so we never have bad results and we only see the most refined look on the skin.”
Another benefit of minerals is physical sun protection. “We’re very well known for sun protection. Because we’re using minerals, we can give sun protection without having to use chemicals that are irritating to the skin — much more effective sun protection as well because it’s physical so it works like a mirror bouncing the light off of the skin, and is much longer lasting and is even very water resistant. Chemical sun protection, works by absorbing the light into the skin, and then a chemical reaction happens that turns the sunlight into heat, to disperse it. You don’t get UV damage, but it does heat up the dermis, which can be very irritating to the skin. Also, it can promote hyper pigmentation. The key ingredients that are in our products — titanium dioxide and zinc oxide — are soothing and calming,” says Shawn.
So how do you use mineral makeup? Shawn says you don’t need to put on more just because it’s a powder. “You’d want to use enough so that you get a sheer amount of coverage, but you don’t have to have an opaque coverage. You can use less physical sun protection that you do chemical sun protection,” he says.
Jane Iredale Beauty Prep is the three-step skincare companion to Jane Iredale mineral makeup.
Jane Iredale launched its spring collection, which includes the Naturally Matte Eye Shadow Kit, the GreatShape Eyebrow Kit, and the Flawless PurePressed Blush. “I love the Naturally Matte Shadow collection. For the campaign featuring Brazilian model Gabriela, which I had the honor of doing makeup for, I really enjoyed doing the eyes — she has rich brown eyes, she doesn’t need a lot of color. The trend that we’re seeing with eye makeup is not the dark, intense and smoky eye color, but more the more natural eye makeup. In the palette itself, none of the colors have shimmer, all of them are very matte and very warm, except for Slate Brown, which is more of a neutral grayish brown. So it’s good for people who don’t want to look like they have anything on, but just want to create a shadow that’s very ambiguous. The peach tone is very fresh. The Eggplant is a very popular color that we used to make many years ago and we brought it back for this compact. It creates a contour on the skin that doesn’t look like shadow, because it’s almost like the color of the skin. In the same spirit as our foundations, it doesn’t contain any talc or synthetic dyes. Everything is skincare,” says Shawn.
For eyebrows, Shawn suggests keeping it natural and not going too dark or too thin. “When you’re looking to arch the brow, you want to arch to be outside of the iris of the eye; you don’t want the arch to be further in because that looks fake. There should also be a straight line going from the inner part of the brow to the arch, and a straight line from the arch. You don’t want this part to be curved.”
The key to making mineral makeup (or any kind of makeup) look good is knowing how to use it. “Over and above the fact that we only use the best ingredients and our formulas are so wonderful, one of the defining differences are the professionals that sell it. They are dedicated to teaching consumers how to use the products the right way. The other big difference are the fundamental values of Jane Iredale. She cares. She created the brand to enhance women’s lives and that remains our focus.”
(Clockwise) Jane Iredale Smooth Affair primes skin and blurs pores and imperfections. Pommist Hydration Spray sets makeup and energizes skin.Magic Mitt gets rid of makeup even without cleanser.
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Jane Iredale is available at Rustan’s The Beauty Source.
