The Budget Babe | Affordable Fashion & Style Blog

Maybelline Mineral Power Powder & Blush

The Budget Babe's resident beauty expert reminds us that not all so-called "mineral makeup" is created equal. —BB



by The Budget Beauty Babe
Every cosmetic company seems to be jumping on the mineral makeup bandwagon, and so continuing our reviews of budget-friendly mineral makeup, we put Maybelline Mineral Power Natural Perfecting Powder Foundation and Maybelline Mineral Power Naturally Luminous Blush to the test.

Attractively packaged and competitively priced, these products are sure to please many, but lets get some things straight first: If you're looking for pure mineral makeup, this is not it. Although called Mineral Power, this line of cosmetics is not truly mineral makeup (with our definition of mineral makeup being makeup that only contains minerals in its ingredient list).

And they're really sneaky about it, too. If you look at the package for the foundation you'll find it says, "The secret of micro-minerals - 100% natural earth minerals, etc." The secret of micro-minerals is minerals? Duh.

The packaging also says, "Pure ingredients." Now look at the ingredient list: Nowhere on there does it say 100% pure minerals. Like I said, very sneaky packaging.

There are, in fact, a lot of other non-mineral ingredients, including synthetic wax and PTFE, which is a synthetic coating used most commonly on pots and pans to create a non-stick coating also known as Teflon. I don't know about you, but if I think I'm getting pure minerals I don't want to end up with Teflon particles on my face (unless I decide to cook an egg on my cheek and don't want it to stick).

On the plus side, as far as makeup goes, it did its job. The foundation covered fairly well although concealer would still be needed (which is also available in this line). The color was nice and blended nicely, however I did find that this makeup seemed to get shiny after just a few hours of wear (and I have normal to dry skin in winter). Personally, I feel this makeup may have caused my skin to break out and become very irritated and red. I stopped using it and the problems went away.

The blush is nice, although the color is created using dyes and not minerals, which may be why the resulting effect looks a bit fake. Also, its not very pigment-rich and I felt as though it took a lot to do the job.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend Maybelline Mineral Power products. I can't help but feel it's just a clever marketing ploy and not really mineral makeup, not to mention I don't feel its that great of a deal either. In order to finish your look, foundation, concealer, blush and translucent powder would all be needed and together could run you upwards of $40.00.

To sum up: Not all that great for "mineral" makeup that's not, well, really mineral makeup.

Find Maybelline Mineral Power Foundation ($8.98) and Blush ($7.99) at Walgreens stores nationwide.

Related posts:
Comments
Actually tried the Maybelline concealer because of your review. It is great!! Thanks Budget Babe
#1 Val Fisher on 2008-02-20 20:59 (Reply)
Really love your blog ! Thank you BB and pleeease keep going ~~~
#2 0027 on 2008-02-20 21:19 (Reply)
I am a long time bare escentuals user. It is amazing but, I was on a tight budget for a while and I started using the Maybelline mineral wear. While it covered almost as good as bare escentuals, it was awful for my skin. No matter how much I cleaned and exfoliated, I still had massively clogged pores. The woman who did my facial recently commented as well on how much build up I had on my face.

Now I know why.

Two weeks ago I went back to bare escentuals. I realize that it lasts me longer and I am more than willing to pay the heftier price for something that will actually be good for my skin and something that is TRULY mineral makeup.

2 weeks later and my skin and pores are looking a million times better.

I will NEVER go back to using Maybelline mineral powder.

I do however use their blush for now still simply because I havent had time to pop into Sephora yet to pick up my bare escentuals blush. It does the trick and since I only use it on my cheeks it is not a huge deal.

The blush is about the only product in this line that I could somewhat reccomend.
#3 Terah on 2010-12-03 16:54 (Reply)
I bought this on impulse in Target the other day so I could try out mineral makeup without investing in expensive products (plus it came with a brush).

Unfortunately I picked out a color that was probably 1-2 shades too dark for my skin tone. But with a lot of blending I made it work and I've been using it for the last month or so. Overall, I like the results with mineral better than the cream-to-powder foundation I was using before as I feel it stays on longer.

The brush, however, completely SUCKS! I bought a new brush at Sephora that doesn't scratch up my face and immediately saw better results. But now, sadly, I think it's time to invest in a better mineral makeup as well.

Thanks for the review! :-)
#4 Andrea on 2012-03-16 09:37 (Reply)
Leave a comment
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed.
Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.