Brown is the most versatile eye colours out there – you can use practically any eyeshadow colour with brown eyes. However, there are a few shades that make brown eyes really stand out whether your eye colour is black-brown, chocolate brown or honey brown. Read on to find out how to pick the best Earthnicity mineral eyeshadows to enhance your brown eyes.

Blues and Blue-Greens

Blue and various tones of blue including blue-green is one of the most striking colours to wear if you have brown eyes. The right shade of blue can really bring out your brown eyes.

Here are some ideas on how to bring out rich brown eyes using Earthnicity mineral eyeshadows.

You can try a wash of shimmery, light blue eyeshadow like Arctic mineral eyeshadow all over your lids, and apply Tarnished mineral eyeshadow (a metallic, dark brown shade) to your eye sockets to contour.

Arctic

Tarnished

For blue-green shades to remind you of tranquil, tropical seas – try Lagoon eyeshadow a pretty, shimmery mermaid-green colour.

Lagoon

For a striking look that will really make your brown eyes pop, try a turquoise shade. If you don’t fancy looking like an 80′s throwback, and desire a more modern look – apply just a thick or thin line along your upper or lower lashes. Earthnicity’s Turquoise eyeshadow is vibrant turquoise mineral eyeshadow which can be applied wet as an eyeliner.

Turquoise

Purples

Purple complements brown eyes really well. The shade of purple you should look for should have a more bluish undertone to it rather than red – think a ‘cool’ purple.

For a pretty, purplish look that’s suitable for night and day, try our shimmery Lilac eyeshadow and contour with Dark Violet, a matte mineral eyeshadow. Use shiny white Snow eyeshadow on the inner corners of your eyes and on your brow bone to highlight.

Lilac

Dark Violet

Snow

To create a mysterious and purple dark smoky eye look with a hint of shimmer – try our Indigo Gleam mineral eyeshadow (which can also double as an eyeliner)

Indigo Gleam

As always, when wearing a very dark eyeshadow, play down your lips by using a nude lip colour.

Autumn is always a great time for make-up trends when warm earthy shades come back out to play and there are plenty of lush skin saving products available on the market such as pure mineral make up products to help keep your skin in great condition through the cold season. And this year is no exception.

Something that we have been seeing a lot on the catwalk for autumn/winter 2012 is velvet eyeshadow that resembles the feathers of a peacock. These rich, velvet colours are great for autumn and really give a splash of colour to those darker days. Velvet shades of green and purple are extremely popular with some rusty oranges also creeping in.

Shown above are Earthnicity Mineral Eyeshadows in Plum and Dark Violet. These highly-pigmented mineral loose powder mineral eyeshadows are great for autumn. These vibrant colours can be worn as eyeshadow, or worn wet as eyeliner.

Mineral powders are a great way to replicate the sheen under the brow that we’ve seen in the latest fashion shows.

Earthnicity Silk Glow Mineral Finishing Powder can be used as a highlighter. The subtle sheen in this translucent powder can be used to highlight your browbone and cheekbones. Available in 3 shades: Light, Medium, Dark

For the lips, we have seen various shades of red and plum coming out and these mulberry mouths are a great way to give the illusion of plumper lips and to offset the rosy cheeks, giving a real autumn feel to any look. For a look with bright eyes such as the velvet colour trends we mentioned earlier, bare lips are also very popular this season and really give focus to strong eye colours.

Something that is natural in autumn and winter is the rosy cheeks and in the trends this season are to accentuate by creating an illusion of flushed cheeks throughout the day and night with various tones of pretty pink blusher.

Earthnicity Mineral Blush in Sorbet is a lovely deep pink colour for Autumn.

Mineral makeup is very popular at this time of year because it is much kinder to your skin when your skin needs it most, as there are no irritating chemicals and contains simply 100% pure minerals. When the weather goes cold, naturally your skin suffers and so it is important to look after it by using natural makeup rather than coating it with harsh products that can cause the skin to dry out and crack, resulting in a not-so-beautiful look.

Young people do not need to compromise on quality ingredients when it comes to makeup. In fact,
it is all the more important to start using natural products like mineral makeup so as to let their natural beauty shine through – not hidden under layers of heavy, oily makeup that could potentially clog pores and cause a variety of skin problems such as acne. It is never to soon to educate young girls on the importance of natural and ethical beauty products – hopefully as adults, it will make them better-educated consumers who will be more discerning on what they put on their skin.

Every year, Earthnicity Minerals works together with various charities around the UK. For instance, we worked together with the Kindle Project, South Wye Development Trust, alongside other sponsors such as the Body
Shop, to help disseminate the message of ethical and natural beauty to teenage girls in Hereford.

As you can see from the pictures, the girls who participated in these events had a really good time and we feel we got the message across regarding ethical and natural beauty.

Here in the UK, the sun has finally decided to make an appearance this summer after weeks of rain. As you eagerly bring out your floaty summer dresses to show off your tan and those gorgeous new sandals to show off your perfectly manicured toes – the question is: is your makeup ready for the hot summer weather? How do you ensure that your makeup stays put throughout the day?

In hot weather, your makeup tends to melt off faster due to 2 reasons: sweat and oil. In the summer months, your skin tends to produce more oil than usual. To help prevent this, you can start by washing your face with a cleanser that’s designed for oily skin. When choosing a moisturiser, choose a light moisturiser that is oil free and has mattifying properties – avoid heavy moisturisers!

When choosing foundation, make sure you choose a formula that is oil-free and water-resistant. If you wear liquid foundation, be sure to apply translucent powder throughout the day so it doesn’t budge.

As for eye makeup – choose formulations that are labelled long-wearing and water resistant. If you plan to spend any time near or in the water, or if the weather is veru humid – it’s doubly important to use eye makeup that is waterproof – you don’t want to end up looking like a panda! To make doubly sure your eyeshadow and eyeliner stays put, apply loose powder on your eyelids before applying your eye makeup.

Finally, It’s very important to make sure that your skin is adequately protected from the sun’s UV rays. Always wear sunscreen or products that contain SPF before you go outside.

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Earthnicity mineral foundation is oil-free, water-resistant, long-wearing and contains natural sun protection. It is the perfect makeup for hot weather!

There’s mineral makeup and there’s ‘mineral makeup’.

You’ve heard of so many claims of mineral makeup being good for your skin – but then, you put it on and you still break out. What gives?
How can you be sure that the ingredients are really vegetarian or vegan? How do you make sure that you are not putting anything potentially harmful on your skin? If you are a discerning user of cosmetics, it pays to know what’s in your mineral makeup in order to make an informed choice.

Not all mineral makeup ingredients are mineral

Mineral makeup differentiates itself from traditional makeup in the use of minerals in their ingredients and the promise that it is completely hypoallergenic and generally ‘good for you’. From the mineral makeup purist’s perspective, it should contain only minerals – no oils, synthetic dyes, preservatives, perfumes, silicones, and alcohol. However, not all makeup claiming to be mineral makeup adhere to this. Ever since mineral makeup gained in popularity, many large cosmetic companies have jumped on the mineral makeup bandwagon by bringing out their ‘mineral’ ranges – in some cases, all it qualifies for the makeup to be called ‘mineral’ or ‘mineralized’ or ‘mineral-based’ it that it contains at least one mineral ingredient – for example iron oxide pigments are minerals – and this is found in nearly all colour cosmetics – mineral or not!

So how do you know which ingredients are minerals and which ones are not?

Mineral Ingredients
Please note that while this list is by no means exhaustiv, it does contain minerals most often used in cosmetics.

Mineral base ingredients – mica, sericite mica, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide,
boron nitride, bismuth oxychloride, talc, kaolin clay, silica, calcium carbonate, tin oxide

Mineral pigments – Iron oxides (red oxide, black oxide, yellow oxide), chromium hydroxide green, manganese violet, ultramarine blue, ultramarine pink, ultramarine violet, ferric ferrocyanide.

Non-Mineral Ingredients
Again, this list is non-exhaustive – the ingredients below are ingredients present in some mineral cosmetics. They can be divided into plant-derived and animal-derived.

Plant derived:
Zea Mays (Corn Starch)
Rice powder
Magnesium stearate (This can also be animal derived)
Zinc stearate (This can also be animal derived)

Animal-derived:
Carmine
Silk powder
Pearl powder

The ingredients above are generally safe to be used on the skin.

The ingredients below are often present in some ‘mineral’ or ‘mineralized’
products – they are potentially irritating to sensitives skin, potentially
comedogenic or both.

Synthetic dyes – Any ingredient with Lake, D&C or FD&C e.g Yellow 5 Lake, D&C Red 33 Alum Lake
Silicones – Dimethicone, cyclomethicone
Oils/Waxes – these are fairly easy to  identify as they are clearly marked as such
e.g Simmondsia Chinensis (jojoba oil)
Preservatives – Methylparaben, propylparaben, phenoxyethanol
Emulsifiers – Isopropyl Palmitate

Not all mineral ingredients are good
For example, talc and bismuth oxychloride are know to cause breakouts.

Not all non-mineral ingredients are bad
For example, certain oils are beneficial for your skin. This is down to preference – you might prefer your mineral cosmetics to be oil-free or you might be worried that certain oils are comedogenic. Also, there’s nothing wrong with makeup that uses plant-derived fillers (see above).

So ask yourself – why do you use mineral makeup? If you use it because you want makeup that won’t break out and irritate your skin, then go for pure mineral makeup that are made out of only minerals and other non-irritating fillers. If you are looking for vegan makeup, then go for makeup that contains no animal-derived ingredients and are not tested on animals.

Earthnicity Minerals uses only pure minerals in its mineral makeup. For a list of ingredients that we use, click here

We’ve come up with a new mineral makeup starter kit. Each kit comes with 2 x 10ml pots of mineral foundation in 2 shades, 1 x 5ml pot of mineral concealer, 1 x 5ml pot of Silk Glow mineral finishing powder and a full-sized synthetic kabuki brush. Each pot is fully-filled and the whole kit will last you up to 3 weeks of regular use.

With 2 foundations per starter kit, it takes much of the guesswork of choosing which foundation shades suit you and you can even mix the two together to get a perfect match for your skin tone.

There are different starter kits for a variety of complexions and each kit is priced at just £21.99. With the quantity and amount of product you get, it is very good value.

It makes a great gift for someone and it’s really handy for travel!

FAIR Mineral Starter Kit – this kit suits fair to very fair complexions and consists of the mineral foundation shades Alabaster and Porcelain, Ivory mineral concealer, Silk Glow Light mineral finishing powder and a full-sized synthetic kabuki brush.

LIGHT Mineral Starter Kit – this kit suits light to fairly light complexions and consists of the mineral foundation shades Porcelain and Natural Light, Ivory mineral concealer, Silk Glow Light mineral finishing powder and a full-sized synthetic kabuki brush.

LIGHT MEDIUM Mineral Starter Kit – this starter kit is for light to light-medium  complexions and consists of the mineral foundation shades Natural Buff and Honey Beige, Honey mineral concealer, Silk Glow Light mineral finishing powder and a full-sized synthetic kabuki brush.

MEDIUM Mineral Starter Kit – this starter kit is for medium to lightly tanned complexions and consists of the mineral foundation shades Natural Buff and Warm Caramel, Sand mineral concealer, Silk Glow Medium mineral finishing powder and a full-sized synthetic kabuki brush.

MEDIUM TAN Mineral Starter Kit – this starter kit kit is for  medium tanned skin and comprises the mineral foundation shades Warm Caramel and Latte, Sand mineral concealer, Silk Glow Medium mineral finishing powder and a full-sized synthetic kabuki brush.

DARK TAN Mineral Starter Kit – this kit is for  darkly-tanned complexions – it contains mineral foundation shades Almond and Hazelnut, Mocha mineral concealer, Silk Glow Dark mineral finishing powder and a full-sized synthetic kabuki brush.

DEEP TAN Mineral Starter Kit – this starter kit is for  deeply-tanned complexions – it contains mineral foundation shades Hazelnut and Cocoa, Coffee mineral concealer, Silk Glow Dark mineral finishing powder and a full-sized synthetic kabuki brush.

Shop – Earthnicity Mineral Makeup Starter Kit

Use coupon code AUGUST30 to take 30% off Earthnicity mineral makeup products. This sale expires on 15th August 2011 at midnight.

The discount applies to our:

Mineral foundations
Mineral concealer
Mineral finishing powder
Mineral blush
Mineral bronzers
Mineral Starter kit
Mineral Basic Kit

Shop Now for Earthnicity mineral makeup

Do  you actually need finishing powder after mineral foundation? It depends on what kind of look you want to achieve.

Our foundations do not actually need finishing powder to ‘set’ them in – you can use them perfectly fine on their own.

Earthnicity Silk Glow Finishing Powder gives an extra subtle glow (not shine!) to your final application when used lightly all over the face with a large powder brush.

You can use it as a highlighter by packing it on to a smaller brush and brushing it along your cheekbones, the bridge of your nose and under your eyebrows.

No kabuki? No problem!

When it comes to applying Earthnicity mineral foundation, there’s no reason to limit yourself to the usual ‘swirl-tap-buff’ technique of applying mineral foundation. Our foundation doesn’t need a lot of buffing to apply – so you are not restricted to a kabuki brush. One alternative is to use a flocked foundation sponge.
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