Mineral makeup - makeup that's kind to your skin.

Mineral makeup may have had the support of the environmentally conscious amongst us, but until recently, it lacked the wow factor to catch on with women in general. It was just alright, but when compared to the traditional mainstream brands of cosmetics it just wasn't in the same league as regards performance, durability, availability of colors or fragrance.

These days though, that's all changed. As more and more women move into the 'green' way of life with their food choices, vitamins, travel, energy sources, etc its a logical step that they also want natural mineral makeup products on their skin. Demand therefore has driven the cosmetics manufacturers to come up with better quality choices with a wider variety of colors, textures and applications. It now seems that almost every month a new range of mineral makeup is released onto the market and many of the top makeup artists only use mineral makeup on their clients as its so kind to the skin.

The benefits of mineral makeup

Conventional makeup products are mostly made from synthetic ingredients, such as preservatives, fillers such as talc, dyes for color pigment and fragrances. Sometimes up to 90% is filler and just 10% color pigment. The problem is that these synthetic ingredients can irritate the skin leading to dryness, clogged pores and skin eruptions. Mineral makeup on the other hand can be made up from 100% pure, ground micronized rocks. Simply put, mineral cosmetics are just crushed up stones, therefore do not have any preservatives as there is nothing to go off. In fact, mineral cosmetics are not just kind to your skin, they can actually be good for it:

• reduces skin irritation

• will not block pores

• will not dry out the skin

• provides natural protection against the sun's rays

• nourishes the skin every time you use it

A word of warning though - currently manufacturers can call a makeup 'mineral'  when the mineral content is only 10%. Therefore check out the reviews before you buy so that you can be sure you are getting a 100% mineral makeup - ranges such as Bare Escentuals and Jane Iredale fit the pure mineral makeup description.