Testing 123: Testing Adorned With Grace Minerals

I am privileged to be one of the testers of this upcoming mineral cosmetics company offering a full range of foundations, shadows, blushes, and hopefully the entire gamut of products specifically for the mineral makeup enthusiast. Franchesca (the creator) has come up with an e-mail group for the testers and also sold to the members beautiful full-size shadows and brushes for dirt-cheap prices (which of course will be adjusted once she opens shop). I was a bit skeptical at first because the products were very cheap, but I was impressed with the staying power and texture of these items once I had them in my hands. They come in really cute packaging and very appealing jars and labels. Packaging was truly simple yet cute.


My pretty pigments neatly wrapped


Getting there


Ta-dah! My beautiful shadows from Franchesca


Close-up of the shadows (and blushes in the bottom row)


richly pigmented


A few weeks ago, I came up with this look using Franchesca's shadows (I used them on the outer lid and crease). I like how pigmented and rich they are. I like to foil the lid and outer V color and apply the crease color dry with a small-headed crease brush.

A couple of days ago, Franchesca sent me some samples of her newly-formed foundations to try. Since these are in the early creation/testing stages, there are no available foundations yet for the public. Once she has the formula and colors down pat, her shop will open for everyone. I am fortunate to have more or less pinned down my color with just one try. I got several olive and yellow shades from her, and I did a mix of Y2 and Y3 (60-40 mix), and although it looks a tad yellow in the pics, it looked very natural in person. I liken the formula to Meow in texture, very light and airy, but it covers like DreamWorld foundation in either the Sands or Luna formulas. Coverage is extremely good and I really like how light it felt, almost like I wasn't wearing anything on. It's been 14 hours since I applied the foundation but I can still see it on my face; it's very long-wearing. All in all, I love the formula, but I hope I get to have just one shade so I don't need to mix. The eyeshadows and blushes are very nice in texture as well. So far, I am impressed; I can't wait for more products from this new company.











Eyes:
MAC Soft Ochre paint pot on lid as base
MAC Beige-ing shadestick on lower lashline
Adorned With Grace mineral shadow in Pearl Latte foiled on lid and used wet on inner lower lashline
Adorned With Grace mineral shadow in Chocolate Roses foiled on outer lid and outer lower lashline
Adorned With Grace mineral shadow in Dutch Chocolate applied dry on crease
MAC Nylon eyeshadow to highlight
Indelible gel liner in Black Cherry upper lashline
Shu Uemura lash lifting and MAC Zoomlash mascaras

Face:
Camellia Rose skin smoothing primer
Adorned With Grace mineral foundation in Y2 and Y3 (60-40 mix)
Mary Kay undereye concealer in Ivory topped with
Bare Escentuals Well Rested
Silk Naturals Date Bait finishing silk
MAC beauty powder blush in Secret Blush
MAC Sculpt contour powder

Lips:
MAC cremestick liner in Sublime Culture
MAC lipstick in Noveau Frou
MAC lipglasses in Nymphette and Corsette