Lumiere Cashmere Foundation: A Pleasant Surprise

I've always been vocal here on my blog about how I love Lumiere's eyeshadows, Lumi Lips lipglosses, blushes and blushing bronzers. I believe that this company truly has outstanding products and high quality pigments that would make every mineral makeup enthusiast happy and pretty. However, it was a sad day almost two years ago when I discovered that my skin rejected its mineral foundation in the Veena Velvet formula. I had really bad breakouts and I think it was because of the avena sativa (oat) ingredient. Since then, I had stayed away from Lumiere's foundations, although I kept going back for everything else. The silk blushes are to-die-for, their eyeshadows have outstanding pigment and do not need to be foiled to achieve great color pay-off, and the Lumi Lips lipglosses have beautiful shades that would suit any skintone. I thought I would stay away from Lumiere foundations forever. Until now.

I kept reading rave reviews about their Luminesse and Cashmere foundations, especially this latter formulation. I read the ingredients of Cashmere and I was elated when I didn't see avena sativa on the list. It says: silk powder, serecite (colorless mica), titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, boron nitride, iron oxides. I decided to give it a try and tried to remember my shades in Lumiere, and blindly ordered three 20g jars of shades that I thought would suit my winter and summer skintone, including an in-between shade for mixing. I got my order fast and safe, and I was so happy about this purchase.

First of all, can you imagine a pleasant-smelling mineral foundation? It was a pleasant, sweet smell that I can't describe; and no, it's not an artificial, cloying scent either. It smells a lot better than the old Veena Velvet foundation, and in fact this is the sweetest-smelling mineral foundation I've tried. Many of the ones I've used are either scent-free and some have that nasty cigarette (?) smell, and some have an earthy aroma that is natural when you use minerals from the earth. This, however, smells quite nice.

I also love the finish which is substantially different from some of the others I've tried. Lumiere Cashmere has medium (but buildable) coverage, and the finish is not matte. It is very dewy but not greasy; it gives a pretty, tinted moisturizer-like sheen that I love because it doesn't make my face look too made-up. It doesn't look cakey either. It looks really natural the longer it stays on the face. Ironically, it doesn't melt off the face either. It has good staying power and just over-all outstanding. There is no drag when you run your knuckle along your jawline; it feels very smooth and velvety. Best of all, it doesn't break me out! Woohoo! I believe it's the silk powder that causes all these. I don't recommend this to those with very oily skin, but this would be perfect even for those with combination skin like mine as long as there is some sort of primer to absorb excess oil. I see this as absolutely beautiful on dry and more mature skin. I love Cashmere; I'm happy to add this to my list of great mineral makeup foundations.

I placed another order for a deeper shade to mix for summer, as well as several jars of the finishing powders. I can't wait. Lumiere is one of the few mineral makeup companies that I use and love the entire product line of- from the foundation to the blushes to the eyeshadows to the lipglosses. As a side note, I noticed that Veena Velvet is no longer available on the site. I believe it has been replaced by Luminesse.