I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. When I went to the States about 3 months ago, I got suckered into trying some new make up by Micabella from a kiosk in one of the malls. At first glance, they seem to be an ordinary make up and skin care company – they sell your usual lip glosses, pressed powders, face washes, toners, and moisturizers. However, if you let the sales people suck you into their spiel, you get to see the magic of their products.
Foundation
Prior to finding Micabella products, I used a slew of different brands. For foundation, I initially started with liquid Covergirl. I could never get the stuff even, hard as I tried, and it felt cakey. Once I started dancing more competitively and would therefore be wearing full stage make up more often, I switched to MAC’s stick foundations. I never entirely understood how to put a little on my face and blend it – it seemed like whatever the stick wiped on my face would just stay in that one little spot and wouldn’t spread out. Needless to say, I ran through that foundation really quickly. The big problem with that was that MAC is quite expensive. I then moved to Aveda’s line. Overall, this was my favourite liquid foundation, but liquid foundation still takes a lot of time to properly apply.
The major problem I had with all of my foundations were they would only match my skin in the winter. I tan fairly easily, so once the sun starts coming out in the Spring, my foundation stops matching my skin. Good foundation is expensive, and I really couldn’t justify buying 3 or 4 different foundations to match my skin tone from Winter to Summer. Even if I did buy different tones of foundation, I found that all of these wrecked my skin – they were all major pore cloggers.
This is Micabella’s Mineral Foundation Powder, by far the best foundation I have ever used (and ever heard of on the market). It can be used as your concealer by using a concealer brush and your foundation by using a large brush, so there’s never a problem with matching your colours. The foundation is made of very few ingredients – the main one being mica. Most make up contains mica, which is a shimmering mineral. Crushed mica is usually used in mineral make up, since it helps mask the imperfections of the skin. The difference between Micabella make up and other mineral make up is the amount of mica they use in their product. Micabella’s make up is mostly made of mica, whereas other mineral make up usually mixes the mica with other powdered substances, which means they don’t cover your skin as well. They also contain iron oxides, which are supposed to help the foundation ‘change colours’ with your skin as you tan, so you only need one colour foundation year-round. It also has a bit of a natural sunscreen in it due to the ingredients – definitely not enough for the Summer, but maybe enough if you’re not going out a lot in the Winter.
I’m going to have to take their word for it when they say that the make up has a natural sunscreen – I’m not entirely sure how you would test this. Since I started using this make up back in April, I haven’t tanned much, so I’m not sure how the foundation will change tones with my skin – I should be able to figure that out by the time I’m in LA. I do know that the foundation works fantastically as a concealer and a foundation. You really only use a small amount of it each day (a quick dusting with a big brush is all you need). For concealer, it takes the redness and blotchiness out of your skin really well. It leaves you with a natural, matte finish. When I bought my foundation, they told me that it would last a year if I used it every day. I’ve used it for 3 months now and I don’t think I’ve even made a dent in the container. The foundation lasts on your face all day – I put mine on at about 6:30-7:00AM before I leave for work, sometimes go to dance straight after work, and take it off around 9:00-10:00PM. After 14 hours, I can still see the tan coloured make up coming off when I use my make up remover. And unlike liquid foundations, this stuff stays on your skin (and doesn’t get all over your clothes). You can wipe your face on a white shirt and the make up won’t transfer. You can wipe your face on a wet towel and the make up won’t transfer.
Price wise, I think I bought mine in the states for $65. If you go to the Bay downtown (the one by the Granville Skytrain station), they sell it at their make up counter there for $55. Compared to other foundations, I don’t think they’re that much more expensive. Of course, they are much pricier than some drug store brands, but it depends on the quality of make up you like to have. This stuff doesn’t clog your pores (even if you wear it all night) since it’s all natural. They have several different colours that I swear match all different types of skin tones. The nice thing is that since it’s all powder, if you really can’t find a colour to match, it’s easy enough to mix 2 powders together to get a nice blend. They also sell some nice blushes and bronzers in the same format.
Everything Else
Then there’s all the other make up I bought throughout the years. Lipsticks, eye shadows, eye liners, mascaras…you name it. Most make up should be disposed of within 6 months to a year of opening. I know I don’t always throw mine out, and most of the time that’s because I’ve barely used it and it seems like such a waste to throw out something practically new. Another problem is that I always wanted new colours of everything – I would end up with all of my products in several colours, most of the colours never being worn more than 3-4 times (unless it was a basic black). However, the biggest peeve I had was with my eye shadows. I would buy bright colours from all different brands. When I would go to use them, I would find that the colours wouldn’t look the same on my skin as they did in the palette and they just weren’t as vibrant. Major irritant.
This seems like a strange way to write a review – talk about one product in detail and then talk about everything else in one big summary. Although Micabella does sell some lip glosses and eye liners, the majority of their products (eye liners, eye shadows, lip stick, hair streakers, mascaras, and nail polishes) are all one product.
As an eye shadow, this product works as any other powder eye shadow would – use an eye shadow brush and brush it over your lids. The nice thing about the eye shadows is the colour that you see in the bottle is the colour that will show up on your skin. These shadows are only made of titanium dioxide, which is what gives make up its pigments. Since it is only made of titanium dioxide, these little jars are full of colour.
One problem with eye shadows and eye liners is getting them to match. With these eye shadows, if you use a wet brush, it creates a cream product instead of a powder product, which intensifies the colour. Since the wet colour is just an intensified version of the dry colour, the colours always match. Using a wet angled flat brush, this product can easily be applied as an eye liner.
This product can also be used to streak your hair or as a lip gloss, a mascara, or a nail polish, none of which I’ve tried yet. Using the product as a lip gloss, a mascara, or a nail polish all works the same way. Use a clear lip gloss, mascara, or nail polish and dip it into the eye shadow. I would highly recommend pouring some of the powder in a separate dish if you are going to do this to avoid contamination and ruining your product. Once the applicator is well coated, apply it to your lips, lashes, or nails. From what I’ve seen, this product looks good as any of these.
I find their eye shadows to be quite inexpensive. I bought mine in the States for $10 (they actually go for $15 but I got a deal with my foundation). On their website, they sell for $15. I’m not sure how much they sell for here, but I wouldn’t expect the price to be much different. Overall, I think the price is already decent for an eye shadow, but the fact that it can be used for so many different purposes allows you to save money on other products.
Micabella is a great make up company with some really innovative products. If you’re in need of new make up, I would definitely give them a try.
happiness in a tiny bottle 