Custom Formula or Repacked Mica?

There's a baffling mystery in the mineral makeup world. How to tell if an eye shadow is a custom formula, or if it's just repackaged mica? For the customer, it's really hard to tell. A color can look exactly the same from one company to another. However, the ingredients may vary tremendously. For re-packagers, it can mean easy profits with little knowledge. For formulators, this mystery can cause doubt and loss of profit.

We're hoping to clear up this mystery and help you determine what companies may be just re-packaging micas, and what companies are actually formulating cosmetics.

Mica is a mineral. Mica is used in the production of pearlescent pigments. Many metallic looking pigments are composed of a substrate of mica coated with another mineral,to give it shine and or color. By itself, it is not generally suitable for cosmetic purposes, but is intended to be used as a PART of a formula. Pure micas will appear beautiful on the skin, and when applied as an eye shadow. However, most will not have much longevity and will creep into creases or just disappear.

So how can you tell the difference? Here's some clues:

1. Price: if the company is selling jarred "eye shadows" for $2-3 each, chances are it's a re-packaged mica. They don't have much invested in it, hence lower price point.
2. Does the company also sell matte eye shadows? Matte eye shadows have to be formulated from base ingredients, with pigment added to the base. We have yet to see a wholesaler offer bulk, matte eye shadow.
3. Does the company also sell foundation, concealer and other makeup products? The formulating requirements of a skin toned foundation and other skin toned products are also a great indicator. If the company has no formulating skills, chances are they won't be offering foundation.
   
4. How long has the company been in business? Re-packers come and go by droves. Most don't bother to go to the expense or trouble to have their own website or brick and mortar store.
   
5. Ingredients: Look for ingredients like Magnesium Stearate, Magnesium Myristate (increases adhesion), Boron Nitride (increases slip and shine), Silica or Silk Powder. These are ingredients that increase the adhesion and feel of the product. Not necessary for EVERY eye shadow, but look for it in SOME of their eye shadows.
   NOTE: ingredient lists are the LEAST reliable way to determine a re-packer from a formulator, especially if you are just looking at one product. A mica may consist of: mica, titanium dioxide and iron oxide, straight from the supplier. A formulator may add additional iron oxides, but that would not change the ingredient list! At times this is all that's needed to make the mica suitable for a beauty product. So be sure to check for the other signs above ;)
6. Try samples: even if it's re-packed mica, you may love it and want to buy it! But why be stuck with a slew of shadows that look pretty, cost hardly anything, and don't stay on your eyes?

At L.A. Minerals, we offer our customers unique, custom formulated cosmetics. All of our items we offer for sale have been crafted from base ingredients, designed for function and beauty.
We have years of experience formulating and selling our products, around the globe. We care about the reputation of reputable companies in the mineral makeup world. And we care about our customers.

Is Cover Girl friends with Maybelline?

This may be a very unusual topic for many of you. In today's back stabbing, pension robbing, eat or be eaten business world, believe it or not were not all like that!
In the picture to the left is Valerie Reed of Valana Minerals, and me, Lorraine Pierce of L.A. Minerals. Yep, we're both in the same line of work. And nope, we're not enemies. Were the opposite. We're friends who have cheerfully helped each other out for the past 3 years, and continue to do so.
We both started our business' online presence in 2007 and met virtually via a suppliers forum, where we met other women makeup business owners. We are also both Indie Business members, an organization that brings together small business owners, with a slew of services like webinars, insurance, and forums. Within these forums I've met women in various stages of business development and formulation, the conversations and help topics range from "where to get labels" to "how to emulsify this with that", and everything in between. What I really learned was that we all have knowledge, skills and strengths that can help each other. Valerie seems to always have perfect, logical, detailed answers to complicated issues. I tend to pitch in with links and a one line addendum to Valerie's in depth answers!
Besides sharing knowledge, I learned that we could relax and share our ideas and resources, wins and losses, good times and bad, personal and business. We became friends.
Several years ago Valerie helped out another lady in our group, who's products were featured at an Oscar event in Los Angeles. Valerie manned the table, representing a product line that was her competition!
This past month, it was my pleasure to help Valerie out at her Whole Foods in store makeover and spa event. I sat through Val's training class, and proudly donned the Valana Minerals T-shirt the next day, doing makeovers with her products, all whilst supporting a worthy cause, Vitamin Angels. The Vitamin Angels program provides vitamins to children around the world who do not have access to a well balanced diet.
I had a blast doing makeovers. It was great to finally meet Valerie in person. Valerie was gracious and grateful for the help. I am grateful for the experience, as I learned a lot. So perhaps by alleviating some of her nervousness, I have alleviated some of my own if I ever have an in store demo! That's what its all about. Being human. Helping each other. Supporting each other.
After the event, Valerie told the manager and her videographer about me, and how I owned a mineral makeup business. They exclaimed "she's your competition?!" to which Valerie replied "No, she's my friend, and we celebrate each others successes."

I get it now

From the beginning, when I started L.A. Minerals, I often wondered why companies use so many chemicals in their products when there are natural alternatives.

Now I get it.

While formulating our new L.A. WET formula, we sought a water dispersible pigment. Our suppliers had a lot of choices. However most of them included chemicals, a lot of chemicals. After talking with our rep, and letting her know we didn't want all those chemicals, she said "well we do have a line that's oxides and silica. We just don't have it on our site because it's SO EXPENSIVE!" My response was send us some samples and a quote!

So yeah, now I get it. Now I know why most of the big companies make so many products overloaded with chemicals.

Oily Skin - Pros, Cons and Solutions

Oily skin can be a blessing and a curse. Your skin produces sebum/oil to keep the sensitive facial skin moist. Your face is the most often exposed to the sun, hence most at risk for drying out.

Pros=
▻The oilier the skin, the longer it will retain its youthful appearance
▻Oily skin wards off wrinkles till later in life
▻Oily skin tans easier


Cons=
▻We may not like the oily look
▻ Many cosmetics slide off of oily skin
▻Oily skin tends to be more acne prone

There are numerous face washes designed for oily skin and/or acneic skin. However, over washing, using harsh cleansers sends a signal to your skin to produce more oil! The secret is to wash your face daily, removing excess oil along with accumulated dirt and airborne crud. Then use a non alcohol toner, like simple witch hazel, and a moisturizer that is not oil based. I prefer the ones water or aloe vera based moisturizers.

It is much better to soak up the excess oil during the day, rather than trying to prevent it's production (which ends up drying out your skin, and making more oil). There are numerous products for this, including blotting papers, and Oil Control Powders. Many oil control powders contain chemicals, but there are natural makeup ingredients that do a fantastic job of soaking up excess oil. Our Oil Control Mattifying Powder contains Kaolin Clay, a centuries old solution for clarifying and mattifying the skin. We also include a special silica that is designed to absorb seven times it's weight in oil! This ingredient acts like a million little sponges at work all day, keeping your skin smooth and matte :)

Additionally, since oily skin can be acneic, we include Allantoin, a natural antiseptic and skin soother. Silk powder is also one of our ingredients, and it functions as a natural moisture balancer (it also feels great against your skin).

The powder can be applied before or after your foundation. We recommend using a mineral makeup foundation combined with our Oil Control Powder.

For only $2 you can try a sample of our Oil Control Mattifying Powder with no obligations, no risk, and no auto-ship commitments.

Stay Beautiful,

Lorraine
CEO & Founder
L.A. Minerals

SPF and You

Some of you may wonder why not all makeup products claim a specific SPF rating. At LA Minerals, we choose not to claim a specific SPF rating for various reasons:

1. Once an SPF rating is claimed the cosmetic becomes a drug.

2. As a drug, SPF ingredients are limited. For instance Titanium Dioxide, as an active ingredient, is limited to 25%, which is the level used in some sunscreen with very high SPF levels. In a cosmetic, the FDA does not limit inclusion percents!

3. It costs thousands of dollars PER SHADE for SPF testing. As a young and growing company, it would be cost prohibitive to do this, without passing the cost along to you, our valued customer.

4. The accuracy and reliability of SPF testing is controversial. The amount of product used varies from one person to the other. There is no way a lab can determine how much you put on. I recently watched a news clip on this, and to achieve the proclaimed SPF, the person would have needed to use about a 1/4 c of lotion, on their arms!

But just so you know, we do include Titanium Dioxide, and High Micron Zinc Oxide in most of our mineral makeup foundations-Hollywood, Valley Girl, and our new Wet foundation, at the following percentages:
Hollywood: Titanium Dioxide = 14%, Zinc Oxide = 7%
Valley Girl: Titanium Dioxide = 19%, Zinc Oxide = 14%
LA Wet: Titanium Dioxide = 10%, Zinc Oxide = 5%

Armed with this knowledge, it's pretty easy to look up other makeup brands active ingredient percentages and get a rough idea of our products approximate SPF. However, I strongly recommend, that if you spend a lot of time in the sun, it's best to also use a moisturizer with SPF ingredients.

We are registered with the FDA under their Voluntary Cosmetic Registration Program (VCRP). The VCRP helps the FDA in its mission to protect consumers, while also helping cosmetic manufacturers and distributors make informed decisions. This basically tells them we exist, and makes it easy for them to look over our shoulder if they want. It also tells them that we practice their recommended Cosmetic GMP, good manufacturing practices.

Concealers can be Tricky

Getting the right concealer for your skin tone can be tricky. But getting the right concealer for your skin tone that also works with your foundation? Nearly impossible....until now.

Our "Hide It" mineral makeup concealers are designed to work effortlessly WITH your mineral makeup. It's not a cream, that will slide off once your face gets damp or oily, but it's a creamy mineral powder with great adhesion that melds perfectly with your skin and mineral foundation.

We not only have skin toned mineral concealers for porcelain to tanned skin shades, but also corrective concealers to help cover the most difficult skin issues. Our Green Goddess concealer covers redness from acne, rosacea and port wine stains. Our Cinderella Yella concealer is great for covering dark under eye circles with a purpleish cast, and hyper pigmentation (dark spots). And our Just Peachy concealer also covers dark circles with a blueish cast. It's all based on color wheel theory. Opposite colors negate each other!

No need to worry about warm humid weather, or if our concealer is going to last through your busy day or work out! Check out our video demo of our concealers water repellency.

How Many People have Used your New Makeup?

First a definition of cosmetic:Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and gels.

This is kind of a gross topic, but one I thought worthy of writing about. I was in a large retail store about a month ago, strolling through the cosmetic department. Noticed some gross looking containers of body butter on the shelf. Picked it up. Opened it. Discovered it was half empty with crusty stuff around the lid threading. Abhorred that it was NOT a sample display, but sitting there waiting for someone to pay full price for a USED cosmetic!

I brought this to the attention of the FDA representative during a 3 hour conference call a few weeks ago. Their reasoning for no safety seals is: A)would be too costly for manufacturers, and B)the buyer wouldn't be able to sniff the shampoos and lotions and potions.

I can kind of see his point. I mean, I do open and sniff body wash and lotions. There are some smells that are just plain nasty! And who wants to go back to the store to return things like that?
But...do they really need unsealed bottles of liquid foundation just begging to be tested out on every passerby's arm?

My solution for you all.....buy online!  We sell our mineral makeup online only right now, but we have a seal covering the holes, and an external seal to keep the lid snug during shipment. Our products have never sat on a shelf being tested by whoever comes along. And they are made in small, fresh batches;)

Pure Pigments as Eye Shadow?

There's a lot of buzz about using pure mineral pigments as eye shadow. Some of the buzz is positive, some negative. Most of it confusing and misinformed.

On one side of camp hoorahs for extreme pigmentation and color. Raves about purity and intensity. On the other side of the camp, boos and thumbs down. Videos of ultra marine blue 'dissolving' in water as if they are paints. Horrified responses, totally buying into the demos.

Both sides of the camp need some education!
1. Ultramarines are approved by the FDA for use in cosmetics, except for lips.
2. Ultras that are approved for cosmetic use are lab created in order to be safe and free from naturally occurring toxins. (ultras for paints are not for use in cosmetics for obvious reasons)
3. Ultras, although bright and intense, do not make the best eye shadow. Why? Because they are draggy, chalky, and lack good adhesion. They are a COLORANT, and when used with other ingredients are a PART of a finished product.
4. The FDA Specifically states "(c) Uses and restrictions. The ultramarine pigments may be safely used for coloring externally applied cosmetics, including cosmetics intended for use in the area of the eye, in amounts consistent with good manufacturing practice."
Note that last part..amounts consistent with GMP.
5. Ultramarines dissolving in water? Well it may look like it, when it's stirred into a beaker or bowl of water, it actually DISPERSES in the water. Let it sit overnight, and you'll find it sitting at the bottom, like sand in the ocean!

Colorants for cosmetics obviously need to disperse or mix with the other ingredients, be it an eye shadow, mineral makeup, soap, lotion or shampoo. If it didn't "disperse" we wouldn't have any colored bath and body products or makeup!

However, dispersing and dissolving are two different things. Recent youtube videos displaying ultras dissolving in water are just fear mongering demos, performed by uneducated or misinformed folks.