The Big Black Swatch & Shade Post

This post is in lieu of a finish to the Juvia's Place review. No need to go on beating that dead horse. In the meantime (and since even being the hermit I am, this lockdown is crazy) I thought I would do a swatch post that includes the 2 new Juvia shades.

It's nice that a lot of the established cosmetic brands are adding shades for "deeper" skin tones. New brands seem to be popping up all the time (like Juvia's Place). Still, finding an affordable and appropriate shade of foundation is tough for a lot of us. I know ladies of all races and colors who have almost as hard a time as I do in trying to find something that works with their peach- or olive-hued tones. If you can't pull off one of the basic shades - porcelain, ivory, buff, light, tan, medium, "deep", chocolate, almond, or some variation of "toast" - then you have to be the Indiana Jones of the makeup world.

These are some arm and face swatches of all the shades I have lying around. I throw nothing out so I have stuff from 4 years ago. Don't judge me!

Just so you know:

• I photographed my leg in the natural light of my home. (ceiling and floor lamps)
• I applied a light primer and nothing else other than the moisturizer I already had on  
• I did not apply any other powders or setting products
• I used a makeup spatula to apply (cleaning after each use)
• I ran a line of the Nars shade along the top so you can compare it to each of the other shades.

These are the ones taken a couple of minutes after applying all the swatches:

sorry for the bad cropping
see names and shades below

It's easy to see that the Khartoum, Ebony, Mali, and Bronze 8 shades are ones I can work best with. The others can be used, I suppose, for highlighting, contouring, and blending to lighten or darken other shades.

This is after I lay a paper towel over them and did a light blotting:

You can barely tell the Nars from my skin. Perfect.

This is after I have let the makeup rest and completely set for about 5 minutes

I tried to keep the camera the same distance away but there could be some variation. You get the idea though.

By the way, this is the wonderful primer I used. It was sent as a full-size sample (yay) from Tryspree and I will be buying more when I am finished with the jar.

Hard Candy Primer Balm

If you are always on the lookout for shades in "deep" tones, here are some that I have considered. With a couple of exceptions, they are affordably priced and seem to come in a good variety of deep shades. And, since I was only looking at shades, you would have to judge for yourself how good they are as far as wear and staying power. The links are to where I found the item and not always the brand site.

Black OpalTrue Color

NYXBorn to Glow

MaybellineFit Me

MilaniConceal & Perfect

 

e.l.f.Flawless Finish

I did notice that Target carries quite a range of brands with diverse shades. Also, the site has a "foundation guide" to help locate suitable brands on their site with your shade range.

Actually, once I started searching, I found quite a few brands with "deep" shade choices. You have probably heard of most, but I think at least a couple will be new for you.

Here are some with prices in the mid to higher range - depending on what your budget is. I'm too tired to do links for all of them but hit up Google.

• Uoma Beauty (totally new to me)
• Fenty (Rhianna's gig so I won't bother with it. Personal bias.)
• Il Mikiage (see this a lot on social media platforms)
• ColourPop (I've seen this on Influenster)
• Black Up (I had one of their foundations in a near-matching shade for my skin. Good foundation as long as you get a match.)
• Urban Decay
• Nars (of course)
• Becca 
• Marc Jacobs (who knew?)

• Lancome (love theirs but it's pricey for me at around $45)
• Hue Noir (another totally new one for me)
• MAC
• Makeup Forever
• Black Radiance (of course)
• Flori Roberts (I used to love their Gold perfume but it's no longer made)

The name of the last one I want to mention gives me the creeps but I love that they seem to have a wide range of shades. It's called Flesh Beauty. See what I mean? Anyway... The prices are mid-range ($32 for a foundation) but they offer free shipping. If you sign up for their mailing list, you get a discount on your first order. 

Believe it or not, there are more I could have listed but I got tired.

Hope this helped.

Peace
--Free

**REVIEW** Black Radiance Complexion Perfection

This is Complexion Perfection Liquid Foundation from Black Radiance*.

Let me start by saying how nice it is to use makeup formulated (by shade and balance) for black skin tones. Even though I think I got a shade that is a bit darker than my own, it still looks better than when I get a shade too light for my tone.

First thing to love about this product: the brush applicator. Second thing: how the brush applicator is set up.

 

That the removable applicator brush comes with its own cap cover is handy in a couple ways: It's detached from the makeup when not in use, and I can toss the covered brush into my handbag without worrying about smears. Nice.

What do I love about the foundation? Everything. Namely:

• Goes on very lightly and evenly. 
• Blends in perfectly with my skin tone (women who can buy makeup almost anywhere take this for granted).
• Is not sticky or heavy - and it doesn't smear at the casual touch. (This is a big deal with dark makeup.)
• My skin did not feel or, more importantly, look made up. It just looked, well, "perfected". No chalky/ashy look & no greasy shine.

By the way, this was not a freebie. It was a gift from someone I adore who watches my Gift List and, when he knows I'm feeling unloved, he surprises me like this. (Thanks, P. Gifts or no, you are very special!)

Now that I have found this foundation, I need to check out more things from Black Radiance. I'm just super-excited to find makeup that works for me - without adjustments or excuses.

I've been checking Amazon for more of the Black Radiance products (because I have a trial Prime membership) and will let you know if I decide to order some of their other items. Like these: 

That "Warm Berry" is gonna be mine

~sigh~ a BB cream for me. Finally.

Don't even get me started on the eyeshadows...

So in love with that eye palette!

Oh! I almost forgot the most important thing: Price. Both the eye palette and the BB cream runs around $5 each.

I'm in ❤with makeup again. (I'm going to be contacting my local Walmart and Walgreen stores because, as of now, they are not carrying the items in Anchorage.)

Peace
--Free

*This is a new product so I didn't see it on their website but, trust me, it's gorgeousness.

Makeup for Black Skin You Might Not Have Heard About

Since I've already ranted about the hard time I and other black women have in finding appropriately shaded makeup, I decided to go positive. I went looking around the web for makeup that does come in a wider range of shades - not just for black women, but for any woman who does not fit the trendy molds in place.

There are actually quite a few products to choose from, though you won't be able to make a quick Walmart, Target or Walgreen run to pick them up. (And, yes, I did cull some from lists I found posted by other people!) Here we go:

Sleek Makeup - Wide range of products. The CC and BB creams come in good shades for light & dark tones. Good pricing. They even had a cream-to-powder testing kit with varying shades.

Black Radiance - Nice shades in all their products - lips, eyes, foundation. The "custom coverage" foundation comes with 2 blendable shades. Nice. More brands need to follow that trend. Available in a lot of Walgreens & CVS stores (not in Alaska though!) Best of all: the prices ($1.99 for some lipsticks; $5.99 for the BB cream. That's more than affordable.) Since I can't find these in Alaska, I'm glad they are on Amazon.com for the cheap.

All those nice shades & for that price?!

Interface - This was under the Flori Roberts flag. While the shade were off for my liking in some products shown, there is variety for darker tones. Pricey though - especially after seeing the Black Radiance line. (By the way, I'm not sure why a black cosmetics brand like Flori Roberts would have a sub-line of black products.)

Interface (love the 2nd from left, but not for $18.50)

Those are just a few to get you started. I recommend checking out Amazon by doing a general search. There are a lot of brands that don't get the attention they deserve. Two brands that I had never heard of are: LAMIK and Joy Lorraine, (check Facebook); and one that I had heard of but didn't realize they had a wide range of shades - Kiss New York. That one was tricky. I had to see a YouTube video to know about the BB cream that can be found the Kiss page on Amazon. I could not find that cream on the brand page.

What I am realizing is that there are plenty of brands with shades of cosmetics to fit every woman. The problem is that companies are making too many wrong assumptions about women who wear makeup. It's as if, unless the customer lives in a major city - or one that is predominately brown - they're not likely to see "Mocha", "Chocolate" Deep-Deep" or other such shades on the shelves of the local drugstore. I always want to write to cosmetic companies and remind them that Blacks, Mexican, and Pacific Islanders do live here in Alaska. The Alaskan Natives and Asians aren't exactly one shade of whatever the brands seem to thing.

I also notice (now that I am back on Facebook - which you are not allowed to tease me about) that smaller brands aren't using the social networks effectively. Aren't you in business to do business? So, get yourselves out there on Google Plus, (and, okay, Facebook too) and Twitter - and promote, promote, promote. Send out samples and offer trial sizes. Hit up all those blogs and sites that discuss the lack of quality makeup and show them your stuff. I mean, come on, people...

Until I find more products, I'll stop this rant for now!

Peace
--Free

Black Cosmetics: Great Strides & Great Failures

You guys know I love my membership at sites like SheSpeaks and BzzAgent. Like anyone, I enjoy getting to find out about and try new products, not to mention how much fun I get in telling you guys about them!

Here comes the "But" part of this post...

I am really disappointed that, among items featured on these "try-and-tell" sites, there are not more cosmetics and hair products suited for black women. If you ask me (and, yes, I know you didn't), the companies who produce products for black women are really missing out. (And when I talk about these products, I don't care whether or not they are black-owned or produced; I'm strictly talking from an end-user perspective here.)

When the BB creams became so mainstream popular that everyone and their cousin jumped on the train, I missed out. I'm still sitting in the station, waiting for a BB cream to come along that won't make me look two shades of ashy.

Now, here's the thing, I did a quick search of BB creams for black women. There are quite a few out there, but only a handful that come in a greater variety of shades.


BlackUp has some shades so beautiful, they make me want to cry. I'm going to have to get hold of some trial sizes of this. Now!

$39.50 for the CC cream

$42 for this foundation

See? My face was over here just craving that CC cream! Even at those prices, it's worth it to have a shade that matches and works well for your skin type. It's not like you're going to be buying it once a month or so, right?

I actually have some loose face powder by BlackUp. The powder was a gift, so I didn't go over and check the price, but... Guess what? It's about half a shade off from what I need. The person who gifted it to me had to choose from an online photo of the product. Wouldn't it be nice if I could have sampled a couple of shades first? Shade problems aside, that is some really good product.

Now, because of the average price of a really good foundation or CC (or BB or DD!) cream, it's really not worth buying a full-sized product without knowing the benefits. Even if a product matches your skin tone, you don't want one that leaves your face feeling dry, or looking un-natural. That's why reviews are so important. Reviews by people like you and me (and not some celebrity or anyone else most of us can't relate to) are key. We can compare value to price and quality. We can tell each other how well the product fits our "regular" lifestyle and budget.

No offense to Garnier (or Neutrogena, Covergirl, etc), but I don't fall into the generalized category of shades you've determined to be "Dark" or "Deep". I'm not Halle Berry or Queen Latifah. I'm closer to Lupita Nyong'o. There's usually no decent shade of foundation for me in the aisles of Walmart. Matter of fact, there are lot of women who have trouble finding a good shade of makeup in mass retail stores. Once not long ago,  I had a nice chat with a Caucasian lady in the makeup section at Walmart. She was having problems locating a shade for her peachy-tan undertones. She said that she had once found a decent product from one brand, but it was hard to find on local shelves.

~sigh~

Back to my point though: When are the black cosmetic brands going to get with the movement of putting there products out there for folks to try before they spend money or the wrong shade or type? When I find a good product, I talk about it, and then the people I've talked to talk about it. Word of mouth. Get it?

In late 2013, one beauty and personal care analyst was talking about the "boom" in ethnic cosmetics. It's true. I'm starting to see lots and lots of diversity in cosmetic products, but the producers need to look past the faces they see on the TV and movie screens. There are more shades to "ethnic" than "Medium", "Medium Deep" and "Mahogany". I'm waiting to see some truer-to-skin shades for women like me.

For the brands out there who do have a good range of shades, please start working with us consumers more by getting samples and trial sizes into the retail aisles. We "regular" folk will spend good money on good products - once we have a chance to see that they are good. And because we are "regular", we don't often hit up Nordstrom or Macy's; you'll reach us quicker at Target, Walgreens and Walmart. (Okay, maybe that last was just for folks like me!)

Ladies, for those of you who live in an area with better access to products, check out the stroy of DooBop. For the rest of you (and me), you can try looking for these brands:

• Iman Cosmetics 
• Black Opal
• Mac Cosmetics
• Fashion Fair
• Bobbi Brown

I'm going to leave you with some images. Shades, tones and hues...

Black Opal

Bobbi Brown

Flori Roberts

Iman got it right!

Iman

Peace

--Free

**DIY** Lipstick ******UPDATED******

****A helpful clerk at my local health food store gave me a money-saving tip: darken your lipstick with a touch of activated charcoal. Make sure it is pure & not from petroleum. I got a bottle of 90 caps for under $8. Even better, you can,  apparently,  use it for whitening your teeth! This will do for me until I can gather ingredients for the whole recipe.****

I am a woman on a mission. The mission I have chosen to accept is to find the perfect lipstick. Seriously.

Lipstick is the one cosmetic I wear consistently. I'm not too much into foundation and eye-shadow. I've entertained you all before with the story of almost putting out my eye with mascara and eyeliner. Some things are just not meant to be. But I am a woman. I feel a need to be in on that thing called "girling it up." Lipstick is my thing. I like it dark red and glossy. That's what I like. What I usually get is something sort-of-dark, almost-dark or just-a-bit-not-dark-enough.

I have become so frustrated that I've resorted to mixing lipsticks like a mad cosmetologist, turning my bathroom counters into a sort of psychedelic lab. It's crazy. I have finally decided that since I have to work so hard to get a shade of lipstick I'm happy with, why not just start my own from scratch?

If you've had the same thought, but didn't know where to start, I'm going to share my cheat notes with you. By the way, a big huge thanks to all the sources offered up by the internet.

The Recipes

• Wellness Mama is a great site all around. Her lipstick recipe is the first one (and best) I found.
• This one looks fairly basic.
• Not crazy about this one with crayons for myself, but looks like a fun mother-daughter project.
• This is one for those into organics.

Wellness Mama's is the recipe I will be using, but there are a quite a few more out there. 

The Supplies/Suppliers

• Mountain Rose Herbs is favored (and linked to) by Wellness Mama. The only thing that bothered me is that the "search" service is clunky...
• Making Cosmetics is pretty fully stocked with anything you could want to make any product. The link here is for the lipstick molds.
• OCC has vegan choices in something called "lip tar." I understand this can be used to deepen the color of an existing shade. Or - I'm thinking - add to your homemade batch. They also carry color pigments & I love the colors. Their color "concentrates" look nice. Also in the "Face" section.
• You can find clays and such here. 
• There is a stunning array of items at this wholesaler. The problem is that I'm not sure where they are shipping from. At the very least, you can get an idea of colors and items to be on the lookout for at a more familiar supplier.

You can also shop at local places. I am going to try to throw any of my business to our local health food spot, the Natural Pantry. To save shipping costs and waiting times, you could check out places like Michael's and other craft spots.

Good luck.

Peace

--Free

For Ladies Only

I do reviews every now and then about products I am familiar with. The products I want post about today are for the ladies...

Problem: Personal freshness.

Solution: Panty Fresheners

Poise is known for their "wetness protection"  products, but I recently discovered something that most any women would be interested in: Poise Panty Fresheners. Most of us use sprays, douches, wipes, etc., but the "fresheners" are a nice addition to our arsenal! LOL ...The Fresheners are small round pads (about the size of a half-dollar coin) and thinner than a pantyliner. They come in a discreet screw-top case that can be tucked into a pocket or purse. Pull one out, remove peel & stick to outside of panty. The scent is mild and nice. (Side Note: Is is my Sarc or does spell-check really not recognize "panty" as a word???)

Problem: Serious personal freshness

Solution: Deo Candy Perfume 

This is a product of these guys. You eat the candy which infuses your body with sweetness the way garlic will infuse you with a sense of loneliness. You can see where to buy it here. Me? I dunno. I told a friend about it and her response was, "Why not just eat Secret?"

Problem: Finding Makeup for the differently complexioned

Soltuion: Several on-line/in-store locations...

Most over-the-counter makeup is not for those out of the range of common skin tones. This is only a big deal to me personally on a few occasions - like when I want to take photos or (now that I'm dating again) am going out somewhere with someone special, or when I'm having a really effed up hair day & want to draw attention elsewhere. At those times, I really want the right kind of makeup. I'm dark with red/yellow undertones. I have friends of all races who don't quite fit the standard Peach-to-Cocoa line of store products. That's tough. By the way, most makeup for darker women are for blue undertones. I go to cosmetic counters a couple times a year for 1) a decent lipstick/stain/gloss and 2) a comfortable foundation that doesn't make me look like I am wearing makeup. I run into the peach/pink or plum/orange-red crap and leave the store feeling like, "Can a sista get a break here?" Unless you are Beyonce/Halle or Naomi, finding OTC makeup for black women is a challenge and I know my sisters of other misters - white, Latina, Asian, etc - have the same problems. We've all heard of Black Opal, Mary Kay, Fashion Fair and Flori Roberts. Here a couple more places to check out (and don't let the ethnic names fool you; the there are a wide range of shades at each site):

• Becca - for women of any race/skin tone. They will even blend a shade for you. Use the contact form to send specific skin-tone info and a photo of yourself for help in discovering what's best for you.
• http://vasanticosmetics.com/ - they seem to have a nice range of blends and shades for women of Caucasian skin tones. Not a lot of versatility for foundations & eye products. I include them because of the lipsticks and skin care they offer.
• Black Radiance - not for me since they do the Plum lipcolor thing instead of a decent brick red - but the eyeshadows & foundations look really nice. (I have contacted them asking if they do samples.)
• blackUp - a French company with amazing colors. Foundations and other shades will work for anyone of a darker-beige shade to dark. The lips shades run from basic to funky. Check out the out of stock Forever Matte Gold or It Girl colors... Umm, umm, crazy. 
• Zhen Beauty - makeup for Asian skintones. People of different ethnic persuasions have the same undertones as Asians. The lipshades are nice, and they offer custom compacts for the mix-and-match fanatics. I just love that. (I know my Asian sisters feel me when I complain about the super-ethnic sounding names of the cosmetic sellers!)
• Iman Cosmetics - I like the whole "find your shade" option here. I won't add anything else about the site. I cringe as I add it here simply because I once met this woman and she was thoroughly unpleasant. (And, okay, I didn't meet her as in "for lunch and cocktails," but as part of a queue of folks when she did an appearance at a large mall. Let me tell you, beauty does not always make for a lovely personality!)

Anyway, there you go, ladies. Enjoy and I hope this helps when you do that next hunt for the perfect lipstick or foundation. Remember: the way you act shows your real beauty (or lack of). Go out and be as beautiful as you can.

Peace

--Free

(P.S., ladies - Fashion Fair has a nice range of lipsticks. I like the Femme Fatale color in the Siren Call line!)