In Ancient Rome and Egypt, a lot of the cosmetics that people used contained poisonous substances, like lead and mercury. Of course, nowadays, we don’t voluntarily smear poisonous substances on our skins just to alter our appearances. …Or do we?

Did you know that some cosmetics contain synthetic –and potentially toxic- ingredients that could irritate the skin? Awareness of this has created a demand for makeup made with more natural ingredients, and mineral makeup, or bare minerals makeup, has filled in to address this issue.

Common mineral makeup brands, like Pur Minerals, have several different makeup types, like mineral foundations and lip gloss, and one of the draws for bare minerals makeup is that they are often touted as performing a dual role; not just to enhance or alter a person’s appearance, but to nourish the skin or relieve skin conditions like adult cystic acne as well.

Makeup is a term used to refer to colored products applied to a person’s skin in order to change their appearance. These changes can be as tiny and insignificant as a touch of mineral foundation to even out your skin tone, or as drastic as an elaborately applied array of cosmetics meant to change your look so thoroughly that you’ll almost look like an entirely different person.

Most people turn to more conventional kinds of makeup to fulfill these functions, but there has been a growing trend of going back to the basics and buying bare minerals makeup. Of course, when I use the term “going back to the basics,” I don’t mean that the nasty toxic stuff, like mercury and lead have made a comeback as cosmetics ingredients. Ancient Romans and Ancient Egyptians may have gotten a few things right, like sewage systems and really cool-looking infrastructure, but identifying the toxicity of their cosmetics was clearly not their forte.

Mineral makeup, on the other hand, uses gentler ingredients; minerals from earth, made without any of the synthetic ingredients, like chemicals and dyes that go into most traditional kinds of makeup. There are a lot of different brands of pure mineral makeup, and they come in a lot of different makeup types; just as there are a lot of different kinds of makeup users.

Some people would swear by pure mineral makeup and wouldn’t change out their mineral foundations for all the freebies in the world, and there are those who would roundly denounce mineral makeup as terrible products; even going so far as to call this kind of makeup a sham. Both parties do have their valid points.

On one hand, mineral makeup has been criticized as nothing more than a clever marketing scheme, since most traditional brands of makeup use pretty much the same ingredients. Some also claim that a lot of mineral makeup brands don’t carry shades or colors that fit some customers’ skin types. Then again, the same can be said about practically all the other makeup brands anyway. Some people also claim that mineral makeup has a tendency to dry out skin and aggravate certain skin conditions, and that it can actually accentuate wrinkles, rather than conceal them; making a person look years older.

There are also those who claim that the colors of most kinds of mineral makeup have a slightly ashy undertone that looks particularly unflattering on certain skin types, such as those with yellow undertones to their skin.

On the other hand, mineral makeup fans say that pure mineral makeup is great for a person’s skin. The purer, synthetics-free formulations of mineral makeup, which don’t contain dyes, fragrances, binders, or preservatives, are said to be great for people who have sensitive skin, allergies, acne, or rosacea.

Many also say that mineral makeup can give a person’s skin a special kind of “glow” that traditional kinds of makeup can’t replicate. On top of that, mineral makeup is said to last a lot longer than other kinds of makeup, and is non-comedogenic –which means that it won’t clog your pores and aggravate acne conditions or cause rosacea flare-ups.

Another point in mineral makeup’s favor is the fact that most pure mineral makeup brands have an SPF rating of at least 15, because most of these kinds of makeup contain a fair amount of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you can march off to the beach without slathering on the sunscreen though; while mineral makeup is certainly better than nothing, using usual cream sun-block is still the best way to protect yourself from the sun’s potentially harmful rays.

An example of a brand of pure mineral makeup that has SPF is Pur Minerals, a popular line of mineral makeup and skin care products that not only use all-natural minerals to make their products, but often add other natural ingredients, like shea butter and aloe vera to help bind the product and nourish the skin.

Mineral foundations, concealers, moisturizers, lip-gloss, and even eyeliner and facial wash are part of this particular brand’s line, and many reviewers claim that Pur Minerals is a pretty good brand of mineral makeup to try out, for first-timers.

Want some free samples of top-notch mineral makeup? Click here!

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