AnnMarrie Skincare Mineral Foundation review (first impressions)

Hi Lovelies,


Welcome back! And if you are new here, welcome 💕💕💕

AnnMarie Skincare Earth Minerals foundation review

Today I am coming at you with a sort of first impressions review of really gorgeous mineral make up in a form of AnnMarrie Earth Minerals multi purpose foundation. And I am really excited to share this with you. And you know why? Because it is goooood!

AnnMarie Gianni (and her husband Kevin) is someone who I admire for a really long time, I watched all of their YouTube raw food related videos, (not stalking, promise) and I learned a lot. So when I heard they were releasing their own skincare line, needless to say I wanted to try it! I am not too sure which came first, their skin care line or mineral make up, but let's just talk about mineral make up line for now, and leave skincare for the next post, as not to make the post too long and confusing.

Imagine my delight when I found out it is all available on our shores too via Live In The Light, & Dutch Health Store, both online shops I love and have written about before (LITL review here, DHS review here) I got a chance to try the products via the same shop, and I am delighted. I found one of the best mineral make up lines I have tried to date, and I've tried my fair share of them.

AnnMarie Skincare use only the best ingredients for their products, and Earth Minerals (their mineral make up line) are no exception - I trust I am getting the best from them. These are 100% mineral powders without any fillers or additives in them.

  

This is the foundation I have used for the last couple of weeks, and I fell in love. Hard. Definitely want a full size of it, and I don't even care that I planned to minimise my collection! It is good quality mineral foundation that really impressed me, but we will talk about it in just a minute.

The sampler kit came in a very sturdy cardboard box and it houses eight shades of their foundation samples (in glass, no less!) and a cute mini herbal facial oil sampler, that is supposed to act as a mixing medium should you fancy to make your own liquid foundation. 

As I already mentioned, the foundation samples come in teeny tiny cutest ever glass pots, containing 1/3rd gram of powder in each, and let me tell you, it is one gorgeous foundation! Full coverage from a teeniest amount, and even though I have used it a handful of times already, I am not done yet! Amazing or what? I imagine the full size would last you for absolutely ages. If you love sheer coverage, of course you can sheer it out by using large fluffy brush, but if you are a girl like me which have something to cover (dermatitis scars in my case) it is your best friend. And let me tell you it gives the most gorgeous coverage, it is described as matte on the website, but I would say it is demi matte, all while being non detectable on the skin. I mean you feel like you are wearing nothing on your skin. And that is the beauty with mineral make up, you can't feel it on your skin, you control the coverage, plus it has virtually no expiration date - perfect for a girl like me who does wear make up very infrequently. And so you just know, I also wore it as a under eye concealer too - it passed with flying colours! Much better than Alima Pure powder concealer in fact. So there you go, if that is not showing how much I love it, then I don't know what will? If you are anywhere near my skin tone, try Pearl and Sand, you might be one of those shades or the mixture of the two. At the time I got the kit, my match was Pearl, but now that my face has seen some sun, I am Sand. So I think Pearl would be my winter shade, while Sand would be perfect for summer. All the other shades that are too dark for me, I am keeping and I will use them up one way or another, they can be mixed together to create your perfect shade, or used as an eye shadow or as a contour. 

Foundation mixed with facial oil is gorgeous too, I should mention that. My skin is dry, and I love using facial oils anyway, so mixing oil with powder foundation isn't new to me. If you are new to this idea, play around at first, adding little of the minerals if you love sheer coverage and more if you want it to cover more. Make sure you blend it into your skin, not just spread around like a liquid foundation. The finish will be more luminous than if you used minerals alone, but that's to be expected. And you guys know I love dewy finish.

AnnMarie Earth Minerals swatches & review

Pearl: Fair complexions with cool undertones
Sand: Light complexions with warm undertones
Honey: Light to medium complexions with warm undertones
Olive: Medium complexions with warm undertones
Nutmeg: Medium complexions with neutral undertones
Maple: Medium to dark complexions with neutral undertones
Mocha: Dark complexions with cool undertones
Clove: Dark complexions with warm undertones
Herbal Facial Oil for Normal and Combination Skin
Made With:

Titanium dioxide, iron oxide, mica, zinc oxide. (The order of ingredients varies with each blend.)

I should also mention that sampler kit also has a coupon code for money off your full size product, should you fancy getting it. I know i want full size of it, yes please :)

Oh, by the way, i will be adding the swatch photo to my Green Beauty Swatch Gallery I've created on my Facebook page here and Pinterest here. With time, I will upload swatches of everything I own, plus I will be adding new photos as I go along my green beauty journey. All of it can be found in my Instagram feed too, but i decided to collect it all in one place, and it's up to you which platform you want to choose. All in a bid to help you guys to choose the right shades when buying online. Hope you will find it helpful :)

See it in AnnMarie Skincare online shop

or Live In The Light

or Dutch Health Store

or Amazon

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That is all for now,
Lots of Love,
Renata.
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#This post contains products sent to me & affiliate links. If anything, I judge sent products even more harshly, and all the opinions are always my own. Always honest with you guys.

May 2017 Natural And Organic Eco Empties

Hi Lovelies,




Welcome back! And welcome, if you are new here 💕💕💕

Natural, organic and eco empties

Lemon Essential Oil

I use this in my diffuser, cleaning, to remove sticky labels - that's the little tip for you if you didn't know that already - lemon essential oil is excellent at removing those pesky labels off shoes, jars, etc. I actually used half of it to purify/deodorise house following the fire story in one go, otherwise one bottle lasts me for months.

A repurchase? Not this brand, but I will repurchase lemon EO as long as I will live.

TerraNova multivitamin

Really good multivitamin formula, and I will surely will repurchase come fall and winter. For summer I tend not to take vitamins, only superfoods like baobab powder. With all the fresh fruit & veg available, you kind of don't need to? I know I take breaks in summer from the supplements, but we each are different. I find this brand great, really natural ingredients, and it is one of the very few supplement brands I take. Find it in LoveLula.com I am certainly going th review this in the near future.

Nap In The Meadow

Really gorgeous anti inflammatory serum, containing both turmeric and blue tansy, my two favourite ingredients. Not repurchasing for now, because I have two other serum waiting, Blissoma one and Isun Sapphire and Emerald Sun Hydrosol. But this is on my “to repurchase” list. See review of this and other Earthwise Beauty products here.

Red Apple Lipstick lipstick in Twist ‘N’ Pout

Really sad to let this go, because I really love this colour on me, my perfect nude, not too pale, not too brown. Not repurchasing due to extremely high shipping and custom costs, but if RAL will ever get EU distributor, I will be one of the first to buy it. As for now, their postage costs to EU are 50$ (?!) and if I were to get just this lipstick and one eye shadow, that would set me back 130€. Is it worth it? And I am not even kidding you or making stuff up, see it all listed in screen shots in my review here.

Btw, if you know a natural dupe of this colour that would be available from within EU, please let me know and you will forever have my gratitude!

Nyr Bee Lovely Hand Cream

Even though I am technically a Nyr consultant, I tend to get these hand creams as freebies with magazines. What? It is way cheaper this way, and that is pretty much the only times I buy glossy magazines, so I don't feel bad about it at all! As hand cream it is good, sinks in quickly, so I tend to use it in the daytime and leave my more rich creams like Flying Wild ones for the night time.

Will repurchase for sure. At the moment I have Wild Rose one, but I like the scent of this better, so will come back to it once Wild Rose runs out.

Child Farm Shampoo

One of the very few natural products you can get in Boots, gone way before I could photograph it or write a review. Err, thanks fam? Just joking, as it is a constant purchase in our house, I will get to the review eventually!

Mayan Magic Balm by Lavigneorganics

If you have eczema, or dermatitis, you need this! Truly magical stuff for soothing irritated skin and calming down that insane itching! Really natural ingredients and I am way overdue to review it. It was one of the very few products that helped me when I was battling dermatitis. See post here. I am way overdue for update.

Lotus Wei Inner Peace serum

I am proud of myself for finishing this up,  as I had to be conscious to use this up! I found this wasn't really working for me, I mean serum format, but I do really enjoy Lotus Wei products in other forms, I currently have Infinite Love in anointing oil and mist and Joy Juice in elixir. Find review post here.

ISUN Ormus Myst

It was a sad day in the house when I ran out of this, I even did Insta Story about it. See the review here. And what can I say? Love affair with ISUN continues, I am currently testing more products as we speak. Psst, there might be a giveaway coming up soon! 

Pacifica Coconut Nectar Colour Quench lip tint

This I really enjoyed for a really long time, and I am decluttering it because it is over two years old. No changes in the formula though, it didn't go bad or anything, it is just I am over brown color on my lips. This is nice as a product, it is a tinted lip balm that can be layered to your desired intensity, and I find it stays on. Will get it in the different colour for sure. If you are not a lipstick person but want some colour on your lips, this might be your perfect product? Available from LoveLula.com That's where I got mine from. You can also find some Pacifica products in your local health stores, but I don't think you'd find those, as they tend to focus on sets or more expensive items from the brand. 

Coconut body and face oil by Ann-Marie Gianni

Smells gorgeous, sinks in quickly, gorgeous organic and fair trade ingredients! I am currently testing more products from the line and will review them shortly, so stay tuned!

Balance Me Pure Skin Face Wash

I didn't use it, so sadly I can't give you my two cents on it. I gave it to my daughter, as I've too many facial cleansers I am willing to admit to, and higher end too. My teen wasn't super happy with it, and asked to get her another cleanser, so I gave her Laidback Skincare Diy one that just came in May Love Lula Beauty box. Perfect timing.

Living Libations Seabuckthorn Shampoo

This 30ml bottle cost me 8€ and I don't even care, because it is one of the best shampoos I have ever used! I wish it weren't so damn expensive for full size, I would get it on a constant basis. I am currently testing other shampoos including Rahua, but this will stay at the back of my mind for sure.

Living Libations Spirulina Shampoo

Another outrageously expensive sample and another gorgeous shampoo! If I ever will come into money, this is what I will be getting for sure.

Natura Siberica We Love Lithuania Shampoo

Natura Siberica is only half-natural brand in my opinion, but they keep getting one green beauty award after another, and that's why they are intriguing me. If you want my opinion on it, it would be one of my fave shampoos if it didn't had dreaded SLS in it!! It makes your hair look and feel nice, but I am not repurchasing it due to SLS. I planned to do a separate review on it, but I lost the picture along with other pictures when my phone died. Kids, don't repeat my mistakes and back up your photos regularly!

Duru Osun Black African Soap (not pictured)

This is my third bar of it, and I think I am due a review on it, but for some reason it is still in my 70 drafts on my blogger’s dashboard. Yes, really! I am impressed and I think everyone should try it.

Iswari Certified Organic Matcha

I'll have some organic matcha, yes please! Whether in the morning instead of coffee or in the skincare regime as a mask, I love me some matcha. If I were loaded I'd have this on a daily basis, but at this moment in time it is too pricy habit for me to keep, so I rotate this with regular green tea, esp as I find I go through a packet really quickly. But it's a love affair with me and matcha. Don't tell me hubby!

A.Vogel Echinacea Toothpaste

In my search of carageenan and glycerine free toothpaste I tried this, and I hated it with passion. It is rarely I throw things away half used, but this is one of those cases. Tastes like swamp with very strong aftertaste (is that echinacea?) and I didn't find it did a good job of cleaning my teeth either, after one hour or so, my teeth had that nasty coating on them again, so this was a fail on all counts. Not a repurchase. I do understand that "coating" on the teeth has a lot to do with my gut flora but I feel as far as products go, they have to be natural AND work too, and this wasn't working for me at all.

Organic Surge Daily Care Hand And Body Wash

This is EcoCert certified product, price point is brilliant and I enjoyed it indeed. Used primarily as a hand wash, this is something I used time and time again. Not sure if I want to review a hand wash, but I suggest you try this brand if you are looking for natural replacement. Easily accessible and you can get it from LoveLula too.

A few make up brushes

Part of the attempt of decluttering my stash is waving goodbye to the brushes I don't use. These are all used very little if at all, so I will pass them onto my friends. These include Bare Minerals Flawless face brush (I hate the feeling of natural bristles on my face. I was agast to learn these are the real hair bristles after I bought a BM set a good few years ago. I hung onto it in the hopes of using it in some way after all, maybe for dry shampoo or something. Never happened. BM didn't work out for me either, I am passing on it all together). Next is toothbrush looking foundation brush I'd gotten from Penneys, really soft and works nice too, the trouble with this was it was the odd one out, all my other brushes are all Ecotools or Real Techniques, and this one didn't fit in, so despite it working well, I am saying goodbye to it. RT Expert Face Brush works the same, and I've two of those, that is enough for one person. And speaking of RT, I am giving away two of their brushes, despite them being my fave brand, and I never thought I'll say this, or declutter their brushes, but the stippling brush does the total oposite of what I want, as in it gives sheer coverage and I am looking for full coverage if I wear make up. Lots of people use it for cream blushes, but I don't have any, and if I use it for powder blushes, I find it scratches off too much of a product and messes it up. Next is their flat foundation brush - way too small to do a decent job, it feels like I am painting canvas or something, and it leaves streaky finish no matter how much I try to work it in, I have to finish blending with my fingers each and every time. Goodbye then. I was about to declutter flat Ecottols foundation brush too, but I decided to keep it for masking, as it is a bit bigger.

Nude By Nature Mascara

This was an unexpected favourite product from the collaboration I did with Debenhams (see the review here) - I didn't expect much from it as I was looking forward to trying other products, but this blew me away for one simple reason - IT DOES NOT flake! I feel like we should take a moment to let this sink in - IT DOES NOT FLAKE!! I think I will repurchase it and do a separate review on it, I am that impressed. A first for me.

Jack N Jill Toothpaste

This is what my 4yr old uses, and we are on the 10th tube or something. It works great, is flouride free and I plan to use it continuosly in the future. Already repurchased.

Oil of Oregano in capsule form

This is a last minute replacement for liquid Oreganol P73 I always get, I got this because Nourish health food shop were having trouble getting what I want, and because they took 6 weeks, and I was already ill be then, I got what I could find without waiting much further. Oregano extract (of the wild variety) is my not so secret weapon natural antibiotic, and I talk more about it in my Top Three Natural Products post (see it here) where you can see more info on it. Already repurchased. Not this, my regular beloved liquid one. They work the same, but I find I get more bang for my buck with liquid, plus I can also use it externally if needed. 

My own balm DIY
See the recipe for it here. As well as recipe for RMS Master Mixer dupe DIY too.


Phew, this makes me tired! I planned to do this post at 7am before the kids woke up, but guess what? One of them got sick and stayed home, so I was trying to work all day in the contant "mama mama maaamaaaaa" background! At three pm and 2300 words later I am almost finished. The sun isn't cooperating with me either, and it shows in the picture. Sorry about that. It is one of those days, but as I am good at keeping my word, here is my blog post. On Monday, as it should be :) 

Thanks for reading in advance! If you have any questions about any products, please feel free to ask and I'll be happy to answer. 

What have you finished these days?


Lots of Love,
Renata.

Related posts:

Natural, organic and eco empties Spring 2017

Natural, organic and eco empties Winter 2017

Natural, organic and eco empties Autumn 2016

Natural, organic and eco empties Summer 2016

Natural, organic and eco empties Spring 2016

Shop my Neal's Remedies page

(if you want to)

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Live In The Light Online Store Review

Hi Lovelies,


Welcome back! And if you are new here, welcome 💕💕💕

LiveInTheLight.co.uk products

I must be on the roll, third blog post in three days, well done Renata! Umm, what? I needed an intelligent conversation, if only with a mirror. All that joking aside, I wanted to draw your attention to a fabulous online shop based in the UK that I am sure all my fellow green beauty sisters will love. The shop is called Live In The Light and they have the same name on all social media, I will be linking their Instagram page down below, and don't worry, that's not affiliate link nor I am paid to talk about this. Nor I was asked to do a review on them, this is entirely my own doing. Just sharing good stuff. And good stuff it is indeed. When I was asked if I want to try Pure Anada or something else from their store, I checked the website immediately and I was really satisfied with what I saw, they carry my beloved Pure Anada, which I've reviewed before (link here), AnnMarie Gianni line, which I've been dying to try for absolutely ages, Orgaid organic sheet masks, and a few more brands, like Carina Organic and Live In The Light, as well as Vonbros for men in our lives. An that's it - there's something really refreshing not having a ton of brands to choose from, so you are not overwhelmed, and whatever you will choose from this website, it is guaranteed to be truly natural, be cruelty free and more often than not, organic. (The products might even be all organic, I didn't check every single one of them). We all know there's a lot of greenwashing going on, when brands claiming to be natural are still packed with toxic chemicals. Guess what? Not here! The brands were hand selected by the owner Sue, who has a holistic approach and firmly believe that what we do and use in our daily regime has a huge impact on everyone and everything around us. There appears to be many like minded people out there who don’t want to carry on using harmful products but want to use exceptional, beautiful and effective ones while at the same time are helping to preserve and respect our environment. I am so so happy about it, it is time people woke up to what's really in their products! And I applaud Sue for contributing to the better world by bringing all those amazing products to us. As the webshop is based in the UK, it is good news for my fellow European green beauty sisters - it means we can skip those pesky custom charges and pay less in shipping too. Hopefully this won't change post Brexit. I must add that they ship worldwide.
 

Orgaid organic sheet mask

Anyhow, let's get back to the products, shall we? You can choose from make up, skincare, haircare, bodycare, nails, baby products, men's products, candles - they have everything! As you can see in the picture, I got a chance to try a few gorgeous goodies that were new to me, and I got way more than I asked for thanks to generosity of Sue - thank you again, it is very much appreciated! For the last couple of week I've been testing everything and I am almost ready to give my two cents on the products - let's just say they are all amazing. I will publish separate reviews on AnnMarie Gianni products and on Pure Anada ones as well, I simply don't want this post to be too long, but I promise to link those reviews back to this post once they will be live. If I could recommend you some products, my top choices would be AnnMarie Gianni Neroli mist, Grounded perfume and mineral foundation; Cinder brow powder, Marine Minerals hydrating toner and hand cream from Pure Anada - all amazing products, and I want all of them in full sizes.

Pure Anada products

AnnMarie Gianni skincare and perfume samples

AnnMarie Gianni Earth Minerals sample pack

  I think that's it for today, I reserve a bit more time before I will post a reviews on all these items, I mean the make up and the hand cream are easy to test, but I like taking my time with skincare, from 4- 6 weeks, as that time frame is the only way to tell if skincare makes a difference. So please bear with me and I will see you here again shortly with reviews. If you have any pressing questions about any product, you can always ask, either here or on Instagram.

I hope I helped you to discover new fabulous online store with really clean products! Have you tried anything from Live In The Light already? Please share with me :)

Lots of Love,
Renata.