Custom Blend Cosmetics

Looking in any number of makeup bags around the country will show just how much makeup is purchased.  How many of us have drawers full of makeup that we buy for a special occasion , or to match our outfits, only for it not to be as great of a match as we though, or we only use the color a few times and then let it sit in a box or bathroom drawer?  Beyond the plethora of makeup that we squirrel away, we are also faced from time to time with our favorite shades being discontinued.  How often to we spend months and years searching for that perfect shade, only for it to be discontinued after we find it? Then we start the search all over again.

In response to the discontinued makeup situation, the custom makeup category has been on an increase over the last few years.  Most consumers became familiar with custom blending with brands such as Prescriptives. However, department store custom blending tends to be prohibitively expensive. In addition over the recent months Prescriptives has closed their department store operations, so this has left people seeking custom makeup from other sources. A google search for Custom Blended Cosmetics will being up a number of websites that provide custom blending services.  Of them, By Jove Cosmetics of Hollywood, California  offers the first at-home custom blending kit for cosmetics. Their initial offering , The Ultra Matrix 3000 Custom Foundation Kit enables anybody to make discontinued cosmetics and  easily match any shade of foundation or concealer. By using their MINI Foundation kit anybody can make the lightest light or darkest dark skin tone quickly, and when the bases that come with the kit are used up, consumers can buy refill bases either at Amazon.com or at the byjovecosmetics.com website.  The Ultra Matrix 3000 MINI Foundation  Kit retails for $29.95.

By Jove Cosmetics has also announced the impending release of their Ultra Matrix 3000 Custom Blush Kit.  This kit enables users to be able to make any shade of custom blush and bronzer.  The blush formula is similar to the cream-gel formula that is used in their foundation kit, so users can have the same excellent covering, very light feeling that comes with this advanced formula.  Like the foundation kit, the Ultra Matrix 3000 Blush Kit uses a number of bases of different colors, that can be blended together to form an infinite number of custom blush colors, and just like the foundation kit; the user can make as little or as much custom blush or custom bronzer that they want and store it in the supplied containers. The custom blush kit will come with a number of starter formulas and provide online information access so customers can better their shade matching skills.  With 11 base colors, 4 pearl bases and all the accessories (enough to produce a lot of custom blended blush and bronzers); the Ultra Matrix 3000 Custom Blush Kit feels like a mini color cosmetics factory in an easy to store case, perfectly sized for any bathroom accessory drawer.  By Jove Cosmetics has said that their Ultra Matrix 3000 Custom Blush kit will be available for purchase on their website and at Amazon.com by the beginning of November and will have an introductory price of $49.95.

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September 29th, 2010 | Tags: custom blended blush, custom blush, custom blush and bronzer, custom bronzer, custom makeup, discontinued makeup, make discontinued cosmetics | Category: Beauty, Cosmetics, Custom Blend Cosmetics, Custom Makeup Kits, Learn Makeup Artistry, be a makeup artist, custom blend foundation, custom blended cosmetics, custom blended makeup, custom color cosmetics, custom cosmetics, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, learn to make your own cosmetics, learn to make your own makeup | Comments (2)

As cosmetic companies continue to close their doors during this current economic down turn one of the consequences that we feel as consumers is that we lose the makeup colors that we’ve come to love.  In the recent past, the most we could hope for is to get those colors custom blended for us at the Prescriptives counter in our favorite department store, but they too have ceased operating their counters in early 2010.  There are companies on the internet that offer custom blending services; but these services could easily cost upwards of $100 per shade with no control or guarantees that your going to like the color that you get.

One of the newest options is at home custom blending. By Jove Cosmetics of Hollywood, CA offers their Ultra Matrix 3000 Custom Foundation Kit. Their best priced MINI kit is priced at $29.95 and is available on their website By Jove Cosmetics.com or at Amazon.com.

With this kit you can blend any shade of foundation, concealer or highlight regardless of skin color.  By Jove is one of the few brands of makeup that can produce true skin matches. This is fantastic for consumers who’ve always had a problem with their foundations looking orange, gray or ashy.

There are a few misconceptions about using the By Jove kit; the first is that you would need to blend your makeup every day.  The truth is that the kit is supplied with ‘starter’ color cards that help you blend your shade.  Each one of these cards starts you off by blending enough makeup to last about a week and by using the supplied containers you can easily make yourself enough makeup in advance to last about a month and when you run out of base colors you don’t have to buy a whole new kit, you can just order whatever base colors you need from either By Jove Cosmetics or Amazon.com .

The other misconception is that custom blending is hard.  There could be nothing farther from the truth. If you can see color you can very quickly learn how to mix the five colors that make up all skin tones and concealer colors; plus By Jove technicians are always an email away to answer any questions you might have.

If your favorite foundation or concealer has been discontinued try to save a portion of the discontinued makeup you have and research companies like By Jove that make custom makeup.  With a specific shade name or better yet a portion of your foundation, any capable color chemist will be able to match your shade perfectly, a search on the Internet for custom blended makeup , custom blend cosmetics or  custom foundation kit will yield results for a number of companies. Or you could order the By Jove Ultra Matrix Foundation Mini Kit for under $30.00  and never worry about your favorite shade of makeup being discontinued again.

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August 24th, 2010 | Tags: Custom Blend Cosmetics, custom blended makeup, custom makeup, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, makeup kit | Category: Beauty, Cosmetics, Custom Blend Cosmetics, Custom Makeup Kits, Learn Makeup Artistry, be a makeup artist, custom blend foundation, custom blended cosmetics, custom blended makeup, custom color cosmetics, custom cosmetics, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, learn to make your own cosmetics, learn to make your own makeup | Comments (2)

Concealers are one of those items in our makeup bag that is essential in creating a flawless base makeup. Concealers make up a group of cosmetics that can be broken down into three groups:

1)      Neutralizers- Colors used to cancel out the appearance of blemishes

2)      Shaders- Colors used to change the contour of the face by creating shadows

3)      Highlights – Colors used to change the contour of the face by filling shadows with light

This article will be looking into how to find, pick and use neutralizers. 

A neutralizer is a cosmetic color that helps to hide discoloration and blemishes on the skin by using complimentary colors to neutralize the blemish, creating the illusion that the discoloration or blemish has disappeared and allowing the foundation to look flawless.

Typically neutralizers come in either a cream pot formula or in a gel/emulsion tube or vial.  Some companies produce powder neutralizers, but as powders tend not to have as good adhesion to the skin as the aforementioned products; their effectiveness as neutralizers are limited.

A neutralizer works by ‘neutralizing’ an offending blemish. Neutralizing is what happens when a complimentary color is combined with its primary color.  Primary colors are  Blue, Red and Yellow; the compliments of the primary colors are Purple, Orange and Green.  Primary colors are just that, colors that cannot be created by the combination of other colors complimentary colors are made by combing the following primary colors together:

Blue + Red = Purple

Red + Yellow = Orange

Yellow + Blue = Green

If you were to draw a circle and inside that circle cut it into three pie pieces, then label the slices Blue, Red and Yellow you will see that the border of each color touches the color that produces a complimentary color.  Furthermore if you were to make three more pie slices at the points where the two primary colors meet and label them Purple, Orange and Green accordingly you will see that on this color wheel the following colors will be opposite one another:

Blue would be opposite orange

Red would be opposite green

Yellow would be opposite purple

The above combination of colors, are referred to as complimentary colors. Complimentary colors neutralize one another; that is, cancel each other out leaving a very light shade of gray. Since most blemishes are either red or blue the choice of neutralizer would be strait forward:  Green for red blemishes and orange for blue blemishes.

Ideally, you would apply the neutralizer only to the area that you want to conceal, prior to applying your foundation.  The neutralizer will cancel out the color you are trying to neutralize. If you use your neutralizer beyond the edges of the blemish you want to neutralize you will destroy the illusion you are trying to create as you will neutralize the color out of the area surrounding your blemish and in return draw more attention to your blemish. Once you have neutralized your blemish you can apply your foundation over the neutralizer to finish your base makeup.

Usually concealer formulas are different from foundation formulas, so you will need to make sure your two products are compatible.   Custom makeup kits such as By Jove’s Ultra Matrix 3000 foundation kit, allow you to blend not only your foundation but also any neutralizer you might need and since the formulas are the same, there is no issue with compatibility.  By Jove’s Custom cosmetic kit also comes in handy when your favorite shades of makeup and/or concealers are discontinued as it allows you to rematch your favorite shade precisely.  When using the By Jove Makeup kit, mixing one batch of makeup and/or concealer will usually make enough color to last for one to two weeks, which you can store in the containers you are supplied with your kit.

Technorati Tags: concealer, Custom Blend Cosmetics, custom blended cosmetics, custom cosmetics, custom makeup, discontinued, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, makeup, makeup kits, neutralizer

July 27th, 2010 | Tags: concealer, Custom Blend Cosmetics, custom blended cosmetics, custom cosmetics, custom makeup, discontinued, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, makeup, makeup kits, neutralizer | Category: Beauty, Cosmetics, Custom Blend Cosmetics, Custom Makeup Kits, Learn Makeup Artistry, be a makeup artist, custom blend foundation, custom blended cosmetics, custom blended makeup, custom color cosmetics, custom cosmetics, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, learn to make your own cosmetics, learn to make your own makeup | Leave a comment

There is no doubt that the term ‘mineral makeup’ makes us think of terms like “Pure”, “Natural” and “Chemical Free”. Just entering the search term Mineral Makeup on the Internet brings back pages of hits of companies selling their version of mineral makeup. If you take the time to read through the various claims you’ll see how one company claims their superiority over the others by using various action verbs and catch phrases, “ Pure minerals” is perhaps the most overused catch phrase.  The honest truth is that regardless of what companies claim, they are not using pure minerals to color their powders, they are using synthetic iron oxide pigments, synthetic ultramarine pigments, titanium dioxide and other synthetic pigments; just like every other cosmetic company has for decades.

In the United States, the pigments that are allowed for use in cosmetics are regulated by the FDA. Regulated you say?  Yes I know that there are many natural cosmetic websites and political lobby groups that claim how the cosmetic industry is unregulated, this is an untruth, but that lie will be discussed in other blogs.  The FDA offers a great deal of information and guidance to educate consumers and cosmetic companies in the regulations and laws that manufacturers must follow. Following the link “FDA Color Additives” will provide you with information about cosmetic colors and regulations.

Regarding natural mineral pigments the list of acceptable pigments can be found directly in 21CFR part 73 subpart C   and    21CFR part 74 subpart C (D&C and FD&C colors). If you research further you will find that the pigments that are used in mineral foundations are made synthetically. Other than being a marketing untruth through, there is no danger in using these colors. Reading through the different websites would make you think that using synthetic colors is evil, bad and every other mean nasty thing you can imagine; all it really is are companies marketing on fear in order to sell their products. 

To substantiate how one mineral makeup company is better than another, customers write in their testimonials how this makeup line makes me break out or how that foundation makes me break out and each company offers up how and why their product won’t cause this and why other products make this happen.  The various answers will make consumers and anyone with knowledge of ingredients bang their head in frustration.  Notwithstanding other lesser, possible causes, from my experience of ingredients and formulas, one of the biggest reasons for breakouts from mineral makeup and powders in general are micro abrasions.  Many of these products don’t use talc (for no reason other than they make unsubstantiated claims of how bad talc is) and in it’s place use mica. Mica in its most inexpensive form is a flat, jagged edged platelet, which tends to lay flat on the skin when applied; but also because it does have jagged edges, will tend to catch onto the pores of the skin when applied (especially if applied when the pores are open, such as when the skin is warm like right after a shower or a bath) and cause a micro abrasion.  Applying a lot of powder under this condition, repeatedly, can cause a number of abrasions, which over the course of the day and under repeated application could become angry and look as well as feel worse. Provided that the abrasion doesn’t infect, by suspending the use of your mineral makeup or powder for a few days will allow the abrasion to heal. 

I first observed these micro-abrasions many years ago when working on powders and observing how the repeated application of certain powders throughout the day to evaluate color would cause the skin on my arm to become scratched and angry. I realized it was the mica making these micro scratches into my skin that was causing the irritation.

Now this doesn’t mean that mica is bad, however what it does mean is that how mica is used in the formula and what type of mica is used will impact how it reacts on customers. For companies that make mineral makeup, many of them choose to make it with the cheapest ingredients (regardless of the marketing claims) because of this, the mica tends to be less refined, being a larger particle size and having sharper jagged edges. These powders will more than likely, given the right condition scratch the skin.  However, if a company wants to create a finer feeling formula they would use treated mica, which depending on the treatment would smooth out the jagged edge of the mica, making it unable to catch on the pores of the skin and create an abrasion.  Sometimes you can tell if a treated mica has been used by looking at the ingredient list of the product and seeing ingredients like methicone, lecithin or sodium myristoyl sarcosinate, If you’ve ever spent money for a more expensive product you’ve known the feel of the difference between a cheap product and a more expensive product.  The texture would be the difference between sand paper and a million little ball bearings rubbing against your skin.

Of course, aside from the micro abrasions that can occur when using powdered mineral makeup, the performance of the product could also be an issue since the powder is just that. Powder in and of itself tends to have poor skin adhesion and easily wears off, either from perspiring or the buildup of oils on the skin.  One way to increase the wear ability of powder is to increase the binders in it. Binders would usually be in the form of zinc stearate or an oil, this however, could aid in causing the skin to breakout as a result of the pores of the skin becoming blocked by the oils in the powder or by the oils of the skin bonding with the powder.

With so many mineral foundations being available on the market and given that so many companies are going out of business due to the economic downturn of the last few years, the amount of discontinued makeup products in the market have been on the rise. As it may be difficult to find your exact color of discontinued cosmetic again the most cost effective alternative would be to turn to custom makeup.  Custom cosmetics have become increasingly popular with the introduction of products such as By Jove Cosmetics – Ultra Matrix 3000 custom makeup kit.  This makeup kit which retails as low as $29.95 enables people to be able to custom blend any skin tone as well as create any shade of concealer.  The high quality ingredients used to create By Jove’s makeup will allow you to experience the difference between inexpensive formulas and a high-end luxury.  By Jove cosmetics will be expanding their line of custom blend cosmetic products with the addition of a custom blush kit by late summer 2010.

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June 29th, 2010 | Tags: Custom Blend Cosmetics, custom cosmetics, custom makeup, Custom Makeup Kits, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, makeup kits, mineral makeup | Category: Beauty, Cosmetics, Custom Blend Cosmetics, Custom Makeup Kits, custom blend foundation, custom blended cosmetics, custom blended makeup, custom color cosmetics, custom cosmetics, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, learn to make your own cosmetics, learn to make your own makeup | Leave a comment

Trying to find the right color of foundation, eye shadow, blush or lipstick has always been a challenge for us consumers. Sometimes we need a color for only one occasion or we may find a color that we love, only to have it discontinued.

Many times when confronted by the challenge of discontinued makeup we try our best to save what little makeup we have left, but ultimately we give up and try to find something new.

When you first discover that your favorite shade of makeup has been discontinued, you should try to find your color directly with the manufacturer.

Call the cosmetic company directly and ask their customer-service department about leftover inventory, or if they changed the colors name or better yet if they have a comparable substitute.

For reference here are a few of the main numbers for some of the larger companies:

Estee Lauder- 1-877-311-3883

Maybelline – 1-800-944-0730 

L’Oreal – 1-800-322-2036 

Lancome – 1-800-526-2663  

Revlon  -  1-800-473-8566

Cover Girl -   1-800-426-8374

When you’ve exhausted searching for your color direct with the manufacturers and if you don’t achieve your desired results, you can turn to custom blended cosmetics.

Custom blending was made popular by companies such as Prescriptives cosmetics which offered to give customers a new level in custom makeup. Prescriptives has since closed their counter service in January 2010. This has left many customers who became accustomed to custom blend cosmetics searching for companies to replace Prescriptives.  A web search for custom blend cosmetics will bring up many companies and websites that offer information and services related to custom blending cosmetics. Beware though, there are some companies that offer custom makeup and advertise custom makeup when all they really offer are pre-blended makeup in a variety of colors. For customers who have a hard time finding the right shade of makeup, this can lead to an ongoing and costly exercise of trial and error. For customers who fall outside of the usual color blends (which is really most of us) we have little option but to find real custom blended makeup. True custom blending can easily cost upwards of $60-$100 per item.

Getting custom blended makeup can be a very expensive alternative to just accepting what the cosmetic companies offer us, but a web search for learn to make your own cosmetics will show that many people are looking for a more cost effective alternative.

The cost effective alternative for custom blending has come in the creation of at-home Custom makeup kits. Companies like By Jove Cosmetics offer affordable makeup kits that let customers blend foundations, highlights, neutralizers and shaders. By Jove will be introducing a custom eye shadow kit at some point in 2010, and completing their initial line with a custom blush kit and custom lipstick kit through 2011-2012. A web search for custom foundation kits or custom blending kits will list a number of helpful websites that are now available to us consumers.

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May 21st, 2010 | Tags: Custom Blend Cosmetics, custom blending, custom blush, custom eye shadow, custom foundation kits, custom lipstick, Custom Makeup Kits, discontinued makeup, learn to make your own cosmetics, makeup kits | Category: Beauty, Cosmetics, Custom Blend Cosmetics, Custom Makeup Kits, be a makeup artist, custom blend foundation, custom blended cosmetics, custom blended makeup, custom color cosmetics, custom cosmetics, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, learn to make your own cosmetics, learn to make your own makeup | Comments (5)

By: D. Swanick

As I’ve worked in the cosmetics industry I’ve had the opportunity to work with makeup artists, makeup schools and professional makeup companies; living in Hollywood, California for the last 10 years has increased my exposure to those various companies. Throughout that time I’ve also had the opportunity to learn how to apply the makeup that I’ve been creating for years and even learn some of the fun aspects of makeup artistry including working with latex and silicone FX makeup.  I’ve been fortunate in that all the additional knowledge I’ve acquired has been a result of work that I’ve done with these companies. Many of the students I’ve met, haven’t been as fortunate in that they’ve had to pay full price (sometimes upwards of $30,000) for the same knowledge. At the end of their studies they are generally given the opportunity to venture out and apply their new trade for free, maybe if they’re lucky than can get a kit fee (usually around $45) for a day’s worth of work. I’ve heard the term “paying their dues” applied to this over the years, of course the people saying this were the same ones charging the 30 thousand dollars. I for one have always felt like the new makeup artists are being taken advantage of, perhaps it has more to do with my inner capitalist screaming at the thought of a person giving away their time. The old adage “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free” comes to mind:  When you start down the path of giving your services or product away for free, it is incredibly difficult to ever break that cycle. Whereas it may take a little longer for you to be a makeup artist when you charge for your skills, I believe that when we earn payment for our work we carry our heads a little higher and the have more pride in our work in the end gain greater respect from our customers.

      That being said, I want to share with you some of the things that I’ve learned that can help you save a lot of money if your interested in learning more about makeup artistry.

A while back I listened to an interview that Denis Leary gave with regards to becoming a filmmaker, his advice was,” If you want to be a filmmaker, take the money you were going to spend on film school, go out, buy a camera and make your movie.”  Similar advice can be given for makeup artistry. 

With the filmmaking technology ever changing, and with all the needed skills required to be an expert shade matcher and makeup artist, it could seem overwhelming to start pursuing your makeup dreams without having to spend 10’s of thousands of dollars in instruction.  However if you have no experience in professional makeup artistry, perhaps one of the best books on the market for self-instruction has to be Richard Corson’s “Stage Makeup”. Available at Amazon.com, the current edition costs over $100.00 but you can still find the very informative 8^th edition for under $60 dollars.

This instructional book provides a wealth of technical knowledge of how to manipulate light and color to achieve effects. These lessons can be applied not only to stage and effects makeup but also to all makeup applications. You will also find that many of the lessons being taught by Richard Corson, are the same lessons being taught in the makeup schools for thousand of dollars.

Having access to the knowledge is only part of the equation for being a makeup artist.  Another, potentially more expensive part is building your makeup kit. A makeup artist can very quickly spend thousands of dollars to build their kit and when you consider that most cosmetics have a maximum shelf life of 3 years (many have an even shorter shelf life and natural makeup has as little as a 90 day shelf life past the date of opening) it is very easy to spend a great deal of money on makeup over a short period of time.  When you also look at just the base make ups (foundation & correctives (neutralizers, shaders and highlights)) it is not out of the realm of possibility that you will buy upwards of 25 to 30 different shades of makeup, given the need to have to blend for lighter skinned and ethnic makeup, even though makeup artists will generally custom blend makeup by combining the numerous shades they have in their kit, they will still need to buy many shades in order to be able to create the many different types of skin tones they may encounter on the set. Given that many professional foundation brands may cost upwards of $15 to $20 per ½ oz. of makeup, you can very quickly spend up to $600 just for foundation. If you consider the frustration of discontinued makeup and other discontinued cosmetics, the benefit of being able to make your own makeup becomes apparent.  Being able to make truly custom makeup has been a desire of professional makeup artists as long as there has been the need for different colors. By custom blending your own colors you have the ability to carry less base materials and spend considerably less money to achieve the same, if not better end results.  Whereas you might spend upwards of $600 dollars for 25 to 30 individual makeup bases by purchasing a custom blending kit such as the Ultra Matrix 3000 custom foundation kit by By Jove Cosmetics, you could spend as little as $30 for their starter kit which would let you blend up to about 2 oz. of foundation and/or correctives. With the refill bases for By Jove costing as little as $10.50 an oz. in their discount program, both aspiring and professional makeup artists alike can see substantial savings in their makeup kits as well as the need to carry considerably less materials.

As companies like By Jove Cosmetics continue to expand their custom blending kits to include Blush, Eye shadow and Lip colors, any color in the rainbow will be achievable by everyone who can see color.

With free access to the internet being what it is, there is such a wealth of knowledge and networking access (via Facebook, Twitter and Myspace) that is available today that anyone who desires to be a professional makeup artist can do so from virtually anywhere in the world and you should not feel like you have to go to Hollywood or New York and spend tens of thousands of dollars to get your start.

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May 6th, 2010 | Tags: be a makeup artist, be a professional makeup artist, Become a makeup artist, custom blend makeup, custom makeup, discontinued cosmetics, discontinued makeup, ethnic makeup, make your own makeup, professional foundation | Category: Beauty, Cosmetics, Custom Blend Cosmetics, Custom Makeup Kits, Learn Makeup Artistry, be a makeup artist, custom blend foundation, custom blended cosmetics, custom blended makeup, custom color cosmetics, custom cosmetics, discontinued makeup | Comments (6)

(Published with permission from D. Swanick)

I’ve worked in the cosmetics industry since 1987 working for many cosmetic companies on hundreds of products. My specialty is with color cosmetics and as such I’ve had the opportunity to not only become an expert eye in creating new colors, but I’ve also learned how and why colors look differently on different people.  Anyone with a skin tone darker than dark Caucasian knows how hard it is to find a foundation that doesn’t make you look ‘ashy’. Even people who wear the standard light, medium and dark shades sometimes deal with the dreaded ‘orange mask’. We’ve become so accustomed as consumers to accept what is given to us, that we never really learn, why things are the way they are and that we don’t have to accept what we don’t want.

Over the years I’ve listened to a lot of different pitches describing why makeup makes some people look ashy and others look like oompa loompa’s, but no one has really gotten it right.  The truth is that few companies develop and manufacture their own products and many companies rely on contract manufacturers to develop and produce their products, that being the case, almost all foundations are developed using the following colors, iron oxide(s), red, yellow, black and titanium dioxide. I’m sure some companies will read this and say, oh no, we use umber or brown, when in reality, umber and brown are made with iron oxide red, yellow and black. The iron oxides are very earthy colors, being more variations of muted, muddy browns than actually red and yellow.  The brown nature of iron oxides lends themselves to the basic beige that most skin tones look like and by using titanium dioxide (white) to control the opacity or reflectance of the color, we can generally mimic the lightness and darkness of skin colors.

The problem arises because even though the used colors sort of look like the color of skin, they aren’t.  True skin tones are a combination of opacity/reflectance (white) and red, yellow and blue: Black, if used at all is strictly used to control tone. Since almost all of the foundations on the market use iron oxides and no blue, to get a darker color the white is reduced and the black is increased and that is where the ashy-ness comes from; not from white but from black, because black, not being a color that really makes up skin color will make skin appear ashy when used. Likewise with lighter colors, since blue is not used in most foundations, if you are not lucky enough to fit into the exact color that you are wearing, you will tend to get a yellow or orange cast to your foundation.

The reason companies use iron oxides and white is because blue is a difficult color to work with in foundations.  The use of this pigment costs more and requires skill on the part of the formulators and manufacturers.  The use of purple or green in foundations also requires skill in formulating/manufacturing and drives up the cost so companies generally use the pigments they are used to using and hope that the consumers will just accept a product that doesn’t really work for them.

Another trick companies use, is to create very shear makeup formulas and claim that the colors will match up to 90 or 95% of their users. This method shows itself every few years and people will flock to try the new product, only to sadly discover that the color matches their skin color “sort of”, because the makeup is so transparent, most of their skin color shows through as does the color variations they are trying to equalize with the foundation in the first place. The cycle of trying to find the right product can be maddening. But solutions are beginning to become available.

When I worked on a reformulation of Bare Minerals in the late 90’s I began to incorporate some of the lessons I learned about skin color from prior companies I worked for such as Revlon, Max Factor and Cover Girl; into the new shades, and the success of that brand over the last decade has shown that my ideas did help to make a difference in the quality of choice that consumers have available to them. More recently I was given the complete freedom to create a formula for By Jove Cosmetics, which completely incorporated my ideas of skin colors based on the red, yellow, blue principles of color matching and the result was By Jove’s TRU2U foundation and especially their Ultra Matrix 3000 custom foundation kits.  For consumers looking for true color matches companies like By Jove will ultimately provide for them what so many mass market companies have been unable to.

 When you search for a foundation, never feel rushed in your decision. Try the shade on your hand using a tester at the store and if you can’t find a sample there, request one from the brands website, usually samples are available from manufacturers for a minimal cost (usually shipping & handling).  When you look at the color try to do so in natural light. Store fluorescent lights tend to cast blue tones and will make a makeup look better on your skin than it really does; that’s why so often a color looks great in the store and looks off when you wear it later.

When you find a color that works for you and that product is discontinued try to save a portion of the discontinued makeup you have and research companies that do custom blending.  With a specific shade name or better yet a portion of your foundation, any capable color chemist will be able to match your shade perfectly, a search on the Internet for blend your own discontinued makeup will yield results for a number of companies. Typical custom blending usually costs between $45.00 to $75.00 per ounce of makeup and the By Jove Cosmetics foundation kits start at $29.95 for enough materials to produce up to 2 ounces of finished makeup.

Technorati Tags: ashy, color cosmetics, custom blended foundation, custom blended makeup, custom blending, custom foundation kits, discontinued makeup, foundation, makeup, orange mask, shear makeup

March 30th, 2010 | Tags: ashy, color cosmetics, custom blended foundation, custom blended makeup, custom blending, custom foundation kits, discontinued makeup, foundation, makeup, orange mask, shear makeup | Category: Beauty, Cosmetics, Custom Blend Cosmetics, Custom Makeup Kits, custom blend foundation, custom blended cosmetics, custom blended makeup, custom color cosmetics, custom cosmetics, discontinued makeup | Comments (20)