New Brows

You've got to love a good set of eyebrows.  I used to abuse mine terribly by plucking them into a single line of hairs, but I saw the error of my ways.  Here's some pictures from the bad old days!

Eyebrow Assassin

Somehow the eyebrows AREN'T the worst thing about this pic!

Moving along swiftly! 

My point being that eyebrows are a good idea. I'm certainly not for going totally natural and giving up the tweezers altogether, but a fuller shape really is essential. It's taken a long time to get to where I am now as those little hairs didn't trust me enough to grow back to soon. But now I even like to fill them in and for a long time (since I was blonde) I've used Lingering by MAC. It's a very subtle shade, it didn't scare me the way the deeper colours did. So I went back to my natural brunette hair and didn't have the guts to go for a deeper brow colour. I still feared the brow. 

Brows filled in with MAC eyebrow crayon in Lingering and Omega eyeshadow

But not any more! In my crusade to clean up my make-up bag, I approached the lovely Glaswegian ladies at the Bare Escentuals counter in House of Fraser in Glasgow (Hello!).  I asked if they had something for my eyebrows and specified that it needed to be nice and ashy-toned. I really hate my eyebrows looking too red. They had just the thing. Brow colour in Brunette! See the difference below. 

I'm really chuffed with the colour. It's a darker shade than I'd have chosen of my own volition, but I'm really pleased that I went for it. I'm looking forward to using this with a more done look. 

So, how are the green credentials? I went for BareMinerals by Bare Escentuals for two reasons. One, they are a mineral make-up company and I assumed that they'd be "cleaner" than the other brands in the department store. Two, my beloved Lily Lolo don't seem to make a shade that's both dark and cool enough. I went out with Mudpie on a few weeks ago and my partner was like, "Nice orange eyebrows?!?!?!" Fail. 

But how green and clean is my new eyebrow makeup? I couldn't find the ingredients on the UK site, but the American site had what seems to be the same product under a different name. The ingredients there were as follows; Bismuth Oxychloride, Mica, Iron Oxides. So, no preservatives, binders nor fillers but Bismuth Oxychloride. If you do some reading around the internet, Bismuth Oxychloride has a wee bit of negative press. Should I be concerned?

A Google search threw up lots of information, some conflicting. The bottom line seems to be as follows.  The compound can cause itching for some sensitive skins when used in cosmetics due to the shape of the molecule (it's crystalline).  It is also a large molecule and tends to slide off the skin, this is why you are encouraged to really buff foundations containing the compound into the skin. Some people have found that this prolonged buffing with a kabuki (particularly a poor quality one, I'd imagine) can irritate facial skin. There is no association with cancer, or bio-accumulation (build up within tissues in your body).  I have not been able to find any information about environmental effects of the use of this compound.  You can read some information on Bismuth Oxychloride here, here and here. I am also waiting for delivery of some green cosmetic resource books so I can add some more info later. 

My conclusion is that I am happy with the ingredients in the BareMinerals Brow colour. I may be warier of using a mineral foundation which contains the Bismuth compound in case it's scratchy, but I'd try cautiously. But as I'm not buffing on my eyebrow product, I don't think I should have a problem. I've now been wearing it for about 5 hours and it hasn't budged. 

Thanks again to the girls on the Bare Escentuals counter in Glasgow for the good chat, help with my purchase and free foundation samples that I will review shortly! Your friendly service really made an impression.