Sparkled Beauty

I was fortunate to participate in the Beauty Blogger Sampling program offered by Buff'd Cosmetics. I'm quite late for this review, so let's get right to it.

Buff'd is a Canadian company that offers a full mineral makeup line from foundations, finishing powders to eyeshadows, lipsticks, and more. I have seen Buff'd foundations became favorites of quite a number of beauty bloggers. So it's certainly a pleasure being able to test out their products and do a review on this blog.

I received a 10-piece sample pack with 2 foundations, a finishing powder, an illuminating dust, a bronzer, 2 blushes, 2 eyeshadows and a liner. The colours were selected based on my skin tone and eye colours, so I was very excited to test them out.

First, the famous mineral foundation. There are 3 different formulas available at Buff'd:
- Original: full-coverage with ability of oil absorption and natural UV protection of mineral makeup
- Light: lightweight, buildable coverage and great oil absorption
- Concealing: best coverage, with a touch of kaolin clay that enables higher ability to absort oil. Good as a spot concealer as well.

I wanted the Concealing formula as it provides exactly what I need, and got Buff (a medium shade with subtle yellow undertones) and Saffron (heavier yellow undertones than Buff). I wouldn't do swatches of these, as you wouldn't be able to see them when they are a match to my skin tone. I didn't notice much difference between them, and can used them alternatively. Application is smooth, great oil absorption. Good stuff!

The Finishing powder I got was in Sundance, a light golden yellow, nice touch after foundation. And the Illuminating dust in Candlelight, supposed to provide a soft golden glow, is good for highlighting for a date night.

Now into the colours, in the order from L-R. First picture is with flash to show you the shimmers.

- Mineral bronzer in Toast (medium light). I love how this colour shows up on my skin, warm, bronzy, like a touch of the sun on my face. Lookie, I'm glowing, lol.

- The blushes, oh I love them! Quite intense, a little goes a long way. Bouquet is described as a light rosy pink with shimmer, and Thrift, a soft bronzed pink.

As they have some shimmers, I wouldn't use them for work, but they are fantastic on a casual Friday or weekend. I'm normally not big in blushes but really love these 2 shades on me.

- For the shadows, I was sent Scribe - a wash colour of baby blue/ silver, and Denim - a cool medium blue with silver shimmer. They are a good pair to compliment each other. Imagine a smoky blue eye look right about now :-)

- Lastly, the mineral eyeliner in Nova, a midnight slate blue with silver blue shimmer. I love the fact that it wasn't black, as I want myself something different. I use the brush wet, and the colour appears very nicely on the lid. I really need to broaden my liner horizon from black!

This picture above is with natural light, to show the colour a bit better.

So, in short, I love all the shades that were sent to me. They are spot on, like a match made in heaven for myself, and very easy to work with, especially for newbies like me. The pigmentation and colour pay off are great. I could see myself reaching for these many times, until the piggies are finished. Next step then would be full size hauling :-)

Note: As mentioned above, these samples were sent to me for review. This is my honest opinion about them. No other compensation was promised or received.

Hope you have a good Monday to start the week! And Canadians, don't forget to enter my The Body Shop Originals giveaway.