Getting started
I started making my own mineral makeup about 4 years ago. I couldn’t afford what was available at the time and the certainly wasn’t any at Wal-Mart although I wouldn’t trust it anyway because they may add all kinds of crap to it so it is only a percentage of minerals. When you make your own you get to control what goes in it. Some companies use Bismuth ox chloride which many people have an allergic reaction to. It has a lovely pearl shine it it and I order a little bit a couple years back just to se if it bothered my skin or not and I am ok with it. If I post a recipe that calls for it though you can leave it out.
I use metric measuring spoons which are not so easy to find here in the U.S. But they are the easiest way to be consistent and also make it really simple if you want to make a bigger batch of the same color. I ordered a couple of sets from the learning tree and the set has spoons for 1 ml, 2 ml, 5 ml, 10 ml, and 25 ml. Apparently they don’t have them any more. Some sets have metric lines on regular spoons but that would not be handy at all. I found this set but they say grams when it should be ml and the 2 size is 2.5
http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/product/metric-measuring-spoon-set?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base
Ahh here we go I found a site Basic Science Supplies with a price of 1.60 for the set.
I also use a simple coffee bean grinder. There have been a few times trying to get the prefect shade of foundation that I found it too small, or more to the point I started with too much of each ingredient.
There is debate about using the nano size particles (micronized) and where in the body they can end up and if the body can get rid of them. They offer the most sheer coverage but I would stay away from them. Be aware that TBK mixes the natural mineral colors below with other cosmetic colorants that are not minerals in the same section of their site.
Basics colors
I got different colors from the companies below based on who was the cheapest for that color, or in a couple cases I got brown from more than one supplier because they had different shades of brown. All the companies now have lots of color blends made up for you but it is not always clear what is in them, with the exception of essential wholesale they list all ingredients. Some colors cannot be used on lips and all that information is stated when buying the colors.
I’ll be putting some recipes under recipe & cosmetic in the categories of the blog.
Titanium Dioxide (white flat)
Sericite Mica (white flat, smooth silky)
Iron Oxides:
Black
Browns; light , medium, dark
Orange, Red
Yellow – plus I see TKB has an ochre color now that I don’t have.
Ultramarine:
pink, violet & blue
The Conservatorie has two versions of the violet blue violet and red violet
Ferric Ferrocyanide
AKA Prussian Blue (blue)
Greens:
Chromium Oxide Green (mid color green)
Hydrated Chromium Oxide Green (teal)
Maganese Violet
Carmine (deep pink)
Carmine is an animal product made from a beetle so a vegan would likely not want to use this color
From Essential Wholesale
http://www.essentialwholesale.com
Aloe Vera Powder
Allantoin
Kaolin Clay
FromTKB Trading
http://www.tkbtrading.com/
Z-cote Zinc oxide (white flat)
Velvet Mica with some titanium dioxide (white sparkly)
Peal Powder (white)
Silk Powder (white)
Carmine (pink)
TKB now has a wide selection of colored clays if you wanted to mess around getting the right color into a foundation for oily skin.
From The Conservatorie
http://www.theconservatorie.com/
Boron Nitrate- Three Kinds; Boron Coverage, Boron Veil, Boron Glow (white)
Magnesium Myristate (white)
Bismuth Oxychloride (White pearl)
Tatiacha Bhodsvatan 