Everyone deserves a second chance, right?

I tried Bare Escentuals a few years ago when I first heard about mineral makeup. I liked it, but the girl at the store who "helped" me match the foundation to my skin color did a terrible job, and I ended up buying a foundation that was probably two shades too dark--which meant I could only use it in the summertime, when I didn't wear much makeup anyway. Then, the kabuki brush I'd bought to apply the makeup fell apart. I wasn't exactly a fan of mineral makeup, and I finally tossed that original foundation after it sat in my makeup bag for a year without being touched.

Fast-forward to 2008, and I'm giving it a second chance. A few months ago I interviewed Leslie Blodgett, the company's CEO, and she was amazing. Plus, her skin (and her PR manager's skin) looked incredible. Then, my boss started using Bare Escentuals, and while I've always thought she had great skin (she takes good care of it), she was raving about the makeup and had made some serious investments in it. As editors of a women's magazine, we get sent makeup samples all the time, and we're rarely loyal to one brand, so for my boss to be using almost exclusively one line of makeup is kind of a big deal. (Kelly was especially coveting this kit with the special brush.)

This weekend, I decided to give Bare Escentuals another shot--I went out and bought the Getting Started kit (available here on the BE web site with a few extras for $75; the kit I bought was $60 at Sephora). The kit came with a DVD for application tips, which I watched yesterday for a little refresher on the swirl-tap-buff method of mineral makeup applications.


Today is Day No. 1 with my new makeup, and aside from going a little overboard with my application of the warmth all-over face color, I was surprisingly pleased with the results. The brushes seem to be of much higher quality than the one I bought a few years back. I even went without the one product I never, ever leave the house without (because it's not a true test-drive if I don't at least try BE as a concealer)--my Alison Raffaele concealer (which I still highly recommend).

I'll be continuing my test drive of my new Bare Escentuals products for the next few months, and I'll keep you posted on whether I can tell that my skin is healing (I battle adult acne and usually lose). I'm not quite ready to invest further in Bare Escentuals, but I must say, the overnight Rare Minerals skin revival treatment has me curious.