Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Mae Minerals swatches + mini review

So a while back, I won a giveaway for 10 sample pigments from Mae Minerals. I won them on 8/8/11. On 9/14/11, I e-mailed the company because I had not heard anything or received anything. They e-mailed back within 2 days (acceptable!) and my response was that they had a ton of giveaways at once and were waiting to get everyone's choices, but they put my sample pack together right away and were mailing it out. They also offered their apologies. Kudos for the quick response, apology, and getting the correct samples quickly afterwards. I will say I sorta felt forgotten about, though. On with the swatches! (I swatched 8/10 colors, because I gave 2 away)



 The samples came in baggies, labeled with company information, pigment name, ingredients, net weight (.5g), and if it is not for use on lips they put that on there in red print. Nice size samples, and great labeling! Like it!

The samples came with a cute little blush brush as a freebie. I think it is actually somewhat useable (most freebie brushes I have come to acquire are not).

The colors are very pretty. Almost Aquamarine is a freakin' glitter bomb and you definitely should use some sort of sticky base.

Would I order from Mae? Surprisingly, as much as I liked what I received, I'm not going to place an order. While I am incredibly grateful for my giveaway winnings (yay pretty free sparklies!), I have read enough reviews to believe that Mae Minerals does repack TKB micas and at least some of their eyeshadow shades are probably not custom blended colors. I don't know this for a fact, I have never purchased from TKB to compare products, but it has gone around the beauty blogging community, and I have seen the info on a couple blogs that I would trust with my life. Well, maybe not my life, but I would totally trust them with my makeup bag. I just prefer to spend money on complex and custom blended colors that I couldn't get anywhere else.

Have you tried Mae Minerals? What do you think?

EDIT: I received a response both on this post and on my Facebook page from the owner(?) of Mae Minerals. Part of it went like this:

"We do not repack any minerals. While some of our shades may be similar to another MMU line, that does not mean we are a repacker. Most mineral makeup formulators can duplicate a shade (and I receive quite a few requests to do so), the difference will be in how it feels, how long it lasts, etc."

If I didn't mention before, the shades do wear fantastically. My only concern was for straight up repacking, not for the quality of products.

To be fair, and because as I stated I don't personally know all the facts, I wanted to edit this in. I'm actually pleasantly surprised at the company's kind and professional response.

Mini disclaimer: I was NOT asked to remove the review, change anything, or put in an edit with this information. I did so of my own accord because I think both sides should be heard.

I think I probably would order from Mae Minerals at this point, regardless of what I have read from other sources.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for your review and your swatches are great!

    I have to say, I'm a little saddened that you liked the products, but will not consider being a customer because of something you read. I know the blog you are referring to (there are two versions as the author changed the name of the blog. I replied to one of them) and that person has not tried the products. She based her opinion about repacking on a picture I took.

    We do not repack any minerals. While some of our shades may be similar to another MMU line, that does not mean we are a repacker. Most mineral makeup formulators can duplicate a shade (and I receive quite a few requests to do so), the difference will be in how it feels, how long it lasts, etc.

    Again, I want to thank you for your review. I appreciate all reviews, even if I don't agree with them. :)

    Rachel

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  2. Rachel, thank you for your response! I must say, this does make me take a step back and reconsider what I've heard and read. It is definitely nice to hear both sides of the story. Would you mind if I edited my review with your response? I really like to hear both sides of the story and would like my readers to base their decisions on both sides, not solely on what I have heard/think.

    It's hard to make a decision when bloggers you do trust are saying one thing, and the owner is saying another, but your response does make me reconsider.

    Thank you for being so level headed in your response, and even kind. I think it says a lot about a MMU company who handles a review like this.

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  3. Hi Nikki,

    Thank you so much. I have no problems if you edit your review.

    I hesitated in replying because when I replied to the other blog, I was very put off by the response I received from the author.

    I have to say I am very appreciative of your professionalism and courtesy.

    Thanks again,
    Rachel

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  4. Repacked or not I think they are pretty and shimmery, and they make me smile.

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