The Conservatorie's pressed mineral foundations

I have been eyeing these for quite some time now - always wanted to swatch them and compare to the loose mineral powders The Conservatorie has in it's inventory.  But I'd never have the cash to buy them all at full price just for swatching. The problem with buying cosmetics online is the risk the color might not suite at all and at almost 10 USD a piece it would not be a cheap experiment. These five here were sent to me by The Conservatorie so I could swatch and play with them. They have quite a big range on their homepage, totaling 24 shades altogether. I carefully picked the 5 lightest, afraid they'd all be too dark for me as it has been the case with The Conservatorie's loose mineral powders. To my utter surprise all of them are wearable - Nude seems a bit dark but even that one looks ok on my summer skin. I am quite happy.

I have to compliment The Conservatorie on the ingredients list - not bad at all (as befitting a MMU wholesaler no synthetic dyes, fragrances, preservatives etc):

Mica, Zinc Stearate, Zinc Oxide, Squalane, Fractioned Coconut oil, Lauryl Lysine, Allantoin, DL-alpha -tocopherol acetate, Grapefruit (Citrus racemosa) Extract , Origanum vulgare leaf extract, thymus vulgaris (thyme) extract, cinnamomum zeylancum bark extract, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, lavandula angustifolia (lavender) flower extract, hydrastis canadensis (golden seal) root extract May Contain ( /-) Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Chromium Oxide Greens, Ultramarines.

The amount of all the extracts here explain why the powder has a noticeable herbal smell when the package is first opened. By now it has faded but I quite liked the original scent. I would recommend this to most people but would advise persons with allergy prone or extremely sensitive skin to be careful - there are many ingredients here and should there be a reaction, it will be quite difficult to pinpoint the culprit. I think for MMU-novices with sensitive skin the loose version would be the safer bet.

The colors chosen were Porcelain (neutral, lightest of them all), Fairly Light (slightly darker, tad orangey), Fair (pinkish fair tone), Ivory (seems quite strong yellow) and Nude (darkest of the five, neutral). In the lower left corner is another testeé - The Conservatorie eye primer but that one deserves a separate post. 

I  asked The Conservatorie for product samples (just the pressed pans) because I do not need the cases - usually these powders come in quite solid looking black compacts.

Product is pressed in a standard 58mm pan and most of them seem to be tin (only Ivory was pressed into an aluminium pan) - which is wonderful news to all Z-palette owners out there. I think The Conservatorie would do well if they'd offer the pans as refills: many of us would prefer to buy the product cheaper (without the compact) and travel with one palette rather then several tiny containers. One StarsMakeupHaven large Z-palette can take 8 pressed powder pans - I imagine many a makeup artist's eyes would probably light up seeing this option.

Now to the product itself. Pressed mineral powders do not agree with me - I have very oily skin, personally I prefer the loose version because it handles the greasiness much better. When pressing mineral foundation a binder is needed - usually some kind of an oil - here it's squalane and fractioned coconut oil. Since the product contains oil and my face also produces a lot of oil it's no wonder my makeup will start to run by mid-day (it was the same with Everyday Minerals pressed foundations). But on the other hand it's godsend for people with dry skin, for whom the loose versions might be much too drying. Coverage is medium but can be upped with some primer.

With the exception of Nude (which does not want to rub off for some reason, I've actually scratched it to get the powder out of the pan) all the pressed powders are very creamy and one should use light hand when loading the brush.They are not completely matte nor are they shiny - they have a slight sheen but it's not exactly noticeable. They were a devil to swatch so I finally gave up and used them over primer:

Horizontal stripes above are the loose mineral foundations in Barely Beige, Barely Beige matte, Barely Golden and Barely Golden matte - the lightest loose mineral powders The Conservatorie offers. Barely Beige is a bit too pink for my liking but of the loose ones it's the only one I can get away with during winter. I'd very much like The Conservatorie to offer a loose mineral foundation in fair neutral olive tone as well (hint, hint). Porcelain seems actually pretty close to the desired shade but since it's pressed I'll have to wait a decade or two for my skin to stop producing so much oil.

Sain testimiseks The Conservatorie pressitud mineraalpuudreid - siin nende kohta ka arvustus. Sobivad kuivemapoolsele nahale ning lõpuks ometi on olemas ka heledaid toone! Hind on minu meelest ok, 10 USD pole paha ja lisaks leidub teisigi asju, mida ostukorvi panna, et tellimise miinimummaksumus kokku saada - nagu alati, oleks sealt tellides mõistlik koopereeruda ja pakk maksude vältimiseks nt hoopis Soome tellida.