::Review:: True Cosmetics Mineral Foundation Compact
EDS Skin Care Forums Forum Index » Products Reviews Forum

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:27 am

Click here to view EDS Product Description: http://www.essentialdayspa.com/true-cosmetics-mineral-fo-p_4335.htm

Alright, my first foray into mineral makeup was with Bare Escentuals about five years ago, and I couldn’t believe how fantastic it made my skin look and swore then and there that I would never go back to using ‘traditional’ foundation. I used my BE Medium #3 loose powder foundation for nearly 4 years and, although I didn’t really care for the “pearly” finish it gave my skin, it still looked a trillion times better than any foundation product that I had ever used before and I figured that all mineral makeups were the same so never bothered to investigate any of the other brands that appeared to be springing up left and right, all over the place.

It was only after reading dozens of raves and “testimonials” from other EDS members that I started thinking about trying a new mineral makeup brand, and even then it was nearly a year before I worked up enough courage to try something different. Finally, I discovered that I could order samples of Jane Iredale products fromwww.skin-etc.com and I decided to take the plunge. I bought “Warm Silk” and “Amber” in the JI pressed powder formulation and couldn’t believe how fabulous my skin looked with this truly MATTE finish.

I’d been so delighted with my JI pressed foundation that I hadn’t any thoughts of trying anything new, despite the tempting reviews for MariaV and all the other resident MMU mavens here on the forum. My basic philosophy was, “if it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it!” The JI pressed powder foundation seemingly gave me everything I was looking for in a mineral makeup, so it wasn’t until I read several raves here on the forum regarding the new True mineral makeup line that I started wondering if I ought to bite the bullet and try it out. Even then, I probably wouldn’t have taken the plunge if I had not won another EDS voucher last month, as I was having a hard time getting info on the shade conversions for True cosmetics and I wasn’t keen on the possibility of actually buying the wrong shade and not being able to return it.

For reference, I can use JI pressed powder in “Warm Silk” and/or “Amber” almost interchangably and Red Head was able to share with me the info that “Medium #2" from True cosmetics would be the correct shade for me, so I swallowed my apprehension and went ahead and ordered True pressed foundation in Medium #2, along with various other goodies that I’d been eye-balling from EDS.

My order arrived last Friday and when I opened the box and sifted through my new goodies, along with nearly a dozen samples (!) to try, I decided that I absolutely HAD to try out my new True pressed foundation right then and there. For the sake of comparison, I decided to apply my regular JI “Amber” pressed powder on one side of my face and use the new stuff on the other.

So after ‘putting on my face’ and waiting ten minutes for it to “meld” with my skin, I took a mirror and went outside to see how I looked under direct sunlight. Imagination my astonishment to discover that the side of my face on which I had applied the True foundation looked completely flawless, like I wasn’t wearing any makeup whatsoever, while the JI side looked a little cakey right around my nose. I had never noticed this before, so it must not have been a truly obvious flaw, but in comparison to the True pressed foundation, it was blatently obvious that the JI pressed powder foundation was a lot “heavier” on my skin....

I don’t know if I am explaining this correctly, because I think it’s sounding like I think that JI pressed powder isn’t a good product and that it totally not the case! If I had never tried the True foundation, I would have quite happily continued using the JI pressed powder because it worked 100 times better for me than did my old BE loose minerals foundation, which was 100 times better than the old ‘traditional’ foundation makeups that I used to wear. But now I can see that the True pressed powder makes my face look 100 times better than it did using the JI pressed powder – does that make any sense? It’s like each one of these was a vast improvement over what I had been using previously.

With the True pressed powder foundation, I don’t have to spend as much time “buffing” the minerals into my skin in order to obtain that “flawless” complexion. It doesn’t seem to settle or cake around my pores and it covers up my ‘problem’ areas without looking like I’ve slathered on a layer of goo in an effort to disguise them (thereby emphasizing the bad stuff even more than if I had opted to go bare-faced!), and I can use a smaller brush to apply the same shade of True minerals as a concealer rather than needing to buy a separate shade for this task.

I have also found that the True foundation has decent “wear,” meaning that it stays on my face – looking good – for at least 8 hours and I don’t need to touch up at all and my face doesn’t look like the makeup has melted halfway off mid-way during the day.

As I said in the beginning, I’ve only been using my new True pressed foundation since Friday but so far I’m giving it a big thumbs up! Next, I think I may have to check out their lip shine products.... http://www.truecosmetics.com/site/kindness.asp Razz

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:41 am

Ouch, now I HAVE to try this. Embarassed

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:45 am

Is there a color comparison chart of some sort somewhere? I find the color swatches at EDS somewhat confusing.

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:48 am

No, unfortunately not. Crying or Very sad

You might want to have a look here to see if there's any info that can help: http://www.essentialdayspa.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=11295&highlight=cosmetics

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:07 am

Would you say that the colors are forgiving, i.e could you get away with a less-than-perfect match?

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:20 am

Sharkbait wrote:

Would you say that the colors are forgiving, i.e could you get away with a less-than-perfect match?

Not based on the other reviews here that I've read....

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:25 am

Darn. The search continues. Sad

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:38 am

Thank you for the review, Carrie! What would you say the coverage is like?

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:49 am

Lolli wrote:

Thank you for the review, Carrie! What would you say the coverage is like?

"Sheer/natural, but does it's job?!" Smile

Thankfully, I don't have a lot of bad stuff to camoflauge (sp!), but I'd say this stuff provides the same amount of coverage that I got from the old BE loose minerals and my JI pressed powder. I guess I'd have to say it has medium coverage and should work for anyone except those with severe scars, hyperpigmentation, etc..

Does that help?! Embarassed

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:40 am

carekate wrote:

Lolli wrote:

Thank you for the review, Carrie! What would you say the coverage is like?

"Sheer/natural, but does it's job?!" Smile

Thankfully, I don't have a lot of bad stuff to camoflauge (sp!), but I'd say this stuff provides the same amount of coverage that I got from the old BE loose minerals and my JI pressed powder. I guess I'd have to say it has medium coverage and should work for anyone except those with severe scars, hyperpigmentation, etc..

Does that help?! Embarassed

Yes, that helps a lot! I've used both of the other foundations too so this is exactly the info I need, thank you!

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:09 pm

I have this product as well, agree with review above, excellent product, very pleased.

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:12 pm

I really want to try this. Has anyone tried the fair 1 or the medium 1? From what I´ve been able to find on the board, the 1s are somewhat neutral in tone, 2s are yellow, 3s pinkish and 4s peachy. Could someone confirm or correct that? Pretty please! Embarassed

Sharkbait - soon to end up in skincare and makeup rehab.

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:15 pm

I also found this color chart, though I can´t say it helped me much. Maybe someone else will find it useful.

https://www.essential-skincare.com/images/color-chart-front.pdf

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 2:50 pm

Thanks for the review, Carekate! I REALLY want to try this line!

Sharkbait wrote:

Sharkbait - soon to end up in skincare and makeup rehab.

My cupboard looks ridiculous with approximately 40+ little sample jars of MMU and eye shadow samples from a few different companies.

Anyway, Sharkbait, I might have similar skin tones as you. I have a very tricky skin tone... While I have yellow under tones I also have a lot of red in it (mostly my face probably due to irritation and inflammation). I am of mostly Czech decent with a bit of German, English and Irish in my blood if that helps any. I find that warm foundations can be too orangy (like JI warm silk) and cools too pink (like JI Light Beige) and even some that are too yellowy. I am currently using JI in Bisque as it is the closest match for me. If I am not careful with blending it out, it will look too yellow. Do you use JI? If so, what shades?

I am very interested in the True line but it's impossible to obtain samples and there aren't any places around where I live to check out shades on my skin. I would hate to waste $40+ on a shade that doesn't work. My hunt continues...

Pls let me know if you find out anymore about tone matching.

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 5:32 pm

For what it's worth, here's my two cents on the colors. I have samples of the True Medium #1 and Medium #3. I just did a comparison of them with my JI Light Beige, Natural, and Warm Sienna and BE Medium 2.3 and 3.0. Here's what they look like to me (tiny scoops of each spread out on a Kleenex).

I would say that True Medium #1 is more on the neutral/peachy side and True Medium #3 is definitely peachy -- almost orange-y. There's not an exact match anywhere in the bunch. The True #1 is probably closest to BE 3.0 (but less pink) and the True #3 is closest to to BE 2.3. The JI Warm Sienna is definitely the most yellow, but in terms of how light/dark the color is, it's similar to the True #1.

The JI Light Beige and Natural are definitely more pink than the True #1 and #3. I don't see strong pink or yellow tones in either the True #1 or #3. The True #1 is darker than the JI Light Beige, but lighter than the JI Natural. It looks to be about halfway in between. The True #3 is slightly lighter than the JI Natural, but definitely darker than the JI Light Beige.

I'm not very good at describing colors, but I hope this makes sense and helps someone a little bit. I'm debating on colors myself as well, but the True Medium #1 comes closest for me.

By the way, you can get samples of the True loose powder with an order from truelynatural.com. I don't know if there's a minimum order amount, but I got three samples with a $29.00 cleanser order. They sent the exact samples I requested and shipping was very fast. So if you're wanting to try anything else in the True skincare or cosmetic line, this would be a way to get samples. I don't know if they sell samples separately, but you could email them and ask.

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:13 pm

I am wanting to try the True also. Amnis, you and I have very similar heritage and skintones. I may try the JI Bisque if I can't find the True samples.
Has anybody e-mailed True and asked if they could get a sample? I may try that next.

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:41 pm

Amnis: That actually helped a lot, as I´ve tried some of the JI colors you mention. Bisque was much too yellow on me, my closest match seem to be Natural, but I can get away with Light Beige on some days, though it´s too light for me. From that, one should think that cool tones must be the way to go, but lots of cool colors seem to be way too pink. I never could find a perfect match in BE, #3 was too pink and flat looking, 1.2 too light, 2.3 quite nice on some days, horribly yellow on others. Gah, what´s a girl to do. Sad

I´m Scandinavian, and I´ve never been able to use any of the tecniques to figure out if I´m cool or warm toned. It appears I´m more neutral than anything else, though slightly on the cooler side. Rolling Eyes

Hopw: Thanks for doing all that, from what I can gather from your efforts, it seems like medium 1 would be somewhat of a match.

Sharkbait - dazed and confused.

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:00 pm

amnis wrote:

Thanks for the review, Carekate! I REALLY want to try this line!

Sharkbait wrote:

Sharkbait - soon to end up in skincare and makeup rehab.

My cupboard looks ridiculous with approximately 40+ little sample jars of MMU and eye shadow samples from a few different companies.

Anyway, Sharkbait, I might have similar skin tones as you. I have a very tricky skin tone... While I have yellow under tones I also have a lot of red in it (mostly my face probably due to irritation and inflammation). I am of mostly Czech decent with a bit of German, English and Irish in my blood if that helps any. I find that warm foundations can be too orangy (like JI warm silk) and cools too pink (like JI Light Beige) and even some that are too yellowy. I am currently using JI in Bisque as it is the closest match for me. If I am not careful with blending it out, it will look too yellow. Do you use JI? If so, what shades?

I am very interested in the True line but it's impossible to obtain samples and there aren't any places around where I live to check out shades on my skin. I would hate to waste $40+ on a shade that doesn't work. My hunt continues...

Pls let me know if you find out anymore about tone matching.

Your skin colour sounds like mine also. I am more dark though, I found JI Bisque to be way too light. The next shade up, Satin was too pink or grey, something not right.

It's a really hard skin tone to match and I'm finding most mineral companies aren't up to the task.

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:35 pm

Thanks for the review Carekate! I didn't even realize that EDS was carrying another line of MMU. I am sorely tempted to try this based on your description, but when I visited their website, a couple of things sort of put me off:

Their prices seem way overinflated to me - for skincare anyway. I guess $46 is semi-in line with other MMU brands.

Their website is incredibly frustrating. Lots of verbiage and photos of models, but no real info on the PRODUCTS! If someone is selling colour cosmetics, I want to see photos! Even if the colours aren't accurate on the computer screen, I at least want to see a representation.

Maybe there are more photos buried somewhere on their website, but every time I clicked on a link I thought would take me to the good stuff, I just got more verbal descriptions.

It kind of made me a bit leery. I found the EDS info on these products much more useful.

Let us know if you try any of their other stuff - I'm curious to hear more feedback. Smile

free skin care · Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:42 pm

Sharkbait wrote:

I´m Scandinavian, and I´ve never been able to use any of the tecniques to figure out if I´m cool or warm toned. It appears I´m more neutral than anything else, though slightly on the cooler side. Rolling Eyes

Exactly the case with me too. But I think I am more on the warm side. Err...maybe, I think. Rolling Eyes

Because I don't feel that the JI Bisque is quite right and a bit on the too yellow side, I have my fingers crossed that I can find a good shade in True!!

Perhaps I will order some skin cream or something from truelynatural.com to get some samples of the foundation. I need a new cream anyway and it seems like it's the only way to obtain them...

Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:36 am

Thanks Carrie! I'm in love with my JI pressed in Warm Silk and this might be just what I needed to go and try something new...

free skin care · Mon Apr 24, 2006 3:26 pm

I'm thinking of buying some of this with my lovely EDS voucher, but the True Cosmetics people recommended Medium #3 as the closest match to JI's Loose Satin. It looks scarily dark, and others have said it's very pink. I'm not convinced!

Can anyone help me on matching a shade to JI's Satin, please? There's nowhere in the UK I can try it to see, unfortunately.

free skin care · Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:31 pm

If anyone is interested, I did email True about samples and offered to pay for the shipping. They responded buy saying that they do not offer samples without an order at this time. Like everyone else I also want to try this MMU sooo bad I can't stand it!! Was using BE for years and mixing 2.3 with 3. When I look at the color chart for True, sometimes I think I should go with fair #2, and other times I think I should go with medium #2. Also I'm some what confused as to why fair #2 looks darker than medium #2? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

free skin care · Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:49 pm

Medium #2 matches JI Warm Silk I have this item and put the JI on one side and the True on the other and you could not tell the difference. HTH

free skin care · Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:05 pm

Thank's for your response. What kind of brush are you or anyone using True MMU using for application? I think I am ready to order the medium #2.

Automatic Message

If this is your first visit to the EDS Forums please take the time to register. Registration is required for you to post on the forums. Registration will also give you the ability to track messages of interest, send private messages to other users, participate in Gift Certificates draws and enjoy automatic discounts for shopping at our online store. Registration is free and takes just a few seconds to complete.

Click Here to join our community.

If you are already a registered member on the forums, please login to gain full access to the site.