Organic Wear Pressed Powder

It's taken me a while to post this review because my interest in this line waned quite a while ago, but I want to take the time to write about my experience with the Physicians Formula Organic Wear Pressed Powder.
I had high hopes for it initially, the price point is so low and the ingredients are great. I matched the color to my current compact--translucent medium seemed the closest. The wording of the colors threw me off, to my mind translucent means that it offers no real coverage, but is mostly used for setting foundation or concealer and creating a matte finish. I wasn't sure if Translucent Medium meant it would actually be a powder foundation or not.
It turns out that it was a powder foundation and the first time I used it, I was really impressed. It had a soft glowy finish and covered amazingly well.
Once I looked at it in natural light, however I saw how wrong it was. It was far to shiny and highlighted pores and fine lines. It was very similar to the finish I experienced with Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals foundation.
I used to work for BE and I would leave my house feeling beautiful only to find myself blending frantically once I checked my makeup outside in natural light.
However, they were the first mineral makeup I was exposed to and I still believe that minerals are the way to go. Bare Escentuals just isn't the right brand for me.
And it's no wonder they seem similar, here are the ingredients:

Organic Wear

MICA, SIMMONDSIA CHINENSIS SEED OIL*, ZEA MAYS (CORN) STARCH*, MAGNESIUM STEARATE, KAOLIN, CALCIUM CARBONATE, OLEA EUROPAEA (OLIVE) FRUIT OIL*, GLYCERIN, GLYCINE SOJA (SOYBEAN) OIL*, GLYCERYL CAPRYLATE, CINNAMIC ACID, SODIUM LEVULINATE, TOCOPHEROL, WATER. MAY CONTAIN: IRON OXIDES, TITANIUM DIOXIDE. * PRODUCED FROM ORGANIC FARMING


Bare Minerals

Bismuth Oxychloride, Mica, Iron Oxide
*Bare Minerals Foundation May Also Contain:
Titanium Dioxide


It is definitely the mica that gives it the bizarre finish. It is wonderful in highlighters and shadows but terrible as a foundation. BE recommends that you follow up with the corn-starch based Mineral Veil and *surprise!* PF has a corn-starch based finishing powder. Although mica is, again the first ingredient leading me to believe that there is just no way to avoid a waxy-shiny finish with the Organic Wear powder products.
Also, if you'll notice that the BE products have a much shorter ingredient list since they don't add the gratuitous organic ingredients. I call them gratuitous because they could have a very similar product without adding any of the small amounts of botanicals that they did, leading me to believe that they just wanted to have a line that they could call "organic."
I really don't want to use more than one powder product, not only do I not want to take the time but I live in a warm climate and don't want to pile on a lot of products. I am very happy with my Glominerals foundation and you absolutely do not need a finishing powder. It is three times as much as the PF powder but once you factor in using a separate finishing powder, it's not much of a bargain time or money-wise.

Bottom Line:

My overall opinion of these products isn't very high, but I still like that companies such as this one are making more natural options widely available, I think that is very important. This line may work beautifully for some people, and most definitely Bare Minerals fans will love this foundation and it is about 1/3 of the price.
When I returned the concealer and powder that I bought I was hoping to exchange for the tinted moisturizer, but it was out of stock. If I do try it I will review it on makeup alley and link it here, to avoid yet ANOTHER post about this line.

Physicians Formula Organic Wear Concealer Review

I have finally tried the Physicians Formula Organic wear line.
After some consideration I finally decided on the pressed powder and the concealer.
I wanted to get the light color, but all they had in stock was soft yellow and soft green. Yellow-toned anything looks terrible on my pink skin so I went with green. I have always avoided colored concealers, writing them off as too gimmicky.
But the soft green looks just like a soothing cream I used to use when I was doing salon work. It contained kaolin clay which has a green tint and covered redness amazingly well. I don't know if that was necessarily what it was intended for, but it was a pleasant side effect. People tend to get really concerned when they see (even normal) post-waxing redness and it takes away from the effect of the finished brow, so I really loved that product. (whose name I can not for the life of me remember.)
When I took the concealer out of the package I noticed that the bullet extended above the top of the case. It didn't retract any further into the tube. That was slightly annoying to me and became even more so when, the first time I tried it, the top 1/2" broke off. I wrote it off as a bad batch, put the nub in a sample cup and applied it with a brush and blended with a sponge. It removed all traces of redness from my skin, which is amazing since I have so much pinkness to my skin tone. I was very impressed. The texture was incredible, smooth and easy to blend. The problem was, it turned my skin from ruddy to a gray corpse-like tone. So it has to be followed by a product with color. I used the Organic Wear Pressed Powder (that I will write a separate entry for) and in my bathroom it looked beautiful. I did not notice any offensive odor, like some reviews have mentioned.
I took my mirror outside and it was a mess. Very cakey and artificial-looking and it settled into every place I would have rather it not.
I'm not giving up hope on this concealer, though. I am going to exchange the one I bought today and hope I just got a bad one. I may skip the green and get the light if they have it back in stock or I will experiment with using my little broken nub with a tinted moisturizer or liquid foundation. I think the light concealer would be amazing when paired with a translucent powder, I'll keep you posted!

*Photos: Top, the products I used in this experiment, photo 1 me before, photo 2 and 3 me with just concealer, photo 4 and 5 me after.

Eco-friendly Feminine Product That WORKS!

I was a late bloomer, I didn't get my period until I was fourteen. I started out with pads then quickly progressed to tampons, I just hated the way the pads felt and living in a hot climate makes them feel even grosser.
I never really thought there could be any alternative to using tampons even though they had their downsides, the biggest being the severe environmental impact of using and discarded so much bleached cotton every month. I did briefly try the Soft Cup and it was terrible. It was hard to remove without spilling, not really re-usable and caused nasty cramps.
It wasn't until after I gave birth to my twins that I really thought about my own choices. I chose to cloth-diaper them because I didn't want so many diapers ending up in our landfills and this made me think about how many tampons I had thrown away over the years. When I worked at Whole Foods we received DivaCups as staff samples and I put it away with all my other products. I was pregnant and my period seemed a million miles away. And it was. Thanks to breastfeeding I didn't have a period from November 2004-June 2007. While on my break from my period I decided to commit to using the DivaCup once it came back.
I did and I have never been happier. It is so easy to use, does not feel uncomfortable, is easy to remove, easy to clean and best of all should last about ten years. Not only am I not throwing away tampons, I'm not even using them so I'm saving A LOT of money. I have a pretty heavy flow and after a little bit of practice it works like a charm.
I know it is becoming more and more popular to skip periods but for me that severely interferes with my own personal rhythms, which are important to me. I feel that having normal cycles is indicative of good health in general and I like being tuned in to my body and the messages it sends me. As much as I've always complained about my period, I missed it after a while. With the DivaCup, it's not nearly as much of a hassle as it used to be. I track my cycles with Cycle Beads and when it is around time for my period I insert the DivaCup in the morning so I won't start suddenly and mess up my clothes. I also love not having to drag several tampons around in my purse.