Original Foundation

I actually love this foundation. Or, to be more exact – I WOULD love it if I could find a shade that matched. This foundation is great in so many ways. The finish is beautiful, the lasting power is excellent, the fact that it doesn't look like makeup on your skin while covering everything at the same time is amazing. However, the shade range for pale skin is a disaster. There are actually only 2 shades for pale skin: Fair and Golden Fair. Bareminerals themselves add Fair Ivory and Fairly Light in the pale category, but those two shades are waaaaay too dark for somebody who is truly pale. What's more, the Fair and Golden Fair are different in texture from all the other shades. While the darker shades, Fair Ivory and upwards, are smooth and with a slight sheen, the Fair and Golden Fair are grainy and very matte. Fair is pinkish with a gray tone (not very flattering for most people) and Golden Fair, targeted towards pale olive skin, is very chalky and has a weird blue tone to it, despite looking pale golden yellow in the jar. What's up with this??? My best foundation shade match is actually Jane Iredale Amazing Base in Bisque, but AB doesn't cover anything and oxidizes badly, so for me it's basically useless. Bareminerals should look to Alima Pure for an excellent shade range with actual real skin tones. Most of the Original Foundation shades from Bareminerals are overloaded with pink and peach, which feels very 70's, and in the cool category they've added gray to the pink and that makes most people look ill. I wish Bareminerals would update their shades for pale skin. If – when – they do, they'll have a loyal customer in me.

Never thought I'd be able to wear a powder type foundation because I have extremely dry, flaky skin. This foundation when applied correctly looks flawless! I watched you tuber shelby wilson who posts a lot of bareminerals tutorials and she made me fall in love with this powder! Okay, another you tube Wayne Goss helped just a little. :-) The key I found is you really have to buff it into your skin. Once buffed in it just sinks right in and looks so natural!

It is hit or miss for me with mineral make up. I decided to give this a whirl again since I'm older and my skin is changing. Plus, I like to have something fast to apply on days that I don't have a lot of time. I have this in the color golden medium. It's good and holds up on the oily areas of my skin. I have noticed a little oxidation but not bad. I like that you barely have to use any product to get good coverage. All in all...I'm satisfied with it. EDIT: While I do really like this, it breaks me out and my skin developed a rash.

I love Bare Minerals. Although I don't apply it properly, I still love it. You've got to make sure you purchse the real product and not the knock-offs though. There's buildable coverage, spf and a wide color range. Although I try other foundations, I always go back to using Bare Minerals.

Ok it took me about 13 years but I finally learned my lesson. I like the formula of the original a lot better than the matte option despite me having oily skin. The original gives you a airbrushed glow whereas the matte formula is very mediocre. I also like being able to build up the coverage. For a powder fndt, this sure offers a lot of pigment. Now with all that being said.... It does get greasy within a few hours. I'm super oily, this was expected. I just hate how it starts to separate from my nose and pool into my pores. If I can use the right primer or setting powder in addition, problem solved. Ultimately however the real deal breaker here is ITS ALL TOO DAMN DARK. Light and Fairly Light used to be the palest options when it first launched. I walked around being orange for a few years before my brain started to develop and I realized how scary it looked. Bare Minerals finally launched the palest shade Fair 01... "Porcelain with pink undertones". Y'all it's about 1 shade lighter than Fairly Light at best. I purchased it last week and it is still ORANGE on me. If you are tanner than NC10 and not super oily.... Go for it. I do think it's worth the money. The glow from this is something I have not found in dupes (including shimmery formulas).

The Original Foundation is still my favorite. I have used this product for about 16 years, although I have also tried Laura Geller Balance & Brighten, Wander Beauty Stick, And Philosophy Skin Tint And had success with those foundations too. Shade match is my biggest challenge and Bare Esentuals does a nice job. I use a moisturizer, A good primer and the makeup lasts all day without making me look like I’m wearing a mask 😃. They have so many new shades and tones, you really can’t miss getting a match for your skin tone.

So I was a little fearful since this has Bismuth in it. I had tried the loose Matte from Bare Minerals and it's just okay. I wear bare minerals blush with no breakouts and it has bismuth in it, so I figured it was probably okay since the blush didnt go directly on my skin.....so I got brave.....haven't used Bare Minerals since it came out....the original loose version....so I tried it, since I use their tinted moisturizer first, I figured maybe I could wear their Original Lose which does have Bismuth in it (A pimple maker)....well HALLELULAH! This original loose foundation over top of a little tinted moisturizer is HOLY GRAIL STATUS! I am older and felt the matte version was just a little to dry....this Original Loose version offers SO MUCH MORE COVERAGE than anything I have tried and its not matte....not gresasy...just makes your skin look healthy and it has staying power!!! I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!! LIKE I CANT SAY HOW MUCH I LOVE IT!!!!! I do make sure the tinted moisturizer has dried a bit and blot off any excess so that my loose foundation doesn't darken too much over the tinted moisturizer (which the bare minerals tinted moisturizer is THE BEST). So I am so glad I got brave and tried this again. I will use no other foundation ever again. Wished I had given it a second chance years ago.....Could have saved myself so much money

I’ve been wearing the original foundation for ten years. My shade is Fair 01. I absolutely love the buildable coverage and the glow it gives your skin throughout the day. I always get complimented on it. It’s great for my skin as I’m prone to acne and blackheads as it’s non-comedogenic. It doesn’t dry out my skin as all. I trynother foundations but always come back to this. I just wish they made it in bigger pots!

I’ve used this in the original formula for years. I took a break from it in 2008 when everyday minerals first became popular and was cheaper. Then went back to bare minerals after I ran out of that because they eliminated a lot of shades and increased their prices. I don’t use this every time that I wear foundation. I cycle through a few others that I like lol. UD naked skin and bare minerals complexion rescue. Just whatever I feel like using that day. When I use this I always use prime time primer first. If I need to hide blemishes I sometimes use a (now unfortunately discontinued) UD pencil concealer and blend that in first. I also use YSL touche eclat for dark circles, which are usually shadows caused by bags under my eyes. I then put this on with their fuller brush. If blemishes show through, I apply more of this with their flat concealer brush. I usually finish with mineral veil. I use the matte version occasionally. Even though shades might have the same name, they’re different. That’s really stupid and bothersome. I wear fairly light in the original version and fair ivory in the matte. All of that said, this gives a very natural finish, especially the regular version. When I wear this doesn’t really look like I’m wearing foundation, and I like that. But the coverage is very light. The matte version gives a little more coverage, but not much. So if you’re looking for something that will completely cover blemishes, you won’t be happy with this. If you want something that is pretty natural looking and don’t need to cover much or are okay with some some blemishes showing through, you’ll probably be happy with this.

I was genuinely excited to try out a mineral foundation and got my hands on 'Golden Nude' and 'Tan Nude' which seemed the nearest color matches. I tried them on an evening - one on the left side of my face and one on the right. Unfortunately neither side matched my tone and I had to remove them after checking in different lighting conditions. I love how the coverage is buildable using a brush (for good measure I used their Beautiful Finish Brush but you could use any) and has SPF15, although I am curious if the SPF increases as you build up coverage, or decreases if it's just a sheer look you go for? In any case I then purchased a small sampler set online to try to find a better match (I'm close to NC42) but nothing looked 'natural' on me, which for me was the whole purpose of buying these. And it made no difference how little or much I brushed onto my face there would always be too much yellow or beige that looked 'obvious' whether indoor or in outdoor lighting. On the plus side I had no breakouts, as some have experienced/mentioned, even after sleeping with this on a couple of times. It was always easy to remove, no double-cleansing required as I'm so used to doing with liquid foundations. It also seemed to heal a blemish on my chin, which I noticed shrank without me dabbing my trusty 'The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc on it before bed! The benefits are brilliant but I just can't find a match. Here's to hoping Bareminerals introduces more shades in the future... Selena x ~ My HG list ~ (As I've sampled many 100s of skin, hair and m/u products over the last decade and a half, I thought it might be useful to share my top 10 must-have products, subject to change if and when I come across something more effective. I love constantly trying out new stuff - usually sample sizes via e-bay, also plenty courtesy of a friend who works at Sephora) 1. Hair Loss Treatment: ‘Divine Herbal’ - Hair Oil 2. Lip Balm: 'Nuxe' - Reve De Miel Lip Balm 3. Pigmentation + Anti-Ageing Treatment: ‘Divine Herbal’ - Facial Treatment Serum 4. Cleanser: 'Paula's Choice' - Skin Balancing Cleanser 5. Concealer: ‘Mac’ - Studio Finish Concealer 6. Lash Growth Serum: ‘Divine Herbal’ - Divinelash 7. Foundation/SPF: ‘Juice Beauty’ - Stem Cellular Repair (warm glow) 8. Face Scrub: ‘Sisley' - Botanical Gentle Buffing Cream 9. Moisturizer: ‘Antipodes' - Rejoice Light Day Cream 10. Hand Cream: 'Origins' - Make A Difference Rejuvenating Hand Treatment