Beauty Top Gear Challenge: Test-driving mineral cosmetics for reals

Dispel all thoughts of Jeremy Clarkson in drag. Our intrepid Mookychick beauty contributor was sent a host of Care Free Beauty samples with the provisor she test-drive them to hell and back. Char got behind the beauty wheel and gave them a thorough seeing-to - from the nice lippy and eyeshadow to the bronzer which stole her heart and eloped with her to sunny Mexico...

We all 'suffer' in the name of vanity. Consider the plucking of eyebrows, or the brazilian - and I ain't talking about the Duque de Caxias.

We preen and experiment constantly. I'm still making 'surprising' and 'shocking' beauty discoveries at the grand old age of 25. I have you know, been accustomed to Vogue and Instyle since day dot - not to mention my constant scrupulous magnifique lookage at gorgeous celebs on the red carpet.

Suffer we do, all in the name of beauty... but it's not all hit 'n' miss. Now and then you discover products that are worthy of a killer gush. I'm talking in league with my favourite Dior lipgloss (sadly discontinued, what were they thinking?), YSL's great lash mascara and my Givenchy 'Irresistable' perfume. It takes a rare product to turn my first preference for bronzer from Lancome to something else entirely - something that's good for my skin, even, and Care Free Beauty's organic, pure mineral makeup has done it for moi.

The mineral bronzer

I've tried just about everything, and with bated breath I received a batch of make up from Mookychick (all for free, perks perks!) to try out. If I'm totally honest with you I wasn't expecting to be wowed. But lo and behold! I was beyond excited when I gave this beauty a go because, as you can see from the photos, the bronzer actually makes my skin glow! Shh... I know it says thats its job but the people behind Care Free Beauty's 'Afterglow' (the make up, not the feeling) genuinely deliver. I loved the mineral bronzer so much I'm taking my samples on holiday!

The issue I generally have with make up, even the posh stuff, is that I never feel like I have make up on. I went partying in the West End last week and by my standards, I trowelled my best paint and potion on because I knew I'd be standing next to girls wearing loads of it (in the nicest way), but I still ended up looking like a naked-faced ghost.

When I put the Afterglow bronzer on I actually felt like I had some colour to me, and it didn't feel like I'd slathered myself in prosthetic makeup.

The mineral lipstick

The mineral lipstick wasn't quite my colour but the texture and ease of application were a dream, and the smell fairly neutral and clean (so no-one will be able to smell a strong scent before you get there, unless they're a cat).

The mineral eyeshadow

The loose mineral eyeshadow comes in little pots, and they're faultless to apply. I generally find with many eyeshadow products that they crease on the delicate folds of your eyes, gather attractively in the corner like sleep and generally misbehave, causing embarassing gloop issues. Not pretty... so I gingerly applied the mineral eyepowder and as I did so, it sparkled! Yay. Me like sparkles. Also, being a powder it slid on happily and there it stayed.

The health bit

As an eczema sensitive skin sufferer, Care Free Beauty came up trumps again because all of their products are completely free of pesky ingredients normally found in make up such as scary-sounding 'petrochemicals', 'carmine' and 'lake dyes' (eep!!)

Of course, the products are tested on people not fluffy bunnies and if you're heading towards old age (like me) then the anti-aging properties are an added bonus. Fabulous :-)

The final word

I have to say I will definitely be investing in a pot of the mineral bronzer, though, out of all the mineral makeup products I test-drove. Because it's pretty awesome.

Research these mineral products for yourself at Care Free Beauty.

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Mission statement

Mookychick believes that climbing trees and riding giant turtles is more fun and girly than worrying about make-up. But if you want to worry about make-up instead of turtles? Fine by us. Be you feminist, kitten, punk, emo, indie, goth, witch, vegan, horror junky, intellectual, christian goth, corset queen, geek, unicorn, sea monkey... be you into alternative style, alternative health, spirituality, comics, manga, j-pop, harajuku or jock culture... we will always love you.