First Impression + FOTD + Swatches: Silk Naturals

The quest continues! Today I’ll showcase and review the results my favorite MMU brand so far: Silk Naturals.

I’ve written before that one of my gripe with MMU is the color selection. They usually look very, very broad but in fact even the lightest are too dark for my fair skin. I’ve tried Meow, Everyday Minerals, Ciel Minerals, and Lumiere before. Guess most of the colors have such a strong undertone that my skin can’t take it.

Enter Silk Naturals. I read some great reviews about the foundation…and I’m interested in their stark white foundation base. You’re supposed to mix some color into them, but I ditched the color part and only bought samples of the white part (dubbed Ivory). I was right! This Ivory is the best color match in MMU that I’ve find

I bought all of the formulation: the Original one which supposed to give light coverage, Medium Coverage, and Heavy Coverage. I’ve taken some pics to show the difference between the three, but since the glow seemed to blur my imperfections, I think you must see the full-res versions of the pic to really see the difference. Click on each pic to enlarge it. Oh yeah, please note that I use MUFE HD powder as the primer in all these pics

Here goes.

Unblush primer, Perfect Harmony Foundation in Original Coverage Ivory, Perfecting Powder. Spot covered with Perfect Harmony Foundation too, but in Heavy Coverage White.

Silk Naturals Perfect Harmony Foundation in Original Ivory

Aha. It looks pretty okay in pic…..but in person I think the coverage is lacking for my case. See the full-res and you’ll see I still have quite some redness in my cheeks. The white splotch on my cheeks? Because I couldn’t blend the Heavy coverage well.

All in all: looks good in pic particularly because the Perfecting Powder seem to reflect lights so damn well to blur imperfections, but I won’t go out with this foundation alone; it’s just too sheer for my skin condition. But it looks very good in pores.

So I move on to the Medium coverage version;

Perfect Harmony Foundation in Medium Coverage Ivory, topped with Unblush primer focusing in problem areas, and Blur finishing powder all over. Spot covered with EDM Intensive Fair Concealer.

Silk Naturals Perfect Harmony Foundation in Medium Coverage Ivory

There. Better. Full-res pic shows even skin tone, redness almost totally concealed….but again. In pic. In person, not this perfect, but not that bad. Still think I usually get (much) more polished finish from my liquid (non-mineral) makeup.

So I thought the Heavy coverage may give me better result. Wrong!

Perfect Harmony Foundation in Heavy Coverage White, set with Oil Control Blur.

Perfect Harmony Foundation in Heavy Coverage White

I only used very small amount of the foundation because I was afraid it will be hard to blend…..but as you can in pic, it runs dark on me! Also, every SN foundation has very tiny shimmer in the formula…but the Heavy one manages to look overly shiny for my taste, creating overall dull look :/

Since I only used very small amount, it blended OK. Looks okay on my pores too, but as you can see the coverage is not that great when I didn’t spot cover with concealer. Guess I used too little foundation! But due to the finish and color, I didn’t want to try to build it up anyway

Instead, I ventured some more and used it to set my BB cream Below I’m wearing BRTC Jasmin Water SPF30 BB Cream. Set it with MUFE HD powder, and buffed SN Original Ivory foundation, and a dust of SN Perfecting Powder. Spot covered with EDM Intensive Fair Concealer.

Then I found that the overall look was too shiny for my currently blemished and dull skin, so I dusted it with SN Oil Control Primer to give more velvety look.

BRTC Jasmin Water + Silk Naturals Original Coverage Ivory

Again…it may look polished in pic but not good enough in person. I don’t know why but I often find this problem with MMU. Freshly dusted, it would look perfect but minutes later the coverage seem to evaporate and leave me with the spots. Grrrr.

I didn’t want to accept it, I amp-ed both the type of BB cream and MMU. Today I’m using Hanskin Super Magic SPF30/PA++ BB cream which gives medium+ coverage. Set and prime with MUFE HD powder, then dust SN Medium Coverage Ivory as foundation, followed with Unblush primer. Spot covered with EDM Intensive Fair Concealer, then finish the overall look with SN Perfecting Powder all over. Layer it again with with a little bit of SN Oil Control Primer, focusing on t-zone.

Hanskin Super Magic + SN Medium Ivory

Looking good enough? Not quite. It looks powdery and in real life, it pools on my pores. Yikes. Same problem with before….looks perfectly flawless and fresh when applied, then it leave me with splotches.

You must be sick with my face by now So.

In Conclusion:

Even though it’s the best I’ve encountered, SN foundations still possess problem for me. Just like most MMU that I’ve tried, it looks okay in pics but in real life it doesn’t seem to cover my spots well (exception to Meow Flawless Feline). It can’t give me a look as polished as what traditional, non-MMU makeup can give me. MMU products can look powdery or pools on my pores. It can’t be helped, I guess, as it is the very nature of mineral itself. I think SN tried well to minimize the problem though, as their products are finely milled. In terms of pores, SN performs better than Meow.

Contrary to most people, I found that MMU photographs very well. It doesn’t give me white cast, maybe because I’m pretty fair to begin with? The glow it exudes helps give airbrushed look and it blurs imperfections really well. But in person…I look pretty blah. Again, splotches…

Perfect Harmony Foundation..

Has several textures to chose from; I picked out 3 of them. Original provides very sheer coverage, Medium provides light coverage and Heavy provides medium+ coverage on me, however I may be very biased since the coverage won’t stay on my skin.

All three formula have very tiny, sparse shimmers to them. It’s not visible at all on skin, it’ll only brighten your skin.

If you’re very fair with neutral undertone, don’t be afraid and try out just the white part (Ivory) on your face. It works for me.

The Primers and Finishing Powders…

To me are the star of the line. Again, all of them  are finely milled. Oil Control Primer works like a charm to control my oilies. Perfecting Powder is able to give out the prettiest airbrushed look on photos, as it reflects light well. It’s not shiny at all, only adds healthy sheen to your face.

Blur Finishing Powder are supposed to look like Perfecting Powder, but designed to be more moisturizing. I found it to be okay, it gives out airbrushed finish too, however I feel that Perfecting Powder is more glowy compared to Blur. Is it my feeling only?

I also tried Oil Control Blur, but it’s not as oil controlling as the Oil Control Primer so I think I chose Oil Control Primer over Oil Control Blur.

The Color Corrector…

I have Unblush, a green one to cancel out redness; and Lavender to correct sallow undertone. However, I only tested out Unblush and I find it to be extremely sheer.

As such, I prefer to use it on top of my foundations. It gives light green tint to my skin…which is easily covered by finishing powder. However I’m not sure if it successfully tame my redness. It looks the same after I apply Unblush (except the addition of green tint)…but I find it easier to spot conceal my red acne marks. I guess it’s not a totally wasted stuff At least try a sample if you have a lot of redness to your skin!

And as our parting gift..

Silk Naturals Lovelace Sheer Blush

That’s SN Sheer Blush in Lovelace. I don’t think it’s available anymore? If I remember correctly it claims to be NARS O dupe, but on me it’s not. It’s prettier than O O is slightly too warm on me,  while Lovelace is a cool pink-coral.

Pigmentation is sheer-medium. Too much shimmer for my liking though…dangerous for my large pores The shimmer can be dusted off a bit with Kabuki brush though.

SN offers nice selection of blushes…many of them are dupes. I think despite the shimmers I’ll be ordering some more, the samples are only US$0.75

BTW, I didn’t wear MMU on that last photo. Only Fancl Sunguard SPF30/PA+++ sunscreen as my base and the followed by Fancl Lucent Loose Powder.

All in all:

Silk Naturals is a very nice company with great service. Samples are nicely packaged in baggies or jars. They are generously sized, reasonably priced, and of high quality. Give it a try!

*All pics taken under natural light with flash.

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