Meow Cosmetics - Mineral Foundation Swatches

If you haven't heard of them yet, allow me to introduce you to a lovely brand called Meow Cosmetics. Meow is a small, indie makeup company that makes limited ingredient mineral foundations, concealers, finishing powders, eyeshadows, and blushes that are ideal for people with problem skin.

The issue with larger manufacturers of mineral makeup (such as Bare Minerals) is that their products often contain ingredients that can be problematic for the acne folks and the sensitive skin folks (bismuth oxychloride, ain't she a sonofabitch). I used Bare Minerals for years, but divorced it when it gave me a sandpaper-like rash. I've dabbled in a few different mineral makeup brands since then (Everyday Minerals and Alima Pure), but have yet to settle.

This is the breakdown of the ingredients in each of the mineral makeup brands I've tried:

• Bare Minerals (original): Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Bismuth Oxychloride, Mica, Iron Oxides
• Everyday Minerals (semi-matte & matte formulas): Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides
• Alima Pure (satin matte): Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Iron Oxides 
• Meow Cosmetics (purrfect): Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides
  Meow Cosmetics (pampered): Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Iron Oxides
  Meow Cosmetics (flawless): Mica, Zinc Oxide, Titanium Dioxide, Boron Nitride, Iron Oxides

Meow, EM, and Alima all contain the same ingredients, but both Alima and EM broke me out. Meow's claim is that "all minerals are not made equally" and that many folks that are mica sensitive (which I could be) have had luck with their product. The founder of Meow states that she started the company in an attempt to create makeup that she herself could wear given her own problem skin. It seems promising. I chose to try Purrfect and Pampered formulas as this is what Meow recommends for people with finicky skin.

Before you visit their website, let me warn you: it is confusing as fuck. It looks like it was made in 1995; I expected one of those dancing babies to pop up and oogah chaka me into an early grave. Despite this, I was able to navigate the atrocious design and confusing cat-theme to choose 16 foundation samples.

Meow has by far the most shades to choose from out of all the mineral brands out there (86 in all). Finding a match looks a bit like a football playbook:

       

These photos were taken are outside. The first photo is in full sun, while the second is in the shade. In the first photo, it seems Mau (level 3) or Sphynx (level 3) are the best choices, but the second photo proves they are too dark/pink. Korat and Chartreux are better matches.

Allow me to decode this arm mess for you: The different cat names (Ocicat, Siamese, Sphynx, Mau, Persian, Chartreux, and Korat) refer to the different color families. The numbers (2 and 3) refer to the shades (from 0 to 6, with 6 being the darkest), while Purr and Pam refer to the two different formulas (Purrfect and Pampered). Pampered offers a little more coverage than Purrfect, but also contains an additional ingredient (Zinc Oxide). All Meow Foundations are buildable.

On the Meow website, and elsewhere online, the shades have zee sexy names: 0 - Inquisitive, 1 - Sleek, 2 - Frisky, 3 - Naughty, 4 - Fierce, 5 - Slinky, and 6 - Independent. This is also confusing as fuck, so for the sake of puny brain mush, I went with the numbers in the photos.

These photos were taken with indoor lighting. The first is almost strictly artificial light, while the second was taken near a window after I blended my arm dots with a fluffy brush. These are all the shades shown in the photos (from top to bottom, left to right):

2-Frisky Chartreux / concealer - peach/yellow
Top Cat / finishing powder - no pigment
2-Frisky Ocicat / purrfect - olive
3-Naughty Ocicat / purrfect - olive
2-Frisky Siamese / purrfect - neutral
2-Frisky Sphynx / purrfect - beige/pink/peach
2-Frisky Sphynx / pampered - beige/pink/peach
3-Naughty Sphynx / purrfect - beige/pink/peach
3-Naughty Mau / purrfect - warm
2-Frisky Persian / purrfect - peach
2-Frisky Chartreux / purrfect - peach/yellow
2-Frisky Chartreux / pampered - peach/yellow
3-Naughty Chartreux / purrfect - peach/yellow
3-Naughty Chartreux / pampered - peach/yellow
2-Frisky Korat / purrfect - golden yellow
2-Frisky Korat / pampered - golden yellow
3-Naughty Korat / purrfect - golden yellow
3-Naughty Korat / pampered - golden yellow

Overall, Sphynx and Mau were too pink (and dark), Persian and Siamese were too light in the level I got (so who the hell knows), and Ocicat was too yellow. Korat is a touch more yellow than Chartreux and could be used in a pinch, but Chartreux (as I suspected) was the winner. It's slightly yellowish undertone would be good for balancing out the redness in my mottled face.

I'll be doing a proper "Acne Experiment" review of this makeup at a later date, but for now, oggle my sexy arm dots.

PS: For those that are curious, I describe myself as having light to medium olive toned skin. I believe I have yellow, pink, peach, and sometimes greenish undertones. This is confusing as fuck. Sometimes it's easier to just say my undertones are neutral.

The Nars foundation in the top photo is "Santa Fe" (it's my current liquid foundation). I wore "medium beige" in Bare Minerals. I believe I matched for "beige neutral" (aka "medium 4N") and "Olive 1.5" or "Olive 2" in Alima Pure. I'll never know for certain about my shades in EM or Alima because I gave those samples away in a fit of acne rage long ago. I gave them away so violently, guys.