Green Beauty Review: Dusty Girls Mineral Makeup

Last year I switched from bareMinderals to Everyday Minerals, having found that the latter was equally clean and more affordable. But I’m always on the lookout for clean makeup brands, so when the company Dusty Girls got in touch with me, I was curious.

I had never heard of this Australian brand before, though they now ship from California, as well. It’s an offshoot of MooGoo, a skincare company with products for people with acne-prone skin. Dusty Girls makes mineral makeup using natural clays and minerals – the products are supposed to improve your skin quality while you wear them.

If you are the kind of late discerning lady who likes all her beauty products in sophisticated packaging, Dusty Girls might not be to your taste. The branding is bright, girlish, and bubbly.

Dusty Girls sent me a few products to try out.* As usual, here is my honest review!

The Earth Cream provides wonderful coverage. With an SPF of 5, it might be better for night time shenanigans, or when you’ll be inside most of the day, unless you are layering it over face lotion with a high SPF. It has a unique smell fitting the name Dusty Girls, like you’ve been out in nature, a little floral and reminiscent of when you’ve been kissed by the sun. The ingredients, which were chosen to address troublesome skin, include Shea Butter, Aloe Vera, Food-grade Titanium Dioxide, Chaulmoogra Tree Seed Oil, Fennel Flower Seed Oil, Manuka Tree Leaf Oil, Magnolia Acuminata Bark Extract, Vitamin E, and Olive Butter, among some other ingredients that all check out as safe. At $18.50, this is priced lower than the equivalent bareMinerals foundation. (Everyday Minerals doesn’t seem to have an equivalent.

The Foundation Powder also goes on light and nice. Combined with the whipped foundation, it provides decent coverage with a nice glow. The ingredients are almost exactly what is in bareMinderals and Everyday Minerals, but at $29, it is slightly more expensive than the bareMinerals equivalent, and twice as expensive as the Everyday Minerals equivalent.

The “Golden Delicious” Blush, however, was so heavy that when I put a bit on my brush, I was appalled. The color saturated my skin so much that my mother, who was visiting, looked at it and told me to go back in my bedroom and wipe it off. I found that even after I continually tried to brush it off my contouring brush, it continued to provide more than enough color through another whole makeup application the next day. At $25, it’s more expensive than the bareMinerals equivalent and much more expensive than Everyday Minerals.

Overall

Because the powder products have the same ingredients as two other mineral companies, have less sophisticated packaging than bareMinerals, but are more expensive, I would hesitate to recommend them. But if you have acne-prone skin, I say give the Earth Cream a shot and see if it helps your skin. It smells nice, provides great coverage, and is affordably priced. Can’t go wrong there!

*For free