retrieved article about Tarte, Blum Naturals Eye pads,BWC and Stript

So this week I tried a few products. The funny thing is they were all
> products I stumbled upon while shopping for other things. To be honest 3 out
> of the 4 products were extremely disappointing. I broke out in small red
> bumps on my face from all of the lines except Tarte. In a way it's also kind
> of funny because Tarte has been a mainstream makeup line for years and very
> recently as I discovered they now have a small section in their makeup line
> free of petro-chemicals, paraben free, dye free, and GMO free. Here's what I
> learned:
>
> Tarte: I purchased the starter kit from the new Natural line. It contains a
> primer, a liquid foundation, a concealer, a pressed mineral powder, and a
> bronzer. What's convenient about this kit is that it provides the steps in
> an easy way. When I finished everything and looked at the result, my skin
> looked clean, glowing and natural. The texture was creamy but not greasy and
> the powders both the pressed and the bronzer blend very easily into the skin
> rather than sitting on the surface. I would definitely recommend this line
> to people. I'm actually going to go back to Sephora next week to see if
> there are eyeshadows, lipsticks, and blushes in the natural line. I hope so.
>
> Blum Naturals Eye-Cleansing Pads: These cleansing pads are free of parabens
> and synthetic fragrances and they are awful! Not only did I have to
> practically drag them across my face to get any makeup removed but my skin
> felt dry and red right above my cheekbone almost immediately. I waited for
> about 10 minutes to see what else would happen and when I looked in the
> mirror I had small red bumps in the areas that felt dry. I started to also
> have a burning sensation under my eyes so I went and washed my face and
> smeared as much moisturizer on my skin as I could. i found this stuff at
> Ricky's beauty supply ( a chain all over NYC) and all i can say is, "what a
> waste of $7.00"
>
> BWC ( Beauty Without Cruelty eye makeup remover ): This is a creamy
> eyemakeup remover. It works well to take mascara off and even though it's
> paraben free and fragrance free my skin felt a bit disturbed from it. I'd be
> willing to try it again when I haven't been walking around in the cold all
> day or when my skin isn't still irritated from other products. I'll leave it
> to you to try. You can find it at wholefoods/wholebody.
>
> Stript: I came across this line at Ricky's when I was waiting to pay at the
> register. It's a vegan, paraben free, mineral makeup line. So far from what
> I've seen they have a mineral powder foundation, a concealer stick, eye
> liner, and loose eye pigment. What I've tried are these few things:
> The Concealer Stick: It's very thick so it covers blemishes but it doesn't
> quite blend on it's own. It sort of sits on the surface, so it needs a bit
> of manipulating like a moisturzer (maybe the Dr. Hauschka Rose Day Cream)
> and it especially needs the moisturizer using it for undereye concealing.
> Otherwise the coverage is decent and once blended well it looks pretty
> natural.
> The Mineral Powder Foundation: This stuff is terrible. It looks like pancake
> makeup used for high school theatre productions. Not worth it at all.
> The loose eye pigment: I actually kind of liked the color selection but it
> definitely needs a creamy base to grab on to like an eye primer/creamy
> concealer perhaps from a different line of makeup (not the stick from the
> it's own line, it won't blend on the eye lid). It needs the creamy base
> otherwise it just flies all over your eyelashes and under eye area.
>
>
> This week was a bit of a bummer for me in my research, I guess because the
> product selection seemed choppy & not cohesive. I suppose that'll happen but
> it's frustrating. Until next week....