Loving Minerals – Supplying Mineral Makeup in Malaysia

Note: Loving Minerals is no longer in business

Mineral Makeup is all the rage. Just look at L’oreal and Revlon and even The Body Shop jumping on the Mineral Foundation bandwagon. When big companies start getting onto something, you know it’s a big market! I previously lamented that part of the reason I was less enamoured with mineral makeup was because of its inaccessibility. This is because many mineral makeup companies are USA based and shipping time plus the possibility of packages going missing (It happened to me) is a huge deterrant.

However, local online store LovingMinerals.com will change all that. LovingMinerals.com is based in Malaysia and they presently stock mineral makeup from Lumiere Mineral Cosmetics and some of the more popular kabuki brushes from Everyday Minerals.

From my previous experience, Lumiere Cosmetics’ Mineral makeup was the only brand that did not cause me to break out and which had the best colour match. Also, the Lumiere Mini Kabuki brush is a delight! They don’t stock this yet, but I hope they do. As for brushes, Everyday Minerals’ brushes get the thumbs up from many users, especially the flat top brush (RM38). No excuse for me not to try it now!

LovingMinerals.com has just opened its virtual doors last week, and they are offering some special offers on Lumiere Cosmetics products up until 31 October 2008. Even after this promotion period is over, you can still pick up great deals and specials under the Loving Specials category. If you are new to mineral makeup, a good kit to start with will be the Lumiere Sample Kit (RM30). You will get 3 sample jars of foundation, 1 sample jar of blush or radiance powder and 1 sample jar of finishing powder. My recommendation for the finishing powder is to get the Sand Silk Powder. It is super awesome at controlling oil. Whilst it might say “sample” it is a pretty substantial amount of powder that you get which will last you quite a while. It’s the best way to know if mineral makeup will work for you or not.

LovingMinerals.com currently ships to Malaysia and Singapore. I think it is awesome because shipping from the USA takes up to 2 weeks and I had a package go missing from Lumiere before. They refunded my money but the hassle and waiting time was not fun.

Shipping rates are fair in my book. Presently LovingMinerals.com ships within Malaysia for a flat rate of RM8 for orders below RM100 and to Singapore for a flat rate of RM25. For orders RM100 and above, you get free shipping within Malaysia! So, that is pretty good incentive for you to share your orders with friends or family to take advantage of the free shipping.

You can also opt to pick up your order at designated pick up points and you can even pay cash upon delivery. The best part I like about Loving Minerals is the fact that the representative who brings your order will be able to help you colour match your foundation! So, no more wasted money and time hunting down your colour match. This is as good as shopping in a store as far as I’m concerned.

If you are on Facebook, join the Loving Minerals facebook group and receive some freebies. I love it that they have made use of an online social network like this.

Loving Minerals is still new but their website is professionally designed and easy to navigate with the essential information in the easy to locate side bar and nice big banners to get their important messages across. They offer a good guide to mineral makeup and I like moving around the site because no page or bit of information is more than 2 clicks away. Very useful for me.

Above all, I don’t think their prices are very inflated at all, everything considered. A full jar of mineral foundation (12g) retails at RM60 (now RM55 promotion discount) which isn’t expensive considering the price is about US$18 (RM64) if buying from the USA. Plus shipping, its US$24 (RM85.30) compared to RM68 if bought locally and you save the 2 week waiting period too. All in all, it looks like a winning combination buying locally than from abroad.

The only thing is that Loving Minerals, being new, does not stock many varieties of the foundation. Lumiere had Luminesse, Flawless, Veena Velvet and Cashmere but for now, only the Cashmere Foundation formula is available. Perhaps they’ll bring in more of the others soon.

Sample jars of foundation are available at RM7.50 each. It’s a good way to test for colour match before you buy. A personal recommendation is the Sand Silk Finishing Powder. It is very nice and even if you are very fair, Sand Silk works as it is a very light beige shade that doesn’t add much colour to the skin. What the Silk Powder does is to retain moisture of the skin so it doesn’t dry out and also keep oilies at bay. It works! Of all the many mineral products I’ve tried, this is my favourite. I’m happy that its actually available locally now because I gave up ordering another after my package with my replacement tub went missing before! Now, I have no more excuse not to stock up on it 🙂

Loving Minerals is at LovingMinerals.com. Go on and indulge, your skin will love you for it! 🙂