“Pure passion is a natural part of beauty. Inspired by the vitality of ruby gemstones, these exclusive 100% pure bareMinerals eye and face colors are infused with real ruby powder to enhance your beauty with the same authentic, fascinating qualities of the ruby that have sparked powerful feelings throughout history.”

So reads the back of the box for bareMineral’s limited edition Ruby collection. I don’t know that I felt all (or any) of that while wearing this collection for the last week and a half, but it’s a lovely thought.

Inside the attractive Ruby-red box you can expect to find the following:

• Ruby Radiance All-Over Face Color (infused with Ruby)
• Golden Ruby Eyecolor (infused with Ruby)
• Vintage Ruby Eyecolor (infused with Ruby)
• Wild Ruby Liner/Shadow (infused with Ruby)
• Double-Ended Classic Black Mascara and Ruby Beautifully Luminous Lashes
• Ruby Buxom Big and Healthy Full Color Lip Polish
• Soft Sweep Cheek Brush (with custom handle)
• Double-Ended Tapered Shadow and Liner Brush (with custom handle)
• Ruby Clutch

Being a big fan of mineral makeup, yet never having used any bareMinerals products, I was so excited to give the originator of the mineral makeup phenomenon a try. I couldn’t wait to get it out of the box and on to my face, but I was briefly sidetracked by the beautiful Ruby clutch! Faux crocodile skin, in the perfect shade of blood-drenched ruby; I was fascinated with the soft vinyl and its perfect crimson color.

Once I got past fondling the clutch and playing with the hidden magnetic clasp I moved on to the makeup itself.

I read the enclosed pamphlet for information on each product and, after applying my normal foundation, followed the suggested usage instructions for day one.

The All-Over Face Color was the first product I tried.

It goes on strong (a little too strong at first) with a soft, even application of mauvey-rose color. But, don’t let the name fool you. It’s a blush, not so much what I would call an all-over color. On the other hand, the Soft Sweep Cheek Brush is exactly what the name implies – soft, smooth application and I love the faux Ruby embedded in the handle.

Next, I dipped into the eyecolors with the tapered end of the shadow brush.

I used the Golden Ruby (which is a shimmery, muted gold color) on my lids, with the Vintage Ruby (a chocolatey- suede color) for my contour and the Wild Ruby (a plummy-mocha color) as a liner. While the shadows do go on with the velvety finish the packaging brags about, the colors aren’t nearly as deep and rich as I would have expected. Again, the brush was wonderful, right down to its delightfully bejeweled handle.

I finished my eyes with the Classic Black Mascara, which I immediately disliked.

The thin consistency made it difficult to control (I somehow ended up with mascara on my cheeks – not my cheekbones or my brow bones), slow drying and it did nothing to lengthen or thicken my lashes. Once it did finally dry, I followed with the Ruby Beautifully Luminous Lashes, a glittery top coat which is supposed to “add brilliant Ruby sparkle.” Sounds nice, but by the time I got enough of it on my lashes so that it was visible to the naked eye, I now had clumping and spider lash syndrome.

Lastly, I applied the Ruby Buxom Big and Healthy to my lips, which was a refreshing surprise.

The shade is a beautiful, rich mocha color that in my opinion would be pretty universally flattering. Because it’s a plumping color, it tingled as expected, but the burning sensation that’s also common with lip plumpers never developed. I’m very lucky to have naturally full lips, so I didn’t expect a whole lot of plumping action, but did notice a very subtle, slightly fuller appearance.

Day one wasn’t a terribly fair trial, since I only wore the make up for about four hours before I removed it. The following days, however, opened up a whole new world of revelations.

Towards the end of the first week, I started to notice that my complexion looked ashy and dull. I hadn’t changed any of my normal skin care or other normal products, and I couldn’t figure out what was causing it. Well, while the All-Over Face Color is primarily a blush, I was sweeping a bit all over my face to warm me up, so to speak. As soon as I stopped using the All-Over Face Color, the dullness went away.

Curious, I looked into just what exactly the benefit of having crushed Rubies in makeup could be.

While information on the subject is scarce and no one I e-mailed was willing to clarify any of their statements or other information regarding the function of rubies as a cosmetic ingredient they supposedly help to aid in circulation and reduce redness and uneven skin tone. Perhaps for someone who experiences more redness and blotchiness with their skin, this may be true. But the makeup really did make my skin look dead and dull, despite how much I loved the color and the application.

The eyecolors wear well for the first three or four hours, after which they fade, rapidly. I tried applying them wet and dry, and while most mineral eyeshadows I’ve used do fade a bit more than non-mineral shadows, none of them have faded so much and so fast. This could be because I’m accustomed to wearing deeper, brighter, bolder shades, but I’ve not found this to be a problem with any of my lighter shade of mineral eyeshadows in other brands.

My opinion of the mascara never changed. I dreaded putting it on in the morning, but kept thinking it could get better. It never did. In fact, not only did the thin, watery consistency of the Classic Mascara end up on my brow bones and cheekbones mid way through the day, but the glitter in the Beautifully Luminous Lashes flaked off, leaving bits of black and glitter all over my cheeks and irritating my eyes. My lashes also became more and more knotted and tangled the longer I wore it.

The Buxom Big and Healthy lip color was fabulous, though. While it’s thick in texture, it's not sticky or heavy-feeling.  The only downside was that I did have to reapply it frequently. It did stay well inside my lip liner, without bleeding or smudging, and the delicious chocolate mocha scent (a nice change from the vanilla cake batter scent that’s becoming so common) lingered long after the gloss was gone. The scent alone made it worth reapplying!

One other thing that concerned me about bareMinerals products is that they claim to use only the “highest quality minerals found in the earth,” and that they are “100% pure without any preservatives, fillers or binders.”

While checking up on the ingredients used in mineral makeup, I stumbled on an article on WebMd (The Lowdown on Mineral Make Up --  June 2007) that discussed some of the pros and cons of using mineral makeup. One ingredient in particular stood out – bismuth oxychloride. This is not something that naturally occurs in the earth, rather a byproduct of copper and lead processing that’s often used as filler in mineral makeup. It also seems to be high up on the list of ingredients for all the products included in the Ruby collection. While this isn’t enough to drive me away from my mineral foundation, certain experts agree that it can cause itching, redness and cystic acne on certain individuals. Not to mention, there’s something awkward about putting something on my face that has been in close contact with lead.

Overall, with the exception of the Classic Mascara and the Ruby Beautifully Luminous Lashes which are right up at the top of my list for worst mascaras ever used, the bareMinerals Ruby collection was fair. The Ruby clutch, the precision brushes and the luscious, mocha scented gloss were the high points in my opinion, with the All-Over Color and Eyecolors being decent, but nothing that would take a spot on my Drool Worthy list. This collection is available at Sephora.com for $54.00 (a $145.00 value), but I can honestly say I would rather spend my hard-earned money elsewhere. 

*Photos from a1-birthstone-jewelry.com and my own collection.

**Other products I used for the posted photos, aside from the bareMinerals Ruby Collection are: Dermablend Reflections foundation in Ivory Bisque, Coty Airspun loose powder in translucent, Beautique eyebrow pencil in blonde, MAC eyeshadow in Shroom (brow bone), MAC eyeshadow in Beauty Marked (water line) Palladio lipliner in Natural.