When I came up with the whole idea of my makeup line, I used the concept of collections. Collections meaning ” a group of things that have relevence to each other”.

That is exactly what I did! I only had a couple or three collections when I started and I’ve certainly added to the collections in the last five years. The very first collection was The Wizard of Oz collection.

I used things from the famous movie that correlated to the colors I was working with at the time. For instance, ruby slippers is a pretty ruby red color and yellow brick road is a glittery gold.

Each of the Painted Laydies Mineral Makeup collections inlcude colors for eye, lips, and face. Many colors, as with most mineral makeup, can be used for several purposes. Ruby Slippers can be used as both blush or lip color and eye color too if you want.

I also used a lsightly different concept in labeling each color. While many companies call label their colors as an “eyeshadow” or “blush”, I don’t. I simply mark any colors that are not deemed safe for use on the lips by the FDA with the wording ” no lips”.

This leaves color and usage interpretations completely up to the customer. Don’t let me tell you where you can or should use each color. Be creative and experiment. What works for one person may not be so great for the next.

However, for those who need guidance, we are working on adding sets of colors that work well together. We already have a couple up on the site in a 3 piece and 4 piece set.

Take a look here http://www.paintedlaydies.com/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=Sets

Our Collections:

There are a lot of people who don’t understand their skin color. I don’t mean mixed race women here either. Everyone, from all backgrounds has trouble with this.

Lets see if I can help. One way to see your skin tones is to use fabric of paper swatches.

Using a large piece of fabric or paper in yellow/gold, silver/blue, true red, brown, black and even green can help you see your skin in a different way.

Start by getting in front of a mirror with some good light. No makeup! Now, hold up one of the swatches by your face. Lets say you start with the yellow. Does your skin now look yellow? Or did it become suddenly pink or grey next to the yellow?

Continue on with this excersize and make note of what your skin color looks like next to each color swatch.

When you are done, hopefully you will see a trend throughout. This will likely be your undertone.

Our foundations are made with the primary colors in mind. In case you didn’t take art in high school. The primarys are Red, Yellow, and Green. From these 3 colors, all other colors are made.

Foundation #1 - all foundations with the # 1 are in the cool tone range. They have a blue or green base which is also refered to as ash. I’ve found this to be great for anyone with a lot of ruddines (red) in their natural skin tone or if they have rosacea.

We treat our #2 foundations as our neutral shade but it does have a bit more pink to it. This really does fit about 80 percent of all skin tones out there and even if you arent’ sure of what shade to pick, this will blend the best on everyone.

Foundation #3 - this is yellow. Not only yellow! but for those who get tans easily. Some people just have yellow tones though even if they are light skinned and don’t ever tan.

So, not any one of our 3 shade bases is a perfect match? It’s ok, you can blend your own!

Say you started with the Medium #2 and while it is dark enough, you need a little more yellow to match your tan. No problem!  Using an empty jar, or even a small glass bowl, mix about 1 part #3 to 2 parts #2. Shake, stir, mix it up. Test it. Continue adjusting til you get as much yellow as you need.

This works with all combinations of our foundations, even mixing light to medium or medium to dark. For those times between winter and summer when you aren’t really sun kissed yet, but you aren’t pasty snow white either.

Happy Mixing!