I tried Bare Minerals because I have rosacea and cannot use most makeups with a flare up. I works really well, does not irritate my skin, and looks great. It even does a really good job of evening out my skin (I feel like Rudolph sometimes!). However, I could not stand the mess it made on my sink any more. So I decided to try purminerals pressed mineral makeup. I am very happy with it. It is pressed not loose so it does not fly all over when I am applying it. It is also a bit more matte than Bare minerals. Since my skin is very oily, I appreciate a little less sparkle. I have been using it about 6 weeks now, so far so good. If it was going to cause my rosacea to flair up, it would have happened by now. It also matches my skin tone better. With the Bare Minerals, I always felt like one color was a bit dark, but the lighter color was a bit too light. Could just be because I don't like to wear makeup. I prefer to look like I don't have any makeup on. Oh yes, I always wear moisturizer under this too, I think all of the mineral powders must be a bit dry, I also tried a fancier brand before, But the colors were nowhere close to my skin tone, I either looked anemic, or sunburned!

I can give you recommendations as to what products to try, but you'd need to e-mail me as the list is 4 pages on a Word document. In the meantime here's some info for you... Water-soluble silicones are dimethicone copolyl (sp) & PEG-modified dimethicones. These are the only silicones 'good' for your hair. Drying alcohols are SD-40, 40-B, 23, & Isopropyl, for instance. A couple of the 'good' alcohols are steryl & ceteryl (sp). The main cleansers of shampoos are ammonium and/or sodium sulfates. They're pretty harsh/drying though. There are two books full of good information that you could borrow from your library on the subject of curly hair... Curly Girl by Lorainne (sp) Massey Curl Talk by Ouidad And there's a website dedicated to wavy & curly hair... www.naturallycurly.com There's a chemist & a shampoo, conditioner, & styling product-maker who post there, plus many other gals who are professed product junkies who've learned by trial & error. There's an ingredients dictionary, curl-411 guide, product lists/guides, articles, etc., on that site. It's free to join.

Last summer I found Devita Solar Protective Moisturizer SPF 30 plus at Vitacost--it got great reviews and I bought it, and the coordinating one for the body, too. Love them. Ingredients are about as pure and healthful as they get, and I have not broken out. ngredients: Active Ingredient: Zinc oxide: 19% Inactive Ingredients: Aloe barbadensis* (aloe vera gel), purified water (aqua), capric/caprylic triglycerides (derived from coconut oil), glycerin (vegetable), hyaluronic acid (vegan source), glyceryl stearate SE (derived from vegetable oil), stearic acid, lecithin phospholipid, tocopherol (vitamin E), allantoin, vitis vinifera (grape) seed extract. Ingredient labeling adheres to international INCI standards. *Certified Organic Here is a link that might be useful: $15 down from $26

I use Alima Pure currently. I've used Bare Minerals in the past and it's comparable to that except it's even better ingredient-wise. I feel like I need to use a lot of the Alima Pure to get decent coverage, though. I ordered a bunch of foundation samples and chose one I thought worked for my skin tone but I definitely chose too light of a color so if I order more I'll go darker next time. They have SO many colors it's difficult to select the best one...but that also means that even if it's not the perfect shade, it will still blend nicely. I didn't care for the concealer at all, at least not for blemishes. I think it would work well to cover general redness but I've never found anything to cover pimples well at all. The finishing powder is okay I guess...I'm not sure it really does anything. I have oily skin and I get VERY oily throughout the day with any brand, Alima Pure included. I really like their blush, and I LOVE their contouring powders! I have extremely fair skin and am still able to use the contouring powder which is awesome. I'm not totally satisfied with Alima Pure, but I have terrible skin...oily, HUGE pores (I mean huge), acne even as an adult, and I've never been satisfied with any brand...but with that said, if I had normal skin I really think I'd be in love with Alima Pure.