Silk Naturals Review

Those who know me, know that I have a special place in my heart for Silk Naturals. I started using Silk Naturals products in October 2007. At the time, they had just expanded their single-formula foundation to include a second color for warmer skintones, still operated an ebay store, and were considered quite new to the market. There wasn't a skincare line back then. I stumbled upon them through a forum, fell in love, and never looked back. Bear with me if I gush a bit much on how amazing their products are. I wear it pretty much everyday.

*SN has a wide client-base, but the most diehard customers are those with sensitive skin, skin problems (like eczema and rosacea), formerly unmatchable pale or dark skintones, those with a wide range of allergies to traditional makeup and skincare, and the environmentally conscious.

Some cool things you should know:
-They offer a Vegan line
-Most SN products are gluten free (most are soy free too) and all the ingredients are labeled.
-There's always a GWP (Gift With Purchase)
-SN is one of the most affordable mineral makeup lines available- with quality to boot.
-SN is fast becoming a one-stop shop with makeup, skincare, and haircare all in one place. They occasionally offer fragrances too.

The Foundation

Silk Naturals' foundation is very unique in that it's designed for custom mixing your perfect shade from a white base and color additives. Women who have never found a foundation match before have found salvation at silk naturals. The white bases are all super creamy in texture and vary in coverage and formula, and the colored additives cover a wide range of skintones as well as concentrated color correctors (yellow, green, lavender) to accomodate extremes and prevent orange-ness. I like their newest foundation (multi-purpose) best, which is designed to work well with wet mineral application, and is Vegan. I don't particularly love mixing foundation, and occasionally don't mix mine well enough. SN's foundation is very nice and of almost 50 mineral companies i tried when i was first delving into the world of indie mineral makeup, SN is definitely in my top 5, but it's not my alltime favorite just due to the fact that i don't love mixing my own.

Blushes, Bronzers, and Glows

Silk Naturals was the first mineral blush I found that I could use- it wasn't dull, it didn't give me clown cheeks, and it didn't turn orange. The sheer shades can be used with a baby buki and the newer more vibrant colors just need a fiber optic. My favorite colors are Sassy (no longer available but I'm stocked up) and Cider. Drama is perfect for contouring. The Bronzers are special in that they're mistake proof and natural looking for a touch of sunkissed color. The Glows have not surpassed Dayna's Minerals glows for me, but are ridiculously popular among women on the forum. Adding Glow to foundation became so popular that SN offers a Glow Foundation base.

Concealers, Primers, and Finishers

When I first found SN, there were only 3 concealers- powdered- a yellow and a salmon called "Sleep in a Jar" and a green called "Unblush". In general, I found them to be too sheer for a concealer and passed them by. Later, Karen (owner/formulator), came out with cream concealers and multiple shades which offered more coverage than a powder and great coverage with layered and set with a corresponding powdered concealer. I would still like them to be a little more opaque and would really love for the cream concealers to come in a stick (they currently come in stackable pans), but they are quality. I currently use a cream concealer stick by another company and set it with a peach shade of powdered SN SIAJ. I, personally, don't use a primer (because i don't need one and it's an extra step), but SN offers several nice ones including blurs (to shrink pores), mattifiers (for those with oily skin), and skin treatments. The Perfecting Powder was the very first product SN ever offered, and does an amazing job of soft-focusing skin and hiding imperfections. There's also tinted finishers for those who don't love a white finisher that really give dull or tired skin a pick-me-up.

Eyeshadow & Primers

I have a real love for SN eyeshadows. They come in a wide range of finishes and colors (satins, suede, mattes, morphs, and shimmers- muted metals and neon brights) and are always wearable. Some shadows really need a learning curve, but not SN shadows. The colors are easy to pack on or blend out and SN offers a foiling medium (especially great for morphing shadows) and a primer (lasts all day without creasing, and gives eyeshadows an oomph similar to foiling). This would probably be the place to review the cream-liners, but it's the one SN product I don't use due to an ingredient allergy- i am allergic to soy and while I actually can use skincare with soy in it, eyeliner gets in your eyes and mixes with your bodily fluid (tears) and i had a very bad experience with this liner. SN gave me a refund/credit when we discovered i couldn't use the product and i just get to be jealous of those who can. It's supposed to be very comparable to indelibles if not even more loved.

LIPPIES!!!

SN makes hands-down THE best lippies on the market, from balms to glosses to lipsticks. Karen is always trying to find the perfect balance in texture, moisture, and lastability, and she nails it. She even won an award recently for it. I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain all of the lippies are organic now, there's a vegan line available, all are gluten free, and only one or two types contain soy. There's also a list of which ones contain carmine for those who avoid it. The lippies were my true weakness in SN. It can be really difficult to find mineral lip colors in general, and to find them without a bad taste or drying formula is even harder, at a decent price? impossible. SN has all you want in a huge array of colors with new ones being released all the time. In the lip balms and treatments, there's even a plumper of sorts and lots of fun flavors. I own them all. no joke. They're like crack. We have a 12 step program on the forum. Seriously. Yes, the font for this section is excessively large. It deserves it. I promise.

Brushes

SN doesn't make their own brushes, but the brushes they offer are top-notch soft, silky, synthetics (trust me, if you don't have a synthetic, you NEED one). I especially love the long handled flat top and the ultimate eyeshadow brush- they are must haves. The fiber optics offered are really nice too and essential for the more pigmented blushes. With these 3 brushes, you can live quite happily in makeup land for a long time. Synthetics are great because they offer unrivaled softness and texture, pick up and buff in minerals really well, last longer because the bristles don't wear down and break like natural hair, and are VEGAN, so no animals were harmed in the making of these brushes. lol. I prefer synthetics for my paintbrushes and I prefer synthetics for my skin. *I have several of the makeup bags as well- they're really well made and perfect for traveling.

Skincare

Skincare is a broad category, and there are some products i love more than others, but because skin varies so much from person to person, i don't really feel it's fair to review it. The quality of SN is ever present, and many products are formulated to do special things for special skin needs. I have sensitive skin so some of the harsher acids don't work for me and (hangs head abashedly) i don't always like to wash my face at night, so I'm finding tthe moisturizers aren't the best fit for me either because of the emulsifier. Some of my favorite products are the KISS cleanser (a recipe that was actually bought from a beloved skincare company that closed shop and the recipe tweaked with SN flair), all of the masks, the strawberry spritz hydrosol, the cuticle balm, and especially the lavender hand lotion which my mom loves too. The eyelash gel is actually amazing as well- i have really long lashes to begin with, so i often forget to apply this, but at one point i used it regularly and DID see ridiculously long lashes (they started touching my brow bone when i opened my eyes). It's basically an energy drink for your lashes. The haircare line hasn't trully been launched yet- but the conditioner is amazing. It's meant to be a cleansing conditioner, but i use it as conditioner only (what can i say, i like shampoo- it's part of my routine and i'm set in my ways). The conditioner makes my hair softer, shinier, and detangles in the shower so that i don't need a separate detangler.

As for men: my husband uses SN lipbalms, and KISS cleanser and when solid cologne sticks were available, he loved those too(SN had an Armani Code dupe). He also steals my clay masks occasionally.

Customer Service

Bar none, SN customer service is exceptional. Shipping is fast, and communication is fantastic. Your packages arrive with handwritten thankyou notes, free samples, and GWP surprises. The SN forum is one of the friendlist I've ever found, and Karen asks for client opinion, and often makes what we ask for. She also holds contests and sends out test batches of works in progress.

Full Disclosure

I am not paid by SN in any way. I have purchased and use almost every product they make, because i love it. I often send out samples and freebies of things that i have and sort throught my stash for pictures- it's my favorite company.
Have I ever gotten a freebie?
 yes, most people who purchase from SN have. There are freebies in every package. Karen also sends the made product to the person who requested it if she makes it and adds it to the site. There are even 2 customer created sets on the site based on a forum contest. Karen is just that cool. In the interest of full disclosure, i have gotten one freebie in particular outside the norm- a package of special, just for me, one-of-a-kind colors (mostly ones that i had requested at one time or another) for my wedding(roughly 2 years after i had already been using and "collecting" SN products and praising their wonderousness). It was a gift from someone i consider to be a friend, and i suspect I am not the only one to receive such a gift- Karen treats her customers as friends, and she loves what she does. Her generous nature is just another reason why so many people love SN.
Have I ever been part of a test group?
Yes, i frequently get to test out works in progress and give feedback on what i like or don't like about a product so it can be changed- those test groups are comprised almost entirely of SN customers and I am not the only participant. I do not participate in test groups for things that I'm not a target for (difficult skin, ethnic skin, curly hair, humid climate testing, etc.) Honestly, i most often get to test lippies, which you can see from this review are very easily my favorite product.