If you have been living under a rock this past week then you may have missed that Sunday was the evening of the biggest red carpet event of the year – The 84th Academy Awards!

This year brought some stunning looks with an obvious trend and focus on enhancing natural beauty, something we here at Alexami strongly approve of. So, we thought we would give you all a few of our favorite faces of the evening and how you can recreate their look!

Emma Stone

Firstly, we have cutie Emma Stone. This look is perfect for almost any occasion and will suit you gorgeous gals with cool and paler skin tones.

1. The Base – On a clean face, apply Alexami’s Mattifying Primer to prepare the face. Follow with Alexami’s Mineral Foundation Powder in Matte, in the color that suits your skin tone.

2. The Eyes – As a base, apply Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Pearl White with your finger all over your lid and up to your brow. Then using a blending brush, lightly dust Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Candy Pink over the lid and just above your crease. For the liner, dip a brush such as Alexami’s Vegan Angle Brush into a small bit of water. Dab of any excess moisture onto a tissue then using the slightly damp brush, dip into Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Matte Black. Line the very inner corner of your top lid and continue along the rest of your eye making sure to stay close to your lash line. Apply another line just above the one you made to thicken the line out slightly at the outer lid. Moisten your brush again if necessary then finish with a cat eye flick tapering to a fine point just beyond your outer corner (refer to image). Finish the eyes with Alexami’s Herbal Mineral Mascara in Black and lightly fill in your brows with the technique of your choice (either shadow or pencil).

3. The Lips - Exfoliate and moisturize the lips with lip balm. Follow with Alexami’s Mineral Vegan Lip Gloss in Raspberry. Then pucker and press your lips to a tissue to mattify the gloss slightly.

4. The Cheeks – Being careful to keep this very subtle, lightly apply a dusting of Alexami’s Perfect Puff Minerals Blush in Candy Pink to the apples of your cheeks.

Octavia Spencer

Next up is something for the darker, warmer toned beauties using Octavia Spencer as inspiration. Her look, as Emma’s is very versatile. It manages to be sultry but not too dramatic at the same time.

1. The Base – On a clean face, apply Alexami’s Mattifying Primer to prepare the face. For a more radiant finish, make your own liquid foundation (for tutorial, click here) with Alexami’s Mineral Foundation Powder in the color for your skin tone. Apply to face with a sponge by blotting it onto the skin. Contour the face with Alexami’s Mineral Bronzer in Medium/Dark, focusing on your cheekbones, temples and under the chin.

2. The Eyes – Using your finger, apply Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Camel all over the lid and up to the brow. Using a shader brush, press Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Cappuccino over the lid up to the crease. Put Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Black onto a small/medium blending brush and tap off excess to avoid any fall-out. Guide this into the outer crease of the eye and from the outer edge of the lid to the center. Blend well with a larger blending brush. For the liner, dip a brush such as Alexami’s Vegan Angle Brush into Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Matte Black and apply along the upper lash line. Finish the eyes with 2 coats of Alexami’s Herbal Mineral Mascara in Black and then lightly fill in your brows with the method of your choice.

3. The Lips – Exfoliate and apply lip balm to your lips then follow with Alexami’s Mineral Vegan Lip Gloss in Bronze. Blot the lips with a tissue to mattify the gloss slightly.

4. The Cheeks - Using a blush brush, apply Alexami’s Perfect Puff Minerals Blush in Coral pink along your cheek bone. Finish by highlighting your cheekbones with Alexami’s Mineral Illuminating Powder in Gold.

Jennifer Lopez

Despite the controversy over Jennifer’s small ‘wardrobe malfunction’, she still looked radiant and amazing as always. This look is so great for the evening and would suit neutral to warm skin tones.

1. The Base – Same as Octavia’s above.

2. The Eyes – Using your finger, apply Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Soft Peach all over the lid and up to the brow. With a small/medium shader brush, apply Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Aubergine to the outer crease and into the inner part just below the eyebrow, avoiding the very inner crease (reference image above). Blend out well with a blending brush. Using the shader brush again, apply more Aubergine below the eye, focusing more on the outer side. With a clean shader brush, apply more Soft Peach over the lid, avoiding overlapping your defined crease that you just created. For the liner, dip a brush such as Alexami’s Vegan Angle Brush into a small bit of water. Dab of any excess moisture onto a tissue then using the slightly damp brush, dip into Alexami’s Mineral Eye Shadow in Matte Black. Thickly line your top lash line to the outer edge. With the excess powder that remains on the brush, line the very outside of your lower lash line and pull it up into a flick (as seen in picture). Now, using Pearl White and the damp brush technique, apply another line just above the flick you created. This opens and lifts the eye. Finish by filling in your brows and applying 3 coats of Alexami’s Herbal Mineral Mascara in Black along with false lashes if so desired.

3. The Lips - Exfoliate and apply lip balm to your lips then follow with Alexami’s Mineral Vegan Lip Gloss in Clear. Blot the lips with a tissue to mattify the gloss slightly.

4. The Cheeks – Jennifer has very slight contouring which will be created with bronzer during the base application. To make the whole look pop though, apply Alexami’s Mineral Illuminating Powder in Gold to your cheekbones and the bridge of your nose.

We hope that you enjoy these looks and give them a try for yourself! Let us know how they turn out!

A friend recently told me about a great new ‘natural’ skin product she was using, and when she started rattling off a list of its ingredients the top of the list was mineral oil.

When I stopped her to mention mineral oil wasn’t really the most desirable ingredient for sensitive skin, she seemed confused. “But mineral cosmetics are supposed to be great for sensitive skin, right? Aren’t mineral oils in the same category?” she quizzed.  She was shocked when I explained that although the term mineral oil has a healthy and natural ring to it, mineral oil has nothing to do with mineral cosmetics, or even vitamins and minerals – it actually refers to a by-product of petroleum.

Mineral oil is made during the distillation process of turning crude oil into petroleum to make gasoline for our cars and other petrol-based products. Some other names for mineral oil are the less appealing terms ‘liquid petroleum’ and ‘petrolatum’, so it’s no wonder most cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies list the product under the less innocuous-sounding mineral oil moniker.

Although mineral oils have enjoyed popular use in baby lotions, ointments and cosmetics for decades thanks to its seemingly-remarkable moisturizing and water repellent properties, it’s now commonly accepted that mineral oil is residue-forming and comedogenic – meaning it can block pores and cause acne. Petrolatum and mineral oils do not absorb into the skin because the molecules are too large to penetrate, therefore they stay on the surface and provide a barrier between the skin and the air. This makes it really useful for anti-chaffing products like nappy ointment and lip balm, and a popular additive to moisturising creams. However the barrier-like properties of mineral oil can also suffocate the skin, interfering with skin’s natural ability to eliminate toxins while trapping dirt and bacteria. Healthy skin needs to take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, and it can’t do that when it’s covered in a dense film. When ingested, mineral oils can also block the body’s natural ability to utilize vitamins and minerals. It’s factors like these that led John Hopkins University to name mineral oil in cosmetics and moisturizers as the number two cause of skin aging behind sun exposure.

However as it’s a cheap ingredient, mineral oil is still used extensively in everything from hair care products to makeup removers. Many companies claim mineral oils are perfectly safe, but since September 2004, the EU has banned the use of petroleum jelly due to the carcinogenic contamination found in products containing petrolatum. The ingredients for which these impurities are of concern are used in one of every four personal care products.

So it may be wise to avoid mineral oil – or at the very least limit your exposure by being aware of how much of it you’re putting on your skin. Unfortunately however, it’s not always easy to identify mineral oil amongst ingredients as it has many guises and names including the following you should keep an eye out for:

* Liquidum paraffinum

* Paraffin oil

* Paraffin wax

* Petrolatum

Alexami cosmetics do not use mineral oil, and/or it’s derivatives, in any of our products. All Alexami products are proudly mineral oil free.