I particularly love all the animal- and nature-themed cards, especially the ones with cats and kittens.

And no, I am in no way affiliated with them; I pay my membership fee happily, and am simply happy to share a good find. Try it now!

As a woman, I find it fun to play with makeup, and I feel more confident when I wear it. I wish I could consider it more optional; however, society has been influenced by the media so strongly that now, if a woman wears makeup, she is seen as more likable, competent, and trustworthy, and is likely to be paid more. Even worse, if you don’t wear makeup, you might be “…sending signals that you are disorganized, uninterested and unable to cope.”

Sad but true.

But most makeup either feels icky on my skin or is filled with chemicals I don’t want to expose myself to or outright irritates my skin. Even knowing about the career bias, I was just unwilling to compromise my health and comfort.

But then, a few years ago, I started hearing about mineral makeup and was intrigued. The claims for it include that it is much healthier for your skin and not irritating, all of which turned out to be true (but see my later comments about certain ingredients). This sounded good, and after experimentation, trying out different brands and different products, I have decided it is definitely for me!

But I have learned a few things about it–what works and what doesn’t–and am sharing this information with others.

What Does It Do, and Why?

One of my first questions was, can mineral makeup help clear up red skin (rosacea) and acne? The answer is very emphatically yes. The main ingredients, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, have anti-inflammatory properties, which helps soothe skin so it is less red. Zinc oxide also has anti-bacterial properties, which is why it can help clear up acne. It takes a while for results to show (for redness, about two months of using the mineral makeup at least several times a week), but the results are clear and definite.

Also, most ingredients used in mineral makeup are non-comedogenic; that is to say, they don’t clog pores. Clogged pores can lead to acne, so this is good. (But see my note about talc, below.)

Mineral makeup lasts, both on your face and in the container, Once on, aside from, perhaps, your lipstick, mineral makeup should be good for the day. For whatever reason, mineral makeup tends to kind of meld with your skin, giving it a lovely, smooth texture that lasts all day and well into the night without touch-ups. Also, if you don’t contaminate your mineral makeup (assuming it is in powder form), it should last in the container indefinitely.

What to Avoid

I avoid certain ingredients, chief among them bismuth oxychloride and talc.

Bismuth Oxychloride

However, many of the brands on the market contain bismuth oxychloride, which I found by direct experience irritates my skin. When I tried two different brands, both of which contained it (without my knowing it), my skin very quickly started feeling as though a thousand teensy tiny ants were biting me.

Now, you will find some people in the industry saying that “only a very small percentage” of the population, those who are “particularly sensitive,” need to worry about this ingredient, but my way of thinking about it is this: consider people with sensitive skin to be like the canary in the coal mine. The miners may be more robust and not aware of the danger they are in, but they will be just as dead as the canary if they ignore the warning.

Not that I think bismuth oxychloride is deadly, but if it irritates my skin, it might be doing something to the skin of others even if they aren’t aware of it. So I recommend avoiding it. There are several excellent brands that don’t use it, so it is easy enough to avoid. Some brands I have tried and love are L.A. Minerals, Smoky Mountain Minerals, and Erth Mineral Makeup. Physician’s Formula also does not have bismuth oxychloride, but their range of mineral makeup is very limited.

Talc

Another ingredient that many brands use is talc. Talc is inexpensive and makes a good filler. however, unlike other minerals used in mineral makeup, talc is comedogenic. Also, some people are sensitive to it; I am not, but I avoid it anyway. Again, there are several excellent brands (including the ones I’ve mentioned) that don’t use talc either, so it, too, is easy enough to avoid.

Binders, Liquids, Preservatives, Oh My!

Some major brands have hopped on the mineral makeup bandwagon and have made liquid makeup that they label as “mineral makeup.” It is true that many of the ingredients in mineral makeup have been used in non-mineral makeups for decades. However, the whole point of mineral makeup is that it is a loose, dry powder that doesn’t contain liquids, binders, preservatives, excipients, etc. (Full disclosure here: I wrote that section of that Wikipedia entry, but it is nonetheless true.) Liquids especially mean that preservatives have to be added; it is difficult in the cosmetic world to find a preservative that isn’t at least potentially harmful to your health.

Mineral Makeup Techniques

But how to wear it? My first experiments resulted in a white, powdery face that was the opposite of attractive. Experimentation led to a simple set of tools and techniques.

Tools

The basic tools for mineral makeup is a foundation brush made specifically for mineral makeup. After trying other brands, I have become incredibly fond of the Ecotools line of brushes. Not only are they soft and effective, they are also made from bamboo, recycled aluminum, and synthetic (rather than animal) fibers. And the prices (especially on Amazon.com) are much lower than other brands. I own a powder brush that I use for foundation, an eyeliner brush, and a set of brushes for eyes. I also own the retractable kabuki brush, which I carry with me in my purse. If you are getting an Ecotools set, be sure to purchase the ones made for mineral makeup.

In addition, I have a small, shallow wooden bowl to put the foundation in before I pick it up with my brush, and an even smaller clay bowl my daughter made for me, which I use for blush.

Techniques

This is already a long post, so I will only very briefly describe the techniques that work for me. I discovered by experimentation that I get the very best results from putting a good lotion on a clean face, letting my skin absorb it for 10 to 20 minutes, then putting on the mineral makeup. So my daily routine is to shower, put on lotion, get dressed, and then put on makeup. (My favorite lotion is Shikai’s Borage Therapy Advanced Formula, which gives my dry skin a lovely satin texture without being in any way sticky or heavy. I use it all over, not just on my face.) If your skin isn’t so dry, experiment to see if you can get away without using lotion, or perhaps with using a lighter lotion. But your skin needs some moisture so the minerals will cling.

I first put on a color corrector in places that need it, then put a very small amount of foundation into my wooden bowl. I swirl the foundation brush in the powder, tap off the loose stuff, then dust lightly on my face. If I feel I need another layer, I repeat the process; one of the many nice things about mineral makeup is that you can layer it on as thick as you like. (Though at a certain point it stops looking good.)

Sometimes I use my blush bowl the same way, though often I just use my fingers to apply my blush.

I also use my fingers to apply my eyeshadow. For liner, I sometimes dip my eyeliner brush in water and dip it in the mineral makeup in a tiny sample container I got from L.A. Minerals (which can be refilled from the larger container). Other times I use my fingers to smudge mineral makeup along my upper eyelash line.

I also sometimes put mineral blush over my lipstick to set it and modify the color somewhat. Then I head out the door, ready for the day.

Thank you for reading such a long post; I hope the information was useful enough to have made it worth reading.

I haven’t had an advent calendar in many years, but this year a friend of mine sent me a software advent calendar that is thoroughly charming and delightful. From JacquieLawson.com, an English company, the calendar sits as an animated snowglobe on your desktop. Each day, you can enlarge it to enter an English country village to see what new thing is going on in preparation for Christmas. Locations in the village are numbered, and you click on the number for the corresponding day. The location expands into an animation with holiday music, after which you see the entire village again, only this time with activity continuing at the location you clicked. Of course, you can view the village any time, and enlarge the location and re-view the animation any time as well.

The best part of this is that the advent calendar is incredibly affordable. If you just purchase one, it is only US$3; the enjoyment I am getting out of this gift is all out of proportion to such a tiny price. The price goes down by 25 cents with each additional one you purchase; at 5 or more, the price is only US$2. I highly recommend this calendar as an inexpensive and yet thoroughly delightful way to share your joy in this holiday season with family and friends.

JacquieLawson.com also has an animated greeting card service that is similarly very inexpensive; you can send birthday or other greeting cards, or even schedule cards to be sent days, weeks, or even months from now. You can have JacquieLawson.com send you a reminder to send a card.

(In case you are wondering, I am not affiliated with JacquieLawson.com in any way; I am simply sharing my enjoyment and enthusiasm for this gift so others can know about it as well. It is a sad thing to me that so many people create blogs for the sole purpose of “recommending” something for which they are being paid. My blog is not like that. If I ever do recommend something for which I might receive a fee, such as a book at Amazon.com, I will tell you so. Even then, be assured I have never recommended something, and never will. unless I truly and sincerely think it is something worth recommending.)

Here are a few tips on indexing that might help make your indexes easier to create and use.

Some Definitions

A main entry (also called a main heading, but I don’t want to muddy the waters here) is an index topic that doesn’t come under another topic. A sub-entry is an index topic that comes under a main entry. Here’s an example:

cats <== this is a main entry
    about 6 <== this is a sub-entry

Levels refers to how many entries and sub-entry levels you have. I highly recommend having no more than three levels; most indexes do fine with just two.

cats <== this is level 1
    about 6 <== this is level 2
        food dishes 8 <== this is level 3

Page Numbers and Entries

If you have an index entry that refers to a lot of pages (my rule of thumb for “a lot” is more than three), create sub-entries for each of those pages. In other words, instead of having something like this:

cats 6, 8, 9-12, 37, 43

Create sub-entries for each of those pages, like this:

cats
    about 6
    breeds 43
    feeding 8
    genetics 9-12
    training 37

That way, your readers can more quickly find exactly what they are looking for, instead of having to check every page reference until they find it.

Cross-references

There are two most commonly used cross-references: See, and See Also. Normally just the words See or See also are place in italics.

See References

A See reference sends people from a term they might be looking for to the equivalent term you actually used in the index. There should never be page numbers or sub-entries with a See reference. For example,

felines. See cats.

When should you use a See reference? If you are going to have a lot of entries under one main entry, you don’t want to have to duplicate it under another main entry. That’s a good case for See references. Otherwise you will get something like this (which, by the way, is prone to errors, as you will inevitably forget to index something under one or the other main entry):

cats
    about 6
    breeds 43
    feeding 8
    genetics 9-12
    training 37
    ... etc.

felines
    about 6
    breeds 43
    feeding 8
    genetics 9-12
    training 37
    ... etc.

If a main entry is only going to have two or three entries under it, then skip the See reference and index the same topics under both main entries.

cats 6, 9
felines 6, 9

See Also References

A See also cross-reference notifies people that there are related index entries under another entry. Generally a See also reference goes from a more specific entry to a less specific entry, as in the following example, where cats is more specific and pets is less specific.

cats
    See also pets.
    about 6
    breeds 43
    feeding 8
    genetics 9-12
    training 37

You would NOT normally have a See also reference from pets to cats, though you might well have a See reference from a sub-entry to a main entry, as in the following example. You would do this if that entry is going to have a lot of sub-entries of its own. You can even have more than one such See reference.

pets
    about 4
    cats. See cats.
    choosing 5
    dogs. See dogs.

See also references can either come at the end of the sub-entries, or at the start. Both ways are correct and there are reasons for either; I prefer to place them at the start so people know right away that there are related entries.

Note that you can have a See also reference to a general set of topics rather than to one specific topic; if you do this, place the entire See also reference in italics so people don’t get confused (in this example, so they don’t think “individual animal breeds” is a main entry).

pets
     See also individual animal breeds.
    about 4
    cats. See cats.
    choosing 5
    dogs. See dogs.

See Herein and See Also Herein

See herein refers people from one sub-entry to another sub-entry under the same main entry. It is mostly used in legal documents. See also herein is similar. You probably won’t need either.

Capitalization

An older index style is to capitalize all main entries whether they are proper nouns or not. That style is also considered to be more formal. More recent trends (especially in scientific literature) is to capitalize a word only if it would normally be capitalized (i.e., is a proper noun).

Main entries capitalized:

Burmese cats 12-14

Cats
    about 6
    breeds 43
    Burmese. See Burmese cats.
    feeding 8
    genetics 9-12
    training 37

Felines. See Cats.

Main entries follow normal capitalization of word:

Burmese cats 12-14.

cats
    about 6
    breeds 43
    Burmese. See Burmese cats.
    feeding 8
    genetics 9-12
    training 37

felines. See cats.

Final Tips

If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for sticking with me. Here are a few quick practices for people who just want to get it done:

• Every heading should have at least one index entry. Think about what the main topic is for the material under a heading, and index accordingly. You normally wouldn’t use the heading itself, but instead will use an informative index entry.
• Think of how someone might approach your book. What terms are they going to use? Are there other terms people use than what you used? Those are good candidates for See references.
• If your book is about tomatoes, then the assumed main entry for every entry in your index is tomatoes. This means you should NOT have tomatoes as a main entry. On rare occasions, you might have tomatoes as a main entry in such a book, but it should not have many sub-entries and it should have a really good reason for being there.
• For readability, your material should go no more than half a page without a heading level of some kind. This makes it easier to index as well.

If you are interested in the topic or in becoming an indexer (most indexers are freelancers), check out the American Society for Indexing’s Web site:

http://www.asindexing.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1