Review of the Conservatorie Pressed Mineral Foundations

The Conservatorie is a wholesale supplier of mineral make-up ingredients, but they also have a "Private Label" portion of their website, where they sell pressed mineral foundations, eye shadows, blushes, etc. Usually there's a wholesale minimum you have to buy, but sometimes they change it and allow you to buy retail. I was only interested in pressed mineral foundations, since I was tired of lugging with me brushes and jars of stuff when I'm traveling. Try to put on loose mineral powder on a plane! :-)

The Conservatorie website doesn't have color descriptions for the pressed mineral foundations, and there's no samples available to purchase. All these makes selection process pretty hard, that's why I decided to write this guide. The store doesn't have a showroom, so I had to buy like ten different foundations just to find a matching shade. But when I found it, it matches so well that it really disappears into my skin, like there's nothing there! So, if you have time and extra money, you can order several smaller pressed foundation palettes and have fun with them at home. :-)

The quality of the Conservatorie's foundations is very good and comparable with major brands. They have medium coverage that can be built up if desired. There are a lot of different shades for light-skinned people. I have a light-colored skin with neutral or beige undertones, and I usually buy a shade next to the lightest one, like "ivory" or "porcelain", but their light-colored shades were way too light for me, so I had to go into mediums - my shade turned out to be "toffee".

All foundations look much lighter on the skin than in the photos. Here are sample swatches on a white sheet of paper:

Here are photos of the foundations:

Here are color descriptions, in order from the lightest to the darkest. 

I divided them into color groups of the same color intensity. I didn't sample some extra-light shades, such as "Light" and "Porcelain", since it was obvious that they would be too light for me.



VERY LIGHTS 
For very fair complexions

Fair
Very light with pinkish undertones.

Fairly light
Very light with peachy undertones



LIGHTS
A little bit darker than "very lights", but still fair

Nude

Light with pinkish undertones

Nutmeg

Light with beige undertones

Ivory

A little bit darker than the previous two. Has very strong yellow undertones.

LIGHT-MEDIUMS 
For medium-light complexions

Golden Honey
Light medium with strong yellow undertones

Golden Medium
Light medium with bronze undertones

Medium Beige
Light medium with peachy undertones

Toffee
Light medium with beige undertones



MEDIUMS 
For tanned or darker-skinned complexions

Medium
Medium with strong peachy-pink undertones

Medium Tan
Medium with beige undertones