Money Saving Face Powder and Blush

I am a hairdresser, so I have access to cosmetics that have either been discontinued, the company has changed the packaging & made perfectly good cosmetics obsolete, or we at the shop change brands that we want to sell, leaving us with left over stock.
Well, most of the time, the colors are too dark for my fair English skin, so I pass them up. But I recently saw a blog where a girl made me have a DUH moment. Most face powders are 90% corn starch! YES CORN STARCH. The stuff you make gravy with. Sooooo I had an idea. Why not take all those unwanted powders, combine them all, mix in corn starch, and see what I get. Couldn't hurt, right? No one was claiming them.
So that's just what I did.

These are an assortment of powders. Some were my own, almost gone, collecting dust & taking up room in my cosmetic box. Some were very expensive, high end powders that no one else wanted, from work. You'll notice one was even a shimmery bronzer type powder. I threw that in as well...again...couldn't hurt!

So, this is all of them, plopped into a container. Doesn't look like much, but if you look at the above picture, there was one that was super dark, so I figured I would have enough pigment to get a really big amount.

So then I just started to slowly add in the corn starch. Little by little. Putting the lid on & shaking like crazy, (let the dust settle a bit before taking the lid back off) testing the shade every so often on my arm. Now, remember, you can ALWAYS add more corn starch, so there is no need to rush this. Just have patience & keep going.

So this is where I decided to end. I think I may need to go a bit lighter, but I want to wait until I try it tomorrow morning for work.

The amount of powder I got really surprised me. I used a pint container, and it filled it just about 3/4 of the way up! Plus, I think there was one more dark shade at work no one wanted, so I may be adding even more. I think I could have a full pint OR MORE before I'm done. And since I only wear makeup 4 days a week when I have to go to work, I think this will last me a VERY long time. I can't gauge the cost of this, but considering the powders from work can range anywhere from $25 to $45 (and FREE for me!), and a 16oz box of cornstarch cost a little over a buck, I think you can do the math.

This opens up the possibility for you to maybe buy a very dark powder, to get the amount of pigment you need, then mix it up with the corn starch & end up getting BUCKETS more! Talk about bang for your buck!!

And don't throw away all your empties, because you'll need a littler container to keep in your purse, or to make up some varying colors. You could keep some darker for summer tans, or keep one more shimmery for nighttime. In any case...Don't throw anything away! Are you crazy?! Ha Ha Ha

So then.....

I started looking at all the different blushes I had! All the colors I bought over the years, that after I got them home & tried them I looked like a blushing CLOWN. I thought, "If it worked for the face powder, it must work for blush too, right?"

And it did!

These are all my half used, never used, have no idea what I was thinking, bits of blush.
Same process...crush that up, then add corn starch SLOWLY. Lid back on, shake shake shake...

And there you have it! The perfect shade of rose I've searched my whole life for! Again, the real test will be when I do my makeup in the morning, but all I have to do is dump in a bit more corn starch. It's not like it's rocket science...:)

I hope you found this helpful & it gave you some ideas about consolidating some unused powders and blushes. Or just gave you ideas about maybe buying that darker shade & getting a lot more product from it...Either way, just thought I'd share my messy fun for the night :)