Etude House Precious Mineral BB Compact (General thoughts)

I can't say I'm a big fan of Etude House products. I haven't tried that many altogether, but I've tried different types of products (like an eyeshadow palette which I mini reviewed here, a couple of BB creams and some of their skincare items). I get drawn to their products because they are such a famous Korean cosmetics company. Most of their products come in really cute packaging (which says nothing about the actual product itself I know, but ngl, it does sway my thinking) and the promo pics for their new lines always look so good (especially when they get someone as pretty as Park Shin Hye to be their model).

If only adverts were truthful and products really gave you skin like that.

I bought the Compact from this really awesome eBay seller, lots of people always ask how you can tell if they are good sellers and really I guess you just look at the basics (like if they're a power seller, if they have lots of good feedback and for me, the main thing is to look for the authentic Korean seal - some products like old skin79 stuff used to have certain seals on it so that's how I always knew if they were genuine products, and I also got lucky that the seller was helpful with my questions too).

Anyhoo, there are 3 types of BB Compacts to choose from - Silky, Sheer and Flawless coverage.

They all have different coloured lids to differentiate. The first two didn't seem to have much coverage at all and I assumed they'd have that annoying shimmer in them (rather than a subtle sheen or soft glow). So I got number 3 for flawless coverage.

Also comes with a cute but thin (not very useful) sponge

As expected I did love the box it came in. The actual compact is very sturdy, do like it a lot. It also came with a thin (ish) sponge and then a plastic cover.

I would say this provides medium coverage which is a lot for a powder (most of the ones I've used are transparent apart from things like MAC mineralise skin finishes (the "natural" ones that are like powder foundation). I didn't like the colour of this much and that's why, for me, I didn't like the fact that the coverage wasn't light. That seems like a total contradiction - I wanted a heavier coverage powder to give me that "flawless" look and then when I get it I'd preferred it to be lighter - well it's 'coz the colour is so yellow toned. Like YELLOW. It doesn't look so bad in the pics but when I did try it on my face it was not attractive, it wasn't awful but I can't say I looked natural, I just felt very cakey and it was so obvious I had lots of makeup on.

It also had minute shimmers in it that I didn't notice at first but closer inspection in sunlight showed them up. So for me this would not be a good product to wear in sunlight unless you want to look shiny all over.

I'm not saying it's an all round bad product. But it just wasn't for me. I like foundation and powder to look natural, like a second skin. This does not look natural on my NC25ish skin. I think if you know you have very yellow toned skin this would be a good product (though I will say I thought I was yellow enough for it- but i guess not). Also, if you have normal skin you might like it. On my combination skin I just felt like it showed up my dry patches a little more than a normal powder would.

This was somewhere around £10 for me (with shipping) which is a lot for a mediocre (ish) powder. I'd rather pay less and get a Bourjois powder or pay more and get a Laura Mercier powder.

It doesn't mean I'm abandoning Etude House products completely but I'm going to be very selective about what I buy in future, I'd rather not waste my money "testing" things, instead I think I'll only buy products that have rave reviews all round.