Miners is a complete range of innovative, sophisticated and fashion savvy cosmetics aimed a girls and women aged 15-30. visit www.miners.co.uk for more details.
I asked the forum regulars to help me out with this product testing. I fall just outside Miners’ target market, so decided that they ought to have an age appropriate test panel, so our lovely ladies range in age from 18 through to 30!
my sister recently gave me an eyebrow pencil from Miners after been given it to review but the colour was too dark for her eyebrows. my eyebrows are pretty dark so of course she told me to do the review.
any way im not really and expert of eyebrows to be honest im terrible i just reli on getting them waxed every month. but ive been considering shaping them myself because im sick to death of having “bushy” brows. so on to the subject, review! for me a beginner i think its good. and the colour is perfect for me. it lasted for about 6 hourse before the colour just started to sweat off. i work at mcdonalds so thats a record for me. the spoolie is great ive never used one before and will be purchasing one. im very pleased with the outcome to this pencil. its something i can practise with and its soft so its easy appliable. and it comes off quite easy of course there is that scrubbing of the makeup wipe to get inbetween the hairs but compared to the cheap one i got for christmas one year i love it. will post image tomorrow when my camera is working.
Crystal Crush Lipgloss
I cant see a name of the colour but it is a bright pink light reflecting lipgloss which has a orangey gold glitter in it.
The lipgloss went on well needed a few coats to build it up and looked good but is fairly sticky and the smell is a mix of fruit and chemicals which was a bit off putting. The gloss didnt stay glossy very long but the pink colour worked like a stain and i still had pink lips hours later so had good staying power for the colour.
price was £3.91 so a good price, aimed at young teenagers i should think
availibilty – the miners website but i wouldnt know where it could be bought on the high street.
I would recommended it to younger people 15 – 16 years those who want it to use now and then not as a whole look like you think out when your older, I will definatly use it again though – goes well with a tan!
cheek and lip tint
I have been testing this this week and unfortunately I have not got on with it at all.
As a cheek tint its so hard to blend, I’ve tried it before and after powder and it doesn’t make a difference. The colour is very bright, I only applied a tiny dab and it is very pink which mixed with its refusal to be blended isn’t good. Its not a creamy consistancy like some cream blushes its quite a solid blush.
As a lip tint, again the pink is bright but if thats what you’re after then its perfect, its quite drying however. I applied the Too Faced Mirror Mirror gloss over the top and that gave it a nice effect.
Availability of the product isn’t great you can only buy it on the Miners website I haven’t seen it on my local highstreet. I definately wouldn’t buy it again or reccomend it as I wouldn’t buy it just as a lip tint, there are better products out there for that.
Miners Nail Varnish – Perfectly packaged in a long rectangular bottle and typically warm Autumn colours. I was looking forward to testing these.
Not usually a Miners Nail Varnish Girl, with tendencies to stick to what I like, and what’s widely used in the ‘nail industry’, it made a refreshing change to try a new product.
Brush – The brush was smooth, long and fairly thin, the bristles stayed together providing a smooth application without streaks or smudges onto the surrounding skin.
Consistency of varnish – The varnish had surprisingly sleek texture, not thick, easy to apply in 3 smooth, thin strokes per finger, per coat. To gain the maximum colour effect and even texture, I applied 3 thin coats per finger, which is comparable to most current ‘colour’ nail varnishes on the market.
Longevity – It was difficult to measure the lasting effect of this varnish without applying a top coat using the same brand. However, I braved it bare on one hand and applied Stars Nails Quick Dry Top Coat on the other hand (on top of the Miners). The un-topcoated hand only lasted just over a day, then small chips around the tops of the nail started to appear. The hand with the top coat on is still going strong after 3 days!
Summary Perfect to wear for the odd day. I do find the colours are not as vibrant as other leading brands, and the texture is not as silky. But, for a budget nail varnish and for teenagers, it’s well worth the £2.99.
Consistency of Varnish 3/5
Colour Vibrancy 2/5
Ease of Application 4/5
Longevity 2/5
Value for Money 4/5
Miners Colour Quilt
Oookkkkaaaayyyy i’ve tried to take a step back from my new found makeup ‘snobbery’ and bearing in mind a LOT of really good makeup comes from the lower end brands.
I don’t have much previous experience with Miners cosmetics, but do recognise the brand name, and wanted to give these 2 products (other to follow) the fairest i can by trying them for about a week.
what i do like about this is that it’s MATTE! even alot of ‘matte’ products still come with the odd bit of glitter in, and i’m not keen on having any extra shimmer so this was great in that respect!
The product seemed to last well, about the average length of a ‘powder’ blusher, and texture was just what you’d expect, nothing out of the ordinary.
i would probably recommend this to someone on a budget looking for a blusher/bronzer.. but only to people of a darker or very tanned skintone (i.e. not me!) as blended together the colours were waaay too dark. (And even then they would have to perhaps start with a light dusting and build up if neccessary!) I really think this is hit and miss and you would ether hate it or love it.
Don’t depend on this product to blend itself on the brush, you have to blend blend blend on your face even after it’s on. You could get it to look ‘natural’ if you picked up the right amount of each colour, but on the flip side it *could* present itself a little ‘Aunt Sally’ like depending on your skill level.
However, i will be keeping this in my makeup kit to use as a contour colour! but probably only the lightest brown shade for less obvious placed like under my chin. The pink on it’s own is more my kind of blush colour, but it’s hard to just pick up that colour with a brush without the dark brown square leaking in, and even then it’s not enough on its own.
I’m sure i’ve seen better of this kind of makeup around, but for the price (£4.49) it’s not bad. I have to say though, i personally think each miners product i’ve tested is about £1 overpriced. I wouldn’t buy this again, but more so because it just doesn’t suit my skintone.
Miners Fruit Lip Balm
This lip balm, again was nothing groundbreaking and at £2.39 i probably would have been pretty disappointed for the price. Again, at least a pound overpriced.
When doing battle against cult lipbalms like carmex, vaseline etc. the only thing this had against them was the banana smell. (I was born wirthout a sense of smell so had to ask my friend!)
terrible picture – but you can see the packaging was pretty cheap looking and the silver print has pretty much worn off within a week. The label has started to peel and it just looks really cheap. (Harsh but true) I could imagne the only people going for this is your average 12-13 year old shopping in town on a saturday with her friends.. and even then i’d struggle to see them parting with £2.40.
The texture was nice, but then again i’d hope so for a lip balm! It made my lips feel nice for about 1/2 hour or so, but because the tube is tall and thin it needed a fair good few swipes to cover my (big) mouth. The balm stick inside wasn’t solid enough, and broke off in parts so there was rarely a smooth surface to put on your lips.
i wouldn’t buy this again and i wouldnt recommend it unless someone was looking for a banana lip balm. Sorry Miners
Miners Nail Polish
I am reviewing this product from a personal and professional point of view and my comments are based on Jezebel which is dark pink. Relevant comments on the lighter colour of Marshmallow will be mentioned in brackets.
I have also based my review on correct nail plate preparation which includes removal of dead cuticle, file/shape and sanitize/cleanse. This is followed by one clear base coat (Creative Sticky) and one clear top coat (OPI).
Packaging: Comes in a slender rectangular 9ml bottle which is easy to hold. The brush is also slender which sometimes can be a problem if needing to cover a large area eg. big toe or thumb, however, I did not find this to be a problem as I found I was able to dip back into the bottle, reload my brush and apply extra without the polish going gloopy and sticky. It also dried quite quickly.
Texture: Thicker than some polishes on the market, yet not gloopy and went on with a dense application which I felt only needed one good coat, thus, saving time applying a second coat (Marshmallow was less dense and require 2 coats).
I was also impressed with the fact that this polish is non streaky and applies with a smooth even texture.
Longevity: As my nails are short , it means the tips are more in contact with surfaces and objects. I am heavy handed and after 24 hours I felt I needed to reapply another top coat to prevent the tips wearing away.
72 hours later, the polish was still intact with only the hint of fading on the tips and the colur still very strong.
Availability & Price: Not easily avalable on the high street although it can be purchased directly from Miners International and some pharmacies. In all honesty I had never seen or heard of this product until asked to review it.
http://www.miners.co.uk/shop.php?cat=3
At £2.99 it it is a snip for what I think is a user friendly polish.
General thoughts: The range of colours are not huge but some of them are funky and others simply pretty to suite a special occasion or mood.
Personally I would be happy to purchase this product as it would be ideal for a special occasion, weekend away, summer holiday and is priced for those with a limited budget and I give it an overall score of 8/10.
Professionally I find the colour range very limiting and don’t feel the longevity meets professional standards in my opinion and therefore score it 5/10
Miners Eyeshades Stick – Cloud – Priced £3.49
This product is a cream eyeshadow stick in a black twist pen style, in glittery white.
Application = 2/5
The product was easy to apply to the eyelid and glided on smoothly
Longevity = 1/5
After 10 minutes of wearing this eyeshadow, it had all seeped into the crease of my eye, not a pretty sight! I had to wipe it all off and replace it with my usual shadow. I think this happened because the stick is quite greasy and doesn’t dry at all. This product may be better as a highlighter on the brow bone.
Colour = 4/5 (for teenagers)
Not a colour I would normally wear as it’s quite glittery and white, but perfect for teenagers. There was quite a bit of glitter in the product too
Packaging = 1/5
Quite flimsy and the lid wasn’t tight on. If this was in my make-up bag I would guess it wouldn’t stay on and make a mess inside. The sticker on the pen also started to curl off around the edges
Value for money = 2/5
This is priced at £3.49, and in my opinion, you can get better quality products at that lower end of the market around this price. (such as Rimmel or Boots 17)
The mascara – miners lash curl, this is the waterproof one and in brown, to be honest i wasnt really expecting a lot being that it is a cheap brand and not many waterproof mascaras actually are!
anyways it went on well, quite a thin liquid so needed up to 3 coats for it show – but then i am naturally dark so brown on dark lashes might not have helped. It did seem to add a curl to the lashes which i liked and had a very natural look as well. It did last all day which i was impressed with and after scrubbing my face in the bath there was only minimal colour run which is better than a lot more expensive brands i have used in the past. Would def use again, would like to try it in black to get a more dramatic effect but the brown is perfect for everyday.
The eyeshadow, this wasnt quite as good, being that it was bright blue i tried it on 2 occasions, once used with a dark grey for a take on a smokey look and another time as an underlining shadow for a bright look. The colour was true to the colour it looked like but needed a good amount put on and it did tend to drop onto the cheek where it fairly chalky. The colour did last a fee hours but did start to crease and needed touching up. Is worth the money and would recommend it for teenagers which im sure the miners range is aimed at.
Having never heard of Miners before I was really excited to try this nail polish. I am a bit of a polish addict and have at least 15 different types and colours at home – ranging from clear to black.
The nail polish comes in a cute square bottle which is easy to handle and loved the tip of the brush as it wasn’t too broad and I was able to control the nail polish application better.
I am not a fan of thick gloopy nail polishes as I find when the coats are too thick they tend to chip and peel more. Miners Nail polish had a lovely smooth texture and the colour pay off was great with just 1 coat. There was no need to do a 2nd coat. I did however think that the polish could’ve been just slightly less runny – you really had to be careful otherwise you would end up with a big blob on your nail or some dripping off the top of the length of the brush.
I see these are priced at £2.99 which I think is very reasonable, although not widely available and only selected shops/pharmacies sell these. They are, however available to buy online.
The colour of this nail polish on their website comes across as a pink – when in fact it is a lovely maroon/purple colour (VERY different to the picture on their website – so if you buy it hoping for a pink you would be very disappointed). The finished look does have a fair bit of shine to it – although it does look much better with a bit of clear gloss on top. I have had some compliments at work on the colour – which is always good. This is a good colour for Christmas parties and I think I may just wear it to our work function.
The longevity is “so far so good” – 3 days on and they still look great!
I definitely think these would be great as stocking fillers – although their range of colours is limited. I don’t think I would actively go out and buy these due to them not being readily available…but if I did come across them in a store I would probably buy another one.
I have been testing a miners nail varnish from their autumn/winter shades. The colour is Mulberry Shimmer, which is actually a really nice deep red-almost browny.. its very christmassy!
When applying I used a base coat, then applied the mulberry. The brush and consistency were fine and the pay off was great-i only needed one coat which is always a plus for me! I followed it with a clear top coat.
I’ve been wearing this nail polish for 5days now and its only now starting to chip off at the tips…this is not a problem for me as i generally change nail colour every 3-4days anyway. I’m not sure how long it would last without the base and top coat…
I was quite surprised at how good it was, as for some reason I had this idea that miners was a crappy brand (although i’ve not used any of their products before..)
At £2.99 a pot I would definately use again… I’m not sure where it is stocked though.
Out of 10 I would give it 8.
Ooh that’s handy to know, thanks Nina. I never pay a lot for nail varnish but have just started using base coat and top coat and I think it makes a real difference.
glad i could help kylie!! i have to say, im gonna have to give it another go when im busier to see how it fares… last couple of weeks ive been a bit of a princess….not done much housework/cooking etc… back to reality next week
Interesting. Miners was the first ever make-up bought for me when I was a teen. Am 36 now! Wonder why this brand has suddenly resurfaced? Will look out for Outdoor Girl next!!
Sarah, I think you can still get Outdoor Girl. It might be that its on a carboot or a market stall, but its still there! And likewise, I’m 36, and remember Miners in its heyday…. you’ll be reminiscing about roller ball lipglosses and peel off face masks next…!