I went to the Ellana Minerals Re-Launch last week, which was held at Rastro in Burgos Circle. Many thanks to Liz for inviting me. 🙂 I am afflicted with terrible shyness, so I was relieved x 1000 when I was seated next to Tellie, Tina, Shari, Bea, as well as new friend Yuki!

Ellana Minerals is a local brand that has recently changed their look. They are re-launching it with packaging featuring Manila’s top lifestyle illustrator, Soleil Ignacio. You may have seen her illustrations grace the likes of Trinoma, Giordano Philippines, and Meg Magazine. See more of Soleil’s work here. Ellana’s new look—and new product offerings—redefines dependable daily wear. She made a total of five illustrations, which makes me want to catch them all. 😀

Ellana Minerals has been around for quite a while, but I never really got around to checking out their products. While I feature “traditional” makeup products here, I absolutely love using mineral makeup from time to time, though I primarily use mineral foundation these days. My Holy Grail foundation is actually a loose mineral foundation by bareMinerals.

What’s great about Ellana is that the shade range considers the Filipina skin tone. There is a wide array of shades with pink, yellow, and olive undertones, to match the needs of the typical Filipina. The formulation was also concocted to react well with the country’s climate—which more often than not is hot and humid!

During the re-launch, we were introduced to the brand, and given the chance to try some products out, including a pressed compact foundation that they had recently formulated. There was also a video demonstration of the application which was super quick and easy. Here’s Shari, trying to find her shade:

Here are some highlights from the event:

So many shades to choose from! Soleil talking about Ellana’s new look. Bea! It was her birthday. My creeper shot of Tellie’s hands holding some of the pressed powder prototypes. Group shot of the people behind Ellana Minerals and its relaunch. Theresa Carbonel, the mad scientist and co-founder of Ellana Minerals.

I find it really awesome that there’s a mineral makeup line that is focused on the modern Filipina’s needs. I know that mineral makeup had its hey day back in the day—I was probably too preoccupied with other things then—but it’s still something that I appreciate. Mineral makeup is said to be better for your skin, overall, since it has… minerals. (LOL) It also usually doesn’t have a lot of the other chemicals that most makeup has.

In any case, stay tuned for the next few days, since I’ll be posting some of my “findings” regarding the makeup items I was able to try out last week.