Store Review: Nurture Soap & Mica Swatches

Christmas came and Christmas went but it brought me more pigments from a company called Nurture Soap and I am excited about sharing them with you. I bought them without knowing what I was actually going to use them for so I have only dry swatches to show you, no nail polish, but there are plenty of them.

Although I ended up not using them, I enjoyed pressing my own eyeshadows in November and it was a nice reminder of just how many pigments I own; being out of the nail polish hobby for so long, I’d sort of forgotten- but it also renewed the desire to have more colors because that’s just how I am. TKB Trading was out of stock on a lot since it was so close to Christmas so I picked what I could (that will be in another entry), then went on the hunt for other stores.

I started with my own Pigment Supplier list and with the help of Oh Great Google found and added a few more online stores that seemed promising: Just Pigments, Mad Micas and Nurture Soap. Each of these stores has a good website, decent color selection, photos of their products and reasonable prices but in the end, as it always does, price versus quantity was the deciding factor that made me choose Nurture Soap.

For comparison purposes:

The average size of a TKB Trading sample is 6 grams for $1.65. 

Just Pigments samples are 2 grams for $1.10.

Mad Micas samples are $1.50 per bag which contain one generous teaspoon (approx. 3-4g).

Nurture Soap mica samples are 5 grams, $1.25 for a bag, $1.99 for a small jar.

I gave you just the sample prices above because that's what I've been buying. While an ounce is nice to have, in 9+ years, I still haven't used up an entire ounce of any color. Oh, and you know, I'm able to get more colors for less money. 

Although Nurture Soap is a new company to me, they probably aren’t to any soap makers reading this as their pigments seem geared towards soap making. However, if you go to their Mica Colors page, you can sort their mica colors by these categories: For Bath Bombs, Cold Process Stable, Safe for Lips, Safe for Eyes. After browsing them all, I can tell you there aren’t that many that you can’t use for eyes (and I would presume also nail polish).

I placed two different orders with them, one on December 12th and the second on December 20th and both of them were packed & shipped pretty quick, less than 24 hours if you don’t count the weekend delay. The packages arrived fast too but that’s probably because Nurture Soap is located in Indiana and I’m in Kentucky. They offer free shipping on orders over $30 too so that was equally nice.

Micas Purchased

Pinks: Lollipop, Flower Girl, Cabaret, Amaranth Pink
Oranges: Magic Moments, Lustrous Brown, Copper Penny, Cantaloupe, Fire Cider, Honey Blush, Summer Crush, Mocha Brown
Golds: Mayan Gold
Greens: Synergy, Sea Green, Savage Garden, Rainforest, Laurel Green, High Society, Hello Spring!, Green Vibrance, Emerald Green, Alpine Green,
Aquas: Tropical Teal, Siren's Song, Proud Peacock
Blues: Sky Blue, Midnight Blue, Silver Mist
Purples: Purple Vibrance, Purple Haze, Orchid Purple, Northern Lights, Jam Session, Iris Purple, Fantasia, Cyber Grape, Cheshire Cat, Blackberry, Berry Twist

- Most of these are bagged samples, only when the bag was out of stock did I order the jar. For the 5 gram sample micas, there is a $0.75 difference in price between jar and bag. 

- The free gifts, the 5 gram samples, came in one of these small drawstring bags with a business card you plant and wild flowers will grow! I mean, who doesn’t like surprise flowers?

The label on each bag (or jar) contains a lot of information about the pigment inside so if you decide to change containers, hang on to the original packaging. It tells you the micron size, what it can be used for, what it’s approved for, the weight and the ingredients of the color and clearly lists that the micas are cosmetic grade. The bags themselves are your typical small Ziploc type bag; the notable thing about the jars is that the lids don’t let pigment out around the threads of the jar and that means you won’t open the jar and get pigment all over your hand.

I took all the photos without flash and under Ottlite because its been rather gloomy around here with no sun. The first photo in each set is of the bags/jars, photo 2 are "finger swatches", photo 3 are the pigments swatched on my arm, under Ottlite and #4 are the same swatches but in natural daylight, no Ottlite. All pictures can be enlarged.

1: Lollipop, Cabaret, Berry Twist 

All three of these have a strong interference color. Berry Twist leans purple.

2: Amaranth Pink, Flower Girl 

3: Cantaloupe, Summer Crush, Magic Moments

Cantaloupe and Summer Crush ride the line between pink and orange. Cantaloupe is more subdued, a little more pink while Summer Crush smacks you in the face with an orange glow. Like the other two, Magic Moments is an odd color, the golden interference color makes it seem brownish but it's really more pink. 

4: Honey Blush, Copper Penny, Fire Cider

I'm a fan of coppery tones.

5: Lustrous Brown, Mocha Brown, Mayan Gold

Did I mention that green and purple are two of my favorite colors? 

6: Hello Spring!, High Society, Green Vibrance

 

 

 

7: Emerald Green, Sea Green, Rainforest 

 

 

 

8: Laurel Green, Savage Garden, Alpine Green 

 

 

 

9: Synergy, Proud Peacock, Siren's Song 

Synergy is an awesome color, not that shimmery but sharp greenish-blue.

 

 

 

10: Tropical Teal, Midnight Blue, Sky Blue

My pictures do not capture Midnight Blue properly, there is a richness and brightness about it you just have to see in person.

 

 

 

11: Iris Purple, Berry Twist, Cyber Grape 

I showed Berry Twist in the pink swatches but it fits in with the purples too.

 

 

 

12: Northern Lights, Orchid Purple, Jam Session 

 

 

 

13: Purple Vibrance, Purple Haze, Blackberry

 

 

 

14: Fantasia, Cheshire Cat, Silver Mist

Fantasia and Cheshire Cat are among my new favorites, purples with blue interference.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading and come back to see the second half of my Nurture Soap purchases, the Eco-Friendly Glitters. -MK