The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (49 page)

When chosen wisely, foundation is virtually revolutionary in its benefits to your skin. Gone are the days when natural foundations came in ghastly color palettes that were often too pink or too orange to match real people’s skin tones. Green foundations today are actually good for your skin, formulated with ingredients that make your skin healthier.

Choosing the Right Green Foundation

Of all the makeup products, foundation is the hardest to buy. You want your color to be sheer, but you want the coverage to be good enough to cover imperfections. You want your texture silky, with a slight dewy glow, but not shiny. You want your foundation to diffuse little wrinkles, but you don’t want it to be heavy and greasy. So many demands . . . and luckily, more than enough choices.

With mineral foundations, your only concern should be the ideal match for your skin tone. You can adjust the coverage and the texture later, using the right primers and mists.

Each of us has a skin tone that is based on yellow or pink. Here’s how you can determine whether you have a pink undertone or a yellow undertone, which is crucial in choosing the right color. You have yellow undertones if your eyes are brown or hazel and you look best in gold jewelry and clothes that are orange, bronze, cream, or brown. You have pink undertones if your eyes are cool hazel, blue, green, or blue-gray, and you look best in silver jewelry and clothes that are violet, plum, pale blue, or pure white. Many cosmetic brands list colors for pink undertones as “neutral,” while yellow undertones are often labeled as “golden.”

Still unsure? If shopping in a department store, ask for a small sample in a clean jar. If shopping online, buy a small sample. Decent retailers are always happy to accommodate a cautious customer, because when you make informed buying decisions, you are less likely to return a product.

Mineral foundations today come in powder and fluid form. Powders are more versatile but less portable. Fluid mineral foundations are less common. Jane Iredale and Miessence make the best ones I have found so far. Fluid mineral foundations are a much better choice for aging skin. In addition to mineral pigments, they contain emollients, humectants, and plant antioxidants, which means that fluid foundations can double as moisturizers. Fluid mineral foundations can be “sealed” with powder mineral foundation, especially if you need to hide birthmarks, acne scars, or brown spots. In the summer you can also use Dr. Hauschka Toned Day Cream, which provides quite a substantial layer of natural-looking glowing tint. You can top the tinted moisturizer with a subtle layer of a mineral powder foundation to obtain some sun protection, but don’t rely on the sun-protective qualities of mineral foundation! It cannot be your sole sunscreen. The tinted moisturizer, ideally with SPF rating fifteen or higher underneath the mineral powder, will provide moisture and prevent the powder from getting cakey and accentuating fine lines and wrinkles.

If your skin feels oilier in the summer, you can try the excellent Suki-color Tinted Active Moisturizer that contains vitamin C, retinol, organic plant extracts, and willow bark, an antioxidant rich in salicylic acid. I found that the coverage is quite sufficient when applied with fingertips, but for lighter coverage you can mix the foundation with a few drops of your regular moisturizer.

Shopping for the right color is no walk in the park. Here are some tips that you will find useful.

Always test the color in the middle of
your cheek
where you can see it. Many sales consultants want you to test the foundation at your neck so the color “will not leave a visible line.” I find this practice useless. People first see your face, not your neck. The foundation must match your facial skin tone. Plus, it’s virtually impossible to see your neck clearly in a mirror. For the same reason, don’t test for color on your hand unless you are trying to camouflage some scars on your hands. Always test where you will actually apply the foundation and ignore all attempts to smear your neck or hand. Mineral foundations allow for seamless blendability, so the visible line at your chin should be the least of your worries.

Choosing the right foundation color can be tough for women with darker skin tones. That’s why many women with dark complexions faithfully stick to their foundations and are reluctant to trade them for mineral versions, no matter how pure they are. Fortunately, most mineral makeup producers have broadened their color spectrum to suit every skin tone. Bare Escentuals carries excellent warm and neutral shades ranging from golden caramel to darkest espresso brown. The darkest shades can be found in Cover FX Powder FXMineral Powder Foundation, which unfortunately is loaded with talc, silicones, and other additives. Dark-toned mineral foundations must contain a bit of a golden shimmer to avoid that unattractive ashy effect on dark and olive skin. A dry complexion can make dark skin look grayish. Make sure you wear a good moisturizer underneath your foundation.

Tools of the Mineral Trade

Mineral foundations are usually marketed along with a complex set of brushes. While it’s tempting to equip yourself with every possible brush size to ensure a flawless application, in reality you only need two brushes: one for the overall application of the foundation and one for amineral concealer.

A kabuki brush is by far the best tool to achieve natural, even results when applying a powder foundation. It has a short handle (actually, just a stump of a handle) and a dome-shaped, fluffy, thick head made of goat’s hair. Many companies have recently come up with their own version of the original Bare Escentuals kabuki, but often these brushes have either a head too narrow and pointed to produce a really good buffing or they are too stiff and dense so you pick up too much color and end up applying mineral powder so thickly that it looks like fresh plaster. If you decide to buy a foolproof kabuki brush, look for goat hair, not squirrel hair, or at least a blend of both, and a wide, fluffy, flatter, dome-shaped head that looks like a fan, not a furry bullet.

While I do use a Bare Escentuals “minibuki” brush for everyday foundation application, I found that I can achieve even better results with a tapered flat blush brush. You can use the sides of the brush to buff the foundation and the pointed edge to apply touch-ups of concealer. I also found that the use of a good blush brush, coupled with a light-handed application, results in a very fine, almost invisible layer of foundation. Among the better blush brushes are MAC 116 Blush Brush and 227 Large Fluff Brush, and Make Up For Ever 24S Blush Brush.

Make sure you stay away from flat-headed buffing brushes. While they sound like a natural match for powder makeup, the results are horrible: the application is thick, uneven, and all-around messy.

To carefully dot mineral concealer, you will need a special concealer brush. Again, I would recommend straying from traditional options— sleek, flat, stiff nylon brushes. These are good for cream concealer but are worthless with fine mineral powders that simply slide off the brush instead of being buffed into the skin. You simply cannot press and swirl those synthetic Taklon fibers!Your best bet is a tapered, round-edged eye shadow brush made of natural goat or sable hair. Again, head on to MAC for their bestselling 239 Eye Shading Brush, to Sephora for Make Up For Ever Eye Contour Brush 14S made of Russian squirrel fur, or if you’re feeling indulgent, splurge on a Natural Brush 13G by Shu Uemura. When in a hurry, don’t hesitate to dot the concealer with a clean fingertip: press gently on a blemish or under-eye circle and rub the powder gently.

Blushers and Highlighters

Choosing a new blush is perhaps the most enjoyable experience after picking a new lip-gloss. Most mineral and other green blush varieties offer pretty, easily blendable, extremely wearable colors that can breathe life and vitality into even the dullest of complexions. There are many types of green blushes available. Loose mineral powder blushes are the most common but can be tricky to apply in a rush. With a loose powder blush, you need to perform a minifoundation application, with swirling, tapping, and buffing, and often you will end up applying more color than you planned. Remember, you can spread foundation across your face, but buffing the blush across your cheeks and close to the nose will result in an overly done, flashy effect. On the plus side, mineral blushes are versatile: you can mix a little bit with your regular foundation to create a subtle glow on your face, or you can custom-mix a perfectly matching lip-gloss color by adding a drop of blusher to any transparent lip-gloss or balm. A good brush is essential in applying mineral blushes evenly and precisely. For a universally flattering, almost foolproof application, try blushes in warm, tawny pinks with a subtle shimmer.

Pressed mineral powder blushers are the easiest to apply. Fine mineral pigments do not sit on the skin’s surface like talc-based blushes do; they blend easily and almost disappear into the skin tone. Unfortunately, for some reason, even the makers of perfectly green mineral foundations use paraben preservatives in their blushes. Among the purest pressed blushes, I would recommend Dr. Hauschka Rouge Powder 02 Desert Rose, Jane Iredale PurePressed Blush in Whisper with real 24-carat gold particles, and BeLeeVe Pressed Mineral Blush Sorbet. Pure Minerals makes deep-toned, pressed mineral blushes that are excellent for darker complexions.

Cream and gel blushes are fun to look at but aren’t fun to use. The only good thing about them is that you can use them on lips and cheeks. Most gel blushes blend easily into the skin, creating an almost natural, no-makeup look. However, to reap this benefit, you need to eschew foundation and apply blush on bare skin. How many of us can get away with that? Silicone-based, cream-to-powder blushes with a whipped-cream texture are easier to apply, but they usually contain too many chemical additives to be considered green. Among some versatile natural and truly green cream blushes are Kiss My Face 3Way Color for Lips, Cheeks &Eyes in Dawn Pure Cream Stain by SukiColor in Sandstone. They can double as all-natural lip glosses!

Green Mascara: Not Just for Ravers

Even if you are a no-makeup type, consider wearing a natural mascara. This amazing makeup product can instantly add definition to your eyes and will pull together any natural makeup look. Finding truly green mascara without alcohol, shellac, preservatives, triethanolamine, phenoxyethanol, and other potential irritants is quite easy. Finding natural mascara that does not run, smudge, sting, bleed, crumble, or dry out after two weeks is mission impossible. After years of testing and tossing, I realized that the following three mascaras are worth considering: Dr. Hauschka Volume Mascara heads the list with a luxurious metal tube and delectable thick lashes after just one sweep; Lavera Volume Organic Mascara is a close second; and Zuzu Luxe Mascara, which is quite basic but water-resistant, is great for summertime use.All of these mascaras do the lengthening and thickening job by using mineral pigments rather than synthetic fibers. Natural beeswax, kaolin, silk powders, and plant extracts keep the mascara in place while nourishing the lashes.

Natural mascaras do not contain preservatives, relying on airtight packaging and your understanding that you should discard any mascara, natural or not, after six months of use. To prolong the life of your natural mascara and help it work well for you for those six months, do not pump the wand into the tube, hoping to squeeze a little bit more color on the brush. All you achieve is pushing more air inside the tube, which makes mascara dry out faster.

You can create exciting effects with your mascara using mineral pigments. If your new natural mascara appears to be too runny, try this trick: lightly dust the mascara wand with just a pinch of very dark brown, purple, or shimmery gray mineral eye shadow. Coat the wand evenly and apply directly onto your lashes. Do not blend the eye shadow and mascara in the palm of your hand! This is messy and possibly contaminates the mascara with germs that are not found on your eyelashes.