I attempted a search in the forums and found nothing, much to my dismay. For this topic, I encourage anyone and everyone (MUAs and Photogs) to respond and give your two cents.

I've recently been making my ways a little "greener". As part of the "green" concept, it extends to makeup and hair products. My question for my fellow models and associates out there is this:

Do you use anything organic such as makeup? What is your experience in using it? Where do you get it?

I don't know where to shop for it (I'm assuming there are more quality "organic" makeup brands beyond Walmart or Walgreens), but I don't want to invest in something that doesn't do what I need it to do.

What are your two cents?

I don't know about make-up, but as for an all-over "green" moisturizer, extra virgin olive oil and extra virgin coconut oil have been doing wonders for me, even on pesky blackhead issues.  I like olive oil better for the body, and coconut better for the face, but I'm sure every one has different preferences. 

Wish I knew more about organic make-ups, though...good luck!

I use non-animal-tested/cruelty-free soap, lotion and face wash. It's all "organic."

I buy most of my hygiene products at Trader Joe's, including toothpaste, and also household products like laundry detergent, dish soap.

My complaints about "natural" make-up is that those brands do not seem to come in crazy colors. I like tacky stuff, like purple, neon blue, green and pink eye-shadows. The brighter and sluttier the colors, the better. I have to get cheap, dollar store brands, to get the level of loudness that I like. And also glitter. I

I read that organic makeup isn't any better for your skin than regular makeup, because most of the time your moisturizer creates enough of a barrier to keep any crazy chemicals in the makeup from hurting you, plus eventually you wash it off. Now, if you don't use moisturizer or wear makeup all the time, or don't wash your face every day or whatever, then wearing organic might help some. But I do think it is better for the environment and many companies who make organic makeup use environmentally friendly business practices and use recyclable containers and stuff.

I personally think its better to use organic facial cleaners and moisturizers, since those sit on your naked face for longer. Say Yes to Carrots has some AMAZING organic products and you can find that at Target, Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens, Publix... Burt's Bees is organic too but as far as makeup is concerned I think they only make lipcolor, which bleeds. Not good for shooting.

I think some Physician's Formula makeups are organic, or partially organic?? And I think Sephora and Ulta carry organic brands. Try looking at your local health food store or wherever fine alternative groceries are sold. There is a HUGE health and beauty row at mine and they have organic everything. From perfumes to lipstick and eyeshadow to facial masks... everything.


All that being said, I'm not sure how well some of those brands would photograph. Shimmery stuff usually has a lot of mica in it and in my own personal experience makeup with mica photographs like poo. You might have to experiment.

As a toxicologist I can tell you that at one time or another everything natural or organic was tested on animals. It's one of those things no one talks about. Arsenic and lead are organic and natural.

The skin is indeed a very good barrier but some people do have sensitivity to things and it can become worse over time.

People can die from nut reactions (almonds, peanuts). the are all natural and organic

My personal goal as a pure hobbyist, not in it for the money, is to do more all natural shoots with proper lighting to bring out what is already natural. Or I want totally over the top wildness. we are what we are

I use Tarte, Benefit, and Hard Candy.
Tarte is amazing if you want to go the "good for your skin" makeup.
Benefit has some more natural items you just have to read more into specific things.
I heard hard candy has natural ingredients but im not completely sure. Definately good to look into because they just went from high end brand cosmetics to department store cosmetics.
Also, lush has some makeup!!!
I use Grassroots, aveda, and origins for skincare and i believe some of those brands have makeup as well.

+1 for NYX

As far as natural beauty products... I used olive oil as a make-up remover for quite a while. It works very well. Unfortunately, it was also clogging up my bathroom sink (which is an issue most people do not seem to have). So I switched to an Asian cleansing oil which does have some other ingredients in it, but so far my sink is clear and it works just as well.

I tried coconut oil in my hair and it was not so good for me. My hair is very long and there is a lot of it, but the strands are thin and it ended up looking really greasy and limp. I still occasionally put the oil in, braid it, and sleep on it overnight, but I cannot see going out with it because it just looks icky.

I also had the awesome misfortune of becoming allergic to my hair dye. From the research I did one of the ingredients in black hair dye (and apparently other colors as well) called PPD can cause issues. My scalp would itch and it was giving me dandruff. Which sucks because I loved my blue black hair. So I am in the process of switching to henndigo (henna and indigo) which is supposed to give a brown to black color though people have mixed results and it depends on how you do it. Right now after using henna mixed with indigo three times I have chameleon hair that looks black sometimes, brownish-reddish other times, and almost burgundy other times. Hoping that when I switch to doing henna then indigo (two steps) that I get a darker color like everyone says I will.

As far as make-up goes... I know a lot of people like mineral make-up and I guess that sort of qualifies as organic, but in my experience it is kind of pricey. There is a new brand based here in the Detroit area that mainly seems to have relatively natural ingredients, though there are others, but I think that is hard to avoid and get good products. Here is their website: http://brazencosmetics.com/ I bought one of their balm sticks and I really like it. I might stop in and try a couple of the eye shadow colors as well. They do ship, of course ^_^

My kit and skin care regime are made up almost entirely of mineral/organic products. (Hair and body products also.)

They're often a bit more expensive, but I have very sensative skin, sometimes even prone to serious acne, and have struggled for years before using organics to find something that wouldn't irritate it. They work for me MUCH better than any of the non-organic brands I've ever used, so in the end, I personally think it's worth it.

My favorite natural skin care brand is H2O+ which is made up of mostly ocean based plants like wakame, sea kelps, sea fennel, algaes, moss, etc. For my face, I use some of the items from their Oasis Oil-Free collection. Usually, just a moisturizer and cleanser, but I also have their Oasis Mist (which is like an on-the-go spray moisturizer and makeup setter) and booster serum. For body, I use their sea salt body scrub and their milk protein hand/nail cream. I've tried their body washes and lotions also, and have been pretty satisfied, but it's just too damn pricey to use them on an active basis, so I save those items for days when I want to treat myself and feel fancy. They also make some awesome makeup removers that don't require any rough scrubbing and what not when using; I'm sad that my current bottle is running so low.

I also like Burt's Bees, which you can find at just about any drugstore.
I LOVE their medicated clove oil lip balm, but I just found out they've been recently discontinued. (Guess I better stock up while they're still in stores. Their basic beeswax and mint lip balm is awesome also.)

Regarding shampoos, conditioners, and some hair care products, I like Giovanni, which I'm fairly certain you can also pick up from most drugstores. Both my boyfriend (who has very long hair also) and I use the Tea Tree tea/eucalyptus/peppermint shampoo/conditioner. We're not super picky, but we used to use different collections from TRESemmé, and honestly, it felt like our hair was just... Horrible. It became twangy like wire and would snap while brushing much faster. Ick. We tried other natural brands for shampoos/conditioners, but they didn't lather nearly as well so the bottle would be empty in about a week. Pretty happy with the Giovanni stuff.

My favorite mineral makeup brands are Pür Minerals and Emani.

Pür is great for natural looks and more subtle colors.
I use their Pressed Mineral Foundation with SPF 15. I love their foundations and colored primers since they last quite a long time without getting 'cakey', and they feel feather light while still doing their job. I also like their universal powders, blushes, lipglosses, and I love their cream liner jars, pencil liners, a few of their gold/tan eyeshadows, and the Impact+ mascara. Generally pretty happy with their products; In fact, the only thing of theirs I've never been particularly crazy about are their lipsticks, which seem almost 'watery' and can fade rather fast. I have one which is a pretty raspberry color, but I wasn't expecting that shade at all when I bought it.

Emani is fantastic if you love bright colors and glitter.
I have about 25 of their crushed color dust jars (which are very shimmery in general), as well as 2 of their actual glitter dusts, and they are all excellent. Any time I wear black or a vibrant color lipsticks or liners, I like to mix it myself with their Powder-to-Cream Transformer jar, which is just a clear multipurpose cream. You just take any eyeshadow/blush/etc and just mix it with the cream in the lid or on a palette with a lip/liner brush; You can make it as thickly matte textured or as glossy as you want, since you're doing it yourself. (You usually don't need a lot either; A little really goes a long way.) It can also be useful as a primer when dabbed lightly on your eyes with a q-tip before putting on any sort of loose powders. I have most of their matte textured duo shadows as well, and just about all of their lipsticks and glosses. (Love their lipsticks for being so bold and creamy. Plus they don't taste or smell.) Their soy mascaras are also the bomb. I have the black one and it lasts a LONG time in wear, doesn't really clump or get sticky, and just feels really nice in general. Plus, it comes off super easy at the end of the day.

Since I often do makeup myself on shoots with the lack of MUAs in my area, I have just about all of the liquid and pressed powder foundations from both Emani and Pür. I used to work as a cosmetic counter manager in a store which carried both and sent me packages of stuff every month as gratus. They really come in handy in my kit and it's usually really easy to find a match on the model, especially with the Pür. I make sure to ask them before hand if they have any allergies to certain plants or oils that might be in the makeup. Thus far, I haven't had any issues.

Regarding trying before you buy, since it's one of your understandable concerns, I'm not sure where exactly you could try Emani unfortunately. They are based out of the Los Angeles area though, so I'm sure you could find them somewhere. I know that some Dillards stores have a Pür counter though, and there's a Dillards in Palmdale which isn't too horribly far from you. If you're up in that area at any time, see if they have a Pür counter and ask to try some of their testers.



Anyway, generally speaking, I do recommend using minerals/organics.
There is a LOT of debate on whether or not using minerals makes a difference, because the majority of mineral/organic brands use some of the same ingrediants (titanium dioxide, mica, iron oxides, etc). However, I think the difference is that mineral/organic brands generally don’t (though not always) contain the icky stuff as often as non-mineral brands; Icky stuff like perfumes, talc, alcohols, artificial color dyes, oils or preservatives, and 'fillers', which are basically like tiny amounts of liquid rubber to take up space in the product. Most mineral makeup is also non-comedongenic and hypoallergenic. Your skin is an organ, and it can absorb up to 60% of whatever you put on it. While it probably doesn't make much difference using a non-mineral product a few times, I can't imagine consistantly pumping your skin with the extra chemicals/dyes/fillers in your day-to-day regime will be nice to your skin in say 30-40 years. They're not exactly harmful to the body, sure, but the same could be said about twinkies. I wouldn't recommend putting 10 twinkies into your daily diet either.
Often the packaging of organics are recyled and recyclable, so that's an added bonus if you're looking to have a greener lifestyle.

* Take what I say with a grain of salt, by the way. I'm no skin expert, just speaking from tid-bits of personal research over time regarding mineral vs. non-mineral brands.
As well, I can only speak through experience, but since I've switched to minerals and organics, my skin feels 10x better than it used to.



King of a long post, sorry. I get all excited talking about makeup and stuff.

Unfortunately there are a lot of organic and natural brands out there that claim to be so, but really are not. If you really want to buy purely organic, I suggest you start researching which synthetically synthesized and harmful chemicals you should avoid, and always read labels.

I am a big fan of Organic Pharmacy from London, and they have a store in beverly hills as well. It is a bit expensive, but I have never with any product actually seen positive result. It is worth every penny You can find some cosmetic lines as well as skin care products in natural stores like whole foods, but, again, be wary of the lairs out there. Meh, I await for the day where companies are no longer allowed to mislabel..  >.