Flawless Natural Foundation: Green Beauty for Drag Queens & Makeup Fiends

Your skin is one of the first things people notice about you, and when it’s noticeably dry, blotchy or uneven, it can distract from the rest of your look. Whether you just want to enhance what nature gave you or you look at your skin as a canvas upon which to express your creativity, a little bit of natural foundation can make a big difference.

A variety of natural and organic beauty brands offer non-toxic, cruelty-free foundations in powder, cream, stick and liquid form ranging from the slightest bit of sheer luminescence to the full-coverage stuff. Here are some of the best options for adding moisture, controlling oil, concealing flaws, and evening skin tone.

Primer

Before you get started with a natural foundation, you’ve got to prime your canvas. You can simply use your favorite moisturizer, but specialized primers do a little bit more, filling in pores and disguising dry patches for the most even result possible. There are primers for every skin type, from dry and mature to oily, and they range from totally sheer formulas to color-correctors that help even out dark circles or blemishes.

Korres offers both an anti-aging primer enriched with antioxidant quertecin and oak extracts to fill fine lines and wrinkles, and a mattifying primer that minimizes pores and controls oil. From Tarte comes both a 12-hour skin-perfecting primer and a hydrating, ‘brightening’ primer that will give you a little bit of glow. All are free of parabens, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, petrochemicals and phthalates.

Light to Medium Coverage

If your skin is already virtually flawless or you prefer a dewy, unfussy effect, look for sheer formulas that let your natural beauty shine through. Marie Veronique’s Pacific Everyday Sheer Coverage foundation is barely tinted for just a hint of color, and Dr. Hauschka’s Translucent Make-Up offers just a bit more coverage with mineral pigments in a moisturizing formula. Josie Maran offers a ‘Matchmaker Serum’ foundation which color-matching technology that’ll help eliminate some of the guesswork in choosing a shade, and is enriched with argan oil. Lavera’s Natural Liquid Foundation is a little more pigmented than these options, and also contains argan oil. And finally, Everyday Minerals has a range of mineral makeup formulas for dry to oily skin in dewy and matte versions, and offers trial packages so you can find the one that’s right for you.

Full Coverage

Looking for some serious coverage, either to hide acne or provide a photo-perfect base for the rest of your makeup? It used to be that highly pigmented foundation was hard to find in non-toxic and organic formulas, but that’s changing. Tarte’s Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full-Coverage Foundation is comparable in performance to brands like MAC and comes in a nice range of shades; it also comes in powder form for an airbrushed look. NVEY ECO’s Creme Deluxe Flawless Finish Foundation comes in a convenient compact for on-the-go touch-ups. W3LL People offer a creamy stick foundation for great buildable coverage.

Tip: Use a Foundation Brush

For best results, don’t just smear foundation onto your face with your fingers. Blending is the key to foundation that looks natural, and there’s no better way to do that than with a foundation brush, since sponges tend to absorb more product than they apply. Pour a little foundation onto the back of your hand, dab the brush in it, and smooth it onto your face starting at the center of your forehead, your nose, the apples of your cheeks, and your chin. Blend toward the hairline and down the jaw. You can get high-quality, cruelty-free natural foundation brushes from W3LL People and Tarte.

Top photo: NVEY ECO

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