Naturalla Beauty

Alva Hand Cream + Sea Buckthorn Hand Cream

Makeup is always the tiniest of empties categories, but since I've been collecting these for so long, I've actually accumulated a fair number of products to share!  

As a green blogger and, more specifically, after judging the CertClean awards last year, I literally have a shelf of deodorants that I rotate amongst, so it's a wonder I finished up any at all! These are two of my very favorites: the Ursa Major Hoppin’ Fresh Deodorant, which is the only natural deodorant I’ve used that actually mimics the feel and consistency of mainstream deodorants, and the Mabrook & Co. Clean Deodorant, a more ubiquitous coconut oil/baking soda formula, but one that's executed extremely well.  Both are ones I’ll happily continue to use!

It's been several years since I switched over to natural makeup and I've tried out a lot of different products in that time.  After a recent decluttering and organization spree, I thought it'd be fun to show my most used, everyday essentials, as well as a quick look at how I store them.  Some products change, obviously, but a lot are consistent, long term favorites.  

Many of these items may be familiar from previous posts, but if you have questions or if there are specific products you want to know more about, I'm happy to answer in the comments or follow up in future posts.



I use sterilite drawers to hold the remainder of my makeup - mainly lip products and more loose eye shadows - but I like my everyday items to be accessible and easy to grab.  I found this tray for $1.99 in the kitchen section of Value Village and it works perfectly.  It's a sturdy, thick acrylic and the divided sections make it super easy to keep everything visible without turning into one huge messy heap.  

Section #1: Blush

It was only a couple years ago that I owned maybe two blushes, but I'm gotten more into blush recently and this section has filled out quite a bit!  

Pure + Simple Glow + Gabriel Color Vibrant Pink* - My two favorites over the summer.  Both are highly pigmented and give a beautiful vibrant pop of color, but can also be toned down for a more subdued look.  Glow is a bright watermelon pink with the prettiest sheen and Vibrant Pink is, as the name suggests, a matte hot pink.  

Lippy Girl Wall Flower - A matte pale pink.  I'm not sure how it would work on darker skin tones, but it's beautiful on fair skin.

Bare Minerals The Adrenaline Rush - Technically this is an All-Over Color Boost, but I can't imagine using it as anything other than a blush.  With the three colors swirled together, it's a light peach with a satin finish.

Ecco Bella Hibiscus* - The lighter of Ecco Bella's two bronzers, Hibiscus leans very peachy/orange, which I didn't love as a bronzer, but it makes a beautiful bronzy blush!

Silk Naturals Abstract + Lovelace - Silk Naturals blushes are some of the most blendable and easy to wear I've found and I love both these colors.  Lovelace is a bright coral and Abstract is a unique light plummy-pink.  

The All Natural Face Tequila Sunrise - A pretty pinky-coral.  It's not the most longwearing blush - the cream version is much better in that regard - but it's a great everyday shade.  

Gressa Aux Rouge - Aux Rouge makes for a beautiful red lip and I like it a lot on the cheeks too.

Section #2: Everyday Powder Face Products + New Blush Overflow

This section houses all my everyday powder essentials like mineral foundation, finishing powder, and powder concealers, as well as some Brija Cosmetics products that I bought over the summer and am still trying out.  

Everyday Minerals Foundation - I've been working through a sample pack from Everyday Minerals and trying to figure out which color and formula I like best on my skin.  I plan to purchase a full size of the Semi-Matte in the future.

Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques Finishing Powder - A good basic, translucent finishing powder.  I like dusting something like this over my forehead as a last makeup step to blur any fine lines I have up there.

Silk Naturals Light Peach Sleep in a Jar + #2 Brightening Concealer + ELF Mineral Eye Brightener - I use one of these everyday that I wear makeup.  All three are great to set a cream or liquid concealer under the eyes and I like them all.  ELF's Mineral Eye Brightener brightens without any real coverage, Sleep in a Jar brightens with a tiny bit of coverage, and the #2 Brightening Concealer, which is supposed to be a dupe for Anastasia's Banana Powder, is a little less brightening than the other two, but offers more coverage.  

Brija Cosmetics Mean Girls Blushes + You Know Who Highlighter - You Know Who and Regulation Hottie blush, a beautiful nude pink, have been getting a lot of love recently.  I'm not quite as smitten with the other two blushes, though they're both pretty colors, and I've yet to try the sample of Hoola Hoop Bronzer.   

Section #3: Loose Eye Shadows

Favorites - Darling Girl Blitzen + Moondust, Pollen Cosmetics Future Sunrise + Saddle Up, The Chequered Lily Apothecary Neverwhere, and Madd Style Cosmetics Mune Glow.  (I'm realzing now how many of these are either discontinued colors or from companies that are no longer around.  Sorry!)

Random Others - SweetPea & Fay British Accent (makes the prettiest indigo blue eyeliner), Shiro Cosmetics Master Sword, Concrete Minerals Blitzkrieg, Sassy Minerals Dry Martini, Noella Beauty Works Mango Berry, Persephone Minerals Pegasus, and Cheeky Cosmetics Blonde Brow Powder (works great as a matte crease/transition shade).

Silk Naturals Splendid Perfecting Glow - I keep this in with the eye shadows because I like using it to blend out other shadows.  It's sheer to begin with and blends away to nothing, but in the process, it helps soften other, hard to blend colors.  

Section #4: Pressed Eye Shadows

Pressed shadows without silicones or talc used to seem like the green beauty holy grail, so it's awesome to have so many choices these days!  

Pure + Simple Taupe - Probably my most used pressed eye shadow.  It's a fantastic medium brown crease shade that works with virtually any eye look.

Jane Iredale Eye Steppes in goWarm* - This palette has everything you need for a peachy/neutral eye.  Most Jane Iredale pressed products are made with silicones, but the Eye Steppes are not.

Bare Minerals Ready Palettes - I like the Ready eye shadows a lot, especially the matte and satin finish colors.  The ingredients aren't the absolute cleanest, but they don't have anything I'm particularly worried about.  The formula is also sturdier and less fragile than a lot of other natural pressed shadows, making these great for travel.  

Lily Lolo Laid Bare Palette* - This is basically a natural alternative to the Naked palettes and I love it for how compact and portable it is.  These aren't the absolute most pigmented shadows ever, but they do the trick, especially with a good primer underneath.  

Red Apple Lipstick Palette* - This holds my four Red Apple Lipstick shadows, as well as my one Honeybee Gardens shadow.  The eye shadows from both brands are great: pigmented and very easy to blend.  

Section #5: BB/CC Creams/Tinted Moisturizers, Bronzers + Highlighters

Most days I just wear mineral foundation, as my skin tends to prefer powder products over liquids and creams, but periodically I like using a BB or CC Cream, which is where this section comes in.

Andalou Naturals Sheer Tint Beauty Balm - I love how healthy and glowy this makes my skin look, but the color is a little dark for me.  It's workable with a lighter powder on top, but probably not something I will buy again.

Juice Beauty Stem Cellular Repair CC Cream in Natural Glow - A better color match than the Andalou, but everything else about this CC Cream leaves me a little underwhelmed.  It has super light, barely there coverage and smells pretty strongly of petitgrain.  

Suntegrity 5-in-1 Tinted Sunscreen in Fair and Light - I've held onto these samples because of the many great reviews I've read for this product, but I'm still on the fence about whether I'm actually going to try them or not.  Suntegrity contains cetyl dimethicone, a silicone which I usually avoid. 

Mineral Fusion Bronzer Duo in Luster - I don't wear bronzer anywhere near daily, but when I do, I really like the matte shade in this duo.  It looks dark in the pan, but it's not heavily pigmented and blends out easily.  The highlight side is very golden and doesn't get much love from me.  The bronzer duos are one of the few Mineral Fusion pressed powder products made without phenoxyethanol.  

Lily Lolo Rose Glow Shimmer Strips - The Shimmer Strips were limited edition and while Rose Glow is a pretty pink highlight, I only feel like I can pull it off on perfect skin days as the shimmer can tend to emphasize pores.  

Zuzu Luxe Mosaic Illuminator in Light* - I really love this product, both as a setting powder over cream or liquid products and by itself as more of an invisible allover skin perfecter on days when I'm not wearing other face makeup.  It doesn't have any real coverage, but it mutes redness and has a pretty, slightly luminous finish that leaves skin looking natural and glowy.  

Center: Mascara, Eye Liner, Eye Brow Products + Miscellaneous

I use a re-purposed candle holder in the center compartment to hold mascara, eyeliner, brow products, and a few miscellaneous extras.    

Physician's Formula Organic Wear CC Curl + Care Mascara - My only open mascara at the moment and frankly it kind of sucks.  It darkens the lashes, but it doesn't do much for either lengthening or thickening.  My lashes have a natural curl, so I'm not sure how it does in that area.  

Dr. Hauschka Volume Mascara - This is unopened, but I'm looking forward to trying it next.

Pacifica Bare + Jet Eye Liners - Some of the creamiest natural liners I've found.  Bare is a wonderful nude for the waterline and Jet is a great rich black.  

LUVU Beauty Black Eye Liner - I like using this when I want black liner, but not something as rich and ultra-pigmented as the Pacifica.

Honeybee Gardens Blue Jeans Jobacolor Eye Liner - A super beautiful blue/teal shade.  It looks like these have been reformulated recently and I don't like the new ingredients, so I won't be buying them in the future.

Benecos Brown Eye Liner - Another great creamy liner, but I'm not a big fan of the color.  It's a warm, almost orangey-brown that I'm just trying hard to use up before buying a different brown liner.  

Bare Minerals Frame & Define Brow Styler in Universal Light - My go-to for quick, everyday brows.  The twist-up pencil doesn't need sharpening and the light, ashy brown is the best shade match I've found for my eyebrows.  

Lily Lolo Eyebrow Duo in Medium* - A powder and wax brow duo that I also like, although I only really use this when I have a little more time to devote to doing my makeup, since using powder brow products is a slower, more involved process for me.
  
The All Natural Face Diva Stix in Milk - A matte white chubby pencil that I like using as a brown bone highlight.

Alba Botanica Fast Fix for Undereye Circles -  A somewhat sheer yellow-toned concealer/color corrector.  It's not a full coverage product, but it does visibly brighten and it has a great lightweight texture that layers well with other products.

Lavera Eye Shadow Base - Overall, I like this, but I'm not sure I'd buy it again.  It works well at keeping eye shadows on and preventing creasing, but I do find that colors continue to blend and mix together over the course of the day, so it isn't the best for more complex eye looks.

Mini Tweezerman Tweezers + Sephora Pencil Sharpener - Just a couple basic tools that it's always good to have handy.  

Makeup minimalist, I'm not, but everything here has a place in my routine and gets used regularly.  I hope you enjoyed this peek into my everyday/most used makeup!

It's always fun trying new makeup, but the chance of something going wrong or needing extra fiddling means that I'm much less likely to experiment on days when I have to be somewhere within a given time frame.  Today I found myself just hanging out at home, so it seemed like the perfect time to play with a whole bunch of new makeup bits!



FACE

This was my first time trying Suki's Tinted Active Moisturizer in Porcelain and it was a little odd.  I don't know if this is normal - maybe my sample was old - but the moisturizer came out of the sachet an orangey shade with little dots of lighter pigment throughout.  Porcelain is the lighter of Suki's two shades and it blended fine on the skin and didn't look orange once on, but it also gave very little coverage.  I topped it with Honeybee Gardens' Pressed Mineral Foundation in Geisha, which, as you can see, is well loved.  It works well with my skin, has good coverage, is incredibly quick to apply, and looks pretty natural.  Une Beauty's Skin Glow Pencil in G02 - possibly discontinued - is yellow-toned and great for covering dark circles.  I set it with Silk Naturals' Light Peach Sleep in a Jar, which brightens up the under eye area and gives a tiny bit of extra coverage.  I used Au Naturale's Creme Concealer in Beige, which came in the November Petit Vour box, to cover a couple small blemishes.  



EYES

I received the Lily Lolo Laid Bare Palette* just a couple days ago, so this was my first time working with it.  First impressions are really good: the three shadows I used were all nicely pigmented and went on really smoothly.  Lavera's Eye Shadow Base is a relative new addition to my makeup bag, although I've been playing with it for a few weeks now.  I prefer something a bit tackier for extra shimmery or sparkly shadows, but for everything else, I've been really happy with how it performs.  I've had Pacifica's Eye Pencil in Bare for a good few months now and I like using it to brighten up the waterline.  I picked up Jet - the black shade - very recently, and it's great too: creamy and dark black.  For today's look, I just smudged it lightly into my lash line.  Zuzu Luxe Onyx Mascara is nothing new to me, but what is new is the Zuzu Luxe Cream Brow Pencil in Russet.  I'll be the first to admit that, when it comes to brows, I really don't know what I'm doing, but I wanted to experiment a bit more with filling them in, so I picked this up.  The color works pretty well, but I need to play with it more to fully decide what I think.


When I break it down, it seems like a ton of products, but it all amounted to a pretty natural, everyday-type look.    

Makeup selfies are hard guys.  I don't know how some of you do it!

What do you think?  Are any of these products favorites of yours?