At the start of this whole overhaul, I admittedly made many mistakes. My first was buying a mineral powder foundation that I had purchased at my local Sephora. Honestly, it almost made me give up on this whole thing. I have several problems with mineral powder foundations: they do not work with my skin type (dry-ish), they are time-consuming, messy and I prefer a more dewy finish. Plus, when I read more about the entire mineral powder makeup thing I learned that inhaling titanium dioxide and some of the other ingredients in this particular mineral foundation can lead to some pretty serious health issues. Also, despite this company’s claims of makeup so pure you can practically sleep in it, it has several questionable synthetic ingredients and parabens. Ew! I quickly gave that foundation the axe and begun researching new products to try. Enter the New Zealand company “Living Nature” and their product: Illuminating Tint…….
Before I tried this I was seriously pining for my Diorskin Airflash foundation, which my friends and I had dubbed as "rich girl skin in a can." You know what I'm talking about, that ladies-who-lunch and spend days at the spa kind of flawless, luminous skin. Unfortunately, Dior Airflash is comprised of a naughty trifecta of aerosols + chemicals + parabens, a truly nasty little cocktail for your lungs and skin. In spite of knowing all this, it was like breaking up with a once-loved boyfriend. I kept romanticizing our glory days together, those days of perfect skin and mess-free application. That was until I met my new beloved.
So, I hope I don’t undersell this, but I have to tell you………. It is the best foundation ever! I love this product since I’m not a traditional “foundation” person. I like to look polished, not like a geisha. Thus I tend to favor a lighter finish or a tinted moisturizer. For me this is perfect and luminous. The light-reflecting mica diffuses any lines or blemishes and the texture is lightly moisturizing. For fuller coverage, you can mix the Illuminating Tint with the foundation from the same line. It lasts pretty much all day too, although if you are oily you might need a finishing powder for touch up.
So, I hope I don’t undersell this, but I have to tell you………. It is the best foundation ever! I love this product since I’m not a traditional “foundation” person. I like to look polished, not like a geisha. Thus I tend to favor a lighter finish or a tinted moisturizer. For me this is perfect and luminous. The light-reflecting mica diffuses any lines or blemishes and the texture is lightly moisturizing. For fuller coverage, you can mix the Illuminating Tint with the foundation from the same line. It lasts pretty much all day too, although if you are oily you might need a finishing powder for touch up.
Since I promised you all the best of the best in terms of purity and performance, I did question two of the ingredients: stearic acid and grapefruit seed oil (not to be confused with grape seed or grapefruit skin oil, those are perfectly acceptable). Stearic acid can be derived from rendered animal fat, through means I will not discuss here, since they are completely revolting. My concern with the grapefruit seed oil is that it can be contaminated with parabens and other synthetic chemicals due to the distillation process. (For more on these topics visit the chemical blog on Bubbleandbee.com. Stephanie, the owner and developer is a total smarty and there is a wealth of information on chemicals and their effects. Love this site!)
Living nature’s response to my questions put all of my concerns to rest (please see below for the actual email). This product is BDIH certified, meaning it has met strict standards for purity in ingredients and manufacturing. The company has also taken additional steps to certify that their grapefruit seed oil is free from impurities. It has been analyzed and processed by a non-affiliated lab, and they have the paperwork for proof of its cleanliness. In addition to doing all this certification, they are still taking steps to remove the grapefruit seed oil from their products. I also found out that the stearic acid is comprised from a vegetable source, so we need not worry about its origins.
I would honestly use this foundation over my once-loved Dior for it’s price, performance and finish (even if I wasn’t doing the natural makeup thing).
So try it out! All the Kiwi’s are doing it!
G’day Mate! (or is that Australian? ;)
Eco Belle Elle
The once over……….........
I’m bidding a (not-so-fond) farewell to: DiorSkin Airflash (EWG 6- surprised it’s not higher since it had propane & butane in it! BBQ anyone?) & Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer (EWG 4)
Eco Belle Elle product pick: Living Nutrients Illuminating Tint
Color tried: Dawn Glow (the lightest of the three colors)
Buy it: www.saffronrouge.com (this is a New Zealand-based company, so shipping may be high directly from them idk)
Gonna lighten your bank account: $37
Cheers to: Even-toned & pretty glowing skin, moisturizing texture, pure ingredients. Plus, it’s less $ and lasts way longer than my Dior, you only need 1-1 1/2 pumps to completely cover your face.
Jeers to: Nothing, they pretty much cleared up any concerns I had, but I wish their ingredients were certified organic. Some may prefer more coverage
Shop 'til you drop?: I would definitely buy this again
Can't wait to try: Maybe their foundation for a fuller, less dewy coverage
EWG score: 2 (a great score, but would probably be a 1 without the grapefruit seed oil, but no worries about that!)
Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Jojoba esters, Macadamia oil (Macadamia ternifolia), Jojoba oil (Simmondsia chinensis), Shea butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Grapefruit seed extract (Citrus grandis), Wheat straw extract (Cetearyl wheatstraw glycosides & cetearyl alcohol), Manuka honey (Mel), Avocado oil (Persea gratissima), Glycerin (vegetable), Cetyl alcohol, Sclerotium gum, Stearic acid, Manuka oil (Leptospermum scoparium), Tea tree oil (Melaleuca alternifolia), Vitamin E (Tocopherol), May contain depending on color: Zinc oxide (Cl 77947), Iron oxide (Cl 77491, Cl 77492, Cl 77499), Mica (Cl 77019), Talc (CI 77718), Titanium dioxide (Cl 77891)
Company low down: Although I did not order from them, they were extremely responsive to all of my questions regarding their ingredients. They even gave me some tips on using it from their in-house makeup artist. Love that!
BONUS POINTS: Recycled Packaging, Bioactive ingredients (aka skin food) that is packed in glass instead of plastic, cruelty free, independently lab tested and BDIH certified
“In response to your query about Stearic acid it is a wax sourced from coconut oil. It is added to create viscosity and body into an emulsion.
As for your enquiry on Grapefruit Seed Extract, we are progressively removing this ingredient from all Living Nature products as part of our overall range reformulation. This reformulation started last year with our skincare products. Grapefruit Seed Extract has become a controversial ingredient over recent years due to the negativity surrounding the extraction process and the fact that some Grapefruit Seed Extract on the market contains parabens. We can verify that the Grapefruit Seed Extract that is used by Living Nature does not contain parabens, and we have the Material Safety Data Sheet to confirm this.
Living Nature’s goal is to be the most natural, safe and effective skincare available worldwide. This is why we chose BDIH Germany to certify our products as they are an independent auditor and set some of the world’s highest natural skincare standards. While BDIH do accept Grapefruit Seed Extract as an ingredient, at Living Nature we will always err on the side of caution. If an ingredient is questionable then we will remove it. In this case because it formed part of the preservative system of the products, it is a long process to reformulate an entire range, hence the timeframe to have it removed completely from all products.”
