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Let’s face it – the hardest look to achieve with makeup is the “I get out of bed looking refreshed, dewy and glowing!’ look.  This is a look we should all learn to master – especially for wearing to work, or for daytime occasions like weddings.  The trick is nailing the palette and finding out how to enhance the natural pigments in your own skin.  Eco Beauty Expert and Makeup Artist Jessa Blades of Blades Natural Beauty explains, “Instead of buying a lip color you think is what natural lips should look like, look closely at your own lips.  They may be pink, mauve, brown, red, peach…Choosing the right colors is the real secret to the natural look.”

For the second look in our 4-part series with Jessa, we have our model Erika.  As a mother and Assistant and Coordinator to a very busy athlete and his charity foundation, Erika needs to always look meeting-ready but doesn’t have a lot of time to spend on makeup.  Jessa showed Erika how to create this pretty, natural look in just minutes!

What she used:

On Face: RMS Beauty “Un” Cover-Up in 22
On Cheeks: Nvey Eco Powder Blush in 956
On Eyes: RMS Beauty Cream Eye Shadow in Magnetic & Living Luminizer with Nvey Eco Organic Mascara in Black
On Lips: RMS Beauty Lip & Skin Balm and Lip2Cheek in Promise

If you’re old enough, this season’s trend, PASTELS, may give you Debbie Gibson or Golden Girls flashbacks.  But cool pastels can actually look very fresh and modern, even on darker skin like our French/Cherokee/Puerto Rican assistant Krystal’s.  Have a look!

What we used:

On Face: Vapour Organic Beauty Stratus Instant Skin Perfector II and Atmosphere Luminous Foundation in 125 with Nvey Eco Erase in Deep Beige
On Eyebrows: Alima Pure Satin Matte Eyeshadow in Raven with Alima Pure Liner/Brow Brush #33
On Eyes: RMS Beauty Cream Eyeshadow in Magnetic and Lunar,  Nvey Eco Cake Liner in Black with Nvey Eco Organic Mascara in Black
On Cheeks: Revolution Organics Freedom Glow Beauty Balm in Bronzed
On Lips: We mixed RMS Beauty Lip2Cheek in Muse with Nvey Eco Lipstick in 351 and Topped with Vapour Elixir Gloss in Hush.

Although I am excited to see that there is an increased demand, it is a little frustrating to see so many “non-toxic” 3-free nail polish companies come out and declare their righteousness.  “3-Free” means free of Toluene, formerly used to make polish flow easily, Formaldehyde, sometimes used in nail hardeners, and Dibutyl Phtalate, a plasticizer formerly used to make polish more flexible. While I think Zoya, Sparitual and others are fabulous companies doing great things, in some sense I feel…what’s the big deal?  Did you know that most drugstore AND salon AND department store brands are also 3 free?  OPI, Revlon, Chanel, Nars, even Wet n Wild are all 3 Free!  The only one that isn’t that comes to mind is Essie.  I think what I find a little frustrating about it is that I know some of us are willing to pay a premium for a more earth-friendly and safe product but the difference between a wet n wild and another brand may just be marketing.  Certainly there will never be any such thing as organic nail polish but I am more a little more impressed with Acquarella and Suncoat water based formulas.  I chose Acquarella for Spirit Beauty Lounge because it really lasts long, comes in great colors, actually leaves your nails hydrated and doesn’t even contain propylene glycol.  The ingredients are simple: Acrylic polymer emulsion, Water, and non-toxic colorants (No FD&C).  To me, that stands out amongst the rest.  Even with 3 Free polish, the fumes will hit you when you open the bottle.  If I can avoid that, I would rather.  How about you?

PlantLove™ Botanical Lipstick by CARGO
Mainstream beauty companies often have little incentive to “green” their packaging and products and use manufacturing limitations and cost as an excuse. Let this $20 lipstick, a bestseller at Sephora stores nationwide be a sign of things to come.
The lipstick tube is made entirely out of corn and the carton is made of flower paper embedded with real flower seeds that grow real flowers when planted!
It’s a great sheer lipstick; hydrating with mango seed oil, meadowfoam seed oil, jojoba and shea butter and no mineral oils or petroleum. Sadly they chose to taint all those luscious botanical oils with a nasty, toxic paraben preservative.
It’s a shame too since CARGO is donating $2.00 from the sale of every tube to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Clothes made from Recycled Fabric from Arin Crumley on Vimeo.
Brooklyn label MANDATE OF HEAVEN does Refashioned Vintage.