Creating a Flawless Complexion

Creating flawlessness is a bit of work, but such a confidence builder!  No one is perfect, otherwise Photoshop wouldn’t be a model’s best friend.  Even so, a beautiful complexion can be achieved with simple proper skin care and a seamless makeup application.

Skin care, skin care, skin care and tons of water!  I can’t say it enough.  It is more important than any color cosmetic you could buy and apply.  A good skin care regime does not have to be complex or expensive but it does need to be consistent.  Pay attention to how your skin responds to old and new regimes as your skin’s need may change with your environment and stress levels.

There are three key steps to great skin care:  cleanse, treat, and moisturize.  Making sure that skin is cleansed properly is also important.  At night you should cleanse skin two times.  The first time is for dirt, makeup, and pollution, and the second time is for the skin itself.  Your cleanser should not make your skin feel dry or tight afterwards or it is too strong for your skin’s needs. Sleeping in makeup is a serious no-no! Unless you are using a blemish treatment or eye cream, use masks, peels, and exfoliants only one to three times per week.  Moisturize the skin twice a day and use a sunscreen in the mornings.

1. Cleanse

Rhassoul clay is a wonderful facial cleanser.  I use it mixed with raw honey to remove makeup.  This has been one of my favorite additions to my skin care regimen.  I had no idea that something so simple could brighten my skin, and help to keep it clear the way that rhassoul clay does.  It is so simple and brilliant!

Here are a few of my favorite store bought cleansers:

Suki Exfoilating Cleanser

This cleanser has natural glycolic acid (sugar) as well as the purest ingredients.  Suki Skin Care is one of the best organic beauty lines I have ever come across.  This cleanser cleared my skin up the month before my wedding.  I will always love this line.  This cleanser is great for fading dark spots and keeping blemishes from reappearing.  I’d recommend using this cleanser only in the evenings or three times a week.

Suki Sensitive Cleansing Bar

This cleansing bar has very similiar ingredients to the Exfoliating Cleanser without the glass jar and sugar granuals.  It is perfect for traveling and a third of the price of the Exfoliating Cleanser.

Juice Beauty Cleansing Milk

This cleansing milk is also a wonderful makeup remover.  I’ve never seen a cleanser nourish the skin and remove makeup so well.  I used to use this on clients to cleanse their skin before makeup applications.  It works for all skin types and is the perfect balance of cleansing and moisturizing.

Burt’s Bees Garden Tomato Complexion Soap

For those who love cleansing bars, here is another to try.  This bar is best for oily and combination skin.  Tomato powder and aloe vera beautifully balance the pH of skin.  This cleansing bar is a great makeup remover.

Burt’s Bees Garden Carrot Complexion Soap

Carrot seed oil is wonderful for skin cell rejuvenation and rich in beta carotene.  This is skin cleansing bar is perfect for all skin types and all ages plus anyone who loves to keep it simple.  This one is my absolute favorite facial bars and perfect makeup remover.

Aubrey Organics Vegecol with Aloe Facial Cleansing Lotion

I compare this cleanser with Cetaphil without the toxic ingredients.  Aubrey Organics Vegecol Cleansing Lotion is very gentle on the skin yet removes dirt and makeup.  The cleanser is perfect for normal, dry, and sensitive complexions.

2. Treat

This is one component to skin care that most people skip.  Skin treatments are the icing on the cupcakes.  I use skin treatments weekly or as I need basis.  My favorite skin treat is my DIY Gentle Exfoliating Mask consisting of lemon juice, honey, and sugar.  I also love a dab of honey as a blemish spot treatment.

Here are a few store bought favorites:

Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel Sensitive

This once a week treatment changed my skin for life when I used it consisting primarily of juice extracts.  It contains malic, lactic, citrus, and glycolic acid.  This is best used with a moisturizing treatment like Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist or a simple mixture of distilled water, a few drops of vegetable glycerin and chamomile or lavendar essential oil.  Instead of going to a pro and having skin so red you can’t leave the house for days, this peel will create a bit of redness then fade away in a short time.  The sensitive formula is gentle yet extremely effective.  This product will help keep blemishes from returning and fade away dark spots.  It is very important to use a SPF with this product as it makes skin more sensitive to the sun.

Aubrey Organics Blue Green Algae with Grapeseed Extract Soothing Mask

Aubrey Organics makes amazing masks!  This blue green algae mask is wonderful for combination skin.  It truly is soothing and contains glycerin as not to dry on the skin.  You will only experience the nutrient effects of the ingredients and the cleansing effects of the clay without any drying.

Aubrey Organics Vegecol with Aloe and Oatmeal Soothing Mask

This clay mask is very soothing and calming to the skin.  This is the mask for sensitive complexions.  It also contains glycerin and will not dry on the face nor be drying to the skin.

Aubrey Organics Lumessence Rejuvenating Eye Cream with Liposomes

I currently don’t use eye creams yet if I did this is the one I would go back to.  This eye cream is a very light formula that really pampers the eye area.  The ingredients are the purest and most potent.  I could definitely see a difference and enjoy the benefits with this cream.

3. Moisturize

I like to keep my moisturizer simple.  I am now mixing my two favorite oils:  olive oil and tamanu oil.  It helps to stretch out my tamanu oil and cuts back on the strong earthy scent.  The smell of tamanu oil never bothered me but my husband begs to differ.  I’m the girl that likes woodsy scents and my husband only likes sweet smells.  Our compromise is vanilla.  Two other great simple moisturizers are coconut oil and shea butter.

Here are a few other moisturizers I love:

Suki Balancing Day Lotion

This is my number one favorite store bought moisturizer.  It’s light formula bring perfect nourishing ingredients to match whatever your skins needs are.  This formula is also the base of the Suki Active Tinted Moisturizer.

Burt’s Bees Repair Serum with Attar of Rose

This is a repair treatment that can also be used as a light moisturizer under sunscreen during the day and as a light moisturizer at night.  As a treatment it is good for the delicate areas around the eyes and mouth and anywhere that needs a little extra love.

Aubrey Organics Vegecol with Aloe Moisturizing Cream

This moisturizer is light and very hydrating.  It is geared towards those with sensitive skin, yet this product can be for all skin types.  It is soothing to the skin and very nourishing.

4. Makeup, Makeup, Makeup!

Once you’ve found a skin care regime that your skin responds well to, adding makeup can be more enjoyable as you can embellish upon a beautiful canvas you’ve created, versus thinking of makeup as a cover up only.  Even for the clearest skin a light weight foundation can improve your appearance, even out skin tone, and create that glow.  Makeup should never feel itchy, heavy, or look cakey.  The purpose of makeup especially foundation is just to enhance what you already have and hide a few things in the process.

Oil free foundations are not the answer to your worries.  The correct oils meaning healing oils and essential oils should not to be avoided like the plague.  Yet mineral oil, paraffin wax, and toxic filers and preservatives should be avoided completely.  When you buy healthy makeup, it should feel light on the skin as if you aren’t wearing anything at all, and finding a formula that lasts all day is a necessary benefit I can’t lie.

Don’t discount tinted moisturizers as the perfect daily foundation.  Finding foundation that can serve as a moisturizer and SPF is an added benefit.  I’ve had times when I didn’t wear any SPF because all of it irritated my skin and left me an itchy blemished mess. I have found zinc oxide is the best natural SPF for sensitive skin.

Sunscreen protects ths skin from premature aging.  My philosophy is to let the rest of your body absorb vitamin D from the sun once and a while, just not your face.  I’ve seen a big difference from when I’ve worn sunscreen and when I haven’t.  It has helped tremedously with preventing dark spots from returning.

Here are my favorite store bought natural foundations:

Suki Active Tinted Moisturizer

This makeup also serves as the perfect moisturizer with light weight seamless coverage.  It only comes in three shades so if you’re a match, dance for joy as this is an amazing one.

Juice Beauty Perfecting Foundation

This foundation also only comes in three colors yet is packed with nourishing ingredients.  It is full of healing oils and feels light on the skin with beautfiul coverage.  Juice Beauty also carries tinted moisturizers in two shades as well.

Nvey Eco Organic Creme Deluxe Foundation

This foundation is perfect for indoor studio photography.  It has amazing ingredients with also gives it an amazingly high price, but worth it.  It is light in texture but still has a seamless finish and buildable coverage.  It comes in ten shades.

Nvey Eco Organic Moisturizing Liquid Foundation

This foundation is best for normal, dry, and sensitive skin.  It is also packed with amazing ingredients rose absolute being one of my favorites and is calming to the skin with calendula, cucumber and chamomile.

Real Purity Cream Foundation “Health Glow”

I will admit that I haven’t tried this foundation, yet I can’t get over how simple and pure their ingredients are.  I couldn’t leave it off this list since finding clean toxic free makeup can be challenging and I wanted to offer another option.  This foundation comes in 12 shades.

Monave Mineral Makeup

I am more of a fan of liquid and cream foundations because they have the ability to sink into the skin giving a more natural finish than mineral powders alone.  Mineral powder makeup is still a favorite for many and Monave Mineral Makeup has the most complimentary shades for the largest spectrum of complexions (from the fairest to the darkest complexion) that I have ever seen as well as the purest ingredients.  Monave also offers liquid and cream foundation formulas.

If you are someone who has never been able to find the perfect match for your complexion in makeup lines it isn’t that hard to make your own foundation.  I believe the most challenging factor is creating the perfect iron oxide mix to match your own foundation.  I suggest mixing small batches until you have found the perfect shade with the proper undertones.

My foundation mix is this:

1 tbsp sunscreen (Badger SPF 30 Unscented Natural Sunscreen )

2 tsp sienna iron oxides

2 tsp yellow iron oxides

1/2 tsp brown iron oxides

1/2 tsp bronze mica

1 tsp rice powder

I simple mix all of the ingredients in a bowl in store in a tiny cosmetic container the size of a large concealer container.  I can make more whenever I need to and like have a small container to keep in my bag or travel with.  A little goes a long way anyways.  I purchased my foundation ingredients minus the sunscreen from Coastal Scents.

5. Makeup Application

I like to apply foundation first with my fingers only using tiny amounts taking small dots of foundation to my forehead, nose, cheeks, chin and eye area and blending.  Then I smooth over with a foundation brush if needed.  I then add a bit more foundation to any trouble areas with my finger and pat it in for concentration.  I bot excess shine with blotting papers or a tissue gently and finish by applying a little bit of serecite mica powder for a matte finish.  Use only small amounts of powder at a time to avoid a very unnatural look and finish.   Serecite mica creates the best overall finish than other powders that I have tried.  The Badger SPF 30 Unscented Natural Sunscreen is water resistant which I believe contributes to its long wearing ability with my foundation mix.

Read Creating Mineral Makeup–Powder or Liquid and Make Your Own Mineral Makeup to learn more about my process of creating foundation.

Skin Care First, Makeup Second

Dry Body Brushing

Raw Honey–The Healing Face Wash

Creatively Declutter Cosmetics

Traditional Hair Dye, Henna & Honey Hair Lightening

(Image by Gap Fall /Winter 2010)

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