In honor of what April is supposed to bring, and as a reminder to Syracuse to get with the program, I decided to research some bright makeup products to create rosy cheeks, stunning eyes and chase out winter gloom. These goodies are sure add a little spring to your step, so pick em up and dare to be bold!

Bare Escentuals: Destination Ensenada: This kit includes four powdered shadows and comes in a lime green case. The colors can come out muted or super bright if you’re feeling extra springy. The kit includes a rose pink, baby blue, bright green, and a gold/tan hue. It’s like spring in a compact.

Dior 5 Color Spring Bouquet: This palette of spring colors is a little more muted, and includes floral pinks, whites and browns. This is perfect for a daytime spring look that is still bright and fresh.

Benefit Poisetint: This little bottle looks like a nail polish but it is for lips and cheeks. It is a liquid see-through tint that stays on all day. It’s easy to apply and create a warm sun-kissed glow.

Tarte: A Perfect Whirled Natural Cheek Stain: This is a bright pink cheek stain made of natural ingredients, like acai and pomegranate.

Plant Love by Cargo: Fire: This little compact is a combination of blush, highlighter and bronzer composed of baked terracotta. It will easily brighten up your face and add some “April Showers Bring May Flowers” to your look.

Clinique Full Potential Lips Plump and Shine: Petal Pink: This rose-pink gloss plumps your lips and adds a layer of pretty shine.

Cargo – Plant Love

Cargo has always had great makeup products, cool eye shadows and great blushes. But they recently launched a whole line of eco- friendly products. Everything from lipsticks, powders, foundations, liners, shadows, etc., all in super-biodegradable packaging. They even created the first ever compostable lipsticks! Made completely from corn, these lipstick tubes break down in a compost pile just like apple cores and banana peels.

The whole Plant Love line is certified by ECOCERT, which is kind of like a Better Business Bureau for eco-friendliness. They monitor not just the packaging, but the whole production process to make sure that the products are made, shipped and disposed of in way that is not too harsh on the environment. The coolest thing is the boxes the products come in actually have wildflower seeds in them! If you plant them, you can grow a garden. How’s that for green?

Urban Decay

So Cargo set the gold standard on environmentally friendly stuff, but Urban Decay leads the way with love for our furry friends. Urban Decay takes a big stand against animal testing and the brand is entirely cruelty-free. You know that old wives tale about fish scales being used in lipstick? That’s not an urban legend – it’s actually true. It’s kinda gross to think about, especially if you are someone who cares about animal rights. So to help you out Urban decay has a whole line of vegan products and even features seasonal looks using all vegan makeup. Just look for a purple paw print, “Marley’s Paw,” to get the vegan goods on their website.

Urban Decay takes their love for animals seriously and makes sure their makeup brushes and tools are cruelty free, too.  Squirrel hair makeup brushes? Really? Who wants squirrel hair touching her face? And since when is makeup application an excuse to harm animals? Urban Decay makes all of their brushes out of synthetic fibers that actually mimic the texture and flexibility of natural fibers, so they work just as good and there are no bald bunnies hopping around! Urban Decay even gets the PETA stamp of approval.

But the Katie Couric in me has decided to investigate just how legit this organic makeup is.

First off, let’s make this Organic 101 for a second and define what it means to be organic. Organic products are products that are produced without pesticides or other chemicals. They are also produced in a way that is environmentally friendly, as toxins are not released into the air. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has now made standards that regulate which foods can be deemed organic. Although usually more expensive, organic foods can be better for you, so the same should be true for organic makeup right? Turns out, not so much.

I decided to check out my best friend, Sephora, to see just what organic products they offer. Sephora is stocked with three “organic” brands: Care by Stella McCartney, Juice Beauty and NVEY Eco. Each brand claims to be pure, luxurious, and certified organic. Looking through their products they look pretty great: Care is big on moisturizing skincare and NVEY has some really pretty eyeshadow kits.

Too bad that upon further research the term organic kinda seems like a hoax…

According to OrganicConsumers.org (yeah it’s a .org so I trust it) it turns out there are no standards for organic beauty products! The Organic Consumers Association is doing its best to alert buyers that “certified” labels are not actually set to a specific government standard unless they actually say “USDA Certified.” Unless these products are certified with that specific label, they often still contain the same chemicals as their non-Organic counterparts. Oftentimes the carcinogenic chemical 1,4-Dioxide is still put in makeup products falsely labeled as organic. These products claim to be certified but they are often certified by lax regulations.

Unfortunately, none of the makeup brands on Sephora are USDA certified and thus are not recommended by the Organic Consumer Association. (Shame on you Stella McCartney!)

Check out a list of more approved beauty products here. Some companies like Organic Essence have a 100% USDA organic line of beauty products (but it is mostly lotions and soaps).

I guess the bottom line is: if you’re gonna buy organic makeup be aware that many make false claims and are often equivalent to regular or natural makeup lines. Stay in the know and save your dough!

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