If I concentrate hard enough, I can hear my Nan speaking to me in her sing-song valleys accent. She’s saying: “There was a little girl, who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. And when she was good, she was very, very good. And when she was bad, she was horrid.” Which is precisely how my skin feels about mineral makeup – on a good day, nothing comes close to looking better and more naturally flawless on my skin. At other times though, it can look like I’ve dipped my face in a vat of semolina flour… which then slowly cooks in situ, as the day progresses.
I tried NATOrigin Loose Powder Foundation, after it was recommended to me as a cross between a mineral foundation and a setting powder. This is good news for me as I often use my mineral foundation as a setting powder… albeit with a very light hand.
Compared to most mineral foundations I’ve tried, I found this to be sheerer… more finely milled, and lighter in texture. The unglamourous but practical packaging features enough space to hold a sponge between the lid and the sifter should you need a way to avoid spillage during travel. This extra roominess also means that you’re more likely to keep the powder in the pot whilst picking up product on your brush, and not allover your dressing table.
The foundation is available in four shades, and I was sent the second lightest – which as you can imagine, is a touch too dark for my skintone but thanks to its sheerness, doesn’t cause me much concern. The foundation is about as genuinely organic as you can get, certified so by the prestigious ECOCERT and promises a hypoallergenic, paraben-free formula which has been approved by AllergyUK as an allergy-friendly product. Quite interesting when you consider that the label states that the product may contain Bismuth Oxychloride, a known potential irritant and something that many of you have grumbled about in the past.
The quantity shown in the lid is roughly the amount I’ve been using for a full face after applying a light tinted moisturiser as a base. It’s my favourite way to apply this foundation and both sets my makeup and gives me a little extra coverage in the areas where my base is letting me down. The combination of the two products as a single base gives me great medium/full coverage with none of the heaviness that I’d get were I using liquid/cream foundation alone. It’s a real time saver as I don’t have to worry about the finish looking at all caked-on or artificial.
The NATOrigin Loose Powder Foundation lacks the pretty sheen that I enjoy from other brands such as Bare Minerals, infact I’d consider this one as fairly mattifying, obviously a bonus for half the population but I prefer my finishing powder to have a little luminosity in these darker months. I’ve been mixing a liquid luminizer into my moisturiser to solve this problem.
Hopefully the above photo will let you deduce the amount of coverage you can expect from using NATOrigin Loose Powder Foundation on bare skin, it’s a sheer-medium finish and as I’ve already mentioned, a matte one. I’ve been enjoying using a flat top kabuki brush which works the product into the skin and ensures that you get maximum coverage with the least effort.
NATOrigin Loose Powder Foundation is priced at £17.75 for 5g and available to buy online from www.natorigin.co.uk
* press sample
Have you heard of the brand AlimaPure? I think it might be a similar sort of range…