New Zealand's skincare brand, Living Nature, has secured praise for its championing of safe cosmetics and ingredient use. The Skin Deep Cosmetics Safely Database has awarded the brand the status of 'Safe Cosmetics Champion', after Living Nature products were found to have one of the lowest hazard and safest ratings on the database.
Living Nature is a truly 100% natural brand, bringing you the purest and most natural skincare possible and it promises: No Synthetic Preservatives, No ingredients Living Nature considers potentially harmful, No Mineral Oils, No Herbicide or Pesticide Residues, No GM ingredients, No Animal Ingredients or testing, Only Use Recyclable, Reusable, Reduced Packaging. While not all of Living Nature's extracts are certified organic, they are all are pesticide-free and wild crafted.
Lorraine Downes, former Miss World, is also the first ambassador for the New Zealand all natural skincare and makeup brand Living Nature, and relishes her role. Living Nature approached her after she praised their products in an interview. 'As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more and more aware of how important going 'natural' really is. 'I’ve tried every product under the sun over the years, and the relationship with Living Nature came at just the right time in my life when I could truly embrace it.'
Living Nature Skincare (from £5.50) is available at Naturisimo.
Review of Living Nature Foundation
By Louise M.
Packaging: Living Nature Foundation is packaged in a sturdy glass bottle with a pump dispenser. The pump is a really nice feature because not only does it give you good control over the amount of product you can dispense, but it also keeps the contents hygienic. Anyone who’s fed up with mucky tubes or compacts in their makeup bag will certainly appreciate this.
Application: The formulation of this product as soon as it is dispensed seems to be very runny indeed, although don’t be fooled! This foundation becomes tacky very quickly so you need to work it into your face fast. You also only need a tiny bit to go a long way so after a process of trial and error I realised that it was better to apply it and work it in one dot at a time. It gives great coverage on its own or mixes well with a drop of moisturiser for a more dewy effect.
Ingredients: There are lots of lovely natural oils inside this foundation to help nourish your skin; macadamia, avocado and jojoba. How so many natural oils and minerals can provide such great pigmented coverage is a mystery! If you have normal to sensitive skin whether it is inflamed or dry I think the ingredients offer something for all skin types. Living Nature is known for its ingredients being suitable for oily or spotty skin with antiseptic tea tree and manuka honey.
Results: This was my first experience with a natural foundation so I was really impressed at the full to medium coverage. I had expected natural foundations to be a bit ‘wishy-washy’ - not so! The shade that I used (Pure Sand) was a perfect match for my medium-fair skin tone although Living Nature offer a good selection of similar shades if you prefer to buy two colours and mix your own through the seasons. They don’t offer any shades for darker African-Caribbean skin tones however which is a great shame. I found the formulation quite matifying which for some would be a bonus; it certainly helps to make it long lasting. As we enter the summer however I preferred to mix it with a bit of my regular moisturiser which made it a bit more sheer and more suitable for my dry skin.
Pros:
Fantastic full-medium coverage
Great match for my medium-fair skin tone
Good staying-power on the skin
Cons:
Limited choice of shades
Living Nature Foundation (£16) and Living Nature Products are available at naturisimo.com
Review of Living Nature Clear Lights Tinted Moisturiser
by Louise M. 
Packaging
Living Nature Clear Lights Tinted Moisturiser comes in a sleek black flip-top dispenser which can easily be stood upright and is recyclable. The packaging feels very robust, and I would put this in my handbag confident that it wouldn’t explode everywhere!
Application
I was pleasantly surprised by the texture of the Living Nature Tinted Moisturiser, which felt thick enough to be moisturising, but thin enough to glide over the skin without dragging the tinted colour and leaving streaks. It absorbed quickly without irritating my skin which can sometimes be very sensitive after my morning shower. I do have very dry skin however, and the product sunk in so quickly that I found I needed to apply my usual moisturiser, wait for 5 minutes and then apply the Living Nature Tinted Moisturiser over the top. This formula worked really well for me, but would not be necessary for anyone with a normal/combination skin.
Ingredients
I have already tried some of the other products from this New Zealand company and have always been impressed by the quality of their ingredients. Living Nature Clear Lights Tinted Moisturiser does not contain any parabens, mineral oils, irrigated, genetically modified, pesticide-treated, synthetic or animal ingredients, and has not been tested on animals. Instead, the active ingredients in this natural tinted moisturiser are macadamia nut oil and manuka honey which are both very nourishing; and although these are all natural ingredients the 50ml tube has a shelf life of 18 months. As well as the beautiful flora I am sure some New Zealand sunshine finds its way into every bottle!
Results
I was pleased with the colour-match of this product for my fair skin tone, but on balance I found it too thin to be sufficiently moisturising on its own and it has very sheer coverage. I ended up mixing a little with my usual concealer to provide more coverage where needed and this worked well.
Pros:
· It suited even my very sensitive and inflamed skin;
· The colour was a good match and did not streak;
· It is made from high quality ingredients.
Cons:
· The coverage was too sheer for my uneven skin tone;
· The light geranium smell may irritate some people;
· I needed to use an additional moisturiser for my problem areas.
New Zealand's skincare brand, Living Nature, has secured praise for its championing of safe cosmetics and ingredient use. The Skin Deep Cosmetics Safely Database has awarded the brand the status of 'Safe Cosmetics Champion', after Living Nature products were found to have one of the lowest hazard and safest ratings on the database.
