The Lorissa’s List Guide to Cleaner Makeup We love clean beauty. We also love really good makeup. At Lorissa’s List, we don’t believe choosing cleaner products should mean sacrificing pigment, performance, longevity or GLAM. But there’s an important distinction: we rarely recommend buying exclusively from one makeup brand. A company can make several products with formulas we love and still have another product containing ingredients we’d personally skip. That’s why we look at beauty two ways: the overall brands that are generally doing it well, and the individual products that earn a place in our makeup bags. If you want to jump straight to the TOP RECCOMENDED PRODUCTS BROKEN DOWN BY INDIVUAL PRODUCT, CLICK HERE 5 Cleaner Makeup Lines to Know 1. Ere Perez found here : Our Top Pick If our team had to choose one makeup line that does the best job of combining actually clean ingredients with products that actually work, Ere Perez would be our pick. It’s Lorissa’s favorite overall clean makeup line and one of the first places we look when searching for a cleaner alternative to a conventional makeup product. The formulas are thoughtful, the products perform, and unlike many brands that lead heavily with “clean beauty” marketing, we consistently find products within the Ere Perez line that meet both sides of what we're looking for: ingredients + performance. If you want one place to start cleaning up your makeup bag, start here. 2. Fitglow Beauty found here Fitglow is another line we generally feel good about. The brand sits at the intersection of skincare and makeup and offers plenty of cleaner alternatives without completely sacrificing the beauty experience. As with every brand on this list, we still recommend looking at individual formulas rather than assuming every product automatically gets a green light. 3. RMS Beauty found here RMS has been part of the cleaner beauty conversation for years and continues to offer plenty of alternatives to more conventional makeup. It’s a solid line to explore when looking for cleaner swaps, although we still evaluate its products individually. 4. Kosas found here Kosas does a great job of making cleaner beauty feel like mainstream beauty. The formulas, shades and packaging don't make you feel like you're compromising simply because you're paying more attention to ingredients. There are products within the line we really like, particularly the concealer; but again, we wouldn't automatically put every Kosas product in the same category. 5. ILIA found here ILIA is one of the most recognizable cleaner makeup brands and has a very loyal following. It isn't Lorissa's personal favorite. The ILIA products she's tried have tended to make her skin feel dry and simply haven't performed particularly well for her; and they're definitely not good for that buildable coverage, or day to night glam. But plenty of women love the line, and it does generally have very good ingredients, which is exactly why we include it here. Clean beauty isn't one-size-fits-all. A formula can have a better ingredient profile and rave reviews and still not be the right product for your skin. Generally speaking, Ilia isn't for the GLAM girl, its for the soft, natural makeup girl. Lorissa's Favorite Makeup Products, By Category These are the individual products Lorissa actually reaches for across different makeup lines. You can find all of the below products HERE 1. Foundation Ere Perez Lorissa's favorite cleaner foundation and one of the reasons Ere Perez earns our top overall spot. 2. Concealer Kosas Concealer A favorite for coverage and performance while still coming from one of the generally cleaner lines we look to. 3. Tinted Serum Primally Pure Tinted Serum A great option when you want lighter coverage with an especially clean ingredient profile. 4. Brow Pencil Sweed Beauty A great clean option that gives a microblade effect, feathery fullness, smudge proof formula and clean ingredients. 5. Bronzer W3LL PEOPLE Bronzer Lorissa's current bronzer pick for a cleaner option that still gives the warmth and definition she's looking for. 6. Cream Contour Tower 28 Matte Cream Contour Our pick when you want definition and blendability without giving up the performance of a conventional contour. 7. Setting Powder Makeup by Mario This is where our product-by-product philosophy really matters. Makeup by Mario isn't a line we're putting on our list of top five clean beauty brands, but Lorissa loves the setting powder and uses it. 8. Tinted Powder Sweed Beauty We love that this one comes in 7 shades, it truly gives a blurring effect, and leaves skin looking and feeling glowy and dewy. Talc free, totally clean ingredients. This is a MUST. 9. Setting Spray Makeup by Mario Another performance favorite in Lorissa's actual makeup bag. 10. Lip Liner Ere Perez Another standout from our favorite overall line. The lip liners are one of Lorissa's go-to Ere Perez products. 11. Highlighter Sweed Beauty Two tones, champagne or bronze, no glittery flakes, a radiant glow, Talc Free and totally clean ingredients. 12. Blush Primally Pure + Sweed + Natasha Denona Blush is the category where we haven't found the perfect answer yet. Primally Pure's cream blushes have very clean ingredients FOUND HERE, but we find the pigment very subtle; great for those who don't want to glam blush look and just want a soft creamy color for cheeks. For the bright pigment blush look: Sweed Blush with Natasha Denona blush looks great and goes on the skin very well. Is that the cleanest possible blush combination? No. A Note on “Clean” Makeup One of the most important things to understand about clean beauty is that a clean reputation doesn't automatically make every formula perfect. Even brands such as ILIA and Saie, which are heavily associated with clean beauty, can use synthetic ingredients and certain lake dyes in individual formulas that some shoppers may choose to avoid. That's why Lorissa’s List looks at the product, looks at the formula, and decides what is actually clean and actually worth the money. Our Beauty editors LOVE glam. We want the foundation, contour, lip liner and show-stopping blush and beyond; and we also want to know what's in them and when there's a cleaner option that performs just as well, we want you to know about it. Lorissa’s List is about providing enough information to make choosing easier, not creating another impossible standard for women to follow. Sometimes the cleanest option is also the best-performing option. Sometimes it isn't. And sometimes the product everyone else loves simply doesn't work for your skin. Our job is to help you understand the difference so you can find your best fit. *formulas subject to change always, and we do our best to keep up!
