You'll Be Ready For Your Closeup with this Organic Foundation

It's not often you find safe, organic makeup that performs equally well on film and TV as it does in everyday life.

Meet Sappho Cosmetics Liquid Foundation. Sappho is the brainchild of JoAnn Fowler, an award-winning makeup artist for feature film and TV. When JoAnn’s clients, including Mia Kirshner and Jennifer Beals, began asking for safer cosmetics, JoAnn embarked on a mission to research cosmetic ingredients and create products that met the strictest safety standards. They also had to perform just as well on film and TV as conventional makeup.

And perform they do. Sappho’s range of products - which, in addition to the Liquid Foundation, comprises concealer, eyeshadow, blush, setting powder, mascara, lip gloss, and nail polish - offers professional quality cosmetics that are safe, organic and composed of skin nourishing ingredients.

Why I Love the Liquid Foundation Ingredients:

• the formula uses mineral pigments suspended in a base of organic aloe vera juice and organic jojoba oil;
•  instead of synthetic preservatives, Sappho uses a complex of organic essential oils that acts as a natural preservative: calendula flower, rosemary extract, neem oil, meadowfoam oil, carrot seed oil, lavender, chamomile, cedar wood and frankincense;
• skin gets an infusion of antioxidants from vitamin E, organic rooibos, tea tree oil, and organic green tea extract. Most of the essential oils also have antioxidant qualities;
• they are 100% vegan and cruelty-free.

Formula and Coverage
The formula is a liquid/mousse hybrid, which is nice because when you pump it onto your fingers it does’t immediately start to run. It’s featherlight and disappears into the skin right away with little blending required. When I’m doing a full face of foundation I use Sappho’s Oval Foundation Buffing Brush: it has soft, tightly packed (cruelty-free) bristles and makes it a breeze to buff the foundation into the skin and create an airbrushed look.

This is a close-up of me wearing Sappho Liquid Foundation in the "Lisa" shade. It looks and feels like second skin and is undetectable even up close:

The coverage is definitely on the light side. l use a concealer on problem areas like the pores on my nose, because the foundation is so lightweight that it doesn’t adequately fill in pores. So I keep my RMS “un” cover-up handy to spot conceal after applying the Sappho foundation. I don't mind taking this extra step, because the flawless finish of the foundation is worth it.

Compared to Vapour's Atmosphere Soft Focus Foundation (read my review here), Sappho’s is more matte and offers lighter coverage, though not as matte as Kjaer Weis’ cream foundation.

Finding the Right Shade
For six years, JoAnn was the lead makeup artist for the TV drama The L Word. To help Sappho customers find the right color match, JoAnn named each of the eight foundation shades to correspond with the skin tone of a character in The L Word. This is Sappho’s foundation chart with the character names for each shade:

This foundation is best for a natural, no-makeup look. For full coverage I prefer to use Vapour Atmosphere Soft Focus Foundation or Kjaer Weis Cream Foundation. But for everyday wear and ease of application, Sappho is hands down the foundation I reach for most often. 

30ml (USD $52.00 and CDN $52.00) Available at thedetoxmarket.com and thedetoxmarket.ca