I love the annual G.G. beauty awards, because with a little help, I get to choose and give a shout-out to outstanding natural beauty products. Oh – what a tough life I have to sample hundreds of beauty products!! But truly, there is a science behind really testing products, and it’s been a giant learning curve for me. Each product has to stand up to serious Sophie-scrutiny, and my criteria is different for each product.
For example, if I am testing a foundation, I always test it against another: I apply 2 different foundations – one on each side of my face. I then get at least 2 brutally honest friends to look at me in broad daylight and comment. This is often a tedious process, which involves taking it on and off. I then have to see what it looks like with and without powder. Most importantly – how does it wear throughout the day. I don’t want to see any caking or settling in wrinkles, and when I cleanse at the end of the day, I want to actually see product coming off. Good full-coverage foundations actually stay intact on your skin until you take it off! So, you can see that just with something as simple as a foundation, I try it from every angle.
Hopefully my beauty reviews throughout the year, and my annual awards will help you to pick out products that perform really well. I realize that when you’re shelling out a bit more for a really gorgeous natural product, you want to be sure that it’s a keeper.
I look for products that are not only non-toxic, clean, naturally-derived etc, but products that are outstanding in how they perform. You have in me, a somewhat jaded reviewer, which is a good thing because it takes a lot to impress me nowadays. When my first book, Gorgeously Green came out in 2008, natural beauty was a relatively low-key concept – but in the last 5 years, the industry has exploded. Women are getting smarter – we don’t want anything on our skin that compromises our health thank you very much! We spend our hard-earned dollars on products that we hope will nourish our skins and keep us looking vibrant and young – luckily this is now possible.
Anyway, check out my Best-in-Beauty 2012 – there’s some pretty awesome products in there.
