Larenim

Would you ever have thought that I would be wearing makeup every day? Well I am! (My brother is so proud!) This post is a shout out to the make up that has allowed me to throw away everything else I stole from my mom when I was in middle school . (...sorry mom.)

The founder of Larenim Mineral Makeup had every possible skin problem imaginable -some of it induced by her conventional makeup - and founded the company to try and save others the same troubles.

I'm 23 and have struggled with acne nice my early teenage years. I kinda feel like at this age, I've done my time and should be through, but it hasn't let up.

Or hadn't.

I prefer natural to synthetic anywhere I have a choice. For this reason, bad though my acne be, I couldn't bring myself to wear traditional makeup that would exacerbate my breakouts, feel awful on my skin, and make me look fake. I chose not to wear it unless it looked and felt natural, didn't upset my skin, didn't smear off on everything, felt good while I wore it, and stayed on all day. Needless to say, this makeup was never found, and so I went without.

Finally fed up with the breakouts, I started looking for something - anything - that would help, even if it just meant makeup to cover the imperfections. I tried my local Whole Foods and found Larenim. "Can't hurt..." I thought.

Well, I never thought anything would meet my hippie standards, but Larenim does. It's low maintenance because it stays on all day; it looks and feels natural; it doesn't smell "like a dentist office" (as my husband observed other makeup did); it doesn't rub off on me or my husband's clothes; and best of all, it doesn't exacerbate my acne.

On the contrary, this make up is the only thing I've ever applied to my face that has cleared up my acne 100%. Something in the stuff just balanced my skin. Now that's cool!

My husband came in while I was applying my makeup one day and said "Well well, my hippie's wearing makeup again!" He was quite for a minute. "Are you ok with this?" he asked sincerely.

"I'm REALLY ok with it," I answered. "In fact, I feel like I'm just doing one more step in my skin care routine. I don't even feel like I'm 'putting on makeup'."

Pretty darn cool if you ask me. You can get samples for 4 bucks a pop on the web site. I'd encourage everyone to try it. Oh, and if you're still unconvinced, maybe reading about what conventional makeup will do to your skin over time - even the ones that are "non-comedogenic" and "hypo-allergenic" - will give you a little incentive. It sure did for me. See here and here.