An Introduction to NOTO Botanics
As someone born and raised in the Bay Area, I will always have a special place in my heart for all things California and start-up businesses. I grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley and have seen businesses grow from a small business out of a garage to being a full-blown force in the real world. I was fortunate enough to work with DedCool earlier this year, a small beauty startup based in southern California. I was contacted by NOTO Botanics recently to give their all natural beauty line a try. The line was created by Gloria Noto, a makeup artist with years in the industry, known for her no-makeup makeup looks. As someone that goes for a more natural makeup look, I was quite intrigued to give these products a try.
I was generously sent a few products to try, in particular the Multi Benne Stain* which can be used on your Lips + Cheeks + Eyes. I was quite interested in giving this multi-use product a try as I had been interested in the Bite Beauty Multistick for a while. The shade of this stain is Oscillate, a deep red orange, which is a very wearable shade.
The product itself claims to be 'food' for the skin and senses, with ingredients that are meant to help heal the skin. It includes ingredients such as raw cocoa butter, raw shea butter, rosehip seed oil, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, peppermint oil, candelilla wax, raw cocoa, tumeric, and iron oxide. You can rest assured that NOTO Botanics is all natural, cruelty free, and unisex friendly.
I was asked to show three ways to use the Multi Benne Stain which actually proved to be a bit of a challenge - as many of you know I rarely post photos of myself. Mostly because I'm awkward AF and posing in front of the camera makes me rather uncomfortable. I would much prefer to be behind the camera. You all know I love to wear a fun lip color here and there. As someone that has more lip products than I can count, this multi stain was quite a fun one to try out. I was able to rock this as a lip color in two ways: one patted in as a deep stain (below - top left) and as a full on red with a lip liner under (below - bottom left). Be warned that when used on your lips, you best make sure your lips are in good condition. As someone prone to dry lips and skin, this one showed all the cracks and dry spots on my lips. You'll definitely want to make sure your lips have had a good amount of balm applied beforehand. *Tip: use a lip brush to apply if you want a more defined lip. You can blot the stain out with a tissue for a more faded and worn in look, but I liked to leave it full on and let it fade throughout the day. As it is pigmented, it isn't too obvious when it fades - and nothing a little touch up can't hurt. I imagine that this can easily be worn over any matte red lipstick to give a bit of a gloss to the look and to make a typically dry lip a bit more comfortable to wear.
I also tried using this as a cream blush, which also proved rather difficult as that's not something I'm typically reaching for. The product is quite pigmented so it is a bit intimidating when first applied. However, it blends out seamlessly and gives a natural flush to the cheeks.
The product is said to be able to be worn on the eyes, but I'm not one to be big on eye makeup, nor am I keen on rocking a red eye look any time soon. I think I'll go the safer route and wear it multiple ways as a lip product, and occasionally on the cheeks for a healthy glow. I predict this one will be cracked out more once Spring/Summer hits for that dewy skin look. (Please excuse the bags under my eyes. Aside from lightening the background and bumping the saturation/contrast around, I like to keep things au natural - you get the full "me".)
I was also kindly sent the Hydra Highlight All Over Glow *. This was quite exciting to receive as I love a good highlight. This also includes natural ingredients similar to the Multi Benne Stain, but with Lavender and Mica (Pearly Iridescence) as alternatives. I tried wearing this one a few ways which was quite interesting - I wore it over the lids for that "wet look" eye that many are going for these days. I did find it creased a bit so I applied a bit of translucent powder over to keep things in place. This one works in beautifully on the cheeks as a highlight, something I am a bit more used to as I love reaching for my Glossier Haloscope in Quartz. For reference, Quartz is a bit more shimmery as the NOTO Botanics version leaves more of a soft wet-look glow. In terms of comfort on the skin, both leave a semi sticky feeling - not my biggest preference but not one that's overly bothersome.
As shimmery lipstick layers are all the rage I thought I'd try layering this over a matte liquid lipstick (above - bottom right) - I layered this over Kat Von D Bow n' Arrow and I did like how it gave a bit of a natural look to the lip without looking overly frosty. With highlight you can never have enough so I went ahead and patted some in on my cupid's bow and down the bridge of my nose - I'm literally glowing in the photo.
Overall I thought the brand was interesting but it may be one of those products to try before you buy. The products are a bit different than usual so you need to be willing to go outside of your beauty comfort zone to experiment with these.
What are your thoughts on these products?
*Products mentioned in this post have been sent to me for consideration. I have not been compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.
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