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If you’ve been paying attention, you know that we at The Youthist are huge fans of 2-in-1 products. So, it should come as no surprise that we’re big fans of tinted moisturizers. But there’s a big difference between plain old tinted moisturizers and organic and natural tinted moisturizers.
Tinted moisturizers have so many potential benefits. Of course, they save you time by cutting out the primer or foundation portion of your makeup routine, but it’s the lightweight, high-performance coverage they provide that has us gaga over them.
They give the perfect natural-looking finish for casual outings or athletic activities (or for those who like a less-heavy look), they feel lighter on the skin during hot and humid summer months, and we don’t feel like our pores are clogged or unable to breathe (which is especially helpful for people with breakout-prone skin).
Now, here’s the important part: because tinted moisturizer acts as a moisturizer and a foundation/primer all-in-one, you’re also reducing your toxic load. What do we mean by that? Well, by cutting out your primer or foundation, you’re reducing your exposure to any nasty, health-compromising ingredients contained within those products.
However, some tinted moisturizers are equally as toxic as any foundation out there. And it’s for that reason that we recommend using a natural or organic tinted moisturizer.
INGREDIENTS TO LOOK FOR IN NATURAL TINTED MOISTURIZERS
Instead, natural tinted moisturizers blend ingredients harvested in nature. These ingredients work harmoniously with your skin, not only moisturizing it in the immediate moment that it’s applied, but also strengthening its ability to retain moisture in the long term.
Some of the ingredients you might find in a natural tinted moisturizer include:
- Organic moisturizing oils such as jojoba, coconut, shea, and argan.
- Essential oils that can correct everything from acne-causing bacteria to hydration deficits.
- Vitamins that nourish and strengthen skin such as A, B, and E.
- Mineral SPF to protect your skin from the harmful effects of UVA, UVB, and UVC rays.
- Soothing ingredients like aloe, cucumber, and rosehip.
To avoid ingredients that are potentially unsafe and start bringing your body back in line with more natural topicals, make the switch to a natural or organic tinted moisturizers. We’ve listed the best ones below.
12+ BEST NATURAL AND ORGANIC TINTED MOISTURIZERS
The best clean, natural tinted moisturizers – and the organic ones, too – replace bad ingredients with ones that nourish your skin as much as possible. From natural oils like shea butter and coconut oil to antioxidants and botanical extracts, clean, organic and natural tinted moisturizers give you a flawless complexion while making your skin more healthy and resilient.
Westman Atelier Vital Skincare Complexion Drops $77
Step into a realm of next level clean beauty with Westman Atelier’s Vital Skincare Complexion Drops—a radiance bestseller boasting 20+ inclusive shades. This silicone-fee formula combines serum-strength actives, create to elevate skin texture, firmness, and tone with each drop. Enriched with potent botanicals including nourishing Tsubaki oil, antioxidant-rich Ginseng extract, and free-radical fighting Pomegranate extract, the weightless oil-serum, leaving behind a luminous, revitalized complexion. Backed by consumer studies boasting remarkable enhancements, from heightened hydration to refined texture and minimized pores, this natural tinted moisturizer redefine the boundary between skincare and makeup.
Iris & Romeo Best Skin Days SPF 30 $48
With over 750 5 star reviews Iris & Romeo’s Best Skin Days SPF 30 (available in 12+ shades) is a multi-tasking marvel, that not only evens out skintone but also delivers light to medium buildable coverage with Broad Spectrum SPF 30 UVA/UVB and blue light protection. The lightweight cream texture effortlessly melts into the skin, leaving behind a natural, glowing look. Enriched with moisture-attracting sodium hyaluronate, it restores hydration, improves elasticity, and enhances natural radiance for bouncier, firmer, and glowing skin—both instantly and over time. Other key ingredients include zinc oxide broad spectrum SPF 30 UVA/UVB (non-nano) for comprehensive mineral-based sun and blue light protection, as well as rosa damascena extract to boost collagen and hyaluronic acid synthesis.
Juice Beauty SPF 30 Tinted Mineral Moisturizer $30
For lightweight coverage and a glowing finish, this tinted moisturizer that’s available in 3 shades can be used alone or combined with your favorite foundation for more coverage. It protects your skin with chemical-free SPF 30 and is made with tinted mineral pigments that won’t clog pores. It’s also full of antioxidants that protect your skin from free radical damage, including grape, aloe, and pomegranate juices.
Coola Rosilliance Mineral BB+ Cream Tinted Organic Sunscreen SPF 30 $52
Beyond broad spectrum SPF 30 protection and the ability to even skin tone and hide imperfection, this tinted face oil has three stand-out ingredients. Acai fruit oil repairs damaged skin cells with vitamins A, B, C, and E, plankton extract reduces impurities like blemishes and dark spots, while rose stem cell moisturizes and provides powerful antioxidant protection. Those ingredients, and 70% of the formula, are certified organic and the three shades are 100% waterproof.
Jane Iredale Dream Tint $32
An oil-free and lightweight formula that you can actually feel soothing your skin as it hydrates. In a wide range of shades (7 to be exact), from light to dark, the water-resistant formula is perfect for the beach and a sheer to medium level of coverage. Swim all day (but don’t forget to reapply) without worrying about sun protection (SPF 15), covering your blemishes, or hurting the water wildlife (because this natural tinted moisturizer is reef-friendly).
100% Pure Fruit Pigmentated Tinted Moisturizer $48
100% Pure’s Fruit Tinted Moisturizer uses natural fruit and vegetable pigments to bring you light to medium coverage that lasts all day. With 9 shades ranging from the lightest to darkest skin tones, this tinted moisturizer rich in aloe and cucumber juice delivers a beautiful dewy finish. The formula includes a number of other skin-beneficial ingredients including reparative Pommegranite Oil antioxidant rich White tea extract as well as collagen boosting Goji Berry.
Dr Hauschka Tinted Day Cream $45
Dr. Hauschka has created a tinted moisturizer that’s great for all skin types. If you have dry or sensitive skin, the beeswax and rosehip extract will protect your skin and help to make it stronger. If uneven skin tone, redness, or blemishes are your biggest problem, then you’ll benefit from essential oils and mineral pigments that clarify and renew the tone and texture of the skin. And regardless of what your skin type is, you’ll look more youthful with the sun-kissed glow that this tint leaves behind.
Eminence Organic Skin Care Vanilla Latte Tinted Moisturizer $37.50
Even the name of one of the best organic tinted moisturizers sounds rich and luxurious. This high-performance organic skincare line is best for light skin tones and those who require a lightweight, non-comedogenic formula that won’t clog pores. Featuring shea butter, aloe vera, and jojoba oil for hydration and nourishment, as well as vitamins and nutrients that heal your skin every day that you wear it, this tinted moisturizer by Eminence will prevent damage and renew your radiant flow. Another key benefit that the tinted moisturizer offers is broad-spectrum sun protection (SPF 30).
Josh Rosebrook Tinted Nutrient Day Cream with SPF 30 $55
This Is just as much skincare as it is lightweight and seamless makeup. Filled with deeply nourishing ingredients from bilberry and rosehip to seabuckthorn and borage, it’s also formulated with a fast-absorbing SPF 30 to protect your skin from the sun. Only available in one color, the formula adjusts to your skin tone for the perfect finish every time.
Ilia Beauty Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 $46
Available in 18 shades, Ilia’s Super Serum Skin Tint has appropriately named serum and not just a simple moisturizer. One part mineral sunscreen, one part tint that can be used as a primer, and one part skin serum, each component consists of the highest quality ingredients that all skin types, including sensitive, will benefit from. Take, for example, the non-nano zinc oxide sunscreen, which protects against UVA, UVB, UVC, and even blue light. Or the combination of hyaluronic acid, plant-based squalene, and niacinamide, which are some of the best ingredients for strengthening your skin’s natural barrier.
Suntegrity 5 in 1 Natural Moisturizing Face Tinted Moisturizer $45
Suntegrity was given “Champion” Status by the EWG Campaign for Safe cosmetics. They develop superior sun protection products without toxic preservatives and chemicals. That’s how you know that their best-selling 5-in-1 tinted moisturizer is safe and friendly for all skin types. Formulated with organic ingredients like aloe, jojoba, sunflower, cucumber, and green tea, it’s as hydrating as it is cooling and soothing. For sheer coverage and a dewy finish.
HAN Skincare Serum CC Cream SPF 30+ $32
This liquid formula is a bit different than what you expect from the texture of a tinted moisturizer. But it’s that texture that allows for the high concentration of nourishing oils such as coconut, jojoba, and rosehip. Those oils promote a naturally even skin tone while the tint gives your skin the appearance that you’re already there. In seven shades from porcelain to deep, Han scores extra points for the airless pump bottle that preserves the integrity and effectiveness of the formula.
Kosas Tinted Face Oil $42
This Allure Best of Beauty winner-tinted face oil allows you to control the amount of coverage you get: 2-4 drops for sheer coverage and 4-6 drops for fuller coverage with any of the 16 shades. But more than just great and flexible coverage options, Kosas Tinted Face Oil is an award-winning product for its capacity to deliver deep hydration. A blend of six active botanical oils nourish the skin, help blur the imperfections you have today, and prevent future problems with your skin tone.
Alternatively, considers Kosas’s BB Burst Gel Cream With Copper Peptides ($38) for light buildable coverage.
INGREDIENTS TO AVOID IN ORGANIC AND NATURAL TINTED MOISTURIZERS
There are a few toxic ingredients that are common to all skincare and cosmetics: parabens, phthalates, PEGs, DEA/MEA/TEA, propylene glycol, SLS and SLES, siloxanes, DMDM hydantoin, BHA/BHT and triclosan. It goes without saying that these should be avoided, but there are a few things we keep an eye out for with tinted moisturizer in particular. These are:
FRAGRANCES
To make something smell nice, manufacturers blend tons of chemicals and call it “fragrance.” But fragrance can cause major irritation and exacerbate skin conditions like eczema.
SILICONE
Used in moisturizers and cosmetics to add a smooth and silky texture and lock in moisture, silicone can trap dirt and bacteria beneath its occlusive barrier and cause breakouts. It can also dry the skin out because it hinders moisture from reaching the surface.
SYNTHETIC DYES
Tinted moisturizers may be intended to tint your skin, but they shouldn’t use synthetic dyes to do so. These dyes can trigger allergies and irritation (and some are suspected carcinogens).
ALCOHOL
Alcohol is added to tinted moisturizers to help ingredients penetrate the skin, preserve the product, and give a lightweight feel, but they’re very drying and dehydrating. They’re especially bad for breakout-prone skin because they strip natural oil and cause the skin to produce more than it needs.
PETROLEUM & MINERAL OIL
Like silicone, these ingredients form an occlusive barrier that makes the skin feel softer and locks in moisturizer. But mineral oil is a possible immune system toxicant and allergen and petroleum has been linked to skin irritation and chronic conditions like acne. They also tend to clog pores.
CHEMICAL SUNSCREENS
A lot of tinted moistures will also contain SPF, but if that sun protection is coming from oxybenzone, octinoxate, avobenzone, octocrylene or homosalate, you should know that these are linked to cancer.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Tinted moisturizers can contain harmful and potentially toxic ingredients that are easily absorbed by the pores on your face and neck. Because they typically contain sunscreen, that means they can also contain the hazardous chemicals found in many forms of SPF. With natural and organic tinted moisturizers, you get all the same sun protection and the level of coverage you desire. The difference is, their packed with mineral pigments, vitamins, and antioxidants that are easily (and safely) absorbed by the skin.
