Ahh.. pregnancy.
The time in a woman’s life when growing a tiny human takes precedence over everything else for a full nine months (and beyond, far beyond).
But just because you’re toting around an ever-growing belly, doesn’t mean you’re not “you”. If you were a make-up-loving lady before, don’t let pregnancy slow you down.
It just means you have to be a little more discerning with cosmetics and that goes for choosing a pregnancy-safe foundation.
So with that in mind, you’re probably wondering…what foundation makeup is safe during pregnancy?
Very few brands market their products as such (and often it’s just greenwashing anyways), so in the absence of clear messaging, we’ve done the work for you and curated this list of brands offering safe foundation that are not only made with natural ingredients to enhance that pregnancy glow but are also ethically sourced and sustainably packaged.
In the next few months, we’ll be launching our Brand Rating System, broadening our assessment to cover 22 criteria, such as climate impact and product longevity. To learn more about this system, take a look at our explainer.
Baby’s Favorite Liquid & Powder Foundations For Pregnancy
For the best pregnancy-safe foundation that’s as lightweight on your skin as it is on the planet, Dab Herb creates truly natural, botanical blends in small batches, and ticks all the boxes—including our personal performance testing one.
100% Pure stays true to their name and if you ask the charities they donate to, like supplying a bowl of dog chow for each purchase, they’d agree their ingredients and intentions are 100% pure.
Index: Pregnancy-Safe Foundation Brands
- Dab Herb Jump to brand
- INIKA Organic Jump to brand
- 100% Pure Jump to brand
- Moonrise Creek Jump to brand
- Antonym Cosmetics Jump to brand
- Foraged Fields Jump to brand
- Bee You Organics Jump to brand
- RMS Beauty Jump to brand
- Plant Makeup Jump to brand
Dab Herb
Dab Herb’s Foundation
Price Range: $26–$44
Skin tone and skin texture can change with the influx of hormones during pregnancy, not to mention if you’re living in a place with all four seasons, that summertime glow quickly fades as the winter rolls in.
As a longtime foundation shopper (or newbie picking up their first bottle!), it’s typically hard to match your skin perfectly.
Dab Herb has the perfect solution to your skin-matching woes, with two foundation options available in sample sizes.
While testing these colors, you also get the perfect amount to test on your skin.
Providing buildable coverage, Dab Herb’s Frankincense Foundation is a liquid 3-in-1 serum foundation with a formula containing frankincense, non-clogging oils, and natural herbs like calendula, rosehips, and foti.
The non-clogging oils are unrefined and organic grapeseed oil, safflower oil, and hemp seed oil.
As stated, there is “a tiny bit” of non-nano iron oxide and non-nano zinc oxide. Non-nano, meaning it is bigger than 100mm, so it won’t penetrate skin.
Most importantly, it doesn’t contain glycerin, emulsifying wax, or mineral oil.
About Dab Herb
Among the top of our pregnancy-safe foundation brands, Dab Herb’s creator Crissy began her journey “from Nature to Nurture” in this cosmetic brand with the intent to give away or use for herself.
This idea grew into the organic makeup brand they are today, providing cosmetics of all kinds made with clean ingredients that’ll help your skin, instead of harm.
Based in CA, Dab Herb partners with companies in the Ukraine and China, which she lists as fair-trade partners.
My Personal Review of Dab Herb’s Herb Foundation:
“Truth be told, I rarely wear foundation as I don’t feel the need. However, after trying the Herb Foundation from Dab Herb, I’m seriously impressed. I love its ultra-lightweight and moisturizing feel that blends easily into my skin. In fact, I can’t tell that I’m wearing foundation at all. The ingredients are food grade, botanically based, and mostly certified organic; in other words, no junk. I have sensitive skin, and this doesn’t irritate it at all”.
Review by Amber McDaniel, SJ’s Head of Content
INIKA Organic
INIKA Organic’s Liquid & Powder Foundations
Price Range: $49–$55
INIKA’s Organic Liquid Foundation, made with certified organic ingredients like Green Tea extracts and hyaluronic acid provides a “buildable dewy finish”.
If you find liquid foundation too heavy during pregnancy, or better yet, your skin already has that pregnancy glow, and you’re looking for minimal coverage.
INIKA has you covered, or rather, powdered.
Their Mineral Foundation, baked on terracotta tiles in Tuscany is a staple in any pregnancy makeup bag. Made of mica powder, hectorite, and squalene, this product provides light, bright overall coverage while being good for your skin.
While the ingredients in the classic mineral powder are deemed natural, you have the organic option too.
They also offer a Loose Mineral Foundation SPF 25, but it’s unclear whether its titanium and zinc oxide base is made of non-namo minerals or not. We’re attempting to confirm, but until we do, we suggest avoiding this one.
No matter which you choose, all formulas are PETA Animal Test Free and Vegan Society certified.
About INIKA Organic
From organic eyeliner to lipstick, you’ll find INIKA spanning 35 countries, but this company is 100% Australian-owned and one of the highest certified natural beauty brands worldwide.
The ingredients are important, but that’s only half the battle.
INIKA not only distributes clean and safe bb cream, but does so in packaging that’s certified Plastic Neutral by Waste Revolution, Australia’s leading Plastic Neutral Certification.
That means this company collects an equal amount of plastic as any used in their products. So far, they’ve repurposed 4+ tons into fence posts on devastated farmland.
Beyond that, they’ve minimized their virgin plastic use by 84%, the difference of nearly 7 tons annually, by switching to reusable glass or recycled aluminum.
100% Pure
100% Pure’s Full Coverage Foundation
Price Range: $42–$48
Moms typically want their children to grow up with the same morals they have, so why not start in the womb?
Whether you prefer liquid or powder, 100% Pure offers 100% cruelty-free and vegan foundations.
Each formula is packed with natural anti-aging skin care ingredients that are rich in vitamins and antioxidants.
Instead of synthetic fragrances and colorants, you get only fruit-pigmented hues and almost entirely organic ingredients.
The Fruit Pigmented Full Coverage Water foundation is a personal favorite of ours made of soothing aloe leaf juice and toning green tea for a matte, even skin tone.
Unlike many foundations we’ve tried that cake and clog pores, this full-coverage formula performed well while letting the skin breathe.
About 100% Pure
100% Pure doesn’t stop at pregnancy-safe full coverage foundation.
They also make a range of fruit-tinted shadows, balms, and eyeliner for a complete face of completely safe makeup.
Each item is free of animal-derived ingredients, synthetic fragrances, and unnatural dyes.
100% Pure has plans to ensure all their packaging is made with recycled materials.
Being a top sustainable makeup brand, it’s no surprise that 100% Pure donates a bowl of vegan dog food or plants a tree with every purchase made as their way to give back.
Moonrise Creek
Moonrise Creek’s Foundations
Price Range: $27–$37
This is probably as close to DIY liquid foundation as you can get. While on the moonlit hunt for pregnancy-safe foundation brands, we stumbled across Moonrise Creek to add to our list and hopefully your makeup routine.
Moonrise Creek’s foundations—either mineral powders or a Botanical Blend Liquid Foundation—are inspired by nature and are meant to connect you to all the natural world has to offer.
Their liquid foundation is a lullaby to oily, acne-prone or sensitive skin, made with nourishing organic and non-GMO ingredients like vitamin E, nourishing shea butter, and soothing thyme.
Each foundation formulation contains titanium dioxide and iron oxides, and we’re not certain if these are non-nano or not, so we suggest avoiding them until we’re able to confirm.
About Moonrise Creek
Moonrise Creek classifies itself as nature-loving folk, and it shows in their makeup and skincare range.
Despite their large range, everything is sustainably made in small batches by hand.
All products are vegan, cruelty-free, and organic.
Antonym Cosmetics
Antonym’s Foundation For Pregnancy
Price Range: $40–$52
Despite their name, Antonym’s beauty products, including their Skin Esteem liquid foundation, are synonymous with silky smooth skin.
And for expecting mamas, they also won’t pose any risk to your precious developing baby.
The Skin Esteem Foundation is a cruelty-free formulation made up of nourishing ingredients like jojoba seed oil, sunflower oil, hyaluronic acid, and sweet almond oil that provides buildable coverage without clogging pores.
Their top-selling Baked Foundation provides light coverage while hiding skin imperfections with light powder.
However, alumina, mica, and iron are in this particular makeup, and we’ll be reaching out to confirm both sourcing and whether these minerals are non-nano or not.
The liquid foundation is housed in an airless glass bottle for less waste and chance of contamination. The powder foundation comes in a sleek wooden compact.
About Antonym Cosmetics
Antonym’s pregnancy-safe foundations are just one of the ways you can shop clean.
They also offer blush, organic eyeshadow, and makeup brushes.
Being certified cruelty-free, vegan, and Leaping Bunny certified, it’s clear there is no room in their makeup for animal byproducts and questionable testing methods.
Packaging is FSC-certified, and so is their marketing material.
My Personal Review of Antonym’s Skin Esteem Liquid Foundation:
“Liquid foundation was never really a product that found its way into my makeup bag. More often than not, I simply use cream and powders to spot-conceal blemishes, but my skin is smooth enough that foundation never felt necessary. So I went into testing this as a near novice and found that the formula is so easily blendable that even a total nube like me had no trouble getting a smooth and lasting finish.”
Review by Amber McDaniel, SJ’s Head of Content
Foraged Fields
Foraged Fields’ Powder Foundation
Price Range: $12
The best foundation for pregnancy is one free of added oxides, mica, and questionable shimmering powders, which make up most options on the market.
That’s why Foraged Fields created their own.
Instead of nanoparticle minerals like iron oxides, their powder foundation consists of naturally colored clays (like bentonite, french red kaolinite, halal red, and rhassoul (or other non-toxic plant-based colorants (like organic black walnut hulls).
The powder provides sheer, light coverage perfect for all skin types, but those with oily skin especially.
For added coverage, apply their base layer natural face cream.
About Foraged Fields
Plant lover, and founder April, started Foraged Fields’ to have control over what she was putting on her skin.
Now, they’re proof-positive that one person’s desire for more sustainable products can make a big difference to many people.
Foraged Fields uses locally sourced ingredients, and where it is not, like their shea butter, she chooses a Fair Trade, women-owned business in Ghana.
Nothing contains palm oil in and form and everything is vegan except one version of their face cream which contains beeswax.
Most of their foundations and makeup come in glass bottles with cork stoppers for easy recycling.
Bee You Organics
Bee You Organics’ BB Cream & Foundation
Price Range: $25–$53
We’re buzzing like bees over Bee You Organics’ Organic BB Cream. While not exclusively a foundation for use only during pregnancy, this multi-use formula performs just as well as full face foundation as it does as a spot cover treatment whatever season you’re in.
Best of all, it’s made with safe ingredients like shea butter, grapeseed, and beeswax, which gives it long-lasting all-day wearability.
Skin soothing calendula and marshmallow root reduce irritation and redness of sensitive skin or irritated skin, while organic cacao powder adds color and anti-aging benefits.
The only mineral it contains is non-nano, uncoated, and non-micro zinc oxide for sun protection, but does NOT contain iron oxides or mica.
They also offer an actual Mineral Foundation Powder made with pure kaolin clay, zinc oxide, and iron oxide. We aren’t sure on the sourcing or if these are non-nano, so we will reach out.
About Bee You Organics
From the natural sunscreen to zero waste lip balm, Bee You Organics’ basic ingredients mirror their business practices: cruelty free, vegan and non toxic.
Pregnant women never have to worry about synthetics, parabens, talc, palm oil, or harsh chemicals.
Their 100% plastic-free packaging—like aluminum tins, cardboard tubes, and amber glass jars—is either recyclable, reusable, or compostable.
RMS Beauty
RMS Beauty’s Tinted Moisturizer
Price Range: $38–$44
RMS Beauty’s ReEvolve Natural Finish Liquid foundation is a cruelty free formulation, made of jojoba seed oil, a mixture of organic oils and their prized Tightenyl™ moisture rich squalene.
The entire container is recyclable or washable to hold refills.
Their UnCoverUp Foundation is made of organic and wildcrafted buruti oil, marigold, St. Johns wort, and more.
The moisturizing, lightweight coverage is perfect for those looking to even skin tone, tame their dry skin, or cover up a few dark circles after a night or two of restless sleep with a growing belly.
It comes in a glass jar, with 100% PCR plastic cap.
All outer packaging is recyclable, too.
About RMS Beauty
You’ve probably seen this big-name beauty brand in shops like Sephora, and with good reason, as a Clean at Sephora brand, they are made of the good stuff and none of the bad.
RMS chooses organic, or wildcrafted ingredients, which exclude parabens, gluten, synthetic fragrances, GMO’s, sulfates, phthalates, parabens, soy, silicone, and talc.
Not to mention, their carefully selected non-nano mineral-derived colors make up most of their pregnancy-safe foundation color palette.
However, for reds and pinks, some non-toxic synthetic components are used.
Their testing, while vigorous, never includes any process tested on animals.
Plant Makeup
Plant Makeup’s Foundation
Price Range: $20
If you were to judge pregnancy-safe foundations by their name alone, we think Plant Makeup is a great place to start. Then, once we dig into the ingredient list, we are not disappointed.
This Foundation Powder comes in a glass container, filled to the brim with fair trade cocoa powder, true cinnamon, roasted chicory root, aloe, and love.
No potential harmful or nano minerals at play in this fully plant-based powder.
The Foundation Balm comes in a push-up tube, and does contain beeswax, so while not vegan, it’s full of the same top quality ingredients as the powder.
About Plant Makeup
Plant Makeup encourages clean ingredients, scents using essential oils, and naturally derived color palettes.
While you may not achieve Hollywood red lips, you will have a face full of subtle colors that is free of dyes, synthetic fragrances, paraben free, and not tested on animals. We like that color best!
Small batch products keep the ingredients fresh, and Plant Makeup doesn’t compromise their products for warehouses full of makeup collecting dust.
A number of the ingredients are local—some SO local they came directly from Jes’s micro farm and volunteer ecological garden.
