RMS Beauty's Living Luminizer is meant to give you a fresh-from-the-spa glow.

As winter grinds on, leaving our skin dry and pale, even our simple beauty routine doesn’t seem worth the trouble. But when we heard celebrity makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift, founder of organic cosmetics line RMS Beauty, was speaking at Shen Beauty, our new favorite cosmetics store in our Brooklyn neighborhood, we knew it would snap us out of our winter funk.

We were lucky enough to have a personal demo by Swift, whose celebrity clients include Sheryl Crow, Celine Dion, Gisele and Gretchen Mol. She started by applying the “Un” Cover-Up ($36) across our T-zone and under our eyes. We shy away from foundation creams and powders, but we loved the light, yet moisturizing effect and the texture that blended so easily onto our skin. She held up a mirror to show us the difference from the side with the “Un” Cover-Up and the side without, and we were amazed at how natural the product looked, while still providing coverage.

She also applied “Smile” Lip2Cheek color ($36), the only product in the line to contain a small amount of synthetic pigment. The other five colors are made with natural minerals. Of the six available cream eye shadows ($28), we gravitated towards the darker shades such as “Spark,” “Myth” and “Seduce.” This eye makeup also didn’t irritate our sensitive eyes as many products do, and it moisturizes, so it’s particularly good for aging skin. The Living Luminizer ($38), which Swift applied around our cheek and brow bones, is her best-seller and gives the skin a subtle glow without the glittery effect of many luminizers.

Swift’s campaign to make women more aware of chemicals in beauty products started when she had a hair analysis done. The doctors said, “You have so many chemicals in you,” recalls Swift. She had toxic levels of aluminum, barium, cadmium, lead, mercury and other substances. She was even more surprised when a technician correctly guessed she was in the cosmetics industry. “They’d seen it before,” she says.

In 2004, she launched beautytruth.com to inform women of the chemicals in cosmetics, products that are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, contrary to popular belief. Many ingredients were approved before it was known that products applied on the skin can be absorbed into the bloodstream, says Swift. When women asked her what cosmetics to use, Swift decided to launch RMS two years ago.

Shen Beauty, which was recently opened by freelance stylist Jessica Richards and Julia Stringer, the “Green Queen” beauty columnist for Britain’s Daily Mail, carries an array of natural and organic products. Other brands that caught our eye include Amanda Lacey, Antonia Burrell, Immunocologie, Jemma Kidd, Madame Lubatti, Mrs. White’s Classic Cold Cream and Nicole Paxson Cosmetics.

We love organic beauty products that work! Do you pay attention to cosmetic labels?

Tags: eco-friendly products, organic beauty products, organic makeup, RMS Beauty, Rose-Marie Swift