I hope you haven’t been on the edge your seat since the end of last March. That’s when I posted this question about small-batch, boutique mascara. I was looking for an alternative to the much-hyped giant brands, and although it sure took me a while, I finally found one I really like.

Actually, I like everything I’ve tried by Redmond’s ZuZu Luxe. Under the parent company Gabriel Cosmetics (named for founder Gabriel De Santino, who grew up in Mexico watching his grandmother source natural, herbal remedies from seaweeds and botanicals), the all-natural, vegan, gluten-free makeup products are sold locally at Whole Foods, Pharmaca, and PCC Stores, which is where I stumbled upon it and gave it a go.

I’m on my third tube of ZuZu’s mascara, and I can tell you from experience that it goes the distance. Ditto the dual powder foundation, and, though I’m not much for lip color myself, my test subjects tell me the lead- and gluten-free glosses and lipsticks are aces.

Among the positive attributes of the latter: ZuZu’s colors don’t get discontinued. We all know at least one woman with a bee in her bonnet about some shade of satiny scarlet that Lancome or Loreal no longer makes.

Women raised on fashion and beauty magazines have been told, in at least one issue per mag per year, that virtually all make-up lines use the same ingredients, and that, aside from price and prestige, there isn’t a big difference between drug store and department store brands. But with the advent of green beauty and socially and environmentally conscious products, that’s definitely changing.

ZuZu’s Tian Hotten tells me that rich minerals and plant extracts from the sea give their products deep color, and moisture-rich, long-lasting properties. Not being a chemist or an esthetician, I wouldn’t have been able to wrap my head around too in-depth an explanation, and proprietary formulas forbid her from getting ultra-detailed anyway.

Bu let’s just say, for a minute, that most cosmetics are more or less the same, even within the all-natural, vegan, cruelty-free sub-category. If this were the case, you would, as a responsible consumer, choose the line with the fewest beauty miles, right? (We’re borrowing from environmental foodies here and tweaking the term food miles.) Right.

Sure, Redmond is known primarily for producing operating systems, but ZuZu’s design, product development, and color matching are done in the Eastside city as well. (The actual manufacturing of the actual products happens stateside, though not in this state.) Considering the growing buzz for animal-free and all-natural beauty products, and Gabriel’s place within the holistic hype, maybe some day we’ll be known for jet planes, web browsers, and gorgeously earth-minded, face-friendly cosmetics.