Altered Ego Cosmetics Review and Swatches

I found out about Altered Ego from the fabulous Vijaya of Fierce Nerditude when she posted a review about their eyeshadows. I was instantly intrigued by their colors and the prices are really good as well.  Stay around to the end of the review and I’ll have a something special for you guys.
Altered Ego is a newer indie company that is located on Etsy.  They currently only offer eyeshadows, but by my count offer at least close to 40 shades.  I usually don't mention pricing until the end of  review, but I thought it was worth a mention here.  Altered Ego has some of the lowest prices I have seen from an indie company.  A full-sized (3 gram) jar with a sifter is only $2.75, and have listings where you can buy 3 colors for $6 (which is what I did) or 5 colors for $10.  They even have a listing where you can get 5 random shadows for $10 and you don't have to pay shipping (although the shipping charges are reasonable, too)!  Samples in clamshells are only $1.00 and they have color of the week which is on sale for $1.75. Frankly, at those prices I don’t even know how they make a profit!

The owner, Tessa, is really sweet and answered my questions quickly.  After I ordered I got an email stating that the ingredients for one the shadows were out of stock. She asked me if I would like to pick another color, get a refund, or she could first mail the majority of my order and then mail the missing color after she got it back in stock.  I told her that I didn’t mind waiting and I didn’t want her to have to through the trouble of shipping twice so she could wait and send my whole order together.  For the extra time I waited, they upgraded one of my samples to a full sized jar, which was really nice of them. 

Even with the wait for the one eyeshadow my order still arrived very quickly. I ordered late at night on June 3^rd and my order was shipped June 9^th.

The jars come with stickers over their sifters.  And they’re even the stickers with the pull tabs!  I know that is a small thing, but I love those kind as they make taking the stickers off so much easier!  There was an ingredient list printed on my packing slip, but not on the jars themselves.  I asked the owner about it and she said they are working on a way to get all the information on the jars.  But for now, all ingredients are located on the packing slip.

When editing pictures for this post, I noticed an ingredient (in Pineapple) that I hadn't seen before- Rose Gallica Flower Powder.  I was curious so I asked about it.  The following is a direct quote from the reply the owner sent with a description of the powder, "Completely matte, finely milled powder from the rose flower. A soft natural pink color which deepens to a purplish red when wet. The product arrives as a bacterially controlled powder (all germs and bacteria killed prior to packing). However, once it is introduced into daily use as a loose powder, it will begin to degrade unless preservatives are added. (This is why we add boron nitride.) Rose Crush has a slight odor, which is earthy and vaguely floral."

I thought it was kinda cool to be using rose petals on my eyes!

I noticed that one of the eyeshadows had talc in it.  I also asked about this and she said only a few of their eyeshadows have it, most do not.  If you are sensitive to it, just send her a message and she will let you know which ones have it.

From left- Aura, Beetle, Bullet, Clay, Lily

Oooh, look at the shinies!  I found the colors really pretty and sparkly. Many of the colors have a fine silver sparkles that is more obvious when patted over a sticky base.  A few of the colors are even duochromes.

As I usually do, the top row is swatched dry, while the bottom is patted over Pixie Epoxy.

From left- Diesel, Mylar, Nakee, Pineapple, Tornado

I LOVE Nakee.  I really couldn't capture how awesome it is.  I don't own too many neutral indie shadows, but I love this one.  Plus the name is awesome.  It reminds me of Rugrats (one of the best cartoons ever!)

Here is an eye look I did using 5 of the eyeshadows. I'm ridiculously proud of this because it is the first time I have been able to do winged eyeliner and it not look silly.

I first used a base of Pixie Epoxy.  In the inner third of my eyelid and below my lower lash line I used Mylar.  On the outer two thirds of my lid I used Beetle.  Aura was used widely in the crease and Bullet was used in the crease as well to provide some definition.  I used Nakee on the inner corner and brownbone as highlight as well as on my lower water line. The black liner is just a gel liner from Physician's Formula.  It's supposed to have green sparkles but they're hard to see.

My only issue here is that when applying there was good amount a bit of fallout.  It wasn’t a huge issue, but it is something to be aware of. However, once the eyeshadows were on my eyes, I didn’t experience any fallout throughout the day.

I feel like their colors are pretty unique and they all feel like they belong together. If I picked one of their shadows blindly from my stash of indie shadows and swatched it, I would instantly be able to tell it was from Altered Ego just because there is a finish to their eyeshadows that is uniquely theirs.  I really love the shadows I got, but I find myself wishing for a few brighter colors in the line as most of these were on the more muted side, and maybe some different finishes.  However the company is still young and growing, and they are already off to such a great start.

If you made it this far, I have a little something special for you- when making your first purchase from Altered Ego, just mention in the notes to seller that you read about their company on my blog and you get a FREE full sized eyeshadow of your choice.  Be sure to mention the color you want also!

I highly recommend you head over to Altered Ego right now and buy some eyeshadows.  You won't regret it!


Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!