Finding the right organic eyeshadow is a tricky business. When you have so many new companies jumping on the bandwagon, how can you tell what’s the real deal? What’s actual eyeshadow and what’s just a pack of dirt somebody decided to stick a label on? You’re bound to find stuff that doesn’t work, stuff that feels nasty on your skin and stuff that’s ‘all-natural’ (probably more the third one than anything else).
But fear not, dear reader; we’re about to take you through a long and twisting journey through the best of natural and organic eyeshadow brands – and give you our honest verdict. Here goes 🙂
Our Top 6 Natural & Organic Eyeshadow Picks
100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Eye Shadow
With a name like that, you know you’re in for something good – and you are. 100% Pure’s Fruit Pigmented Eye Shadow is probably the epitome of, “we need to make an eye shadow- get the fruit bowl”. You won’t find anything that sounds remotely chemical-y on this ingredients list. Its fantastic pigment actually does come from fruit- carrots, tomatoes and apricots to name a few. It also contains vitamin C, which is always what you want in a makeup product. True to their name, their shadows are 100% natural, 100% vegan and 100% gluten free.
Mica gives this eyeshadow a good shimmer for all your crowd-dazzling needs (we’d recommend Vanilla Sugar for that particular purpose). With a primer, it’ll easily last you all day. This is yet another natural eye shadow that really needs a primer to get it to stay on properly, but honestly this eye shadow is such a gem that we might be a little biased.
Since all of 100% Pure’s ingredients are stuff you can find at the fruits aisle, there’s not much need for any testing whatsoever (there’s not much chance that a carrot will make you break out in hives). And even if there was, 100% Pure is vehemently against any kind of animal testing.
The only potential drawback to their shadows is that they really only come in neutral shades, so if you’re looking for glam, this isn’t it – but for everyday shades, it’s perfect.
Price: $18 for each color
Ingredients (for Golden Honey): Rice Starch, Pigments of Carrot, Squash, Apricot, Peach, Papaya and Tomato, Vitamin E (a-tocopherol), Rosehip Oil, Pomegranate Seed Oil, Avocado Butter, Cocoa Butter, Red Wine Resveratrol, Vitamin C (ascorbyl palmitate), may contain Mica (natural shimmery mineral)
Jane Iredale Eyeshadow
Jane Iredale’s sleekly named ‘PurePressed©’ line includes an excellent variety of eyeshadows. With their Daytime kit, you get five different colors- oyster, almond, charcoal, dark suede and cappuccino- which is more than enough to suit your mundane, every day eyeshadow needs. For those up to tricks, they also have a Night-time kit that includes a good bit more glitter and panache.
The texture is heavenly and the staying power is there. Matte fans will be overjoyed since even the Night-time shades don’t have a significant amount of shimmer. One caveat we’ve noticed is that for people with oily skin, you might have to deal with a bit of creasing.
Most of the line is vegan, though some of the Triple shades contain carmine. JI pride themselves on not testing on animals, so you’re safe there. On the whole, it’s ingredients are all natural, but not necessarily organic. Things like iron oxide and chromium oxide greens (found, weirdly enough, in their green shades) means that the line has a littering of inorganic compounds- though you’re more likely to find those ingredients on the ‘may contain’ side. All of its basic ingredients check out.
Price: $22 for single colors, $30 to $58 for shadow kits
Ingredients (for Eyeshadow Single): Mica, Boron Nitride, Dimethicone, Pinus Strobus (Pine) Bark Extract, Punica Granatum (Pomegranate) Extract. [+/- (May Contain) Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides (Ci 77489, Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499), Carmine (Ci 75470), Manganese Violet (Ci 77742), Ultramarines (Ci 77007), Chromium Oxide Greens (Ci 77288), Red 30 Lake (Ci 73360)]
W3ll People Eyeshadow
W3LL People’s eyeshadows stick out because of their impressive pigments. By now, everyone is bound to be sick and tired of getting eyeshadows that have ethical and natural ingredients, but barely do anything. With W3ll People, you don’t have to compromise. This one is perfect for all your night-time ventures, and really any other time where you need to dazzle a room.
The ingredients list is simple; mica, iron oxide and titanium oxide. Titanium oxide is a naturally occurring compound as well as mica- iron oxide is less so. Some shades contain the artificial colorant ferric ferrocyanide, but other than that everything checks out. They’re also 100% vegan and gluten-free.
W3ll People doesn’t give as much variety as other natural eyeshadow brands when it comes to different shades, but you have all the essentials there. From Midnight Twinkle to Satin Apricot, as well as Matte Eggplant (we really want to know who comes up with these names), you’re sure to find something to suit your needs.
Price: $5 to $18 per color
Ingredients: Mica, Iron Oxides, Titanium Dioxide. May Contain: Ultramarine Blue, Ferric Ferrocyanide, Silica, Serecite, Kaolin Clay. * Gluten free, GMO free, Vegan
Alima Pure Eyeshadow
Sometimes you’re feeling shimmery. And sometimes you just want something matte. Alima Pure’s eyeshadows caters to pretty much all desires (they’ve got matte, shimmer and pearl luster). These natural shadows come in about as many colors as you could ever want, but most are not the kind of thing you’d wear out to a rave. Most of the shades are understated and don’t make much of a scene, so they’re great to wear around the office or essentially anywhere else where you don’t want shimmery sparkly eyelids. It stays on for a good while without much need for re-application and best of all, the texture is gentle on skin and doesn’t irritate eyes.
On paper it stacks up pretty good; they’re certified by the CCIC’s Leaping Bunny program, so you know that no animals were involved in testing at any point. For those who are conscious about the people they buy from, rest assured that as far as we can see, Alima are Good Guys. They’re hardcore tree-huggers, dedicating 1% of all the money they make to environmental charities. That might sound measly, but it’s a hell of a lot more than what some other brands do. They’re also pretty keen on offsetting their carbon emissions, and have done that for the past 7 years by donating to a charity called Carbon Fund. They’re pretty vague about their eyeshadow, but claim that all of their powders and brushes are vegan.
Word of warning, though; Alima Pure Eyeshadow isn’t as natural as they give off. They use a synthetic colorant on their blue shades called ferric ferrocyanide and a couple of other ingredients that they openly state- kudos to them- as ‘inorganic’. There’s no real warning bells when it comes to toxicity, but natural fanatics might be a little disappointed with their showing.
That being said, their shadows are non-comedogenic, contain no nano-particles, and are Bismuth Oxychloride and carmine-free.
Price: $12.50 per color
Ingredients: Mica (CI 77019). May contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Ferric Ferrocyanide (CI 77510). Nothing more.
Ecco Bella Eyeshadow
When your eyeshadow is named ‘FlowerColor’, you know you’ve reached the next level of eco-geeking. Ecco Bella’s all-natural line uses flower wax in their formula that keeps the eyeshadow in one place, uninhibited by your face’s own pesky moisture and the elements. That’s what gives this eyeshadow such fantastic staying power.
This one really gets into the spirit of, ‘smear plants on your face- it’ll be great’ that makes the natural beauty community such a fun place. It combines aloe vera and green tea extract to replenish and nurture even the most sensitive of eyes.
Their FlowerColor range is brilliant for a quiet, ‘no-makeup’ look. The colors hit this perfect balance of subtlety and effectiveness that will give you the extra umph that you need whilst leaving others wondering what your secret is.
Ecco Bella’s eyeshadows are all 100% gluten free, safe for vegans, and completely natural. Most of its ingredients are organic as well, aside from a pesky iron oxide here and there. Not to mention that this company actually started out as a grassroot movement to protest the testing and eating of animals- the people at Ecco Bella would probably be seen dead before they let their products be tested on animals.
Price: $14 per color
Ingredients: Mica, kaolin, cornstarch/zea mays*, zinc oxide, sweet almond oil/prunis dulcis*, green tea extract/camellia sinensis*, aloe barbadensis extract*, flower wax, iron oxides, sodium levulinate/anisate. May contain: Zinc stearate, *Certified organic/certifié biologique.
Lily Lolo Eye Shadow
You have two choices with Lily Lolo – either pressed or loose powder. Now, it’s easy to just jump for the pressed powder without a second thought, but hear us out. The loose powder is perfect for those who have oily skin and want to avoid those ever-dreaded creases. It’s also much gentler on your skin, so there’s something here for people with sensitive and irritable skin as well. If you’re on the flip side, we might let you away with using the pressed powder since it conceals flaky, dry skin better, but otherwise you’re definitely better to go for the loose powder.
Oh, there’s also an eye palette if you want easy transport of all your shadow hues.
We’d also recommend that you use a natural eye primer with this eyeshadow just to make extra sure that there’s no creasing- especially if you’re in the oily variety. The added benefit of using a primer is that it amps the eyeshadow’s staying power up to 11. On average, you’ll getting about 12 hours of full-color glory with the primer. If you don’t use a primer, you’ll be getting considerably less than that, though. It’s somewhat disappointing that this eyeshadow needs another product to keep it straight, but it’s still a great little eyeshadow that will be your best friend if you know how to work it.
Lily Lolo’s eye shadow is vegan friendly (except for Peekaboo), gluten-free, fragrance-free and all-natural, though their blue hues contain a synthetic colorant as well as those ever-common inorganic pretenders, iron oxide and chromium oxide. Neither of these are particularly dangerous, though, so go nuts.
Price: $9 for loose powder, $14 for pressed
Ingredients: MICA, SIMMONDSIA CHINENSIS (JOJOBA) SEED OIL, ARGANIA SPINOSA (ARGAN) KERNEL OIL, PUNICA GRANATUM (POMEGRANATE) SEED OIL, TOCOPHEROL, HELIANTHUS ANNUUS SEED OIL, LEPTOSPERMUM SCOPARIUM (MANUKA) OIL, SODIUM HYALURONATE, ERYNGIUM MARITIMUM CALLUS CULTURE FILTRATE [+/- SILICA, TIN OXIDE, CI 77891 (TITANIUM DIOXIDE), CI 77491 (IRON OXIDE), CI 77492 (IRON OXIDE), CI 77499 (IRON OXIDE), CI 77742 (MANGANESE VIOLET), CI 77007 (ULTRAMARINES), CI 77510 (FERRIC FERROCYANIDE) , CI 77288 (CHROMIUM OXIDE)]
We Should Also Mention…
The Organic Face Quad Eyeshadow: We really like this natural eye shadow quad. It’s all-natural and 90% organic, gluten free, dye free, petroleum free, as well as preservative and fragrance free. And of course, they don’t test of animals. Extra perk? It’s actually long lasting. The only downside is that the colors are very limited. But then again, this quad consists of very neutral, “must-have” colors, so it’s a great natural, mostly organic eyeshadow to add to your collection. Oh, and the price is great – the quad will run you $20 and last you forever.
Kjaer Weis Eyeshadow: We like Kjaer Weis. We really do. And wanted to like his eyeshadow, too. But for $45 per shadow, we’d also like the main ingredient to not be Talc. Sure, that’s great for oily lids since Talc is both absorbent and mattifying but it does have the potential to be dangerous when inhaled. And ‘though this is a pressed powder, we think even asbestos-free Talc isn’t ideal especially as the main ingredient, especially when the price tag is so steep. Colors are deep and lovely, though.
Vapour Organic Beauty Eye Color: Again, we love Vapour. Like, their whole range of products. But their shadows are a bit of a miss. Why? For starters, we find the color sticks really must be warmed up before attempting to apply or they tend to tug on your delicate eyelid skin. And that’s not that big of a downside – but the colors are also really light and don’t last long at all. It’s also not ideal for oily lids – it creases pretty quickly.
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