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Have you tried "indie" makeup brands?
Have you tried “indie” makeup brands? Do you like them more than mainstream brands? Depends on the brand?
Absolutely! I love a lot of where indie brands get their inspiration from, and they seem less constrained by what might be seen as what the majority wants, so you can get some interesting colors across products. Sometimes, ordering can be a pain, and there can be a lot of drama associated with some brands (not all!), so you really have to do your research.
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Indie brands require too much effort, but if I come across a kiosk, or a small display in a boutique, I’m willing to try-at a fair price…
I have, but I never seem to get into them much for some reason. Probably because they’re online and if I don’t like it, I can’t really make returns… I don’t know!
Yes definitely, especially for skin care. I also tried the whole rms range because I wanted to try an organic brand
I absolutely love indie brands! I find that more indie brands have bright and against the grain colors without breaking the bank. for example the Pretty Zombie Cosmetics liquid lipsticks are gorgeous, true to color and have incredible longevity!
Pretty Zombie is one of the companies that has “drama” associated with it but I still choose to buy from them! I love the liquid lipsticks.
What’s the drama around PZC?
There was an indie company named My Pretty Zombie long before them, and the rumor is Pretty Zombie Cosmetics copied their name so they could get more business (with people thinking they were My Pretty Zombie).
I was wondering who came first! I wasn’t sure if it was just an unfortunate coincidence.
Oh wow I never knew there was drama with them! So far I’ve had all good experiences.
Same here. I LOVE my Pretty Zombie liquid lipsticks.
I also love Indie brands. It seems to me that they (with a few notable* exceptions) tend to deliver truly unique product lines at excellent price points – they have to in order to stay on the market as expensive marketing campaigns generally are not within their reach. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the more effort put into marketing by companies purporting to be “unique” & Indie – the less likely they are to deliver consistent products etc.
This may sound boring – but I’m most fond of Fyrinnae and found they’ve provided consistently excellent products with a surprisingly short turn-around (considering how far they have to ship their stuff for it to reach me).
*I’m sure Christine can guess to whom I’m primarily referring 😉
I agree with you on the marketing & honest deliverabilty of the products. Hype… Thankfully, returns are accepted for those brands. I believe part of higher price tag pays for their publicity. But that’s good, because it keeps better products cost effective & easier on our wallets, as well as being repeat customers, which helps the more independent co pa ies keep in business! 😀
*companies (autocorrect)
Yes, definitely! I LOVE indie make-up in which they don’t try to decide the trend for us, they just go with what both the creators and the customers want. I also love the personalized shopping experience, and the feeling that if you kind of become a part of someone’s life. By purchasing make-up from small businesses you’re more likely to help a family pay their bills than help someone buy their third vacation house.
However, my favorite part of the experience is the people you meet. I’m privileged enough to be able to gain some friends in the indie community, and it’s just amazing. The interaction between the staff and customers could also result in many interesting releases and end up building a small community with a lot of sparklies involves. (In other words, perfection <3 )
There are definitely some bad apples in the bunch, but as long as I do my research properly to avoid the drama, it's well worth the experience.
I’ve accumulated quite the stash of mineral eyeshadows thanks to Indie brands. Fyrinnae and Meow Cosmetics are my favourites by far! Fyrinnae has some of the most unique colour-shifting shades that I’ve ever seen and Meow has an endless selection of colours. They repromote their seasonal collections every year so there’s no worry about a LE shade you love disappearing forever, and their selection of foundation shades can’t be beat.
I find that Indie brands have a smaller selection of products that they put out and they tend to be unique and well done, for the most part.
Yes! When I moved back to Australia after living in the US for a few years, I could not bring myself to pay the prices for cosmetics here. So I turned to indie makeup brands, who have one set of pricing for everyone and most ship internationally without having to jump through any hoops like using a mail forwarding/personal shopper service. Indie brands are generally cheaper than mainstream brands to begin with and many offer cheap samples. I also like supporting small businesses and being able to interact with brand owners 🙂
Definitely! I’m crazy about Sugarpill and Shiro Cosmetics. I love supporting smaller US companies when I find ones with lots of products I like. I especially love Shiro because their products all have really fun packaging and interesting names and themes (not to mention the actual products are very nice!). 🙂
Ooohhh thanks for the tip-off re: Shiro!! I love their collection themes <3
np! I’ve been buying their stuff for a few years now and always find myself going back to them. :3
What kind of “indie” brands do you suggest trying?
If Sugarpill is still considered indie, Sugarpill! 🙂 I also like Fyrinnae, Cult Nails, Hare Polish!
Absolutely. I love how indie brands fill in the gaps which are missing with more conventional makeup brands. My makeup is mostly conservative.., with an edge.
Of course! I remember trying OCC back when it was indie too
I love indie brands! Some, like OCC and Lit starred out indie. I love the variety in colors and finishes, as well as the affordable price point。
Yes! Most of my collection is indie makeup! I adore Shiro, Detrivore, Meow, Darling Girl and Silk Naturals. I love the variation available in color and finish. I love that you can get samples and minis of most products.
Quality is also fantastic. Meow foundation has like 80 colors in three finishes (Although Dreamworld Hermetica has well over a hundred tones!) and is so comfortable on my sensitive skin and some of the metallic tones in the Egyptian Treasures collection are obscenely beautiful. Detrivore mattes eyeshadows just melt into your skin and blend beautifully. Silk Naturals also has a fantastic skincare line. Their lipsticks are amazing, comfortable, moisturizing, and the eyeshadow range has some of the most complex shades I’ve ever seen. Shiro’s tinted balms moisturize and provide a gorgeous even stain for that lasts forever and her shadow collections are so well thought out and all of them lust-worthy. Darling Girl has some of the best duchromes I’ve ever seen and all her finishes are amazing. My favorite shadow is actually an orangy-peach glitter bomb but Darling Girl somehow makes it worksafe and wearable.
There are some indies I really like, especially indie polish companies.
But I have recently fallen HEAD OVER HEELS for Femme Fatale Cosmetics, an Aussie nailpolish & loose shadow/blush maker (who also acts as an int’l stockist for lots of other indie polish companies). Their duochromes are like nothing else I’ve ever seen, and the texture is SO silky. I’m awaiting their grand reopening on the 21st so I can buy ALL THE THINGS.
Not yet but I’ve been eyeing a few lippies from My Beauty Addiction and Pretty Zombie Cosmetics. I love the unique colors they come up with!
Oh, indeed! Many things I love were once considered indie! New & different things are my bread and butter. (For fun, that is.) Morgana Cryptoria products ROCK! And there are some I consider ” indie” because I can’t get to them, or haven’t yet. I adore Japanese & Korean products, have & keep purchasing, but there are things in Australia I’d love to try that seem impossible to find for an affordable $ amount! And why, though off topic, are the same brands having different formulations in each area of the globe? I find that odd.
Sugarpill and Geek Chic are the indie labels I trust most for makeup. A brand my friend owns called Dirty Pig I adore because I know she makes everything in sanitary conditions with love and great care (I’ve seen her process and even helped her name a lovely silver polish called Unicorn Blood!). However, when it comes to most indie brands I get a bit scared off easily since oftentimes the swatches on-site at their retailer don’t match the product well. And not to name names, but a certain company that never admitted to repackaging their products and scamming people is a big reason why I’m so loyal to Sugarpill, Geek Chic, and Dirty Pig. The great companies provide real, incredible, personalized customer service. Some others out there I won’t name don’t do the same. So as long as I can trust them and they make good products produced by good people, I’m all about the indie!
Also, I had an unfortunate experience with Melt Cosmetics recently. So that put me off again not ordering from indie brands I don’t completely know about and trust. I ordered By Starlight, which was a lovely-looking bluish-purple on-site. In real life, it was a very grayish purple that was over-pigmented (I could tell because too much pigmentation hardens lipsticks and makes them thicker and difficult to apply). Fortunately, I did like the gray color Space Cake and that was much more applicable and wearable. But when I wrote about the problems I had with By Starlight, they suggested I buy a MAC lip liner. Which, true, lip liners could help. But I shouldn’t need to buy another 20 dollar product to make their 20 dollar product work well. So it’s all Sugarpill, Dirty Pig, and Geek Chic for me for now!
I haven’t tried Indie makeup, but I’ve tried nail polish. Polish My Life and Glisten & Glow. I really like both products, quick turnaround time and so far I’ve had no issues.
i absolutely LOVE fyrinnae and pretty zombie cosmetics. I havent heard anything bad about pretty zombie, i love that i am supporting real people like someone said and not someone who is working on their next vacation home.
mmm if its really hard to find then no. OCC and lime crime are the only ones that I’ve tried out…
in terms of skincare Malin and Goetz are my favourite:) is it indie though? great great skincare products they make!
Indie brands are amazing for the most part.
Amazing variety in colors, textures, and finishes, cute and fun collections and names, for the most part, high quality products at great prices, and you absolutely can’t beat having a direct line to the owner and helping other women make their dreams come true.
For anyone starting out with Indies, I would recommend Shiro, Meow, Darling Girl, Sugarpill or Black Rose Cosmetics to get your feet wet. They have a variety of products to try, shopping is a snap (it’s easier buying from any of them than Ulta), delivery is pretty quick, and I’ve never had anything from them that I didn’t like.
Best of all, all of the owners are complete sweethearts and great to work with.
I remember when I went on Darling Girl’s facebook wall, whining because I missed out on a sold-out LE eyeshadow, Susan went back and found an extra one just for me.
In comparison, I whined to Urban Decay about missing out on the Vice 2 Palette and they were like *kanye shrug*.
Interesting, i jus book marked all the companies i hadnt heard of before!!! I want to try Dose.
Shiro. They’re just perfect.
I’d like to add Fyrrinae to that list as I really love their products but given their tendency to pull the site down with no return date posted for months at a time, I’ll have to pass. I won’t order again.
That’s exactly why I don’t count Fyrinnae among my favorites. It’s so annoying when you have money and know what you want, and the website is just down with no ending in site.
They make beautiful things, but that’s no way to run a business.
It’s a shame – and it really wouldn’t take all that much effort to fix. I *might* consider ordering again if they even put an approximate return date online, but they don’t even bother doing that. You’re right, it’s no way to run a business and I think it’s pretty disrespectful of their customers.
Three years ago, I thought finding blue/green/whatever lipstick and a true red eyeshadow would be like finding a needle in a haystack. NOT ANYMORE! Thank you indie, for answering my crazy makeup dreams.
On a different note, there are so many new indie companies popping up, I’d like to know how to find out if they are private label or not. Recently QoB got in an argument on twitter with the head of Glam Inc., some new private label brand, and Portrait of Mai was able to find out in minutes that Ladyburd was her supplier. Are brands legally bound to disclose whether their products are from a third party manufacturer when asked and who that manufacturer is?
Love indie makeup! I’ve tried only tried Darling girl, shiro, and detrivore cosmetics but I’ve had some pretty great experiences with them. I just love the darling girl facebook group/page and I’m probably going to buy some more soon. I really wanna try fyrinnae, silk naturals, meow, and pumpkin and poppy since I’ve heard so many good things about them.
I haven’t tried any indie brands yet, but I would like to. There are some really awesome polish ones out there, especially! I like how the market is so open to indie makeup, actually.
I was into Hourglass when they first came out! Took a while for them to get popular!
I love indie makeup! I love supporting small women-run business who make amazing things. I love that they’re cruelty free and mostly vegan.. I got frustrated with trying to get my hands on the best stuff here in Australia so I bit the bullet and started bringing it in wholesale.. So far I’ve got all of Shiro, Glamour Doll Eyes, Espionage, Geek Chic Cosmetics, Medusas Makeup, Sweet Pea and Fay, Victorian Disco and Portland Black Lipstick Co available with more coming as often as I can manage it.. I love sharing how awesome they are with other Aussies 🙂