I wish Makeupland was a real place.

I was contacted a little while ago by Belen, a reader who has her own indie make-up company. It's especially nice to get review requests from companies who actually do read the blog, instead of just pretending they do, so I was delighted to check out her store and products.

Lost in Makeupland opened on Etsy very recently, and they sell a variety of loose eyeshadows and blushes. They don't repackage, and out of all the colours I swatched I didn't notice any glaring similarities to basic TKB mica. It's an Etsy store, so the shop and cart is straightforward. Listings are spelled correctly and have all the right information - good product shots, modelled shots, ingredients, clearly labelled vegan or non-vegan, shade descriptions, quantity and, blissfully, no endless preaching about how effing fantastic minerals are for your face. This is such a welcome change. Honestly, by now being told that minerals are good for me has the same effect as being told vegetables are good for me; I know, I know, shut up about it already.

There isn't much I can say about the shop itself, really. I feel like "It's not shit" should suffice - let's face it, the people who manage to take the incredibly simple Etsy template shop and somehow fuck it up boggle the mind. Shop-wise, it's all good. All the information is there, everything's clear and understandable and it's easy to see what things are. Some swatch pictures would be a nice addition, otherwise it's all fine.

Lost In Makeupland is actually based in Spain, but even so the shipping fees to other countries are very reasonable; considerably cheaper international shipping than I am used to getting from most US companies. They're inside the EU (just in case your geography's not up to snuff) as well, so there's no need to worry about customs charges. Since my samples were sent gratis, I can't accurately identify shipping times.

The Packaging

Packaging is pretty basic - standard shiny black-top 5g mineral jars for eyeshadows, with handwritten labels giving you the store and shade name. There are no printed labels or fancy shop logo, or size/ingredient information on mine, and the sample baggies also have handwritten labels with the shade names on. I don't know if this is standard practice, and the shop's barely a few months old, so I expect printed labels are in the works.
The jars come with sifters, but you can pay a bit more to get a sifter-free version which is filled to the top. This is a pretty good deal, because you generally get a lot more in a full sifter-free jar. If you've ever seen a full-size Fyrinnae eyeshadow, you'll know what I mean.

The samples come in little baggies, but they're different from the usual kind. The plastic is smoother, maybe thinner, but a lot shinier and for some reason I prefer them. They remind me of those fancy properly-clear-smooth plastic wallets that used to cost more from WH Smith and all the cooler kids had in school. That's totally how coolness was assessed in my school, it was all about the quality of your plastic wallets.

The Product

The eyeshadows aren't as bright as some (that's okay, not everything has to be bright) but they have some really pretty, unique shades and some more muted versions of brights, which are great if you're into colour but not ready for neon. Belen sent me samples of everything she had out at the time and four full-sizes just to cheer me up.

That extra shot is included because Psychedelic Mushroom is totally amazing and the smaller swatch absolutely doesn't do it justice. It's a deep taupeypurple with greenish sparkle and magic and Idon'tknowhatbutit'sreallypretty.

Weirdly, my absolute favourites turned out to be Whipped and Faerie, those two highlight shades. They don't look like much in the swatches, but highlights never do. The spectacular thing about them is that they have the absolute perfect level of shimmer for a highlight. They're not boring and matte, they have enough shimmer to be prettily reflective, but it's not over-the-top and blends beautifully into a neutral or more dramatic look. Whipped is an off-white which can be applied lightly for a natural highlight, but also more heavily to highlight certain points more (like the highest part of the arch or inner corner) and it'll work well on the face or eyes, which makes it lovely and universal.

Faerie is even better - if you've seen this TKB mica in any of its million reincarnations (just about every repackager sells it) it's a similar pale peachy base tone, but without the purple duo-chrome that comes with the TKB mica. Instead it's just a pale, delicate peach with the perfect level of opacity and shimmer for highlighting. It disappears a little against my skin in the swatches because it goes with my skintone (albeit much warmer and peachier than I am) and it's a really, really great highlighter. Having seen the violet duochrome version everywhere, I'm really pleased to see somewhere selling original highlights that have been formulated and tested. If you place an order, you should definitely visit the highlights section. Highlights often get overlooked because they're not really very exciting, but having the right highlight can make or break a look and make blending a hell of a lot easier.
(I'm going to try and convince Belen to create a cool/neutral pink highlight for cool-toned pale girls (i.e. me), so if that's something you'd want to try, leave a comment so I can gauge interest.)

Purrrple, Go!! and Oh My, It's Black also deserve mentioning, I think they're really nice. I absolutely love the eyeshadow formula. I used Go!!, Purrrple and Psychedelic Mushroom in a look and they went on opaque and smooth with barely any effort. No fallout, no difficulty making it opaque or patting a lot on, no trouble blending etc. I know that the eyeshadows all use custom bases and I was really, really impressed with the formula. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't look like much, but I promise it was pretty and very flattering in reality.

• Primer: Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
• Inner Corner: Go!!
• Lid Colour: Purrrple
• Outer-V/Crease: Psychedelic Mushroom
• Lower Lashline: Psychedelic Mushroom
• Highlight: Faerie/Whipped

Considering when I highlight, I use it all over my eye area (anywhere between the crease colour and brow, and then used to blend out the crease) whenever it blends seemlessly in like Faerie did, I like it a lot. I used Whipped to extra-highlight under the brow arch and the inner-corner, but the picture doesn't really show off any shimmer so you can't tell.

The Punchline

Lost in Makeupland is a really young company, but the owner is involved the blogging community and obviously receptive to feedback. Nearly all of the bases are covered - more comprehensive packaging (labels etc) and swatch photos along with a brand image would be nice to see in the future, but the company is only a few months old and the focus seems to be on product and service - which is a great place to start. The products are surprisingly sophisticated for the first formulations; the formula is terrific and the shades, whilst not eye-wateringly-bright, are pretty and definitely different enough from generic mica to be interesting. The highlights in particular are really brilliant products and definitely worth checking out.

I'm impressed by the obvious commitment to making a formula that actually works for each shade instead of just regurgitating the same one, or adding glitter to stock mica as so many companies do. Overall, I'm really excited to see where Lost In Makeupland goes and will definitely be ordering and checking out new products as they're released.

Price: $1 samples, $5 for 5g jars, $8 for 8g jars.
Where?: Lost in Makeupland's Etsy store.

Look & Feel: 2/5 - Superior plastic baggies aside, the packaging is basic and lacks branding or ingredient information, but it's functional.

Quality: 4/5 - Considering that they're so new, Lost In Makeupland is doing a lot right, the products are really great and it's definitely worth trying and watching.

Value: 4/5 - The pricepoint is pretty low - not as low as some, and samples aren't huge, but there's a variety of size options and $5 for 5g jar is a good baseline.

Overall: 4/5 - Factoring in that it's still just a baby, Lost In Makeupland is a great example of a one-woman start-up company. She can't get everything done at once, so she's started on the most important - product and service, and both of those are fantastic. New products seem to be released pretty quickly, so I'm really keen on seeing this company develop and being able to check out new products as they come.

4/5 Internets!

Would I Spend My Money On It?: Yes. I fully intend to, this is one of the handful of companies I want to consistently try new products from.
Should You Spend Your Money On It?: Yes! I think they're well worth a try, and if nothing else you should pick up at least samples of the highlights. They might seem boring, but they're infinitely useful and deceptively beautiful.