With so many well-known makeup brands still using toxic ingredients in their formulas, it can be difficult for beauty lovers to trust their makeup brands. Finding an environmental-friendly eyeshadow with clean, natural, and/or organic ingredients is no easy task.
There are too many beauty brands that claim their makeup products are clean, organic, vegan, or natural. But do you know what they mean by these terms? These appealing beauty terms in the cosmetics industry are not regulated by the FDA. In other words, makeup companies get to decide what words like “natural” and “clean” means to them.
Moreover, there are countless beauty brands out there with organic-labeled eye products. But just because something is made from organically grown ingredients, does not mean that it's good for your skin. As per the FDA, several plants, organically grown or not, have “toxic or allergenic” materials.
With all this information in mind, how can you find eyeshadows that are skin-friendly? Below you’ll find beauty brands that explain why you can trust their eyeshadow products to be suitable for your skin.
6 Organic Or Natural Beauty Brands/Eyeshadow Palettes
While looking at the endless list of ingredients on eyeshadow products may seem like a good idea, you might not know what every ingredient listed there means. But there’s no need to worry. Here, narrow your search down to these six organic or natural eyeshadows that are safe for your eyelids.
These products combine makeup with skincare ingredients so you can look and feel your best while enjoying nourished, healthy skin. This article details how these beauty brands define beauty terms so you know exactly what they mean by their "clean," "natural," and "organic" claims.
1. ILIA Beauty
ILIA Beauty’s mission is to deliver clean beauty products formulated with safe and effective ingredients. With their skin-centric approach, they strive to protect and revive your skin and the planet. They donate 1% of their Super Serum Skin Tint sales to environmental causes such as reforestation. They are also "Leaping Bunny Certified," which means their products were not tested on animals.
The product developers at ILIA recognize that not all natural ingredients are good and not all synthetics are bad. They believe clean beauty is where those two ingredient types meet. Thus, they meticulously choose what types of ingredients to include in each formula to ensure your skin’s safety.
The Necessary Eyeshadow Palette
This award-winning, natural eyeshadow is a talc-free, cruelty-free, and gluten-free product suitable for day and night use. It's crease-proof meaning it won’t crease easily. One of its key active ingredients is vitamin E, which serves as a natural antioxidant scavenging free radicals. In addition to preventing free radical skin damage, it is formulated with jojoba seed oil which helps hydrate the skin.
This vegan eye makeup also contains honeysuckle flower extract which has anti-inflammatory and soothing benefits for the skin. With matte, satin, and metallic finishes to choose from, these six powder eyeshadow shades come with a butter-like texture allowing for a smooth, easy application.
2. 100% Pure™
100% Pure™ strives to provide its customers with the purest formulations for their skin. They promise to deliver cruelty-free products with no toxic or harsh ingredients. Their products are also pigmented with vegetables, fruit, and other natural ingredients.
As stated on their website, they define natural as “an ingredient or formula composed of plant, mineral, and/or marine vegetation that undergoes chemical changes due to biological processes such as fermentation, distillation, and cold processing.”
Fruit Pigmented® Eye Shadow
The Fruit Pigmented® Eye Shadow by 100% Pure™ is an award-winning pressed powder eyeshadow. This vegan product was naturally pigmented with vitamin-rich fruit and mineral ingredients. It offers a beautiful, long-lasting effect. Available in a myriad of shades, including matte, metallic, and shimmer finishes, this gluten-free product offers medium to full buildable opacity.
Fruit Pigmented® Better Naked Palette
This natural, vegan, and gluten-free palette has three eyeshadow shades plus a highlighter and blush. Its colors were formulated with vitamin-rich fruit and vegetable pigments. It includes neutral, metallic, and shimmery colors. Customers who have tried the product say that the shades blend seamlessly on the skin, are suitable for sensitive skin and deliver a no-makeup look.
Fruit Pigmented® Pretty Naked Palette
Suitable for all skin types, this natural beauty palette offers neutral and soft shimmery colors that allow for a natural look. Formulated with natural ingredients like black tea, acai, red wine resveratrol, and more, this eyeshadow palette protects and enhances the appearance of your face. In addition to its three eyeshadow shades, the palette features a highlighter and blush to help you complete the rest of your look.
Fruit Pigmented® Rose Gold Palette
This award-winning palette provides shimmer and metallic shades from real gemstones allowing for a glittery eyeshadow look. Just like many of the 100% Pure’s™ eyeshadow palettes, this product comes with a highlighter and blush.
Fruit Pigmented® Berry Naked Palette
This palette contains a highlighter, blush, and three beautiful eyeshadow shades that glide smoothly onto the skin. It provides versatile nude, blush, and metallic colors that you can wear day or night and is suitable for all skin types. Made with fruit and vegetable pigments, this color palette contains skin-benefitting ingredients like vitamin E (Tocopherol), acai, cranberry, strawberry, and more.
3. WELL People
WELL People is committed to delivering super clean, dermatologist-approved products. By “clean” they mean they stay away from synthetic fillers, preservatives, sulfates, fragrances, and 1,700+ ingredients. Instead, they use botanical and organic ingredients that help keep your skin healthy.
Some of the plant-powered ingredients they use include green tea, rosehip, pomegranate, broccoli seed oil, mango seed oil, and algae. All of their products are cruelty-free and vegan. They hold Leaping Bunny and PETA cruelty-free certifications.
Additionally, they have over 35 EWG-verified products, which means they meet the Environmental Working Group’s strictest standards for your health. Hence, these products avoid thousands of ingredients of concern listed by the EWG.
Holiday Shimmer Eyeshadow + Brush Set
WELL People’s holiday shimmer powder eyeshadow is a limited-edition palette with a soft eye brush. This two-piece set comes with five jewel-toned matte and shimmer pigments that are long-lasting and blendable. Its skin-benefitting ingredients include organic jojoba oil, rice starch, and grapeseed oil.
All Over Eye Makeup Set
This four-piece makeup set comes with the black fresh lines eye pencil, the black expressionist volumizing mascara, the brown expressionist brow gel, and the taupe powder palette eyeshadow. With plant-based ingredients like cocoa butter, jojoba oil, and more, this makeup kit aims to nourish and protect your skin. It comes with five neutral shades to enhance your natural features.
Power Palette Eyeshadow
This powder eyeshadow palette offers five hyperpigmented shadows that are blendable. With both matte and shimmer shades to choose from, the palette’s colors are meant to last all day. Additionally, a touch-up mirror comes with this vegan eyeshadow palette. WELL People has three of these palette options, each with complementary colors. Just like some of their other eyeshadow palettes, these shadows are imbued with plant-based ingredients like organic jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, and rice starch.
Best of WELL Starter Kit
Featuring five of WELL People’s best-selling products, this vegan makeup set has everything you need to highlight your natural facial features. This makeup kit includes full-sized products: mascara, a tinted lip balm, the power palette eyeshadow, brightening powder, and a priming serum. These products are infused with plant-rich ingredients like jojoba oil, organic aloe leaf extract, sunflower seed oil, and more. It can easily serve as an everyday beauty essential to help you pull off a no-makeup makeup look.
4. Zuii Organic
Inspired by nature, Zuii Organic strives to deliver quality organic products with several vegan options to choose from as well. They carefully select what goes into their Australian-made products all while being transparent about their ingredients.
They promise their products are skin-friendly and enriched with ingredients that give off an amazing, natural scent. You can expect floral infusions such as roses, jasmine flowers, and more in your Zuii products. They don’t just claim that their products are organic but also confirm it with an organic certification signature by Cosmos.
Certified Organic Flora Eye Shadow
This award-winning eyeshadow is available in several highly-pigmented shades. These buildable colors are suitable for sensitive eyes. It offers long-lasting wear along with nourishing skin benefits. Some of its organic ingredients include jasmine, chamomile, and rose flowers.
Certified Organic Duo Eyeshadow Palettes
There are several duo-pressed powder eyeshadow palettes to choose from, each containing two complementary colors, a mirror, and an applicator. These long-wear shades are crease-proof, suitable for sensitive eyes, and enriched with minerals. Their cruelty-free formulas include botanical ingredients like nettle leaf, aloe vera, jojoba seed oil, and many more organic ingredients.
Certified Organic Quad Eyeshadow Palettes
There are many quad-powder eyeshadow palettes available, each with four complementary shades. There are many colors to choose from, including light and dark shades. They are enriched with minerals, are certified organic, and offer long-lasting wear. These award-winning, blendable palettes each come with an attached mirror and eyeshadow applicator. Some ingredients in this product include green tea, witch hazel extract, and jojoba seed oil all of which offer skin benefits.
5. Athr Beauty
Athr Beauty’s mission is to deliver clean, organic, vegan, non-GMO, and cruelty-free products to beauty consumers as much as possible. To them, “clean” encompasses ethically-sourced or fair trade ingredients that are non-toxic, sustainable, and vegan. They strive to protect the environment by using 100% recyclable, zero-waste products. They launched the first zero-waste eyeshadow palettes in the beauty market. Also, they’ll always choose safe synthetic ingredients over any animal-based ingredients.
Athr Beauty tries to use natural ingredients if it can; however, they recognize that not all natural ingredients out there are sustainable, vegan, and non-toxic. Therefore, they use safe synthetics if they are unable to find a natural ingredient that meets non-toxic requirements. Athr uses safe synthetics if they can’t find a natural ingredient that is effective in terms of the following: color payoff, longevity, blend-ability, and vibrancy, as stated on their ingredients code tab.
Manifest Crystal Palette
Athr Beauty’s eyeshadow palettes are made from recyclable materials. This palette comes with twelve beautiful matte, metallic, and shimmer shades to choose from. The shades come in a variety of pink, purple, and brown tones. These fun, vibrant colors glide on seamlessly onto the skin. They are formulated with skin-soothing ingredients like organic coconut oil, shea butter, and aloe vera. They are also made with safe synthetics.
Desert Sunset Palette
This warm color palette comes with ten gorgeous shades with matte, shimmer, and metallic finishes. Some of its skin-loving ingredients include organic shea butter, organic coconut oil, and desert-derived organic prickly pear seed oil. The silky feel allows for an easy, smooth application onto your eyelids.
6. Bee You Organics
Even small beauty brands deserve to be seen especially if they provide safe products for your skin and commit to protecting the environment. Founded in 2017, Bee You Organics is a sustainable beauty brand that promises zero-waste skincare and makeup products that are safe for your skin. All of their products are handmade from scratch with fair trade, organic, and food-grade ingredients.
While they don’t exactly define what “natural” means to them, they assure that their mineral eyeshadow products do not contain “added synthetics, preservatives or parabens.” Plus, their eyeshadows have some really good reviews on their website, so they might be worth checking out. Additionally, they always ship their plastic-free products with biodegradable boxes to protect the environment.
Pure Mineral Eyeshadow: Powder Or Cream
Bee You Organic’s pure mineral eyeshadows come with several, long-lasting heavily pigmented shades including matte and sparkle options. These ethically-produced products are natural, vegan, cruelty-free, and gluten-free.
Additionally, these beautiful eyeshadow colors are creaseless, water-resistant, and smudge-proof. The powder form of this eyeshadow is formulated with ingredients like pure kaolin clay, iron oxide, and +/- mica. The cream form contains all of these ingredients plus organic jojoba oil.
How Do I Choose A Natural Eyeshadow Color?
Choosing the right natural eyeshadow color to achieve a natural eye makeup look depends on your undertone, skin tone, and eye color. Try picking soft, light, or neutral shades that suit your skin tone and accentuate your eyes. Colors like beige, light brown, peach, light pink, ivory, champagne, or cream may do the trick.
If you are trying to pull off a natural eye makeup look, you may want to try neutral brown shades, as these natural eyeshadow shades complement every eye color.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, many eyeshadow brands are transparent about how they define clean, natural, and organic beauty. However, some of them may still need to get certification seals which indicate they meet some type of strict organic, vegan, natural, gluten-free, or fair-trade ingredient standards. That’s why it’s best to check what kind of seals, if any, your beauty products have before you purchase them.
You may also want to find out how the company in question meets certifications. Watch out for the terms “hypoallergenic” and “noncomedogenic” as they are not regulated by the FDA either.
Remember that some people may be allergic to natural ingredients, so not all natural products work for everyone. Researching the ingredients in your beauty products may help you avoid products that may irritate or harm your skin. Looking for beauty brands that disclose a full list of all the ingredients they use in each product will help you identify brands that are more honest and do not omit their list of product ingredients.
If you’re looking for more eyeshadow products, make sure to check out these liquid eyeshadows for sensitive skin.
