Disclaimer: This post features a product that was gifted to me. I am under no obligation to post and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Product Details
The Alter Ego Aurora Palette contains 15 pans in the yellow, orange, red, and pink color families. It is supposed to be a dupe, or at least a very similar version of the Natasha Denona Sunrise Palette. There is a total of 13.5 grams / 0.48 oz of product.
Alter Ego sent me three of their palettes, none of them being dupes of Natasha Denona palettes I already had, so I really can’t compare the colors themselves. I talked about formula differences in the review for the Goddess palette, if that is something you are curious about.
The palette itself is made of cardboard and feels like higher quality than you might expect. It is heavy, sturdy, and has a distortion-free mirror inside. When I was swatching this I noticed the pans moving around easily and found out they are removable and magnetic. Not something you usually see with a budget/affordable brand.
Formula Overview
The mattes are easy to blend, a lot like the ones in the Goddess palette. They have plenty of color payoff but if you are used to formulas like Natasha Denona’s that pack a punch immediately, know that this is different. You can build the color up to get intensity if you want. It is possible to go in with one of the deepest shades and blend it out well enough without the need to use a transition shade. This isn’t something I would attempt with Natasha Denona’s formula. I had very little fallout from the mattes.
The shimmers had less sparkle fallout to deal with compared to the ones in the Goddess palette. Quite a few in the Goddess palette were chunkier types of of shimmers whereas most of the ones in this palette are closer to what you would think of as a typical shimmer. Dawn was the only one that had that chunkier texture to it. It can be super helpful to use something like Too Faced Glitter Glue and be extra careful to tap any excess shadow off your brush before applying this type of shade.
The more standard shimmers initially seemed like they didn’t want to adhere to the lid but I think that was because of how I primed my lids and also because I usually apply matte shades first. If you apply them straight over a primed lid (that isn’t set with any type of powder), they adhere perfectly fine. This texture had almost no fallout.
Shade Selection
I am much happier with the shade selection of the mattes in this palette than the Goddess palette. Only the two yellows are similar, but even then I can tell them apart on the eye. The shimmers could have been a little more varied and, this is just a personal preference, I would have liked more mattes and fewer shimmers.
Wear Time
I tested 2 of my looks for wear time. One wore for 8 hours with hardly noticeable creasing and another lasted 8.5 hours with moderate creasing.
- Radiance – Pinkish champagne with blue sparkles.
- Stellar – Pale pinkish gold with a standard shimmer finish.
- Spark – Medium reddish pink shimmer with larger sparkles.
- Sunburst – Bright matte yellow.
- Dawn – Light purple shimmer with large blue sparkles. This shade had a lot of fallout if used dry. Glitter glue or a damp brush helped a lot.
- Shine – Peachy yellow with a matte finish.
- Luminary – Rose gold shimmer. This had a flakier texture similar to a pressed pigment but could be smoothed out to look metallic.
- Ray – True red with a standard shimmer finish.
- Nova – Rich raspberry pink with a matte finish.
- Cosmic – Deeper reddish pink with a standard shimmer finish.
- Star – Peachy coral with a matte finish.
- Brilliance – Pale gold with a standard shimmer finish.
- Flare – Rich reddish orange with a matte finish.
- Sol – Deeper yellow with a matte finish.
- Twilight – Burgundy with a matte finish.
Looks
Look #1:
- Shine – Inner crease
- Star – Center of crease, outer transition area, lower inner lashline
- Nova – Outer crease
- Flare – Outer lid
- Sol – Inner lid
- Twilight – Outer lower lashline
- Dawn – Center of lid, applied over Too Faced Glitter Glue
Look #2:
- Star – Upper crease, faded downward onto upper lid
- Shine – Lower lashline
- Brilliance – Inner corner
- Ray – Used as eyeliner, applied with dampened brush
Look #3:
- Twilight – Slightly above crease
- Star – Outer transition area, inner lid
- Flare – Outer lid/crease
- Cosmic – Lower lashline, applied with dampened brush
Look #4:
- Sunburst – Above center part of crease, inner/outer lower lashline
- Flare – Inner/outer lid and crease
- Luminary – Center of lid, applied with dampened brush
- Stellar – Brow bone