Alt Makeup Range
Alt makeup is the makeup mainstream ranges never quite stock: true black lipstick, eyeliner sharp enough to draw with, and eyeshadow in colours that read as a decision rather than a neutral. Stargazer has been making it in the UK since 1979, longer than the word alt has been used for it. Everything here is cruelty-free and made in Britain.
How an alt makeup look is built
Most alt looks are put together the same way, whichever corner of the aesthetic you sit in. A flat, even base. One feature pushed further than convention allows. Everything else kept quiet so that feature reads. The difficulty is rarely the idea, it is the pigment: alt makeup asks colour to perform at full strength, and most high street alt cosmetics are mixed for something gentler. Ours are mixed for this.
Alt eyeliner
The line is doing most of the work, so it needs to hold its edge. Our liquid eyeliner has a fine brush tip for a graphic wing or a full cut-crease shape. For thicker, more deliberate lines, cake eyeliner is worth learning: you mix it with water, so you control how opaque it goes and how sharp it dries. If you want the line to survive a full day without a mirror, use the long-lasting eyeliner pen, which stays put for up to 24 hours and comes in seven shades, not only black.
Alt eyeshadow
Alt eye makeup usually means saturated colour placed where mainstream ranges would put a neutral. Our eyeshadow is pressed pigment rather than a diluted shade, so purple stays purple over a white base instead of turning grey. If you would rather draw the colour on directly than blend it with a brush, the chubby eyeshadow stick and the metallic version go on like a crayon and set where you put them.
Alt lips
A dark or unnatural lip is the fastest way to move a face out of the mainstream, and it is also the easiest thing to get wrong. Line first. Our lip liner pencil gives the edge something to hold on to, which is what stops a black lipstick bleeding into the skin around the mouth. From there, blue and the wider matte lipstick range take the same approach in colours you will not find on a chemist shelf.
Base, powder and contour
Alt makeup tends to sit on a paler, flatter base than a normal foundation gives, because strong colour reads better against it. White liquid foundation is a true white you mix down to whatever tone you want, rather than the lightest shade of a standard range. Set it with pressed powder or loose powder, then put some structure back with a grey contour under the cheekbone. Skip that step and the face goes flat under any strong light, which is exactly the light you will be photographed in.
Where to take it next
Alt is a broad word and it covers several looks that need slightly different products. For the pale, dark-lipped end of it, the goth makeup range is the more specific collection. Narrower still is the vampire makeup collection. For UV and rave colour, go to neon makeup. For character work and conventions, cosplay makeup. And if the hair is part of the look, our semi-permanent hair dye has been colouring alt hair since 1979.