I wanted the Illamasqua Alter Ego Mystery Selection box the first time I saw it in Sephora's website. Getting 10 full-size products for $60 sounded like an awesome deal (according to the box, the total value is worth $200). Two named best-seller items were included in this box and 8 were mystery shades. I thought that the whole mystery shades was a neat concept. However, once I received my order, I realized how disappointing all these products were. I have not tried these products. Therefore, this is not a review but my thoughts on what I saw.
The Nail Varnish in Jo'Mina (electric lilac) is one of the best-sellers included in this box. It looks OK, but at close examination, the vanish is separating and the cap was full of fingerprints (all items were covered in fingerprints).
Next, I got one
Intense Lipgloss in
Move (mauved rose pink) and one
Sheer Lipgloss in
Soul (orange). The Intense Lipgloss looked dried and there were some black spots on it. The Sheer Lipgloss was separating. I liked the shades, but these products are old. The new lip glossses have different packaging.
The
Liquid Metal I received was
Solstice which looked like a nice gold shade, but it had a lot of condensation on the surface.
Wail was the
Mystery Cream Eye Shadow on my box. It was also covered in condensation.
The
Cream Blusher in
Raven (red) was a true mystery item. This product was not only covered in condensation, but it also had some growth on the upper corner. I am a microbiologist and this fuzzy white stuff is not normal on a makeup product. I own several cream blushes from other makeup brands and some condensation is expected when the temperature changes, but I never had something growing on them. Really gross!
The other best-seller item was the
Lipstick in
Fable (matte rose pink )
. The other
Lipstick was
Pristine (matte black). Black is probably not of my go-to shade, but it was a mystery item. There was something wrong with these lipsticks. Both were covered with fuzzy spots.
The last two items were Medium Pencils in
Exert (grey)
and
Severe (brown). These two things also suffered damage at some point. The caps looked old and cracked.
I am very disappointed with the
Illamasqua Alter Ego Mystery Selection box. I think there are other ways of getting rid of old damaged products and selling them to costumers is not one of them. I could not test them on me for obvious reasons. This is the first time I have had to return makeup. It is unacceptable to pay for products that should had been disposed of.
If you are interested in getting one of these mystery boxes, keep in mind that in fact you might end up with mystery items growing mystery things on them!
