About Archetype Cosmetics

While you'll find some very high quality basic shades of pigments, we mostly focus on startling, unusual and unique shades. On the other hand, if magpie sparkles, rainbow iridescent colors, and notice-me shades are your thing, you’ve come to the right place. While it’s true that not every shade we make is screamingly bright and vibrant (though some are!) the more subtle toned shades will have something interesting about them that sets them apart from the hordes; a sheen, a sparkle, a duochrome iridescent flash… or all of the above.

We chose the term “pigments” for our loose powders because although they can obviously be used as eyeshadows, they are multipurpose; most can be used on eyes, face, lips, cheeks, body and in nail polish. If a pigment isn't lip safe, the description of it will say so.

We formulate all our own makeup- we are not just slapping a sticker on wholesale prepackaged, preformulated makeup... therefore, it will take some time to add to our line of products available.

We finally started selling foundation- after feeling like I was getting a little tired of the expense of buying my own, I decided to try making it, since I'd found a source for a wonderful silicone coated mica. After a lot (a LOT!) of... interesting... experiments, the final result is pretty fabulous. And, I really felt like the result was worth sharing, to put it mildly. All my life I've found my skin impossible to match- 99% of makeup lines are too dark for my pale skin, so for other girls like me, I start our foundations at a very pale shade... paler than any drugstore or department store line. And, we provide a pure white shade for those who don't find even our light shades pale enough! We also provide a wide variety of undertones, indeed, while most people will match either Yellow Beige or Pink Beige, or a mix thereof, we provide a huge variety of undertones for different and hard to match skin tones.

We could use some feedback on our foundation shades... while they were tested on a good number kind & patient family and friends (never animals!), this being the Seattle area, even those with naturally dark skin weren't terribly dark. So, if you feel we need to stock even darker shades, or some other undertones, please let us know! Also, if you'd like to see a full matte version of Striptease, we need to hear from you too!

Currently we do not make custom pigments. We are open to suggestions for colors you might like to see in the future, of course, but no guarantees.

All our makeup is mineral based. Striptease foundation does have a bit of silicone in it, however. Our pigments are primarily mica, to preserve the intensity and sparkle of each color.

The sparkles in some of our shades are the most intense sparkles you can get without plastic or metal glitter (let's hear it for the joys of Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate!!) Also we have some truly amazing iridescent shades, which don’t flash just one color but three or more (those are really astonishing in person- pictures just cannot capture the fabulous subtlety of color).

We are also committed to keeping our prices affordable, and we feel it is very important to offer samples, since it is so very hard to accurately photograph and describe makeup (though we do our best!)

Archetype Cosmetics is an LLC, owned by Holly Regan, founded in 2007. Everything on this website, from names to descriptions, is copyright Archetype Cosmetics / Holly Regan.

All pigments, lip products, and foundations formulated by Holly Regan. Holly has extensive familiarity in the cosmetics field- she worked at the Seattle Opera House doing makeup for several years, c.1996-1998. Also, Holly has informally done wedding makeup for several weddings simply for fun, for friends and family. Holly has always had a love of color- she graduated with a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) from Cornish College of the Arts in 1999, and perhaps not so oddly, mixing paint for oil paintings is not that much different than creating pigments. Besides that, she has simply been an avid fan of cosmetics and makeup for her whole life.

Website designed by Holly Regan, copyright 2008.