Dose of Colors, noted mostly for their extremely popular liquid lipsticks, has released a limited edition eyeshadow palette, full of beautiful pastel and ice cream-inspired shadows.
And I won't be buying.
This is cute palette. The theme is cute, the colors are cute, the inside of the palette is cute, and the outside is cute.
And I would be lying if I said the packaging didn't draw me in a little here. As an ice cream lover, yes, I would love to have delightful ice cream cones somewhere in my makeup collection. But as cute as it is, I don't need it.
I will immediately give credit to Dose of Colors for making the layout of this palette so enticing after their last palette, Hidden Treasure, was such an eyesore.
I get that the theme of Hidden Treasure was a treasure box, and the shadows were supposed to be gems scattered in the box, but the entire thing was a miss for me. And this is a prefect example of bad packaging keeping me from buying an item. These colors are all right up my alley, and when this launched, I probably would have purchased had the layout not been so dizzying.
Eyescream in contrast is really lovely to look at. Another positive that I can give this palette is the color selection. Unlike most of everything that is releasing right now, this one seems unique. It doesn't look like what we've seen over and over.
When I saw the swatches, I was especially enthused. They seem to have great color payoff, and the variety is really exciting. But, I find that most swatches, especially when they come from the brand, can be really deceiving. The colors are almost certainly swatched over primer and done with a finger instead of a brush (both which really make the shadows look more intense than reality) and the swatches are likely several layers of product. I find this especially true about the matte cream and matte tan shades. Those colors are swatched so heavily here, but they would never be applied to the eye with that intensity.
The reviews of this palette have been generally positive, with many people mentioning that the cuteness of the packaging makes it a "keepsake" as well. This is so interesting to me and something it seems a lot of brands are starting to exploit. Yes, it's an added bonus to have beautiful packaging, but it seems (especially in palettes released for this year's holidays) brands are thinking they can skimp on the quality of the actual product as long as the packaging is beautiful and enticing as a "keepsake."
But the reason I'm passing on this palette is because of the price. This is $50 for ten shadows. That seems pretty high to me, especially considering this isn't a brand that is sold in stores where people can swatch and check out the quality in person. The cost puts this in the same range as Urban Decay, Too Faced, Kat Von D, Tarte, Anastasia Beverly Hills, etc. However, those palettes have more shadows and are sold in stores.
With the cost in mind, I have to look at this palette objectively and really evaluate how many shades I would use, and how often. I love the mint/blue shadow, but I know I would get very little use out of it. Same goes with the gorgeous lavender shade. The gold isn't the kind of gold that I like to wear, and it looks like I have better quality shadows already in that exact shade. The two browns look really similar to me, and I doubt I could tell much difference between them on the eye. They also aren't that inspiring to me, and I wouldn't want to pair them with the pink or lavender shades.
That leaves the obvious matte cream and tan shades, as well as the rose gold, of which I already have an endless amount. Then there's the light and dark pink shades. And those are the shades I really love from this palette and the ones I would be most excited for. But I already own Too Faced's Chocolate Bon Bons palette, which has three pink shades; the Lime Crime Venus palette, which is full of berry shades; the shadows left from my Morphe 35T palette, which are very pinky/rosy; and two pink Kiko singles. So, I'm clearly not hurting for pink shades.
If this palette was cheaper and available to swatch in store, I think there's enough positives with Eyescream to make it enticing. However, for an internet brand that is somewhat new to the scene, I do think this palette is too expensive. And I won't be buying.
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