What I'm Not Buying: Make Up For Ever Artist Palette Volume 4

For the fourth volume of the Artist palettes, Make Up For Ever has answered so many people's requests and come out with an all-matte palette. The three previous Artist palettes were primarily or entirely made up of shimmer finishes, so the release of a matte palette was met with enthusiasm. 

But I won't be buying. 

So, I will tell you, I really, really wanted to buy this palette. Well, not this palette specifically, but I wanted to buy an all-matte palette from Make Up For Ever. As I have said several times, I have plenty of all-matte palettes that pretty much cover the spectrum of everything I could ever want. I absolutely do not need another one. But, I wanted to get a matte palette in Make Up For Ever's Artist formula. 

See, I love my Make Up For Ever Artist Palette Volume 1:

I would go so far as to say it's one of my favorite palettes in my entire collection, but it went scarcely used for entirely too long because the presentation and cohesion of shadows is very poor, at least in my opinion. There are only two matte shades in this palette, and they are Taupe Gray and Onyx (bottom two shades on the far left). Those shadows could work with the others to make a beautiful smokey eye, but not much else.

I absolutely loved the bottom two shades in the middle and right columns, but didn't get much use out of the top row since all the shades were so light. 

I considered decluttering this palette for a while since it got so little use, but I really did love the formula and just wanted a better way to use it. I finally decided to depot it, kept the shades I liked (all but Taupe Gray and Onyx), and put them in my custom palette. 

The biggest victory of this endeavor is that I discovered Pearl (top left), which I use daily as my inner corner highlight. I love this shadow. And I honestly had never even touched it until it was out of this palette. 

The Make Up For Ever Artist formula is very different from the majority of formulas in my collection. The texture is thick, almost cream-like (not "creamy" in the sense that most reviewers discuss the consistency of a powder product). If I were to lightly dab my brush into these shadows, little product would actually get picked up. I have to dig a little and really saturate my brush with color. 

Because of this texture, the shadows don't always play nicely with powder matte shadows. I find that the powder mattes, instead of blending the color out, can sometimes make the Make Up For Ever shadows look ashy and really dulled. Mattes from Makeup Geek and the Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye palette have worked best for me, but I imagine the colors would work better blended out with mattes with the same cream-like texture.

So hearing that an all-matte palette was going to be released, I was really excited to get a companion palette to work with these shadows that I love. 

But then I saw the colors:

Photo: Emilyloke

And I was hugely disappointed. I get what Make Up For Ever is trying to do here. They think they are giving a ton of variety. There are the smokey shades, mauve and pink shades, a cool brown, a teal, and a light caramel. But the selection feels so dark to me. And that was my complaint with the selection of the Volume 1 palette. 

Plus, there is so much repetition here, especially for only nine shadows. The black and the charcoal colors will likely look the same on the lid, same with the white and cream shade. And although it might look like there's a big difference between the pink and darker berry, when swatched, they are more similar than different. 

That leaves the teal, cool brown, and light caramel. I'm never typically yearning for a teal matte shadow, so that one won't get use from me. The light caramel shade is just a little too yellow and not peach enough for me to really like and for it to work with my skin tone, so that one is out. And that leaves the cool brown color, which I would probably use. 

I don't know. This palette almost feels like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of situation. I appreciate that this palette doesn't look like all of the other matte neutral palettes, but I also think that maybe it should have since the other Artist palettes are severely lacking basic matte shades. 

This palette leans way too cool for me overall, and I do feel that there are at least two, if not three or four, totally wasted shades here. Since the Volume 1 palette already has a black shade, I feel the inclusion here was a little redundant. I also think this palette could have really benefited from adding a few warm-toned transition shades. 

More than anything, I can't see myself using the Volume 4 palette in conjunction with my Volume 1 palette to create flattering looks on my skin. I assume Make Up For Ever treated this palette as an independent product and marketed it toward people who like an all-matte eye look, but I think it would have reached a wider audience if instead it was marketed and curated as a companion to the existing shimmer palettes in the Artist line. 

And while I do like some of the colors in the Volume 4 palette (really just the middle column), I already have plenty of those shadows, specially within my (limited edition) MAC C'Est Chic palette:

Photo: Temptalia 

If you were really drawn to the pink and cooler hues of the Volume 4 palette but want something a little lighter overall, I recommend checking out the Tarte Tartelette palette:

Overall, I was really excited to see an all-matte palette from Make Up For Ever. I've tried the matte formula before and was really impressed by it, but the shade selection in the Volume 4 palette was just a huge miss for me. Hopefully Make Up For Ever will release more matte palettes in the future that can be a little more functional and work with the other volumes in the Artist palette series. As for Volume 4, I think the shade selection is too similar and also not cohesive enough to interest me, and I won't be buying.