What I'm Not Buying: Kat Von D Alchemist Holographic Palette

Kat Von D's newest release is the Alchemist palette, which is "an eye, lip, and face transformer palette with four holographic shades." 

And I won't be buying. 

Kat Von D was smart with their marketing of this palette. Saying that Alchemist is specifically designed to be used on several different parts of the face makes it seem like a good buy to people. They might be able to argue that they already have so many highlighters or way too many eyeshadows to really justify another palette for that specific purpose. But since Alchemist is marketed as a multipurpose palette, it makes it a lot easier to justify buying what you know you don't need. 

The first thing that caught my eye with this palette is probably the same thing that caught everyone's eye: the packaging. 

Packaging is easily my favorite part about most Kat Von D products. I absolutely love the artistry and attention to detail that she gives in every single product. The Alchemist packaging is no different. It looks elegant and special and I would imagine the people who buy it would want to display it in some way instead of storing it in a drawer. Keeping in the "holographic" theme of the products inside, the packaging also gives an iridescent shift. 

However, as beautiful as the packaging is, I have to say that is also doesn't make a ton of sense. I love the look of the triangle and how it corresponds with the embossed "A" on the front, but unless the palette will be used as a display piece, I can imagine storage would be complicated. In my own makeup organization, a triangle-shaped palette would not work easily with what I have. 

I've also heard some criticism about the pans being round instead of triangle. I tend to disagree with that criticism because I would much rather have my products be functional than be an awkward shape to fit with the overall theme (looking at you, Too Faced). I do, however, think that there is a considerable amount of wasted space within the packaging design. 

In terms of the actual colors, there is a pink, purple, blue and green shade:

I always think it's important to look at swatches presented by the brand with caution. Kat Von D is notorious for packing on the color, doing finger swatches, and doing swatches with multiple layers. I also would not be surprised whatsoever if Kat Von D used special and unrealistic lighting to emphasize colors. 

While I think these colors are interesting and pretty, I couldn't help but be entirely reminded of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Moonchild:

(also unrealistic swatches)

I frankly don't see much of a difference in terms of color between Alchemist and Moonchild other than the fact that Moonchild has two additional shades. 

I am also reminded of the Makeup Geek duochrome highlighters:

(also unrealistic swatches)

I mentioned in my post about the Makeup Geek highlighters that I thought Makeup Geek was just a little too late to the game in terms of highlighters in general. But, in addition to making traditional highlight shades, they also made the duochrome highlighters because Anastasia Beverly Hills made them popular with Moonchild. And it was a "good" idea because they were individual, which makes them slightly different than Moonchild, and people could only buy one if that was all they wanted. The Alchemist palette was potentially in development before Moonchild was released, but at this point, Kat Von D, I feel, is really late to the game. And I assume that most people who wanted a duochrome highlighter already have one by now. 

See, Kat Von D is an interesting brand. They tease products months (sometimes years) in advance and don't seem to make their proposed release dates/seasons often. I like thinking this is because the brand wants to perfect their products before they send them out to consumers (which is the opposite approach of brands like Too Faced), but then Kat Von D is also notorious for having very poor quality control. Their Shade and Light blushes were pulled from stores after receiving scathing reviews, the Lolita liquid lipstick went through three different batch colors, and quality in the Serpentina palette seemed to vary across shades and batches. For some people, certain colors in Serpentina were gorgeous and pigmented, while for others, those same colors were dry, patchy, and terrible to work with. And it didn't come down to personal preference; there was an objective distinction in quality from batch to batch. 

I had been interested in Moonchild for several months, and seriously considered purchasing it for the past four. After giving it ample thought, making sure I wasn't impulse buying, and deducing that Moonchild was indeed a product that I would use and love and was entirely unique to my collection, I purchased it. (I will make a separate post on Moonchild at a later date.) I considered buying the Alchemist palette instead, but ultimately chose Moonchild. Here's why:

• Alchemist is $32 for four shades at 0.05 ounces each. 
• Moonchild is $40 for six shades at 0.15 ounces each. 

So, each Moonchild shade is three times larger than each Alchemist shade, and it includes two additional shades. 

• Alchemist has a total of 6.12 grams. 
• Moonchild has a total of 25.2 grams.

I was also able to purchase Moonchild when it was on sale for $36, so it was the obvious choice. 

I also would like to note that for Kat Von D fans who are interested in the basic idea of duochrome highlighters/eyeshadows but don't think you would get a lot of use out of most of the shades in these palettes, I highly recommend the Kat Von D Metal Crush Eyeshadow in Thunderstruck:

Photo: Temptalia 

It may look like nothing/white in the pan, but the color has a really beautiful pink-gold shift and looks similar to the pink shade in the Alchemist palette. Thunderstruck is $21 for 0.10 ounces of product, so it is twice as large as the colors in the Alchemist palette and is also than $11 cheaper. I get that it's a lot more exciting to think you are getting "more colors for less money" in palettes, but if you are realistically not going to use some or most of the shades in a palette, it really doesn't pay to get it instead of one item that you will actually use. Coincidentally, if you already own Thunderstruck, buying the Alchemist palette might be redundant since you already have a close duplicate to one of the shades. 

I honestly feel the biggest pull to Alchemist will be the packaging and the fact that it's from Kat Von D. The product, while pretty, is nothing unique or new. I think if Kat Von D was going to release a duochrome palette many months after Moonchild arrived, then they should have created different colors. I typically really like Kat Von D products, appreciate the thought behind them, and always enjoy the packaging. But with this product, it seems as though more thought was put into making the packaging the huge draw than making an interesting shade selection. It makes me think that the thought process was:

This looks exactly like Moonchild, which has been out for at least six months, and ours has way less product for almost the same price. So, let's focus on making the packaging really cool so that people will be forced to buy it even though they already have a suitable replacement for the product. Oh, and let's market it for eyes and lips too so they don't think it's just a highlighter palette.

Remarking that this palette is multipurpose for the eyes, lips, and face isn't enough to make it unique. Moonchild can be used for eyes, lips, and face as well, as can the options from Makeup Geek.

I have high hopes that Alchemist will be high quality, and hope it's just as good as Thunderstruck. Moonchild and the Makeup Geek duochrome highlighters are also high quality, so if you are in the market for duochrome highlighters, it's just going to come down to personal preference. But, if you already have Moonchild or the Makeup Geek highlighters, Alchemist is really an unnecessary purchase. I have said again and again that a highlighter is a highlighter is a highlighter. And once you have one, you have most. The colors in Moonchild were unlike anything I owned, and that is what drew me to it. But a duochrome highlighter is a duochrome highlighter. So now that I have these, I certainly don't need any others. 

And also, you don't need a duochrome highlighter if you're not all that into it. Highlighter in general isn't a "necessary" part of a makeup routine, and most people prefer a champagne-toned highlighter. I think playing with Moonchild is a ton of fun, but it is absolutely not to everyone's taste. And that's okay! If you are completely happy with a highlighter already, you don't need to move onto duochrome highlighters just because they are "trendy" right now. 

The packaging of the Alchemist palette is absolutely beautiful, and I'm sure a lot of people will buy this simply for that. And while I have said that I understand that people like to collect makeup items, I think it starts sloping into negative territory when brands rely on that being the reason something will sell. I give Kat Von D credit that they at least made the Alchemist packaging beautiful and didn't rely on a lame gimmick (again, looking at you, Too Faced). 

I'm also sure that the hype will be intense, which tends to happen with all Kat Von D products. But, if the thought of buying Moonchild never crossed your mind, you shouldn't buy Alchemist. Because then you are only interested in the packaging and hype. And I'm not saying that Moonchild is the superior product, I'm simply saying that if a product that looks identical to this didn't interest you, then this probably doesn't interest you either.

And if you are considering buying Alchemist to be used as eyeshadow, I strongly discourage you from doing that. I think it will disappoint as eyeshadow since it was primarily made for the face (the colors will be sheer). You can buy much better duochrome shadows from Makeup Geek for significantly less money:

Overall, I don't think the Alchemist palette has good value or anything really going for it other than the packaging. I already own Moonchild (I love it, by the way) and Thunderstruck, so there is no reason for me to add Alchemist to my collection. I can see through the marketing. I know what kind of palette it is, and I know that Kat Von D was just a little too late to the highlighter party. And I won't be buying.