Wednesday, December 7, 2016

What I'm Not Buying: Smashbox Golden Hour Cover Shot Eye Palette


The second of Smashbox's newly released Cover Shot Eye Palettes that most appealed to me was Golden Hour. 

But I won't be buying. 

I certainly hope that these posts don't become repetitive, but since Smashbox released seven palettes, I would like to take the time to talk about my thoughts on each one. I noticed today that these palettes have all come back in stock on Sephora's website, after all selling out almost immediately, and I'll be curious to see if there will be another insane rush for people to buy them. 

My thoughts on the concept, size, and price of these palettes can be found here

Beyond that, I would like to talk about the color schemes these palettes have to offer. As I alluded to in my post about the Ablaze palette, I think in the Cover Shot Eye Palettes, Smashbox has essentially copied the color schemes of several palettes that are currently popular or have remained popular for the past several years. 

And again, there are two ways to look at that. On the one hand, people who have wanted to buy some of these popular palettes but didn't because of price or size can now have the option of getting a really similar color scheme in a compact size with less product for almost half the pice. And that's great. But on the other hand, for people who already have these popular palettes, buying the Smashbox palettes will just be redundant to their collections. 

I'm not at all surprised that I was drawn to Golden Hour. It looks like several palettes that I have perviously owned or have considered purchasing. The first palette it reminded me of is one that I've been lusting after for a long while but have never pulled the trigger on—Buxom Dolly's Wild Side:



It also looks like the Lorac Pro 3:


Photo: Temptalia

As well as the Lorac Unzipped:


Photo: Glow of Grace

Marc Jacobs About Last Night Style Eye Con No 20:



And, of course, the original rose gold palette, Urban Decay Naked 3:


Photo: Temptalia 

The Naked 3 has been duplicated so many times in the years since it was released. In addition to the above palettes that follow a similar color scheme, there are several less expensive palettes that have tried to outright copy it.

There's Costal Scents Revealed 3:


Maybelline The Blushed Nudes:


Makeup Revolution Iconic 3:


Photo: Meg Says

And CoverGirl Tru Naked Roses:


Photo: Budget Beauty Blog

I have owned Naked 3, Lorac Unzipped, and CoverGirl Tru Naked Roses. I no longer own any of these palettes. Of all of these, I liked the Lorac Unzipped the best, but I found I only really loved a couple of shades and it wasn't worth it to me to own the entire palette when I didn't love most of the shadows in it. 

Golden Hour has the following shades:
  • Light peach matte
  • White/cream matte
  • Light gold shimmer (looks pink in the pan but translates to gold on the skin)
  • Golden bronze shimmer
  • Pink-gold shimmer
  • Burgundy shimmer
  • Dark magenta shimmer
  • Light brown shimmer

The most "unique" shades in this palette are the pink-gold (it looks more pink than rose gold), burgundy, and dark magenta shimmers. The rest of the colors are very ordinary and standard, and I would imagine that even people with minimal collections have these colors. With that said, the "unique" shades aren't that unique whatsoever. I would imagine that the majority of collections outside the realm of minimal have these colors as well. Again, within my own collection, I certainly have duplicates for these shadows—probably at least three times over. 

Now, it is my recommendation that people not purchase shadows that they already own, but I also understand wanting to have shades that you love in different formulas or within a different collection of shadows. But I can also say that I think what happens is the group attractiveness effect (known more colloquially as the non-feminist-friendly "cheerleader effect") where the collection of colors is better looking and more alluring than any of the individual shades. What I think happens (at least with myself) is that I see a collection of colors that I already own but arranged in a way that I haven't seen before, and it tricks my brain into thinking that this is something unique and new instead of seeing that I already own all those colors and don't need it. 

Personally, I have so many of these colors in my collection, between Makeup Geek singles, the Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons, and the Ciate London Smokey Suedes:


And it would be gluttonous, excessive, and unnecessary for me to add Golden Hour to my collection. It's a pretty palette, and as evidenced in this post, it has a well-loved color scheme, so I can understand people who want to buy it. But it has just come a little too late in the game for me. I have seen this color scheme time and time again, and it just doesn't interest me anymore. I have the few rose gold, pink, magenta, and burgundy shades that I love, and I don't need to add any more. So I won't be buying. 

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