What I'm Not Buying: Kat Von D Shade and Light Glimmer Palette

The newest release from Kat Von D is within their Shade and Light range. This time, it's an all shimmer/glitter palette. 

And I won't be buying. 

So, let's talk about this palette. I won't lie. I love how this palette looks. Every time I have seen photos of it, I have swooned just a little. 

And had this palette released a few years ago, around the time when the matte version was released, I would have been all over it. Hell, even if this palette came out a year ago, I know I would have nabbed it. 

And the main reason I won't be buying it is because I know better. A year ago, when I would have bought this, I had every single one of these colors in my collection already, as I do now. But I still would have purchased it because I didn't have a lot of self-control. 

But after a year of anti-haul blogging and getting inspiration from others who are taking a hard look at consumerism, I can pass on this. 

Let's take a look at it:

In terms of marketing, I think this palette is a smart release from Kat Von D. I know a lot of people love the original matte version, and I think this would be a perfect palette for people who love that palette, want to try some shimmers, and, most importantly, don't have very many shimmers already. And the reason I say that is because this palette is about as neutral as neutral can get. If you are a person with any kind of makeup collection, I think you probably already have most, if not all, of these shadows. 

I know I certainly do. Even still, I can't help but just love the way this palette is presented. But that is just smoke and mirrors. Because this is really a palette made up of a ton of bronzes, a gold, a champagne, and a taupe. 

Let's look at swatches:

I've mentioned this before, but most brands provide very inaccurate swatch pictures. And Kat Von D seems to be more egregious than most. I should say that I am very much of fan of Kat Von D beauty and think the shadows, for the most part, are of incredible quality. So when I say these swatches look very unrealistic, that is coming from a person who likes the brand's shadows. But these swatches look very unrealistic. They look like they were definitely applied over primer and swatched very heavily. Typically, Kat Von D swatches look completely Photoshopped, but these don't. Nonetheless, I wouldn't say these swatches look accurate. 

What's interesting is that usually swatches (especially these unrealistic ones provided by the brand) make me want to buy something so much more than I already did. But this time, the swatches did the opposite for me. Especially these:

While I actually really love this picture and would like to frame it and hang it above my vanity as art, this shows me—unequivocally—that I do not need this palette and that it would just be a waste of money for me. And that's because I absolutely, without question, own every single one of these colors a few times over. 

From my own collection, I have all of these shadows in my custom palette:

I've mentioned this palette a lot in my posts recently and imagine I will continue to do so as more of the same palettes are released. 

Throughout this palette, but especially in the very bottom row, I have the majority of shades in the Glimmer palette. The lighter champagne and white shades I have in other palettes. 

The Glimmer palette looks nearly identical to the Make Up For Ever Artist 1 palette:

And has similarities with pretty much every neutral palette. 

Like Urban Decay Naked:

And Too Faced Chocolate Bar:

And Wet N Wild Comfort Zone:

To name only a few. 

I think a lot of people will also get a "kick" out of having the companion palette to their Shade and Light Eye. This is something that I (thankfully) have never really cared about, because at its core, makeup will always be a tool for me or something I like to play with. It's not really a decoration or a collector's item for me. And since I've never been a person who felt I needed to complete my collection of a certain series of products, I don't know what that is like. And I don't know how much lingering fulfillment that brings to someone. But it's my guess that it doesn't bring sustained enjoyment and fulfillment. I think it probably feels good in that moment to "complete" a collection, and maybe it makes people feel good when they see their collections sitting in their drawers, but if things go largely unused, I don't know how much fulfillment is really there. 

The Glimmer palette feels to me like a product that will either replace all of your other neutral shadows or one that will not be used because it is just like everything else you already have. For me, I really love my custom palette of warm shadows, and I don't see that being replaced any time soon. Another point to mention is that I fear this palette may have a lot of glitter fallout. I don't know if it will, and I've had more success with shadows from Kat Von D than brands like Urban Decay, but several of the shadows do look quite glittery. And I absolutely loathe glitter fallout. There are very few shadows that I love enough to put up with that. And for basic neutrals, there is no way I would. 

So, in the end, I do think this palette looks very enticing. I can understand why so many people are exited by it and want to buy it. But I think if you look at it with a bit of a critical eye, you'll see that you are likely just attracted to how the colors are set up in the palette. When you actually dissect all the colors, you see that these are just basic neutrals. And while pretty, you very, very likely already have all of them in your collection. Personally, I don't need any more bronze, gold, or orange shimmer shadows, so I won't be buying.