Arguably, the Huda Beauty Desert Dusk palette is "the" palette of the holiday season. And I both totally get it and also don't get it at all. It's a very pretty color scheme, but as I mentioned in my anti-haul post, I feel like these colors are just so incredibly common.
I never felt a true craving for this palette until I saw Lauren Mae Beauty's Let's Dupe It! video on it. I've mentioned Lauren's channel on my blog a lot recently, and it's because I really like her content and have become incredibly inspired by her Let's Dupe It! series. I thought the palette Lauren put together was so pretty and a little more interesting than the Huda Beauty palette, and I felt inspired to go through my own collection and see what kind of similar shades I had.
And what I came up with is a palette that I actually really love and feel incredibly inspired by.
A few things to note:
- The Huda Beauty palette has 18 shades, and my duped palette has 26. That's obviously quite a bit more than in the original palette. The reason for this is that I had several shadadows that I thought would work well with this color scheme that I wanted to incorporate. I also wanted to make the palette slightly more functional for me by putting in a brow bone highlight and several inner corner options.
- I did not try to duplicate every single shadow. This goes with the note above, but if there was a shadow in the Huda palette that I didn't like very much, I found a shadow that still complemented this color scheme that I liked more.
- There are several depotted shadows in my palette from existing premade palettes. I know that is slightly "cheating" since those shadows can't be purchased individually, but this is what worked best for me and my collection.
- In my anti-haul post on this palette, I mentioned that the color scheme was very similar to the Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette, which I own. I have since depotted the shadows in that palette, and eight of them indeed ended up in this duped palette.
Here is Huda Beauty Desert Dusk:
And here is my duped palette:
Here are the colors in my palette:
Row 1: Coloured Raine Heir, Coloured Raine Princess, Inglot 361 matte, Colourpop Come and Get It, Fyrinnae Octopus (pressed), Coloured Raine Short Cake, and Coloured Raine Moments
Row 2: Colourpop High Strung, Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions (pressed), Makeup Geek Blacklight, Inglot 392 matte, Coloured Raine Ladyship, Colored Raine Queen Mother, and Colourpop Glass Bull
Row 3: Anastasia Beverly Hills Pink Champagne, Makeup Geek Mai Tai, Makeup Geek Phantom, Coloured Raine Your Majesty, Coloured Raine Noblewoman, Inglot 355 matte, and Coloured Raine Empress
Row 4: Coloured Raine Crown, Too Faced Satin Sheets, BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel Deluxe shadow 4, Kat Von D Liberatus, and BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel Deluxe shadow 8
Obviously, my palette does not look as pretty or uniform as the Huda Beauty one mainly because of the Inglot shadows. I have to say, this is the best example I have seen of the progress I've made in "makeup rehab." Just a few months ago, I would shudder to see a palette full of shadows of diverse shapes and sizes. And when I first put this palette together, I had to give it time before I fully accepted the Inglot shadows. And, sure, I think the palette would look better without the Inglot shadows or if those shadows were in round pans, but, whatever. My Inglot shadows haven't been getting a lot of use from me lately, so it was time that I mixed them in with some of my other shadows. And I now see the palette as a functional item filled with colors, rather than pretty shadow pans in pretty packaging.
I also feel it's worth noting that Colourpop 143 is a closer "dupe" for Huda Amethyst, but I currently have that shade in my duped Just Peachy Matte palette, and I love it too much in there to consider moving it. That's why I've chosen two colors for this spot—Inglot 392 matte and Coloured Raine Ladyship.
The BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel Deluxe shadow 4 on the bottom row is also what I am using as the dupe for Huda Angelic, but I wanted to put Makeup Geek Mai Tai in this palette as well, and in order to do that, the Carli Bybel shadow could only fit on the bottom row. (I should also mention that in total there are four shadows that I put in this palette that were inspired by Angelic.)
Other shadows that I added to this palette that weren't meant as dupe shadows are:
- Colourpop Come and Get It, which is actually the closest dupe for Huda Angelic
- Fyrinnae Octopus (pressed), which is a rich, darkened cranberry
- Coloured Raine Short Cake, which is like an intense version of Huda Angelic
- Makeup Geek Phantom, which is a white/violet duochrome
- Coloured Raine Your Majesty, which is an intense foiled gold
- Inglot 355 matte, which is a warm matte brown
- Coloured Raine Crown, which is a pink/gold duochrome
- Too Faced Satin Sheets, which is similar to Coloured Raine Crown, but less pink
- Kat Von D Liberates, which is a matte pink-white
- BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel Deluxe shadow 8, which is a matte mauve
Desert Dusk shadows that I did not try to dupe are:
- Amber, which is a matte terracotta
- Blood Moon, which is a shimmery copper
- Cosmo, which is red glitter
- Saffron, which is a matte redbrick
The reason I left out all of these shadows is because I feel like those colors (except for the red glitter) are so common and didn't interest me as much as some of the other pink/purple shades. I also just have no desire to have an underperforming red glitter shadow when I have Stila Magnificent Metals Next to Notte:
This was just another reminder to me to "shop my stash," which is a phrase that I have heard for years and never quite understood or took to heart. I might not have an exact dupe for the Desert Dusk palette, and my palette might not be as symmetrical, but I have a palette filled with the exact colors that I want inspired by this color scheme as well as what I believe is a palette of superior quality. And this is a way that I can still participate in the current trends without having to spend money on items I already have just so that I can say I have the popular product of the moment.
And when I think about it that way, it feels really good. I didn't spend any additional money on this palette. These were all items already in my collection. I could have instead shelled out a whopping $65 and added yet another palette to my collection, and I probably wouldn't have liked that palette nearly as much as I like this one.
I love your blog and your makeup philosophy. You've really inspired me to cut down on my palettes. I'm struggling to create duped or custom palettes because I have trouble making it cost effective. If I go by the cost of, say, a single colourpop shadow, it would be more expensive to dupe the entire desert dusk palette than just buying from huda. And huda is a more expensive brand - it would be even less cost effective to dupe cheaper brands. Any tips on how to make duped palettes work for me?
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on what your collection currently looks like. It's hard to create an entire duped palette, for example, for people who don't already own a lot of singles or have depotted some other palettes. My duped Desert Dusk palette is made up of several shades from my Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette, for example.
DeleteI certainly don't advocate for people spending twice as much on a palette just to dupe it with singles, I am more encouraging people to delve into their collection and use what they already have. So with that in mind, I have two recommendations. Costal Scents singles are about $1.99, but they have sales a few times a year where that is lowered to $.99. I've only tried a few shadows from them, but I have been impressed with the quality. They would be a cheaper way overall to get a lot of singles. A better option, in my opinion, is to identify the specific colors in Desert Dusk that you are drawn to and would be unique to your collection. You may find that there are only three or so shades that you don't already own, or you may find that if you HAD to buy each one of these colors as a single shadow, you wouldn't buy most of them. So even if you bought only three or four shadows that you most like from this palette, and you combine them with other shadows in your collection, you will very likely be able to recreate a ton of great looks.
Hope this helps! Thanks for reading.