Weekend Looks: Stila, Urban Decay, Morphe, and more

In response to the cool-toned looks I did earlier this week, I started off the weekend wanting to do a non-traditional (for me) warm-toned look. But after one day of that, I was back to the cool tones. I don't think I'm necessarily a cool tones convert (after all, I do have a warm olive undertone), but I do think it's a really refreshing departure from the kind of looks I've been doing for many months and years.

I'm curious to know how other people do their makeup. Do you repeat looks often? Do you have a set number of looks and rotate through them? Or do you get bored easily (like me) and try to come up with new looks all the time?

Here are the looks I did this weekend.

Look 1: Morphe x Jaclyn Hill

Lid: Creamscicle

Crease: Pukey

Inner corner: Beam

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brûlée

Lower lash line: Creamscicle

Look 2: Stila Shimmer and Glow in Kitten and Cool Tones

Lid: Stila Shimmer and Glow in Kitten

Transition: Viseart cool brown and Coloured Raine Moments

Crease: Urban Decay Boom and Untitled

Inner corner: Kat Von D Saphyre

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brûlée

Lower lash line: Urban Decay Untitled

Look 1: Morphe x Jaclyn Hill

(This palette was given to me as a gift.)

We all know I love a good mustard brown, but recently, I've been thinking how much I want a pure mustard. I saw that Urban Decay released one in a recent collaboration (that I personally don't want to purchase), and I genuinely didn't think I had one in my collection. However, when I was looking for Blue Honey dupes in my collection, I realized that I sort of had this mustard shade already in the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill palette. It's not quite as yellow as I would like (it leans more orange), but it was close enough for me to try out this kind of look and see how I like it. And I feel kind of mixed on it. On the one hand, I really liked how it looked up close and how it looks in photos, but in person from a slight distance, it almost looked like I wasn't wearing any eyeshadow at all. And I don't know if that is because I'm so used to dramatic eye looks or because the shade is somewhat close to my skin tone. But it blended in a little too much for me. Similarly, while I liked the look enough to want to wear it again, I would want to invest in a higher quality eyeshadow. In terms of this palette, while I am grateful that someone thought enough of me to gift it to me, and while I also feel that this palette is of higher quality than other Morphe palettes that I have tried, I don't find the quality to be up to far with other similarly priced palettes. I'll certainly keep this palette and continue using it as I don't dislike it, but I don't think it's as fantastic as other influencers claim. 

Look 2: Stila Shimmer and Glow in Kitten and Cool Tones

So, this was my return to cool tones. And I have to say, I really, really love it. I wasn't entirely sure how this was going to turn out, but I just felt this intense craving for more blue. This was the first time (I think?) that I ever applied blue shadows in the crease with a neutral shade on the lid. I could be wrong about that, but I can't think of another time I did that. And man, do I love how this look turned out. It reminds me a bit of a mod look from the 60s (in person, not in photographs), and I couldn't be happier with it. I've written about the Stila Shimmer and Glow in Kitten before, and I still love it just as much. Since it can lean cool or warm depending on the complementary shadows, I think it pairs just so beautifully with these blue shadows. After the week I've had using and loving cool tones, I feel like I have to ask: Why have warm tones been on trend for this long? I don't even have a cool-toned complexion, and I still think these colors are fantastic. I'm hoping we see a shift soon. 

Weekly Looks: Cool Tones

I mentioned a few times in the past month or so that I was getting a little tired of my eyeshadow looks and felt like I was always doing the same things. And I realized that what most of my favorite looks have in common is that they are warm-toned. 

I was inspired this week to separate my single shadows (that aren't already in existing duped palettes) into warm and cool tones. And to my complete surprise, I was really drawn to my collection of cool shadows. I did one look this week with a cool shadow on the lid and warm shadows in the crease, but after that, I just wanted nothing but cool tones. So that's what I did. 

It was a nice departure from what I typically do, and it was great to get some use out of shadows that are typically very ignored. I guess this could almost be considered a one week, one palette, but I did not use every shadow in this palette and also pulled in some other shadows. 

Here is a closeup of the palette and shade names:

And here are the five looks I did this week. 

Look 1: Ardency Inn Heaven

Lid: Ardency Inn Heaven

Transition: Kat Von D Ludwin

Crease: Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear

Brow Bone: Wet N Wild Brûlée

Look 2: Juvia's Place Chi

Lid: Juvia's Place Chi

Center of lid: Ardency Inn Heaven

Transition: Viseart cool brown and Coloured Raine Moments

Crease: Urban Decay Untitled and Juvia's Place Chi

Inner corner: Kat Von D Saphyre

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brûlée

Lower lash line: Juvia's Place Chi

Look 3: Coloured Raine Royal Highness and Ardency Inn Violet

Inner lid: Coulred Raine Royal Highness

Outer lid: Ardency Inn Violet

Transition: BH Cosmetics pink

Crease: Colourpop Silver Lining

Inner corner: Urban Decay Roadstripe

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brûlée

Lower lash line: Ardency Inn Violet

Look 4: Costal Scents Lakeshore

Lid: Costal Scents Lakeshore

Transition: Viseart cool brown

Crease: Urban Decay Boom

Outer corner: Urban Decay Untitled

Inner corner: Kat Von D Saphyre

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brûlée

Lower lash line: Makeup Geek Caitlin Rose

Look 5: BH Cosmetics taupe and Colourpop Glass Bull

Lid: BH Cosmetics taupe

On top of lid: Colourpop Glass Bull

Transition: Viseart cool brown

Crease: Coloured Raine Moments

Outer corner: ABH Rosette

Inner corner: Urban Decay Roadstripe

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brûlée

Lower lash line: ABH Rosette

Look 1: Ardency Inn Heaven

Heaven is an odd shadow for me. When I swatch it on my hand, I am so blown away by how gorgeous it looks, but when I apply it onto my lids, I tend to feel like it is too cool-toned for me. It almost comes off as a silver, which I know sounds strange, but that's usually how it looks. I paired it with warm-toned shadows in this look, and while I think it looks nice in photos, I didn't really like how it looked in person. I contemplated decluttering it from my collection, but when I moved it into the cool-toned palette and away from the other, warmer golds, I became much more drawn to it. 

Look 2: Juvia's Place Chi

This was one of my favorite looks that I did this week. It was also the first that I did with the completed cool-toned palette. As soon as I saw Ardency Inn Heaven next to Juvia's Place Chi, I knew that I had to use them in a look. I'm really happy with how this turned out and enjoy the the "moonlight on the ocean" look that it has, but I would be curious to see how Heaven would look on the majority of the lid with Chi on the outer corner. This was much more of a "midnight" look than I originally anticipated, but I absolutely loved it. I also love how great Coloured Raine Moments looks within the eye look because that is a shadow that I have not been able to utilize much. 

Look 3: Coloured Raine Royal Highness and Ardency Inn Violet

I might sound repetitive in this post, but this was another look that I really liked this week. I have several purples in my collection, but I feel like they don't get a ton of use, which is a shame. I don't think it comes across this way in photos, but this was a very smoky, dramatic look, and I loved it. The combination of the BH Cosmetics pink shade and Colourpop Silver Lining made for a really pretty glow in the crease, and I think it transitioned well into the colors on the lid. Again, these aren't colors that I ever would have paired together on my own, but seeing them in a cool-toned palette made them make sense for me. 

Look 4: Costal Scents Lakeshore

This was my absolute favorite look of the week. Lakeshore is such a fantastic and underrated shadow, and I was excited to do a monochromatic blue look with it. And this look could not have come out better for me. I depotted two shadows from the Urban Decay Jean-Michel Basquiat palette (Boom and Untitled), and I'm so glad that I did because I was contemplating decluttering the entire palette from my collection. Instead, I depotted the blue and green shades and decluttered the rest. The two blues performed like a dream in this look. I was also really impressed with how great it looked with the Viseart cool brown shade as a transition, as that is a shadow that I haven't used much because I don't wear a ton of cool shadows. I thought about running one of the blue shadows on my lower lash line, but decided to use the coolest-toned purple in my collection, and I think the result is really, really pretty. I feel like I say this often, which kind of minimizes the sentiment, but this is really one of my favorite looks I've ever done. 

Look 5: BH Cosmetics taupe and Colourpop Glass Bull

Rounding out my cool-toned week, I decided to go with a taupe-based look. To be honest, I wanted to use my Le Metier de Beaute single in Corinthian, but I thought it might be best to stay within the palette. I decided that I wanted to use Colourpop Glass Bull, and I have to say that I still don't quite understand the hype with this shadow. I tried to pull inspiration online, but when I searched for "Colourpop Glass Bull looks," the only thing that really came up was my own look the last time I used it (and, yes, that was quite a weird experience). I find this shadow really sheer and glossy. Maybe it's supposed to evoke the look of a Glossier model. I'm not sure. But it's not a look I personally want at this time. I decided to layer it with the BH Cosmetics taupe shade, and even though Glass Bull is on top, you can't even see it. I think it's a fine look, and I paired it with a raspberry lip, which really pulled it together, but it's not something I think I'll replicate. 

What I'm Not Buying/Duped: Kylie Cosmetics Blue Honey Palette

Kylie Cosmetics has released their latest eyeshadow palette, Blue Honey. 

And I won't be buying. 

I have a lot of valid reasons for not wanting to buy this palette, and I'll get to those in a bit. But in the spirit of transparency, I feel it necessary to say that I highly doubt I will buy anything from Kylie Cosmetics in the near future, and that is because this is a brand that I really don't like. I find Kylie herself to be incredibly problematic for a number of reasons, but I very specifically don't like what this brand represents, which is targeting a young demographic and charging a lot of money for a name instead of high quality products. 

And let me just step in right here to clarify that I am not saying that Kylie Cosmetics products are bad. I am saying that the price of these products is not related the quality of them. 

Kylie Cosmetics and Colourpop are owned by the same company and come out with extremely similar products and formulas, which is normal for brands under a parent company. The main problem I have with Kylie Cosmetics is what is so fantastic about Colourpop, which is the model of manufacturing trendy makeup at affordable prices. Kylie Cosmetics is a company that takes those same trendy products and upcharges more than double to have a famous person's name on it. 

And while I have never tried anything from Kylie Cosmetics because it's not a brand that I like or particularly want to support, they also have not released anything that personally appealed to me. 

Until Blue Honey. 

If this was a Colourpop palette, I feel like I probably would have purchased it right away, without even considering what else was in my collection. And that is so disappointing because I know better by now! But luckily, Kylie Cosmetics released it and charged way too much, which brought me back to my senses. 

Let's look at the palette:

Do you know what I like so much about this palette? That it doesn't look exactly like every other palette that is available. I think it's really fantastic, truly, that we are hitting saturation in the makeup community. It has been an interesting phenomenon to watch people complain about new releases because they have similar/exact things already and they want to see something new, all while they are sitting in front of a miniature version of Sephora in their own homes. And I don't say that with any kind of malice, because I also have a large makeup collection. 

The fact is, for those of us with large collections, there just isn't really going to be much, if anything, that can be released that we don't already own in some way. People who still have a spending/makeup addiction or are caught up in the euphoria of buying new things will find saturation unpleasant. They have an itch to buy, but there isn't anything left for them to buy. And it is at this stage that we need to look inward to what we already have (which is, essentially, everything) and use that instead of always looking for what's coming next.

Blue Honey doesn't so obviously look like something I already own though. It looks different, and I like different. But for $38 (not including tax and shipping—we will get to that), I also know that this palette is not worth that price. 

Let's look at the colors as pigments:

When I look at this picture, I see a lot of things that I already own. I see a lot of red-toned warm brows, a taupe, a copper, and some blues. Breaking it down like that, I realize that I already have these types of colors. What drew my eyes in the most were the blue shades, but if you take those away, this is the same as everything we've seen before. It's a warm-toned neutral palette. 

So, I looked at my own collection to see what I had that was similar. I recently reorganized some of my custom palettes into warm-toned and cool-toned singles:

And I realized that between these two palettes, I probably had adequate duplicate shadows.

And I did. 

Here is Blue Honey:

And here is my duped version of Blue Honey:

I found that the pictures of Blue Honey were a little misleading in terms of what the actual shadow colors were (which is unfortunately not an abnormal occurrence in the makeup industry), so instead I referenced various swatch pictures. 

Here are the colors I used:

Top row: Zoeva Bitter Start, ABH Pink Champagne, and Makeup Greek Desert Sands

Middle row: Colourpop Two Birds, Urban Decay Boom, and Costal Scents Lakeshore

Bottom row: Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear, MAC Coppering, and ABH Fudge

Out of these shadows, two were depotted from existing palettes: Zoeva Bitter Start (from Cocoa Blend) and Urban Decay Boom (from the Jean-Michel Basquiat palette). The rest are singles. 

Additionally, if you own the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill palette, you also already own Blue Honey:

I've enlarged and circled in red the shadows that I feel are duplicates of those in Blue Honey. They are:

Blue Honey Row 1: Enlight (Raw), Obsessed (Buzz Off), and Creamscicle (Sweet Like Honey) 

Blue Honey Row 2: Queen (Bumble), Jada (Blue Honey), and Pool Party (Royal Jelly)

Blue Honey Row 3: Roxanne (Busy Bee), Firework (Sweet Thing), and Jacz (Honeymoon)

The only shadow that isn't quite a dupe is Morphe Enlight, which is a shimmer, because Kylie Cosmetics Raw is matte. Otherwise, these colors are pretty close. 

Without knowing it, I not only already owned Blue Honey (which I thought was a really unique color scheme), but I actually owned it twice. (For those wondering, the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill palette was given to me as a gift.) And, yes, it did look like a unique color scheme to me, but that was only because the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill palette has more shadows in it. That distracted my brain and didn't allow me to see that Blue Honey was embedded into it. 

And there are other palettes with similar shadows and color schemes, like Juvia's Place Zulu:

Juvia's Place Festival:

Juvia's Place Masquerade:

NYX Earth:

NYX Water:

And ABH Subculture:

Remember earlier when I mentioned that Kylie Cosmetics and Colourpop are owned by the same company and come out with really similar products? Well, Blue Honey looks a lot like the Colourpop x Kathleenlights Dream Street palette:

Let's compare:

While Blue Honey and Dream Street are not exact dupes, they both have:

• A matte cream
• A matte mustard
• A matte blue-green
• A shimmery blue-green
• A shimmery gold
• A shimmery taupe
• A shimmery copper
• A matte warm brown
• A matte reddish brown 

They share nine shades in common, and in case you missed it, Blue Honey only has nine shades. 

I don't advocate to buy Dream Street instead of Blue Honey (for those reasons, please reference the anti-haul post on Dream Street), but it is pretty telling that Dream Street costs $16 for 12 shades, and Blue Honey costs $38 for nine shades. 

To make matters even worse, Kylie Cosmetics only offers free domestic shipping on orders over $40, and Blue Honey just misses that mark by $2 (and in case you're wondering, yes, this is intentional). And Kylie Cosmetics shipping costs a staggering and criminal $8.95 for domestic shipping and $14.95 for international shipping. 

So that means that the already overpriced $38 palette is really $47, not including tax, which would push it to over $50. And for that, you can buy a palette of better quality with nicer packaging and more shadows. 

Like Colourpop, Kylie Cosmetics does not accept returns or exchanges, and all sales are final. Colourpop claims that they do this in order to keep their prices low, so I can't see the reasoning for this with Kylie Cosmetics. And this means that if you spend the $50+ on this palette and don't find that it lives up to that price, you cannot return it and will be out that money. 

Blue Honey, in reality, is not that unique of a palette. And like I said at the top of this post, at this point, I think it would be difficult for a brand to be able to come out with a totally unique palette. Since Blue Honey only has 9 shades, it makes it pretty easy to dissect it and see how many basic, non-unique shades there are. And in my opinion, there is only one pretty unique shade, and that is Blue Honey, the matte blue-green. And if that is the shade that is drawing you to this palette, I would highly recommend looking into singles instead. Coloured Raine has two that are really similar, with one leaning more blue and one leaning more green.

They are Majestic:

And Gumby:

I know I say this in every post about Kylie Cosmetics, but I understand the pull people (especially adolescents) have to their favorite celebrities. And I know what it feels like to be young and want to buy whatever that celebrity attaches their name to. But those celebrities also know that they have this power, and often times they exploit it. (Why else do you think Justin Bieber came out with a perfume when he was 17 and at the height of his popularity?) I can say with close to absolute certainty that there is nothing about Blue Honey that makes it any better or more luxurious than products from brands like Colourpop or Morphe other than Kylie's name on the front and pictures of eyes. 

And while I can appreciate the slightly different color schemes that Kylie Cosmetics are bringing to the table, I just can't endorse them due to their grossly overpriced products, absurd shipping costs, and terrible return policy (or lack thereof). 

Recently, I have noticed that my collection of pre-made non-companion palettes is declining. That is because I have been focusing on my collection of single shadows, and I reorganize them to fit different trendy color schemes or color stories that I find inspiring. I currently only have five pre-made "complete" palettes (not including ones I consider to be companions). I also have five custom palettes full of singles (three of which are "dupes" of popular pre-made palettes), and I have found that I get far more use out of the custom palettes than I do the pre-made ones. This is relatively new to me as my singles used to be the most ignored shadows in my collection. But I'm so glad that I have discovered my love for them because they are the biggest reason why I don't buy new palettes. 

Blue Honey is a great palette to try to replicate at home. My guess is that most people would be able to come close to duping the entire thing. And if you need to buy one or two singles, look into brands like Coloured Raine, Colourpop, or Costal Scents. You might spend $10 or $15 on singles, but that's far cheaper than spending $50 for this palette. 

Like all of Kylie Cosmetics products, Blue Honey is overpriced. It's a palette that is easy to replicate and one that I have at least two times over in my own collection. Part of being a smart consumer is recognizing when brands are going out of their way to gouge you, and that is certainly what is going on with Kylie Cosmetics. They offer cheap, cardboard packaging and shadows that can be found for less money elsewhere, and I don't personally care about the Kylie name to look past that. I don't need this palette, and I won't be buying. 

Weekend Looks: Juvia's Place, Bobbi Brown, Morphe, and Urban Decay

This was a quiet weekend for me, and I found myself pretty exhausted and wanting to be casual. That  translated into my makeup, though I still ended up with some bold and unconventional looks. On the surface they may look intense, but the reality is that I paired neutral colors with one bold color. And I really love that such looks are becoming the new "neutral" for me. It's crazy to think that I was so scared of colors for years. Life is way more fun in color.

Here are the looks I did this weekend.

Look 1: Juvia's Place Chi and Bobbi Brown Camel

Lid: Juvia's Place Chi

Transition: Kat Von D Ludwin

Crease: Bobbi Brown Camel

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brulee

Inner corner: Illamasqua Cascade

Lower lash line: Bobbi Brown Camel

Look 2: Morphe Jaclyn Hill and Urban Decay Electric 

Lid: Morphe Obsessed

Crease: Morphe Buns, Chip, and Mocha

Inner crease: Urban Decay Savage

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brulee

Inner corner: Urban Decay Roadstripe

Lower lash line: Morphe Chip

Look 1: Juvia's Place Chi and Bobbi Brown Camel

I decluttered the Juvia's Place Masquerade palette a while ago from my collection, but I depotted a few shades that I thought were pretty unique and special (which ended up being the colorful shades). Chi is one of the standouts from that palette, and every time I've worn this shadow, I've received compliments. I think this is such a pretty shadow, and I wish that Juvia's Place would sell it as a single. I paired it with Bobbi Brown Camel because it's such a great shadow that really works with anything. And I think the end result was really great. What's cool is that Chi is a deep blue with purple undertones, and depending on what I pair with it, it will pull one or the other. I've paired Chi with mauves and it has pulled purple, and with Camel, it pulls deep blue. I really loved how this looked, and it wore incredibly well with no transferring throughout the day. 

Look 2: Morphe Jaclyn Hill and Urban Decay Electric 

(I received the Morphe Jaclyn Hill palette as a gift.)

This look was inspired by professional makeup artist and YouTube creator Lauren Mae Beauty, specifically the look in this video. I've always loved Lauren's looks, especially how she puts colors in "unconventional" areas of her eyes, and I just wanted to try this. While I definitely don't think my attempt looks as great as what Lauren does, it looks better in person. What I love about artists like Lauren is that they bring something new and interesting to the makeup conversation. This look, for example, is very neutral for the most part, much more than what I typically do. But with the inclusion of the hot pink in an unconventional placement, it makes the look really interesting. I am a glasses wearer on a daily basis, so this look becomes very understated when I put my glasses on, which makes me love it even more. In terms of shadow quality, the Morphe shadows I used in this look did not perform very well, and I wasn't impressed with them. Obsessed took several layers to build up, and the matte shades did not bend very well. I've been able to create looks with this palette that I enjoyed, but not all shades are created equal, and these were not impressive.