What I'm Not Buying: Lime Crime Venus 3

Weeks after releasing the Venus XL, Lime Crime has released yet another version of the Venus palette, Venus 3. 

And I won't be buying. 

I was tagged by many people letting me know about this palette, and I wanted to thank everyone who did. It's always helpful for me to know the products that you all are most interested to hear about, and I appreciate the engagement around the ideas of the anti-haul and smart shopping. 

Despite everything that I know about Lime Crime (I won't be getting into their past in this post, but if you're interested, I detailed that information in this post), I still can't help but be excited and interested when they announce a new shadow palette. That's not to say I can't wait to buy these new products, but I'm excited to just see them. And that's because the Venus and Venus 2 palettes were years "ahead of their time" or ahead of trends. 

Venus was an entire palette of warm pink and red tones years before Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance entered the scene. Likewise, Venus 2 debuted long before ABH Subculture. Neutrals were still the focus of most palette releases when the Venus palettes came along, and I remember thinking they were too "out there" for me. Now, shadows from Venus are some of the powerhouse shades in my favorite custom palette, and I have fallen hard for the mustard tones that first appeared in Venus 2. 

Lime Crime is certainly not without an unfavorable history, but they have traditionally been the indie brand to watch in terms of innovative color stories and new trends. (Lime Crime Cashmere certainly put the "greige" lip color on trend.) And I guess that's why Venus 3 leaves me really disappointed. 

You see, unlike so many of Lime Crime's earlier palettes, we have definitely seen color schemes like this before. 

Let's look at the palette:

We've got a palette full of purple, pink, and taupe tones. Now, that's not incredibly surprising since the Pantone Color of the Year is Ultra Violet, and I expect that we will see many purple-toned palettes in the coming months. But it's also not like we haven't seen purple-toned palettes before. 

When I first saw Venus 3, I immediately thought, Oh, this is Viseart Amethyst Theory:

This palette released about a year ago, so it's curious to me that Lime Crime would come out with this palette at least a year late to the game. When this palette launched, many people raved about there finally being a purple palette, but, really, there's only two purple shades in it. And there's really only two purple shades in Venus 3 as well. 

Let's look at swatches:

Looking at these swatches, there's:

• A matte cool pink
• A shimmery pink
• A shimmery pink champagne
• A shimmery white-pink
• A matte cool brown
• A matte fuchsia/purple
• A matte warm pink
• A shimmery taupe

It's interesting because Beam (second shadow on the top row) looks like a shimmery violet in the pan, but in the swatch it looks like a shimmery pink. And that was one of two shadows that looked somewhat purple. So now, this "purple" palette that only had two purple shades only really has one, and it's fuchsia at that. 

Truthfully, Venus 3 is not ahead of trends, it's not unique or interesting, and it is not something that we haven't seen before. It's a collection of pink shadows that look more interesting in the pan than they do in performance. Added to that, it doesn't appear to be a very versatile palette. There are four shimmery shadows, but I would guess that they don't look too distinct from each other when applied to the lid. And that's half the palette. You can make a pink look, violet look, and taupe look. Other than that, the colors are very monochromatic, which doesn't usually allow for multiple options. 

In addition to Viseart Amethyst Theory, Venus 3 looks like Huda Beauty Desert Dusk:

Natasha Denona Lila:

Kylie Cosmetics Purple Palette:

Colourpop Element of Surprise:

Zoeva Love is a Story:

Dose of Colors Marvelous Mauves:

And Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts:

These are all palettes that have been available for some time, and while they all don't have the exact color scheme as Venus 3, they certainly embrace the idea of neutral shadows with a couple pops of fuchsia or purple. 

I'd like to take a moment to talk about the marketing of this palette. This is something that I talked about a lot in the early posts on this blog, but it bears repeating. These were the "first images" Lime Crime released of Venus 3:

I cannot tell you how frustrating I personally find this kind of marketing campaign. All these pictures are saying is:

Look, we have a new palette! We are going to tell you absolutely nothing about it, other than the fact that it exists and will be released at some point in time, but we fully expect you to be excited by this! Look, it's a picture of nothing! Get excited!

I understand that brands need to market their products, but they are looking out for their own best interest. As consumers, we should be looking out for our own as well. Many brands are guilty of this particular marketing tactic, where they try to drum up hype and excitement just on the idea of a new product. And just the idea of something can be incredibly powerful. 

We saw this most clearly in the Too Faced Sweet Peach palette release. Too Faced released the name of the palette, Sweet Peach, and images of the packaging. And that was all that consumers needed to fill in the gaps for themselves. It was going to be a peach palette! There were going to be so many different shades of peach! Then people made the decision—without even seeing the palette—that they were going to buy it. When the palette was finally shown, people were incredibly disappointed. Where's the peach?! Still, they had already made the decision to buy, and it was difficult to change that mindset because they also had fear of missing out. Too Faced intentionally released low stock, the palette sold out immediately, and then it became a frenzy of people trying to buy this palette they didn't even like. 

It was a complete disaster from a consumer standpoint, but it was an incredibly effective marketing tactic. Soon after this, Too Faced was able to sell the company for over $1 billion, which was a culmination of expert marketing tactics over a few years and several key product releases. Other brands took notice, and this is now an almost universal marketing tactic. 

This brings me back to my earlier point that Venus palettes in the past have been exciting because they brought something new to the table. But this marketing tactic, which is just like so many others, puts Lime Crime squarely in the space of "following" the trends rather than setting them. They were banking on the assumption that consumers would see this nothing image, see that it was an eyeshadow palette in the same packaging as the Venus palettes, and make the decision to buy based on the previous two Venus palettes. The tactic is based on riding the coattails of their previous, successful palettes. 

The reason I bring all of this up is that it's important as a consumer to recognize this tactic and not buy into it. If you saw Venus 3 and felt it was incredibly exciting and just the palette you were looking to add to your collection, that's great. But if you saw the nothing marketing images and felt the impulse to buy without even knowing what it looked like, that might be something to keep in mind before your purchase. As consumers, we should be buying products because they excite and inspire us, or even better, if they fulfill a purpose. 

Personally, I have never considered myself to be a "makeup collector," and I like for everything in my collection to have a place and purpose. I am not passing judgement on people who do collect makeup because everyone is different. But for me, buying the Venus 3 palette "because I want to have the entire Venus collection" is not a good enough reason to spend upwards of $40 on eyeshadows I already own.  

If you're interested in this color scheme, I would recommend taking a look at Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts instead. Queen of Hearts is a more inclusive palette, and it can create a multitude of looks. I own Queen of Hearts, in addition to a slew of other palettes and single shadows, so there is absolutely no reason for me to buy Venus 3. I was disappointed to see that Lime Crime didn't bring anything new or innovative to the table with this product, and I'm not personally too excited to see a collection of colors that I've seen done again and again in the past year. 

There's nothing drawing me to the Venus 3 palette, and there is not a single shade in it that I don't already own a few times over. I don't need this palette, so I won't be buying. 

What I'm not Buying: KKW Beauty X Mario Palette

Following in the footsteps of her younger sister, Kim Kardasian started her own makeup brand, and she recently teamed up with her makeup artist to produce a neutral eyeshadow palette with a blue shadow. 

And I won't be buying. 

I'm sorry that I have been absent on the blog for a while. I've been incredibly busy with several projects (including for the blog), and, frankly, there weren't many new items released that were too hyped or that I personally felt excited about. 

And then I learned of the KKW Beauty X Mario Palette. 

Now, there are two very big reasons that this is a hyped palette that sold out very fast:

1. It has Kim Kardashian's name on it
2. It has Mario Dedivanovic's name on it. 

That's it. 

If you don't know, Mario Dedivanovic is Kim Kardashian's longtime makeup artist, and a few years ago, he collaborated with Anastasia Beverly Hills on the Master Palette by Mario. KKW Beauty claims that with this palette, you will be able to create any of Kim Kardashian's makeup looks. Naturally, young Kim Kardashian fans are probably very interested in this palette because they want to look like Kim and now think they actually can as long as they buy this collection of incredibly neutral shadows. 

So, I'm just going to say it: there is absolutely nothing special about this palette, except for the fact that it has those two names attached to it. 

Let's look at it:

This is, without question, one of the most boring palettes I have seen in a long time. It is a collection of beiges and brows with a blue and a color that can lean berry or brown. If you remove those two shadows, you've got a very basic beginner's palette. 

Let's break down each shade. There is:

• A shimmery white
• A matte cream
• A shimmery champagne
• A matte terracotta 
• A matte warm brown
• A shimmery berry
• A shimmery white gold
• A shimmery blue
• A matte deep brown
• A shimmery yellow gold/bronze

Let's look at the colors as pigments:

And as single shadows:

I would encourage everyone to look at these shadows and ask yourself if you would buy each one individually as a single. If you wouldn't because you know you already have those shadows already, you absolutely don't need to buy the entire palette. And if you wouldn't because some of the shadows just aren't all that interesting to you, then you don't need to buy the entire palette. 

When I think about these shadows in relation to what is in my own collection, I would not buy any of them. Not even one. Because I have every single one of these shadows at least five times over, if not more. And if I owned absolutely zero eyeshadow, I still would only buy:

• The matte cream
• The shimmery gold
• The matte warm brown
• The matte terracotta
• The shimmery bronze

That's it. 

And for $45, plus tax and shipping, I would want more than just five shadows that are pretty ordinary and I could get for cheaper elsewhere. 

What's (semi)interesting is that this palette reminds me a lot of the ABH Master Palette by Mario:

Of course that's not exceptionally surprising since both palettes were made by Mario Dedivanovic, but I also find it odd that he would choose to create a palette so similar to his last one.

The Master Palette by Mario was (and still is) an incredibly hyped palette, and people talk about it like it was this incredibly special, one-of-a-kind, "one that got away" palette. And I just frankly don't understand why. Like the KKW Beauty palette, it is just a collection of browns with a green and a blue. 

Those same people who lament "missing out" on the Master Palette by Mario have said that they will buy the KKW Beauty palette no matter what so that they don't miss out again. But, really, there's little point in buying something just to make up for the fact that you "missed out" on the item that you actually wanted. And buying the KKW Beauty palette is not going to give you the Master Palette by Mario. The palettes are similar, but it won't fully satisfy your desire to own the exact product that you didn't buy. You can, however, take comfort and solace in the fact that you didn't buy the ABH palette for a reason, and that reason is most likely still valid. The Master Palette by Mario isn't that special, so if you didn't buy it, chances are you didn't need it. 

This palette also reminds me of the Kylie Cosmetics Peach palette:

And Zoeva Cocoa Blend:

And basically every other neutral palette available. 

For slightly more interesting color schemes that are also inclusive, there's Juvia's Place Nubian 2:

And Coloured Raine Cheers to the Beauty:

I'll be blunt. For $45, the KKW X Mario Palette is absolutely not worth the money. You are paying for the names attached to this palette and nothing else. And I can absolutely guarantee that you can find comparable quality from much more affordable brands. Even so, like I said earlier, if you have any eyeshadow at all, you likely already have most, if not all, of the colors in this palette. And at that point, you are just spending $45 to give money to Kim Kardashian to have her name on a piece of cardboard. 

This palette is also not very inclusive. It looks like it was made for people with light to medium skin tones and not much deeper. And I'm sure a lot of people can make excuses for the lack of inclusivity. 

It's Mario's palette; these are the colors he wants. It's the colors Kim Kardashian actually wears. They can do whatever they want. 

But here's the thing: that's not acceptable anymore. It never should have been acceptable, and it's important to only more forward and be better. Coming out with a palette like this, that is half light neutrals, is not helpful. And when you look at Juvia's Place Nubian 2 and Coloured Raine Cheers to the Beauty, it's very evident how easy it is to work with a similar color scheme but make the product inclusive. 

This palette is also another example of the false scarcity tactic, which is something that always sours me to a product and a brand. The palette is currently sold out, which means that the people who passed on the initial launch may now be thinking that the product is clearly so great and that they need to buy it the next time it restocks. But this is simply a marketing tactic to drum up this exact reaction and hype. The reality is that even if the product was poor quality, it was going to sell because of the two names attached to it. Everyone involved would have known this, and they would have known an appropriate amount of palettes to manufacture to meet the demand. Instead, they released a small quantity to ensure that it would sell out and would then pressure more people into buying it. 

This exact marketing tactic is what made Kylie Cosmetics so successful, despite the fact that her lip kits were Colourpop products that were only repackaged and triple the price. Of course, these aren't the only brands that employ this tactic—it's something that almost every brand does. They feed off of consumers succumbing to hype, simply because they don't want to feel like they are missing out on some great product that "everyone else" has. 

But the truth is that when you wear this palette, no one is going to know that it was from Kim Kardashian. If you were to wear the same colors from Wet N Wild, no one would know the difference. These are basic neutrals, and you can absolutely create the same looks from shadows outside the KKW Beauty palette. 

There is just nothing interesting or exciting about this palette. It adds absolutely nothing to the makeup conversation in terms of innovation, inspiration, or creativity. If this came out maybe seven years ago when I was first interested in makeup, I could see this being a product that would have intrigued me. But even so, I would have preferred to buy something from a store so that I could have seen and tested it in person. The only "benefit" to buying this palette is having something with a celebrity's name. But that's a fleeting feeling of satisfaction, and as I said, no one except you will ever know. There is just nothing about this palette that I need or want, so I won't be buying.