Weekly Looks: Duped Emily Edit: The Wants

If you've read my last two posts, you'll know that I not only really hated the quality of the Makeup Revolution Emily Edit: The Wants palette, but that I also duped it because I loved Emily's color scheme. This week, I wanted to use my gorgeous duped palette and also try to recreate some of the looks I did with The Wants palette to compare the quality.

So that's what I did.

There are two changes to my palette from the one I originally created. Reader SarahE recommended Coloured Raine Squad to replace The Wants Corduroy, and it was a stunning match. I was really wanting that rich green color, so thank you for the recommendation! I also replaced Makeup Geek Typhoon with Coloured Raine Side of Olives as a dupe for The Wants Side Hustle. While I love Typhoon, it has a tendency to transfer to my crease and brow bone, and the color is slightly more blue-green than olive-green.

Here is the latest version of my duped palette:

Look 1:

Lid: Touch of Glam Beauty Corrupted 

Transition: Costal Scents Petal Peach

Crease: ABH Love Letter

Outer corner: Ardency Inn Violet 

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: ABH Love Letter

Corrupted is a duochrome shadow, and those are always difficult to capture on camera because they shift when the light of the flash hits them. It's a shame on this color because it looks almost sheer in the photos, but it wasn't at all. It's a purple shadow that shifts into shades of pink. It primarily stays the purple/lilac color, and it is really beautiful. 

This is a look I recreated from one I made with The Wants:

And I think my duped palette did a much better job at executing this color scheme. (To save you any suspense, this is how I felt with every single look I replicated—the duped palette won.) Even comparing the photos now, I can see just how dry and patchy the Makeup Revolution shadows are. 

I loved the look I created with my duped palette; I just wish the lid color would have been truer to life in the photos. 

Look 2:

Lid: Touch of Glam Beauty Merlin's Wand (applied wet)

Transition: Viseart shimmer purple

Crease: Ardency Inn Violet

Outer corner: Ardency Inn Violet

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Ardency Inn Violet

This is a look that I did not create with The Wants, but it was one that I wanted to do with the shadow Eve Rose. That was probably the most disappointing shade for me in the entire palette, as it just looked like nothing. But I love this look I created with the duped palette. I did apply the lid shadow wet, but it was fine dry as well. I wanted a little more impact on the lid, so I chose to foil the shadow. 

Since I don't have a true, royal purple matte shadow, I put two shimmer shadows in my crease, which I think looked really pretty. The Ardency Inn formula is definitely easier to pack on the lid than it is to blend in the crease, but I was able to make it work. Viseart shimmers, while mostly not my favorite, are considerably easier to blend in the crease, and I think that made it easier to blend Ardency Inn Violet as well.  

I wore this look on a really special day at work, and I received a great compliment on it. I was in a completely dark room for the majority of the day, and when I left and stepped into the sunshine, the woman I was with said, "Oh my god. I love your eyeshadow." It was a great compliment to end a great day. 

Look 3:

Lid: MAC Coppering

Transition: Costal Scents Petal Peach

Crease: Lime Crime Muse

Blended into crease: ABH Love Letter 

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Coloured Raine Queen Mother

This is also a look that I didn't have a chance to try with The Wants palette, but is one I have done before (or I've done something similar). MAC Coppering is one of my all-time favorite shadows, and I think it looks really great with my eye color. I paired it with Lime Crime Muse, and it was a stunning combination. I added just a touch of ABH Love Letter to give it a slightly pinker look, and I complemented the look with a purple lower lash line. I love how it turned out. 

This was also a look that I received a compliment on. A cashier told me that she loved my eyes, which was really kind. I tend to get a lot of compliments when I wear Coppering, and I think it's because the color really makes my eyes stand out. This look is a great example, I think, of colors that are "bold" and fun, but don't overpower the face. 

Look 4:

Lid: Too Faced Molasses Chip

Transition: Makeup Geek Desert Sands

Crease: Coloured Raine Squad

Outer corner: Coloured Raine Squad

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Coloured Raine Squad

This was a look I had really anticipated wearing from The Wants palette, and the end result was so disappointing:

When using The Wants, I felt like I was layering the green shadow onto my eyes, but it wasn't building color and was so patchy and dry. Coloured Raine Squad, however, was awesome. Squad blended seamlessly into Makeup Geek Desert Sands, and Too Faced Molasses Chip layered beautifully on top of all of them. 

This was also a look I received a compliment on (getting three compliments in a row is pretty unusual for me), and I thought it was interesting that I did not receive a compliment when I wore the same look from Makeup Revolution. 

Look 5:

Lid: Colourpop Rosé All Day

Transition: Costal Scents Petal Peach

Crease: Lime Crime Rebirth

Outer corner: ABH Love Letter

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Viseart shimmer purple

This was the final look that I replicated from The Wants, and it was also the look that I felt turned out the best from using that palette:

Looking at it now, especially compared with the look from the duped palette, I don't think the look from The Wants is all that great. I really enjoyed wearing the look from the duped palette, but I typically like any look when I use Lime Crime Rebirth. I mentioned in my post about the duped palette that Rosé All Day doesn't look anything like The Wants Grateful in the pan, but on the lid, they are a very close color match. I may want to later replace this shadow with one that looks more like what Grateful looks like in the pan, but for now, I'm happy with this shade in the palette. 

Look 6:

Lid: Coloured Raine Side of Olives

Transition: Makeup Geek Desert Sands

Crease: Coloured Raine Squad

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Coloured Raine Queen Mother

For a bonus look, I wanted to use the two new colors to the palette: Coloured Raine Side of Olives and Squad. This is the look that I'm wearing today (as I write this), and I have a special work event I am attending later tonight. While most people would probably wear something more taupe and smoky for this kind of event, I decided to go with a green smoky look. And I love it. 

Coloured Raine has been a longtime favorite brand of mine, and their shadows are absolutely killer. I love this look, and I think it's another example of being able to use color in a "comfortable" way. I feel just fine wearing neon green and orange, but I know other people like to have more toned-down makeup looks. There's nothing particularly "toned down" about this look, but I feel Desert Sands grounds it to a more neutral place. 

Final Thoughts:

I loved playing with this palette for the entire week, and I would be happy to continue using it for another week. I know I have said this a few times, but I'm going to say it again: I think Emily curated a gorgeous color scheme. In her launch video, she shared that she felt the amount of looks someone could create with her palette are endless, and that's kind of how I feel about my duped version of it. I feel like I've made six distinct looks with this palette, and there are still a ton more that I want to create. While I made a few personal changes to the color scheme (such as including Costal Scents Petal Peach instead of a matte rose and Coloured Raine Dethroned instead of a matte black), this is the color scheme Emily curated, which is very versatile. 

As I mentioned above, it is uncommon that I receive three compliments on my eyeshadow three days in a row, and that is again something that I credit to Emily and her curation skills. Her color scheme is extensive and cohesive, and I find it really easy to draw inspiration from it.  

Makeup Revolution is a brand that I will likely not purchase from again, but I don't begrudge Emily for partnering with them. I know she has used (and enjoyed) their products before, and, on the whole, I feel like her expectations from products (especially eyeshadow) are different from mine. She was "raised" on drugstore makeup, and that is largely where she is still passionate. I was "raised" on MAC, and I really value high pigment with ease of blending. While I have found a few eyeshadow gems at the drugstore (which include products from Wet N Wild and Milani as well as L'oreal Amber Rush), I typically find myself unwilling to put in the work to make other drugstore shadows perform the way I want them to. And now there are many high quality brands that make affordable eyeshadow singles, including Fyrinnae, Colourpop, Makeup Geek, MAC, and Coloured Raine. 

With that said, the cost of my duped palette is steep, and no where near the $20 price (plus tax and shipping) of The Wants. The price of the two Coloured Raine shadows (Squad and Side of Olives), for example, with tax and shipping, cost close to the entire Wants palette. My palette is also made up of several palettes—including Viseart Neutral Matte, Make Up For Ever Artist 1, Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons, Viseart Bijoux Royal, Lime Crime Venus, and Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts—in addition to many single shadows. 

Therefore, I am not advocating for anyone to go out and replicate my entire duped palette. Buying a 24-pan eyeshadow palette through singles will cost you at least $96 before tax and shipping, and that is if every shadow was $4. 

The point of my duped palette posts are to showcase that, for many people, you can use the shadows that you already own to achieve the new palette you want to buy. For me, the only shades that I needed to buy were Coloured Raine Squad and Side of Olives, and, one day, I may buy myself a matte purple that doesn't come off as dark brown. Those shades altogether would cost the price of the entire Wants palette, but that is a better use of that money for me since I am only bringing in the missing shades and I know the quality will be great. 

For other people, they want all of the colors for $20 and don't mind wetting the shadows, applying several layers of product, and working to put together the look they want. Everything is about personal preference, and that is not something that I personally want to do. I want my shadows to be high quality and work on their own. 

My duped palette is absolutely one that I will continue to use, and if I wasn't going into surgery next week, I would continue using it immediately. While I have given Emily's palette a negative review (for the formula, which she had zero control over), I want to thank her for a great color story. It's unfortunate that I can't be more "supportive" of her palette, but I value honesty, and I know she does too. 

To end this post, I just want to say that several people have reached out to me recently asking how I depot my shadows, and I explained the most common method I use in this post. If you have any kind of makeup addiction that you are trying to curb, I highly encourage you to break any attachment you have to packaging and try to depot shadows from your palettes. It enables you to make these duped palettes without having to invest in a ton of single shadows, and it allows you to create most new palettes without having to buy them. And when you're bored of the color scheme or something else takes your interest, you don't have to declutter these palettes from your collection. You can instead deconstruct the palette and make a new one. 

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