Morphe and mega popular YouTube personality KathleenLights have collaborated on a limited edition eyeshadow palette that releases today.
And I won't be buying.
I actually feel a little conflicted about this post because I really, really like Kathleen and think this collaboration is something that she has done with her audience in mind. But I don't like Morphe, and I'll get to that in a bit.
Kathleen is no stranger to collaborations. So far she has collaborated with Makeup Geek on a highlighter palette:
Ofra on two liquid lipsticks:
Colourpop three times, for a lipstick and eyeliner collection:
And two eyeshadow collections:
Where the night is
Where the light is
I purchased the Where the light is collection when I placed by very first Colourpop order. This was actually the first time I had heard of Kathleen, and I purchased the eyeshadows simply because I thought they were beautiful. I ended up not being the biggest fan of Colourpop's formula, but my favorite shadows were the ones in Kathleen's quad.
And now she is collaborating with Morphe:
I'll start by saying that I have extreme Morphe fatigue. I personally have owned two Morphe palettes (35T and 35OS), but I purchased them because I had the ability to swatch in-store at a retailer in New York. The shimmer foiled shadows are really beautiful, and even though they are not made of the best ingredients, I liked the shimmers enough to purchase.
I did not buy these palettes because of all the big YouTube personalities shilling them. In fact, I did not want to ever purchase anything from Morphe because of that. I bought both palettes because I had easy access to them and they had my favorite kinds of colors. If I would have had to buy those palettes through the Moprhe website, I would have never purchased them.
I don't agree with or appreciate Morphe's marketing tactics. It has certainly proved successful for them, but it has largely felt like manipulating what was supposed to be an authentic platform of your peers. The shilling was so bad that it got to the point where I would click out of a video if someone started talking about Morphe. Saying a Morphe palette is your "all-time favorite palette" when you also have the likes of Viseart, Kat Von D, MAC, and Makeup Geek is not only a joke, but feels like a blatant lie. It took Stephanie Nicole coming out with a video detailing Morphe and private labeling for people to stop the insistence that these were the greatest shadows of all time.
I can pretty much guarantee that I won't ever purchase something from Morphe again because of these tactics. From my own personal experience, the Morphe shimmer shadows are on par with the foiled shadows from Makeup Geek, but have significantly less quality ingredients. The mattes are terrible. There is no subtle way to put it. The mattes are terrible. The only reason I purchased the 35OS was because it was a palette of my favorite types of warm colors and it only had the gorgeous foiled finish.
Seeing that Kathleen collaborated with Morphe was a little disappointing for that reason. I also assumed that since it was a collaboration and they made somewhat special packaging for the palette that it would also raise costs:
To my surprise, the palette only costs $14.99, and watching Kathleen's video, it is obvious that she was really excited to have something available for her audience at a low price.
The Morphe x KathleenLights palette is made up of existing Morphe singles, shadows taken from existing Morphe palettes, as well as a few custom colors chosen by Kathleen. What I really appreciated in Kathleen's video was that she did not say these were the greatest shadows of all time or that they were of professional quality or even that they would be easy to work with.
She did, however, mention the color selection and said that she wanted the palette to be functional for a myriad of different skin tones. This is something that I have come to respect about Kathleen and her collaborations. She really seems to put a lot of energy into making sure that the products work for people other than just those with fair skin.
I actually think Kathleen did a great job selecting colors for this palette. There seems like a lot of diversity in here while also maintaining quite a bit of cohesion. And unlike the majority of Morphe palettes, there don't seem to be a lot of repeat shades in this one.
With all that said, I still will not be purchasing this palette. I have been rubbed the wrong way by Morphe too many times. I also find that the main shills of this brand are those who have a lot of negative attention surrounding them and seem to thrive off of controversy. All of that negativity and melodrama have left me very uninterested in this brand.
This is actually a point I would like to expand upon. Recently MannyMUA said that if one does not like Morphe eyeshadows, then they are not good at eyeshadow/makeup application. Makeup on the whole is a tool to be used for enjoyment and to make people feel good about themselves. It is a tool that every gender utilizes, but statistics have shown that the vast majority of cosmetic consumers are women. So having a man tell his audience that is primary made up of young women that if they don't like a, frankly, mediocre eyeshadow formula then they are bad at eyeshadow is disgusting and is another example of men systematically putting women down. His language was elitist and gross, and is especially unsettling because women are the main users and consumers of makeup. He is a man speaking to a primarily female audience in a female-dominated industry/hobby, and he is still putting women down. So having MannyMUA be a loud, obnoxious mouthpiece shill for Morphe does not make me ever want to support Morphe. They should be denouncing his comments, not celebrating them. If MannyMUA is the kind of spokesperson Morphe wants for their brand, then they are not a company I want to support.
I think Kathleen probably had the best of intentions partnering with Morphe. I know that she wanted to produce a product that her audience could afford and that would be diverse and inclusive. I still don't think Morphe was the right company to work with because of all the negative attention surrounding them.
The palette is probably worth $15. The shimmers will likely be lovely, and the mattes will be patchy, flaky, and hard to work with. But for $15, it's hard to complain too much, especially for 15 eyeshadows. And it wouldn't surprise me if Kathleen specifically selected Morphe's best performing matte shadows. I'm sure many people will purchase this palette specifically to support Kathleen and will enjoy her selection of colors. Personally, I am tired of the beauty industry being fused with greed and disparaging comments, and because of how deeply linked Morphe is to both qualities, I will not be purchasing.
