What I'm Not Buying: Anastasia Beverly Hills Prism Palette

Fresh off the heels of the Subculture debacle, Anastasia Beverly Hills has released their offering for the 2017 holiday season, the Prism palette. 

And I won't be buying. 

To be honest, I'm not super thrilled to be writing another post about Anastasia Beverly Hills and one of their eyeshadow palettes. I find opinions on ABH to be generally polarizing, and those opinions tend to be condescending to those who hold the opposite view. 

With that said, it is my opinion and experience that ABH shadows in palettes are not great for me personally. ABH is not the only brand that makes palettes that do not work for me—I also have never met an Urban Decay palette I've liked (except, kind of, the Electric palette), nor one from Lorac. Interestingly, I have a few singles from ABH and Urban Decay that I love, and feel they perform differently than shadows in palettes. 

ABH shadows (in palettes) muddy together on my eye. The mattes are so soft that I find they don't layer well with other shadows and just look heavy. I'm also not a fan of the shimmer shadows as I find they don't pack much pigment on me and look a little lackluster. (In comparison, some ABH singles I have include Pink Champagne, Rosette, and Fudge, and I think they are all fantastic.) Added to that, and I know this makes me a pariah in the beauty community, but I am not a huge fan of the ABH color schemes. I like that they are not carbon copies of everything else that has been made, but I also don't personally find them to be overly inspiring. 

And because of that, I have learned at this point to avoid buying a new ABH palette. 

Something else that I find to be generally unsavory about ABH as a brand is this elitist attitude that people who don't like their products use them incorrectly, don't understand color theory, or are lacking a certain level of skill required to make the product work. As a person who doesn't like a lot of ABH products, I'm not even offended by that attitude because it is just too absurd. There are so many different skin types and textures that it's impossible to think that something can and will work for everyone. But brands don't want to publicly acknowledge that because it's bad for their bottom line. Brands want consumers to think that their products will work for everyone and therefore everyone should buy them. So when people report back that the products don't work for them, having an attitude of "the problem is you and your skill level" is really off-putting to me. 

(My personal opinion is that products should not require special instructions to perform well, especially when other brands produce the same items that can perform fantastic without those special instructions.) 

Another point that I would like to make about ABH is the level of fandom surrounding the brand. It is my personal belief that the reason so many people hype Modern Renaissance and say how absolutely incredible and life-changing it is has a lot to do with the fact that they have been told that Modern Renaissance is incredible and life-changing. 

Let me explain. 

When the Naked palette first launched, I happened to be in Sephora, didn't know anything about it, thought it looked pretty, and bought it. And the first time I used it, I didn't like it. I had been "raised" on MAC shadows and didn't feel the Naked palette performed quite as well. But then the hype started. And it didn't stop for years. All I heard was how amazing this palette was. And even though I had used it and didn't like it, all of a sudden I was a part of the Greek chorus echoing how amazing this palette was. For years I told all of my girlfriends about the Naked palette and how great it was and helped convince several of them to buy it. And then in the last couple of years, I finally accepted that I do not in fact like that palette and never have. I liked a few of the colors, bought them as singles, and have been very happy to not have any Naked palettes in my collection. And with the recent surge of declutter videos on YouTube, more and more people have been talking about the fact that they don't really like the Naked palettes either. And yet we were all so obsessed with them while they were hyped. So from personal experience, I can see how hype can really influence one's opinions on something. 

And yet it makes sense in a way that the Naked palette would be hyped. It is a collection of exceptionally neutral and basic shadows that flatter most skin tones. With Modern Renaissance, however, reds, berries, and oranges do not flatter all skin tones and are not part of what most makeup artists would consider an essential palette of colors. But the hype on that palette took off, and everyone followed suit. Now, to be clear, I am not saying that people who adore Modern Renaissance are wrong in any way to love it. I am simply saying that the fandom that palette created around ABH was largely built, in my opinion, on hype rather than a truly phenomenal, out of this world product. 

But when you reach that level of fandom, many people will buy whatever you put out, just because they want to have the new item everyone is talking about. 

With that said, if the main reason you are considering purchasing this palette is just because it is from ABH, maybe reevaluate if you really want the palette and not just the popularity. 

Let's look at Prism:

I'll be honest. When I first saw this palette, I thought it looked so much like several past ABH palettes. The most similar, in my opinion, is the Artist palette:

I think it also has some similar tones to the Master Palette By Mario:

As well as Self Made:

And, frankly, it looks a lot like Subculture:

Let's look at the colors in Prism as just pigments:

Looking at the colors like this is one of my favorite tools in deciding against purchasing a palette that I don't need. When I see the colors outside of their arrangement and packaging and just look at them as colors, I can see how ordinary most of them are. 

And when you look at the colors in Prism (above) next to the colors in Subculture (below), I think the similarities are really quite prominent. 

Let's look at swatches of Prism: 

When I look at these colors, I just don't see anything all that interesting or unique. This palette reminds me of other jewel-toned palettes, just with a mix of matte colors that most people already own. 

The color looks like Urban Decay After Dark:

And Vice 3:

From my own collection, I have Viseart Bijoux Royale:

In terms of quality, I honestly do not know if this palette will perform more like Modern Renaissance or Subculture, though based on ingredients, it seems closer to Subculture. Either way, I am not a fan of any ABH palette formula, so it would be a no-go for me. 

I also find the colors in Prism to be quite dupable. Let's break them down: There's a shimmery white/champagne, matte pinky-peach, matte light peach, shimmery bronze, shimmery dark blue, matte yellow, matte black, shimmery lilac, matte brown, shimmery gold, shimmery green, matte terra-cotta, shimmery orange, and matte dusty plum. 

Off the top of my head, duplicate shadows I have in my collection include:

• Colourpop Liar Liar (Urban Decay Sin or ABH Vermeer would be similar)
• Colourpop The News or Costal Scents Peach Petal
• Makeup Geek Peach Smoothie
• ABH Brownie 
• The shimmery blue in Viseart Bijoux Royale
• Kat Von D Star
• Melt Cosmetics Rott
• The shimmery light lilac/silver in Viseart Bijoux Royale 
• MAC Amber Lights
• The shimmery green in Viseart Bijoux Royale
• ABH Fudge
• Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear or Costal Scents Oktoberfest 
• MAC Coppering or Makeup Geek Flamethrower 
• ABH Dusty Rose or ABH Buon Fresco 

My guess is that most people already own a shimmery champagne, matte pink-peach, matte light peach, shimmery bronze, matte black, matte brown, shimmery gold, shimmery orange, and matte dusty plum. And for the other shades, if you really want all of them, you can fill in the gaps in your collection with singles. Now that MAC, Colourpop, and Makeup Geek offer great singles under $6 (let alone Costal Scents with singles around $2), it makes shopping for singles much more budget-friendly. And, chances are, if you had to buy each shadow in the palette individually, there would be some that you would pass on. And buying supplemental singles allows for you to really get the shades you are most drawn to. 

To end this post, I would like to say that I personally don't get the hype with ABH. I have owned and tried Modern Renaissance, several single shadows, three Glow Kits, and a brow product, and I have to say that for the exception of the single shadows, I have not been all that impressed and have found better alternatives for less money. The only items I still have from ABH include one Glow Kit (Moonchild), some singles, and the brow product that I will use up and not repurchase. I am by no means saying that this brand is bad, nor am I saying that people who love this brand are wrong to do so in any way. I am just offering an opinion that differs from the majority that I have seen to hopefully bring some balance to all the hype. 

Prism feels to me like a recycling of several past ABH palettes, and I don't find the colors or general color scheme to be overly unique or something that I can't easily replicate in my collection. I'm sure there will be hype (and maybe even a clash of opinions) with this palette, but I am happy to remove myself from all of that. I don't need another palette, especially with a formula I know I don't like and doesn't work for me, so I won't be buying. 

What I'm Not Buying: Kat Von D Saint and Sinner Palette

It's that time again—holiday products are out in full swing, which means the reviews, hype, and hysteria are coming right along with them. And I thought I would start off this year's holiday anti-hauls by talking about the product that most piqued my interest: Kat Von D Saint and Sinner palette. 

I won't be buying. 

Now, before I get into this post, I would like to address the fact that things have been a little quiet on the blog lately. I had some big life events happen and also gained a lot of seriously needed perspective. And, I've been on a much needed vacation to several gorgeous European cities. But I'm back, and ready to get to work to reduce some of the holiday hype. 

So, the Saint and Sinner palette. I don't really have any makeup "regrets" in terms of not buying something—my makeup regrets come from buying things I didn't need. But I will say that for the last two years, I have chosen not to buy the Kat Von D holiday palettes, and some time later thought, "Hmm, I may have liked owning that." And I will just be completely transparent. Some of that for me is in the spectacle of the packaging. I didn't buy Mi Vida Loca Remix because at the time I did not wear color, but the color wheel aspect remains beautiful to me (though the practicality of it is nonexistent). However, the colors can be found elsewhere, so I have never thought that was a true loss. And last year, I loved the cover art of the Metal Matte palette and also loved how enormous it was. But, as I wrote in my anti-haul post, I did not need that palette. 

But, even though I made the right decision two years in a row to not buy the Kat Von D holiday palettes, I still had a moment or two where I thought if those palettes were available, I would buy them. And because of that, I told myself I would consider buying what was available this year. 

But I've gotta say—this palette is definitely not one for me. 

The most interesting thing about this palette, in my opinion, is the packaging: 

As always, Kat Von D products win the packaging award in terms of originality, but I have to admit that a cathedral window is not something I personally am interested in. I can certainly appreciate the artistry behind it, but it is not for me. I also appreciate that the doors open:

And that the colors are arranged to looked like a stained-glass window. 

But, in my opinion, that's where the arrangement of these shadows stops making sense. 

I don't like the way this palette is arranged, it doesn't feel cohesive to me, and it doesn't spark interest or inspiration in me. But more than that, when I first saw this palette, I thought it looked so similar to two previous Kat Von D holiday palettes.

Star Studded:

And Spellbound:

And the biggest complaint I heard about both of these palettes was that the color schemes just didn't inspire people, and as a result, they were never used. And I can see the same thing happening with Saint and Sinner. 

I've seen Saint and Sinner talked about many times, and I've even seen people rearrange the colors in Photoshop so that the palette looks more cohesive and workable. And what's so interesting to me is that a lot of people decided to buy this palette after seeing the Photoshopped images. And to me, that just seems like people trying to find any reason to buy a new, hyped item. That is not to say that you can't find inspiration in rearranging colors and looking at colors in a new light—that is something that has been immensely helpful for me and is an exercise I find really valuable. But I think that works best when you apply that to what you already own instead of applying that to a new product you are trying to convince yourself is worth buying. 

When I looked at the swatches, I was even less impressed:

The top swatches have at least three white and three silver shades, and the rest of the colors are pretty basic and exist somewhere in my collection already. And the bottom swatches look like my NYX Fire palette:

As well as Colourpop Yes, Please!:

And again, there seems to be quite a bit of repetition in the bottom swatches. There are two red/orange shades and two yellow shades, and when you look at the two swatch photos together, there are two black shades as well as a deep purple that may come off similar to black on the eye, and four taupe/brown shades. Now, I'll be the first to say that the swatches look much more repetitive than the colors actually look in the palette, which tells me that these swatches (like almost all swatches provided by a brand) are unreliable. 

While the exact color scheme of this palette doesn't really remind me of anything other than the two older Kat Von D holiday palettes, I see a general similarity in the NYX Olive You palette:

As well as the NYX Earth palette:

The Saint and Sinner palette costs $62, which makes sense given that the palette contains 24 shadows. I will argue, however, that the palette does not contain 24 unique shades as I feel there is a lot of overlap. For me personally, this palette is not at all worth that cost. Now, there are things about this palette that I do appreciate, such as the always impressive packaging. I also feel like Kat Von D makes their holiday offerings for the makeup lover rather than the average consumer, who I feel most holiday palettes are geared toward. 

But $62 is also a lot of money to spend on some packaging, and I do feel that is the main reason people will be drawn to this palette and want to buy it. I'm willing to bet that most people have the majority of these colors in their collection already, and for the colors you might not have (like three different silvers) it might be because you don't wear those shades. If you're drawn to the warmer swatches, I would look into the Yes, Please! or Fire palettes. And if you're drawn to the earth tones, I would look into the two palettes from NYX or some singles to complement the colors you already have in your collection. 

I get that the makeup industry is so incredibly saturated right now that it is essentially impossible for a brand to come out with something that is unique, innovative, and somewhat trendy. But at the same time, I find this color scheme to be so erratic that it really turns me off. Added to that, half the palette doesn't read "saint" to me, nor "sinner," so I really don't get the theme as it relates to the actual product and not packaging. The colors just look like they were assembled at random, and part of me wonders if that was done in part to trick people into thinking they didn't already have these colors in their collections. Because, like I've said many times before, there is a lot of effort that goes into curating palettes to make it look like the colors are unique when they are not. 

But the main issue I find with Saint and Sinner is that there 24 shadows and only a handful of looks that I personally can see myself wearing. And of those looks, there are a whopping zero that I can't create with items I already have in my collection. So, this will have to be another Kat Von D holiday palette that I pass on. And I'm okay with that. I don't need to add another palette to my collection, especially one with giant, impractical packaging. I don't find the color scheme inspiring, cohesive, or unique, and it really feels like Kat Von D is just recycling old holiday palette shades. I don't need this, so I won't be buying. 

Weekend Looks: Sephora Pro Editorial vs. NYX Brights

So, last week, after I wrote about the NYX Fire palette, I continued to be intrigued by the dialogue surrounding the price increase of the NYX In Your Element palettes. As I mentioned in that post, the Fire palette was the first experience I had with NYX shadows, and I was really impressed. And I said that if the quality of those palettes was the same as other NYX palettes, then I, too, would be really disappointed with the price increase. So I made a conscious decision to buy a NYX palette that had caught my eye but that I had previously chosen not to buy because I had similar colors in my collection. While I don't like to bring new makeup into my collection on a regular basis, there have been a couple of times where I felt a little uninformed as a blogger due to having limited or no experience with a product. And this was one of those times. 

So I thought it could be interesting to try to create the same look with two separate palettes, one being from NYX and one being something I already know I love. And that's what I did this weekend. 

Look 1: NYX Brights 

9 on the inner lid, 6 on the outer lid, 4 in the crease (supplemented by Colourpop Cannonball and Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear), and 16 blended above the crease (supplemented by the yellow shade in the NYX Fire palette). Marc Jacobs highliner in Whirl(pool) on the waterline. 

Look 2: Sephora Pro Editorial 

Chris and Helend P on the inner lid, Electric Violet on the outer lid, Tangerine blended into the crease (supplemented by Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear), and the yellow shade from NYX Fire blended above the crease. Marc Jacobs highliner in Whirl(pool) on the waterline. 

Overall, I am impressed that the two looks came out as similar as they did. But, if it's not obvious by the look descriptions above, I struggled with the NYX Brights palette. I had to pack on the color and apply several layers. And even then, I still had to go in with other shadows to get the look I was after. The orange shade in the crease, especially, just was not very pigmented. When I finally caved and applied Colourpop Cannonball, it felt like such a treat to use a shadow that had pigment and was easy to work with. And I feel like my overall feelings can be summed up by the fact that I went in with the yellow shade in the the Brights palette and ended up needing to use the yellow shade in the Fire palette to get it to show up. 

The Sephora Pro Editorial palette by comparison was so nice to work with. I've written about this palette before, and while I have mixed feelings (because the glitter shades are awful), I really love the colorful mattes. I had to supplement this look with Makeup Geek Coca Bear and the yellow shade from the NYX Fire palette because there were no comparable shades in the Pro Editorial. 

In terms of comparing these two palettes, I personally strongly prefer the Sephora Pro Editorial. With that said, the NYX palette can still make pretty looks, but in my experience, it just takes a little more product and time/effort. However, I think the NYX Brights palette has a better overall color scheme than the Sephora palette. I would have much preferred if the glitter shades in the Sephora palette especially were taken out in favor or some shades of yellow and lighter blues. 

But, the main purpose of this experiment for me was to compare the performance of these NYX shadows with the ones in the Fire palette. With tax, I think I paid around $20 for the NYX Brights palette, and the Fire palette was $30. In my experience and in my opinion, the quality of the Fire palette is far, far superior to that of the Brights palette. The packaging of the Fire palette is also considerably better than the Brights palette. And for the upgrades, I would happily pay an extra $10. In fact, I don't think the Brights palette should cost $20. I had pretty high expectations going into using the Brights palette because of the performance of the Fire palette, and I was disappointed. Again, that doesn't mean that the Brights palette is unusable, but it was not a palette that impressed me. And I will be giving it to a friend, especially since I have and really enjoy the Sephora palette. 

Separately, I would just like to praise the Marc Jacobs highliner in Whirl(pool) as this was by far my favorite part of both of these looks. I've previously used up a few Marc Jacobs eyeliners, but I was put off of using them after I used a sample-sized one that came in a holiday kit. I'm now convinced that the formula must be different on the sample sizes because Whirl(pool) reminded me of how much I used to love these eyeliners. It didn't budge on me all day, which is a complete anomaly. Also, the color. I love the color. I'm hoping to get brave enough to wear this to work because I just want to wear this all the time now. I cannot remember the last time I loved an eyeliner this much. 

This Week's Looks: Makeup Geek, Fyrinnae, and Laura Mercier

Last week was my second week back at work since having surgery. If you've been wondering why things have been a little quiet on the blog in the past couple weeks, that's it. I've been completely exhausted. Under the best of circumstances I still get exhausted during the work week, so adding these other elements has resulted in complete and utter exhaustion. I barely even wore makeup last week because it was just too much for me. But, every week is a little better, and this week felt like I was getting back on track. 

I posted last week about a palette I made of singles in my collection that duped the Too Faced Just Peachy Matte palette. I use "dupe" here a little loosely because I made some adjustments to make the palette more versatile and closer to what I would have wanted it to be. And I have to say, I was so inspired by this palette all week and continue to be. I kept wanting to use it every day, which is a little rare for me. I was also inspired to try out slightly different color schemes that I'm used to (while still trying to be "work-appropriate"), and I have to say that I had a really fun week. For the exception of lid shades, all shadows I used this week are in this dupe palette. 

(I'm still a little rusty with taking daily look pictures, so please forgive some of the photo quality.)

Here are four look I did this week. 

Look 1: Makeup Geek Mai Tai 

Mai Tai on the lid, Costal Scents Peach Petal blended into the crease as a transition shade, and Colourpop Wait For It and Making Moves blended into the crease. 

Look 2: Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions

Rapunzel Had Extensions (over Pixie Epoxy) on the lid, Makeup Geek Peach Smoothie blended into the crease as a transition shade, Coloupop Wait For It blended into the crease, and Coloupop Making Moves lightly padded onto the outer corner. 

Look 3: Laura Mercier African Violet

African Violet on the lid, Costal Scents Peach Petal blended into the crease as a transition shade, Colurpop Making Moves and Stay Golden blended into the crease, and Makeup Geek Bitten padded onto the outer corner. 

Look 4: Fyrinnae Winter Again 

Winter Again on the lid (over Pixie Epoxy), Costal Scents Peach Petal blended into the crease as a transition shade, Colourpop Wait For It and Making Moves blended into the crease, and Colourpop Stay Golden padded onto the outer corner. 

At this point I have talked about all of these eyeshadows before, and I love them all, which is why they are still in my collection. So I'm going to talk about the overall looks. 

Look 1: Makeup Geek Mai Tai 

I think this look turned out fine. I think it's a pretty look; it's simple and neutral and something that I think a lot of people can wear and feel like they're wearing color. I've gotten so many compliments when wearing Mai Tai because it has the beautiful duo chrome that's hard to capture in a photo. Looking at my peach palette this week, Mai Tai was the first shadow I thought to make a look, which I think makes sense. It's an easy shadow and color scheme. This was probably my least favorite look this week, but not because I didn't like it. I just liked some of the other color combinations a little better. But this look was the "gateway drug" if you will that made me want to use the peach palette all week. 

Look 2: Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions

Every time I use Rapunzel Had Extensions, I feel like I'm cheating just a little bit. It's such a stunning shadow that I feel like it's genuinely hard to get a bad look with it. I typically pair RHE with oranges or browns, and while the orange-peach tones I used this week aren't too far from that, it will still a little different for me. And unsurprisingly, since RHE is a perfect peach shimmer, I loved how this look turned out. Colourpop Wait For It is a really cool shadow. It's one of those chameleon shades, and it can pull more pink or orange depending on what it's paired with. I paired it mostly this week with pinker shades, but the color combination of this look really brought out its orange tones, which I loved. I also loved how Makeup Geek Peach Smoothie performed in this look. Typically Peach Smoothie kind of disappears on me, but I was really pleased to see how it performed with the other colors in the look, and I love the subtle peach between brow bone and crease. 

Look 3: Laura Mercier African Violet

This was my favorite look of the week, and I guess this one is also cheating a little bit, because I unconsciously recreated a more intense version of one of my all-time favorite looks from my custom Inglot palette:

After pairing the peach tones with pink and gold tones, I wanted to try something a little different. And my first thought was purple. African Violet is one of my favorite purples because of how much gold is in it. While that might seem like an obvious flattering color, it's a combination that I personally haven't come across outside of this shadow. African Violet is typically a shadow I wear when I want to look a little sophisticated. I usually pair it with neutral plum shades, and I always like how it looks. So pairing this shadow with the bright peachy-pink Colourpop shadows was certainly new for me. And I just really loved how it looked. Every time I caught a glimpse of this look in the mirror, I was struck by how much I loved it. I actively felt pretty wearing it, and I thought it flattered my eye color and skin tone really well. 

Look 4: Fyrinnae Winter Again 

This is where things got a little adventurous for me. I had loved the peach palette so much with all the other colors I paired it with, and I wanted to try it with a blue. Ideally, I would have loved to pair the peach tones with a teal shadow, but I thought that would be just a little too outrageous for work. I was pushing it as it was with this icy blue. This is definitely a favorite Fyrinnae shadow for me. It's not like a typical duochome white-blue (like in ABH Moonchild or KVD Alchemist) because it's more on the sky blue side instead of the royal blue side, if that makes sense. I don't know how I feel about this look. And I didn't know how I felt about it the entire time I wore it. I alternated between really liking the color combination and also feeling like it didn't flatter me. I did receive a compliment on this look from someone at work who doesn't typically offer compliments, so there's that. But I liked that I tried something a little different and love that this dupe palette—made up entirely of shadows I already had in my collection—has inspired me enough to want to play with color combinations throughout the week. 

Weekend Looks: NYX In Your Element Fire Palette

It was recently my birthday, and I received some makeup. August was a really terrible month for me because I was recovering from surgery, and having two major surgeries within two months of each other is probably one of the most physically challenging things I've ever done. And with a summer of surgeries, being temporarily disabled, and then having a birthday, I received some new makeup. And that puts me in an interesting place because I won't want to necessarily keep everything. I've tried to keep a mentality of "if something comes in, something has to go out," and while I have done some decluttering recently, the amount of new stuff coming in (compared to what it has been) has felt a little overwhelming. 

One of these new makeup items is the NYX In Your Element Fire palette. I know there is some controversy (is that the right word?) surrounding this palette because of the price, and I'll talk about that. 

I haven't worn makeup for the better part of the last six weeks, so I have to admit that I feel a little rusty in application as well as writing these posts. But I figured people would be interested in hearing how this palette actually performed (as opposed to just talking about it being overpriced).

Here is the palette:

And here are two looks I did this weekend. 

Look 1:

1 on the inner lid; 5 on the outer lid; 7, 9, and 4 blended into the crease; 3 blended above the crease; and 10 padded onto the outer corner. 

Look 2:

7 on the lid, 9 blended into the crease, 2 blended above the crease, and 10 padded onto the outer corner. 

So, I've gotta say: I really like this palette. A lot. But with that said, if you have the Colourpop Yes, Please! palette, like I do, then you really don't need this palette. Of the two, I would probably recommend Yes, Please! more because you get the same number of shadows for half the price. 

However, it is worth mentioning that the NYX palette has nearly double the amount of product as Yes, Please! (Yes, Please! has 0.85 grams per shadow and Fire has 1.41 grams per shadow), and the NYX palette also has much better packaging (a strong plastic case with a huge mirror versus a thin cardboard case with no mirror).  

NYX Fire retails for $30, and this price has made people angry in a way that I haven't seen in a long time. I'll say upfront that this is my first experience with NYX eyeshadows. And I think this is important because if NYX shadows always performed this good, had great packaging, and were available at a lesser price point, I can definitely understand the anger. I cannot speak on how these shadows compare to the quality of other NYX shadows, but I can say that I think this packaging is much nicer and better than other NYX palette packaging I have seen. To put things a bit into perspective, this packaging is significantly better than anything from Natasha Denona, and yet people are unbothered by the utterly outrageous prices of those products.

I have tried all of the mattes in this palette, and they are fantastic. I haven't tried all the shimmers (and if there was to be a weak point in this palette I would guess it would be a shimmer), but I have been happy with the couple I have tired. From my experience, I would put the quality of this palette to be in line with Yes, Please! as well as other great palettes. There is nothing that feels "cheap" or "drug store" to me, other than the brand's name.

It is very disappointing when a brand is unreliable. Most of the time, we equate that feeling to quality of products. But it also has to do with price. If a brand is known for consistently putting out quality products at a certain (lower) price, it is disappointing when they raise their prices without giving reason. It makes the brand unreliable. And I think that's where a lot of the anger is coming from. I know people felt similarly when Makeup Geek came out with face products that were over $20 each. Even if it's a great product, it's not what people have come to expect from the brand. And it feels hurtful to a loyal customer base when a brand decides to up their prices.

So, I absolutely get all of that. And I think that is a valid criticism of the In Your Element release. I think it would have been a smarter move on NYX's part to lower the price by about $7. The packaging is nicer than other NYX packaging (and includes the great mirror), and if you take into consideration the amount of product as well as the upgraded packaging, this price really is in line with Yes, Please! in terms of value. But, when you have a ton of makeup in your collection, sometimes it doesn't pay to have a palette with a ton of product. And in that case, a $16 palette of beautiful quality is a much better value.

Personally, I would pay $30 for this palette. And I am happy to own it. Since I own Yes, Please! also, I'll really have to evaluate both palettes to see if I want to keep both. I absolutely advocate for not buying both, especially if you already own one of them. I will say that owning this palette has really piqued my interest in NYX, and I would be curious to try some of their other palettes at some point. I don't plan on purchasing any other In Your Element palettes as I have suitable alternatives in my collection (maybe I'll write some anti-haul posts), but I hope—considering the anger over the price—that all of them are as good as Fire.