What I'm Not Buying: Natasha Denona Gold Palette (with Dupes)

Despite the fact that it's October and the holidays are still months away, the holiday season product rollout has begun, and I wanted to talk about one palette that gave me some strange, complicated feelings: Natasha Denona Gold. 

I won't be buying. 

But, to be honest, it took me a beat to come to that decision. When I first saw the palette, my eyes rolled into the back of my head. This is your holiday offering, Natasha Denona? This?? Who the hell doesn't have gold and brown eyeshadows? 

But then a few shades got to me, most notably Dijon (the mustard) and Lime Chrome (the lime/gold duochrome). So then I started reasoning with myself. 

Would I use all the shadows in it? 

Yes. 

Would the looks complement my eyes?

Absolutely. 

Do I literally own all of these colors already?

Oh. (sigh) Yes. Of Course I do. 

And that was what snapped me back into reality after being sucked in by a mustard shade and a lime/gold duochrome, both of which I already own. 

What's interesting about this momentary dilemma is that these facts about me haven't changed:

• I think Natasha Denona is overpriced and not worth the hype.
• The packaging of ND products is laughable when considering the price.
• I like ND shimmers, but not more than others in my collection. 
• I don't like ND mattes and have plenty of neutral mattes that I love. 

So why was I lusting after this palette?

Because it's gold! And gold looks really good on my skin tone and against my eye color. 

Since I didn't want this to turn into a $129 mistake, I did the only sensible thing I could do. 

I duped it. 

My duped palette:

Row 1: Colourpop Tea Garden, Juvia's Place Chi, Ardency Inn Heaven, Makeup Geek Creme Brulee, and MAC Amber Lights

Row 2: Costal Scents Lake Shore, Makeup Geek Desert Sands, Colourpop Two Birds, Coloured Raine Duchess, and Make Up For Ever bronze shimmer

Row 3: Colourpop Rosé All Day, Viseart shimmery warm brown, Coloured Raine Your Majesty, Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear, and Coloured Rain Super Star

There are a few notable differences in my palette. One is that I replaced the dark teal shade with a shimmery deep royal blue. Another is that I replaced the shimmery white "shadow topper" with a shimmery white gold, which I felt was more appropriate for the theme of the palette. Otherwise, even though the colors don't necessarily match up in these two photos, according to swatches I've seen, this is a pretty accurate dupe. 

And you know what's really interesting about this exercise of duping this palette? I am not inspired by it AT ALL. Normally, when I dupe a color story, I immediately want to jump into using the palette. But with this one, I feel zero desire to do so. Because it's just a bunch of golds and browns with two blues thrown in. It's not exciting or inspiring to me, and I have no idea why I even had a moment where I thought I might want the one from Natasha Denona. 

Let's look at swatches:

As we all know, swatches provided by the brand are misleading and inaccurate. The swatches in the above picture make the palette look, in my opinion, a lot more diverse than it actually is. In my quest to find accurate swatches, I came across a YouTube video (linked here) of someone doing eye swatches of this palette. I highly recommend watching this video if you're still on the fence about buying this palette as the swatches really showed me personally how average these shadows really are. 

And when something is average, I'm not spending $129.

Another thing that's worth noting is that the Gold palette isn't very gold. In the above swatches, it looks like only one or two shadows are actually gold, and there appear to be a lot more browns and bronzes. 

So, despite knowing that this palette is filled with the most simple color scheme imaginable, that it's not actually all that gold, and that we likely all have the ability to dupe this palette with shadows in our collection, why do we want it?

Because it's $129

and

People hype Natasha Denona. 

This strange culture exists, especially in beauty and fashion, that if something has a high price tag, there must be some reason for that. There must be something about that product or handbag or coat to warrant such an insane price tag. And sometimes there is. But most of the time, there's not. 

I'll use Pat McGrath as an example as I feel her products are often mentioned in conversations with Natasha Denona because of the similarity in price. I own two Pat McGrath palettes. One is the Mothership IV, and it is one of the most spectacular makeup products I have ever seen. The color selection is gorgeous, the quality is top notch, and the packaging is on an entirely other level from any other brand. That palette, to me, is worth $125.

I also own the Pat McGrath Platinum Bronze palette. The color selection is muted and a little bland, the quality is average, and the packaging is just okay. I don't think it's worth $55.  

But there is certainly a feeling in the beauty community that if you spend a lot of money on one item, you have to convince yourself that it's worth it. If I just wanted the shadows in the Mothership IV palette, I wouldn't say it's worth the money. But when you include the packaging and the prestige of Pat McGrath, that makes the price climb. 

All of these elements are missing in the Natasha Denona palettes. So, for me, I'm paying a ton of money for nice shimmers that are comparable to the formula in the Jouer Skinny Dip palette and average mattes. 

That's not to say that the people who rave about Natasha Denona are fooling themselves or blatantly lying. I just personally think that there's a certain amount of justifying that a lot of people do to make it "okay" to spend so much money on average eyeshadows in crappy packaging. 

The Gold palette looks like a less diverse version of ABH Subculture:

And Too Faced Chocolate Gold:

And also looks like the Lorac Unzipped Gold:

But it really looks like the left side of the Natasha Denona Star palette:

As well as the Natasha Denona mini Star palette:

One thing that I can say about the Gold palette is that there aren't many other palettes that I could think of that share a similar color scheme. And that's largely because the Gold palette is very one note. It's not very diverse, and I think it's the kind of palette that a lot of people will get bored with in a short amount of time. 

I know that several years ago, I would have seen this palette and HAD to have it. I love the way that gold eyeshadows look on me, and I would have loved a palette full of them. But, even though I would say that gold looks the "best" on me, I'm so bored with neutral looks that I don't gravitate toward gold shades, and I certainly don't want to pair them with browns. I like using color, and I like finding interesting color combinations. The Gold palette feels about three to five years too late to me because there's nothing about it that makes it that much better than what people have already owned for years. 

This is also a palette that I imagine people will forget about and move on from fairly quickly. I don't really predict seeing people rave about golds and browns for more than a few weeks because they've been around forever. If Too Faced or Tarte released this palette, no one would be talking about it. The only reason it has any discussion is because of the high price. 

This is a great palette to reinforce the idea that you really don't need to rebuy what you already own. And this can be an excellent palette to try and dupe from your own collection. This was especially valuable for me because when I duped the palette, I realized I didn't want to use it. I'm just not inspired by the color scheme. I'm especially grateful for this because it could have been a really expensive mistake for me to make, and I can easily see this palette being one that I bought, used for two days, and pushed to the back of my collection. And what a waste of money that would have been. 

I don't need this palette, and it turns out that I don't really even like it, so I won't be buying. 

Weekly Looks: BH Cosmetics Zodiac and Singles

I've had an interesting revelation over the past few weeks, which is that for all the time I spent obsessing over eyeshadow palettes, looking up swatches, and watching reviews—and all the money I have burned buying them—I really just don't like many of them.

In every palette I own, there are colors that I don't like and don't use. There was a series going around YouTube for a while were people talked about their least favorite shadows in every palette. Because it is impossible for a brand to put out a palette where every single person will love every single shade. And it is also very rare to come across a pre-made palette where you love every single shadow and wouldn't change anything about the color story.

And I noticed that in the palettes that I have duped or put together myself, I don't typically have a least favorite shadow because I replace any shade I don't like with one that I do.

Because of this, I've been using my palettes less and less and favoring my singles or palettes I've made myself. But toward the end of this week, I used an old favorite and was reminded of how how great—and rare!—it is to find a palette you really love.

Here are six looks I did this week.

Look 1: Fyrinnae Aztec Gold

Lid: Aztec Gold

Transition: Viseart matte warm brown

Crease: Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Aztec Gold

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Fyrinnae's Aztec Gold is one of my absolute top favorite shadows and one of the most unique in my collection. It has been a while since I used this shadow (mainly because I haven't been doing as many "neutral" looks), but as soon as I put this on, I was kicking myself for not using it more often. I just love this shadow and think it completely complements my warm-toned olive skin. 

Look 2: Duped The Wants

Lid: Makeup Geek Mai Tai

Transition: Costal Scents Petal Peach

Crease: Viseart shimmer purple

Outer corner: Coloured Raine Queen Mother

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Ardency Inn Violet

This was an experiment, and I liked the look more in theory than in application. I really liked Mai Tai paired with Violet, but the Viseart shimmery purple in the crease made the look a little too warm-toned than I was wanting. 

Look 3: BH Cosmetics Zodiac 

Lid: Cancer shimmer

Transition: Virgo matte

Crease: Cancer matte

Inner corner: Center highlight

Brow bone: Center highlight

Lower lash line: Taurus matte

I pulled out BH Cosmetics Zodiac by the middle of the week and immediately remembered how much I love it. I wanted to use some shadows that I hadn't used before, so I started with the Cancer shimmer. This isn't typically a color that I reach for, but I absolutely loved it paired with the lilac shades. The Virgo matte shade is easily one of my favorite shadows in the palette and most loved transition color, and I enjoyed how it gave a little warmth to an otherwise cool look.  

Look 4: BH Cosmetics Zodiac 

Lid: Capricorn shimmer

Center of lid: Center highlight

Transition: Aquarius matte

Crease: Capricorn matte

Inner corner: Center highlight

Brow bone: Center highlight

Lower lash line: Capricorn matte

This was also a look that I loved, though I partially wish that I would not have used the center highlight shade in the middle of my lid. I thought it was going to be more light-reflective and transformative, but it ended up making the olive look a little too gold. This was the most "neutral" of all the looks I did with this palette, but I still thought it was interesting and pretty. 

Look 5: BH Cosmetics Zodiac 

Lid: Aries shimmer

Transition: Virgo matte

Crease: Cancer matte

Inner corner: Center highlight

Brow bone: Center highlight

Lower lash line: Taurus matte

This look is a bit similar to one I've done before, but I typically use a blue with a lot of gold in it instead of one that is more cool-toned. I received a ton of compliments on this look, and people told me that they felt it really showed off my eye color. I found that interesting because if I want my eyes to stand out, I usually wear gold or olive colors, but I appreciated the compliments. I felt a bit like a mermaid when I wore this look, which is never a bad thing. 

Look 6: BH Cosmetics Zodiac 

Lid: Taurus shimmer (applied wet)

Transition: Virgo matte

Crease: Gemini matte

Outer corner: Taurus matte

Inner corner: Center highlight

Brow bone: Center highlight

Lower lash line: Taurus matte

For this look, I was inspired by the Taurus section of the palette, which has a shimmery champagne and a dark purple matte. I knew that I didn't want the look to be overly dark, so I went with a cool-toned lavender in the crease and darkened that with the deeper purple in the outer corner. This is a look that feels neutral to me but also bright and colorful, which I love. 

I'm glad to have "rediscovered" my BH Cosmetics Zodiac palette this week, and I feel confident to say that if I did a complete purge of all of my pre-made eyeshadow palettes (which I might do!), this would be one that would stay. 

This is also why I personally was so disappointed in the Makeup Revolution Emily Edit: The Wants palette. About the formula and quality, I've heard so many people say, "What do you expect from a $20 palette??"

Well, THIS is what I expect. 

I expect rich pigment, metallic shimmers, smooth mattes, and saturated looks. I bought BH Cosmetics Zodiac for $24, but at the time of writing this post, it is on sale for $18. This palette, I think, has phenomenal quality, and this is what I meant when I said that I was not going to spend time to make shadows in The Wants palette work when I already own great shadows that perform well on their own (even those from less expensive brands). 

This palette is such a winner for me, and I still love it close to a year after I bought it. 

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Recent Looks and Why I Regret Buying The Emily Edit: The Wants

If you've been wondering why the blog has been quiet for a bit, I had surgery a couple of weeks ago and have been recovering, going to physical therapy, and trying to catch up on other work. I sincerely appreciate everyone who sent well wishes as well as people who have been tagging me in new releases. It's always so strange to me how the "holiday season" for makeup begins in September, but now that the "season" is upon us, I'll try to keep up with the anti-hauls as well as my other commitments.

Below is a mixture of looks I've done over the past couple of weeks, and I heavily used my Duped The Wants palette. But at the top of this post, I would like to say that I have been really disappointed with the beauty community this week, and I'm going to talk a bit at the end of this post about how that has affected how much I regret buying the Makeup Revolution The Emily Edit: The Wants palette.

Look 1: Colourpop Yes, Please!

Lid: Chauffeur

Inner crease: Mischief

Outer crease: Big Cocktails

Inner corner: Butter Cake

Lower lash line: Chauffeur

Brow bone: Butter Cake

This look was inspired by Elle S, who used the Natasha Denona Sunset palette. Yes, Please! was the last palette of mine that was still in NYC, and I left it there completely unintentionally. I'm not totally sure how it happened as this was one of the only palettes I wanted with me when I moved, but I am very happy to be reunited with it. When I saw Elle S's video where she used the Sunset palette (linked above), I knew I had to recreate it with Yes, Please! and I fell in love with this palette all over again. This really is one of my absolute favorite palettes, and I am so happy to have it back in my life. 

Look 2: Duped The Wants

Lid: Coloured Raine Dethroned

Transition: Makeup Geek Desert Sands

Crease: Coloured Riane Squad

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Coloured Raine Squad

I really, really loved this look. This was something that I had wanted to do since the last look I did with Squad, which was paired with Too Faced Molasses Chip. I didn't like the matte black that was in the original Wants palette, and I replaced it with a deep shimmery brown. This shadow hasn't gotten a lot of use from me since I don't typically enjoy dark colors, but I had never tried it on the lid before, and I absolutely loved it. The entire look came out nicer than I expected, and throughout the day, I found myself looking in the mirror and really enjoying the color combination. 

Look 3: Duped The Wants

Lid: Ardency Inn Violet

Transition: Costal Scents Petal Peach

Crease: ABH Love Letter

Deepen Crease: Lime Crime Muse

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Ardency Inn Violet

I was inspired so much by the look with Dethrone and Squad that I decided to go dark for another look. If you're in the market for a rich, shimmery purple, Ardency Inn Violet is the best I have used. I really love the payoff of this shadow, and ABH Love Letter blended seamlessly into it. I've been enjoying putting colors that I would normally apply to the outer corner onto the lid, and I'm interested to see what other combination I can come up with. 

Look 3: Duped The Wants

Lid: Makeup Geek Mai Tai

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: Coloured Raine Queen Mother

This is a favorite look of mine that I've done a dozen or more times with various shadow combinations, but this one happened to feature Makeup Geek Mai Tai. There's a reason I keep doing this look—I love it. I think it really flatters my eye color, and I like the dark purple lower lash line. 

Look 4: Duped The Wants

Lid: Colourpop Rosé All Day

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 Dethrone

This is similar to a look I did a few weeks ago, but I used Colourpop Rosé All Day on the lid. I paired it with Coloured Raine Squad, which is fast becoming one of my favorite shadows. I received three separate compliments on this look, which is a rarity for me. I love that Rosé All Day can pull yellow and green, and I like how it looks when paired with Squad. 

Look 5: Duped The Wants

Lid: ABH Macaroon

Transition: Costal Scents Petal Peach

Crease: Viseart shimmery purple

Outer corner:

Coloured Raine Queen Mother

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Coloured Raine Queen Mother

I enjoyed this look, and it was the first time that I have used Macaroon in a look that came out dark. The shimmery Viseart shade worked well in the crease, and I think it created an interesting combination with Macaroon. 

Look 6: Cool Tones

Lid: Costal Scents Lakeshore

Transition: Makeup Geek Desert Sands

Crease: Urban Decay Boom

Outer corner: Urban Decay Untitled 

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Urban Decay Boom and Untitled

I soured on using my duped palette by this point in the week, so I chose to do one of my favorite blue looks. I haven't done this particular look in a while, but it is certainly a favorite of mine. Before I started wearing color, I think I would have found this look so over the top and scary, but now it feels almost neutral to me? The brown in the transition really helps to ground the look into a somewhat neutral zone, and I really like how it interacts with the blue. 

Look 7: Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions 

Lid: Rapunzel Had Extensions (over Pixie Epoxy)

Transition: Viseart matte light brown

Crease: Lime Crime Rebirth

Deep crease: ABH Love Letter

Inner corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Lower lash line: Lime Crime Rebirth

To finish off the week, I went with another old favorite of mine, which is any look that incorporates Rapunzel Had Extensions. This is one of my all-time favorite eyeshadows, and every time I use it I'm reminded of how incredible it is. I've mentioned this before, but this shadow (and many from Fyrinnae) requires Pixie Epoxy in order to perform accurately. 

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To address the title of this post and the note I made at the top, I have been so incredibly disappointed in the beauty community in the past week because of this idea that has sprouted that people can't have different opinions, that people shouldn't give negative reviews of an influencer's product, and that it's perfectly acceptable to send vile comments to people because they don't like a stupid, insignificant makeup product.

When Emilynoel83 announced that she had a collaboration, I was so happy for her. She had consistently stayed out of drama for her entire tenure on YouTube, never took a sponsorship, and seemed to be motivated mainly by her overwhelming love of makeup. If there was anyone's collaboration that I could support, I thought, it was hers.

And so I bought her palette, used it, and hated it. I praised Emily for the color scheme (which was the only thing she had control over) and criticized Makeup Revolution for a poor formula. The same way I've criticized Too Faced, Tarte, Morphe, MAC, ABH, Natasha Denona, and others. At the time I wrote my review of the palette, I had not seen any other negative reviews, but since then, there have been a few more—most notably from Tati.

Because I'm not overly interested in stewing over the drama, let me run down these basic facts/events:

• Tati gave The Wants a negative review and said the formula was bad
• People descended upon Tati's video and said vile things to her for her opinion and experience and weaponized, among other things, her fertility
• Emily said she made a response addressing this, but it was hidden in a "Palette Bingo" video; she did not name Tati specifically; said that she of course disapproves of bullying and that people don't need to defend her; but also said that she knows her "core people" aren't the ones inflicting the venom
• Another YT personality made an "emergency response" video to Tati's review (eye roll) and trashed Tati (by name) for her opinion and experience 
• Emily publicly thanked that YT personality for her "powerful" video

Deep breath

This all sucks.

It is okay for someone to give a bad review. It is okay to have different experiences. As I said in one of my posts about the palette, from watching Emily for many years, I know that she and I have different expectations of how an eyeshadow should perform. Therefore, I don't think that she is lying when she says she likes the Makeup Revolution formula or how her palette performs. And I am also not lying when I say The Wants was one of the worst palettes I've personally used in a long time.

Unlike Emily, I do believe that the people who viciously attacked Tati were part of her "core people." I also believe that I was part of Emily's "core people."

If someone gives a product a bad review, many extreme fans take that to be a hit at someone's credibility.

Emily is honest, so she clearly made a flawless palette. If she said it's great, then it is great. And if you don't like it, you're calling her a liar.

No, that's not how different opinions and experiences work.

I always advocate on this blog that you should never buy a poor quality makeup product just to "support" someone. They don't know you and you're not friends with them. You don't need to give them your money to show support. But then I went and did just that, which is something that I regret.

I think Emily added to this manufactured idea of friendship and loyalty by promoting so many people using her palettes via social media. I think that probably comes from a genuine place for her of wanting to celebrate those who like her palette, but I think it also creates an environment where people are even more willing to "stand up" for their friend Emily's palette.

And again, that is just so unnecessary and weird. I've made this comparison before, but imagine if my friend bought a pair of jeans that she absolutely loved. Now imagine she tells me to buy them, I go to the store, and they look terrible on me. So I come out of the dressing room and tell my friend that the jeans didn't work for me because I'm shaped differently than she is and we have different taste. Now imagine my friend spewing hate at me and saying I deserve truly terrible things to happen to me because I didn't like something that she did.

It's absurd, right?

Now imagine if the designer of the jeans publicly commented thanking my friend for her "powerful" statements.

Again, it's absurd.

I do not blame Emily for the onslaught of people who have been commenting terrible things to Tati and other people who have given her palette a negative review. But I do think that she has not handled this situation very well and I feel like she is sensitive to the negative reviews. And I get it. Criticism, even when constructive, is hard to take if you're not used to it and especially if it is about something that you poured your heart and creative energy into.

But people have different taste, and you cannot expect that everyone will love something that you made. And it's a much better look to accept criticism with grace and take the constructive feedback.

For the record, not that it matters, but I don't personally enjoy Tati's content and I don't watch her channel. Alternately, I have been subscribed to Emily's channel for a whopping eight years.

I think it's dangerous to expect that people should not give a review if it's going to be negative. I also think it's dangerous when someone thanks a reviewer for talking them out of buying something that others step in an encourage them to buy regardless and tell them: "Experience it for yourself." That's literally the entire point of a review—to help others decide if they want to buy or not.

The beauty community has been toxic in recent months and exceptionally catty over the last few years. There are so many things in the world to be truly enraged about, and someone not liking a makeup product is just so small and insignificant.