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.

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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