I No Longer Support Kat Von D Beauty

This is a different kind of post, and it will be short. Yesterday, I learned that Kat Von D, creator and owner of Kat Von D Beauty, announced that she does not support vaccines and will not be vaccinating her child.

She has spread dangerous and unfounded propaganda about vaccines, and as a result, I can no longer support her or her brand. 

Vaccines benefit not only the vaccinated individual, but also the public at large. Without getting too much into the personal details of my health, I am vaccinated, but my immune system is weaker toward a few illnesses for which there are vaccines. Despite having these vaccinations, I still caught two very devastating illnesses as a child, and I was quarantined both times. 

One of these times, my pediatrician's office closed down the ENTIRE office during a normal business day and rerouted all of their patients to a different office just so that I could be seen. They obviously did not want me infecting all of the children too young to be vaccinated, and they took extreme precautions and measures so that I could been seen, including sterilizing the entire office before and after my visit. During my appointment, every single physician on staff observed me because they had not seen an active case of that particular illness throughout their careers. 

Now, as an adult, I am susceptible to these same illnesses if there is an outbreak caused by a non-vaccinated person. Choosing to not vaccinate a child is not only putting that child at extreme risk of devastating, debilitating, and deadly illnesses, but it is also unnecessarily compromising the health and safety of the public at large. People like me are at risk, as are those with compromised immune systems, as are children too young to receive vaccinations. 

The entire anti-vaccination "movement" was created by a false claim that vaccines cause autism, and there is zero evidence over countless scientific research studies to support this claim. Furthermore, as a person who has autistic family members, friends, and other beloved people in my life, I find it appalling that someone would rather put their child at risk of debilitating illnesses or even death for fear that they would be like these beloved people in my life. 

This is an ignorant, selfish, and irresponsible decision by Kat Von D, and sharing this choice on such a huge public platform is incredibly dangerous.

I am writing this blog post because, until yesterday, I was a fan of Kat Von D Beauty. I have written a ton of posts on new Kat Von D products, and I own several products from the brand as well. I even purchased Pastel Goth because Kat Von D posted "No mi presidente" on her Instagram and the comments were flooded with trolls saying that they would never purchase from her brand again. I do not support the current US administration or any of their actions, and I wanted to show my support for Kat Von D for posting such a strong statement.

But I can no longer support Kat Von D or her brand. To be anti-vaccine is to put the public's health in danger because you are uninformed and don't want to believe scholarly, scientific facts. Putting that ignorant mindset on public display could have incredibly dangerous ramifications.

I have yet to decide what I am going to do with the Kat Von D Beauty products that I already own, but I will no longer be purchasing from Kat Von D Beauty, recommending any products from Kat Von D Beauty, or showcasing any products from Kat Von D Beauty that I have previously purchased on this blog.

What I'm Not Buying: Kat Von D Alchemist Holographic Palette

Kat Von D's newest release is the Alchemist palette, which is "an eye, lip, and face transformer palette with four holographic shades." 

And I won't be buying. 

Kat Von D was smart with their marketing of this palette. Saying that Alchemist is specifically designed to be used on several different parts of the face makes it seem like a good buy to people. They might be able to argue that they already have so many highlighters or way too many eyeshadows to really justify another palette for that specific purpose. But since Alchemist is marketed as a multipurpose palette, it makes it a lot easier to justify buying what you know you don't need. 

The first thing that caught my eye with this palette is probably the same thing that caught everyone's eye: the packaging. 

Packaging is easily my favorite part about most Kat Von D products. I absolutely love the artistry and attention to detail that she gives in every single product. The Alchemist packaging is no different. It looks elegant and special and I would imagine the people who buy it would want to display it in some way instead of storing it in a drawer. Keeping in the "holographic" theme of the products inside, the packaging also gives an iridescent shift. 

However, as beautiful as the packaging is, I have to say that is also doesn't make a ton of sense. I love the look of the triangle and how it corresponds with the embossed "A" on the front, but unless the palette will be used as a display piece, I can imagine storage would be complicated. In my own makeup organization, a triangle-shaped palette would not work easily with what I have. 

I've also heard some criticism about the pans being round instead of triangle. I tend to disagree with that criticism because I would much rather have my products be functional than be an awkward shape to fit with the overall theme (looking at you, Too Faced). I do, however, think that there is a considerable amount of wasted space within the packaging design. 

In terms of the actual colors, there is a pink, purple, blue and green shade:

I always think it's important to look at swatches presented by the brand with caution. Kat Von D is notorious for packing on the color, doing finger swatches, and doing swatches with multiple layers. I also would not be surprised whatsoever if Kat Von D used special and unrealistic lighting to emphasize colors. 

While I think these colors are interesting and pretty, I couldn't help but be entirely reminded of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Moonchild:

(also unrealistic swatches)

I frankly don't see much of a difference in terms of color between Alchemist and Moonchild other than the fact that Moonchild has two additional shades. 

I am also reminded of the Makeup Geek duochrome highlighters:

(also unrealistic swatches)

I mentioned in my post about the Makeup Geek highlighters that I thought Makeup Geek was just a little too late to the game in terms of highlighters in general. But, in addition to making traditional highlight shades, they also made the duochrome highlighters because Anastasia Beverly Hills made them popular with Moonchild. And it was a "good" idea because they were individual, which makes them slightly different than Moonchild, and people could only buy one if that was all they wanted. The Alchemist palette was potentially in development before Moonchild was released, but at this point, Kat Von D, I feel, is really late to the game. And I assume that most people who wanted a duochrome highlighter already have one by now. 

See, Kat Von D is an interesting brand. They tease products months (sometimes years) in advance and don't seem to make their proposed release dates/seasons often. I like thinking this is because the brand wants to perfect their products before they send them out to consumers (which is the opposite approach of brands like Too Faced), but then Kat Von D is also notorious for having very poor quality control. Their Shade and Light blushes were pulled from stores after receiving scathing reviews, the Lolita liquid lipstick went through three different batch colors, and quality in the Serpentina palette seemed to vary across shades and batches. For some people, certain colors in Serpentina were gorgeous and pigmented, while for others, those same colors were dry, patchy, and terrible to work with. And it didn't come down to personal preference; there was an objective distinction in quality from batch to batch. 

I had been interested in Moonchild for several months, and seriously considered purchasing it for the past four. After giving it ample thought, making sure I wasn't impulse buying, and deducing that Moonchild was indeed a product that I would use and love and was entirely unique to my collection, I purchased it. (I will make a separate post on Moonchild at a later date.) I considered buying the Alchemist palette instead, but ultimately chose Moonchild. Here's why:

• Alchemist is $32 for four shades at 0.05 ounces each. 
• Moonchild is $40 for six shades at 0.15 ounces each. 

So, each Moonchild shade is three times larger than each Alchemist shade, and it includes two additional shades. 

• Alchemist has a total of 6.12 grams. 
• Moonchild has a total of 25.2 grams.

I was also able to purchase Moonchild when it was on sale for $36, so it was the obvious choice. 

I also would like to note that for Kat Von D fans who are interested in the basic idea of duochrome highlighters/eyeshadows but don't think you would get a lot of use out of most of the shades in these palettes, I highly recommend the Kat Von D Metal Crush Eyeshadow in Thunderstruck:

Photo: Temptalia 

It may look like nothing/white in the pan, but the color has a really beautiful pink-gold shift and looks similar to the pink shade in the Alchemist palette. Thunderstruck is $21 for 0.10 ounces of product, so it is twice as large as the colors in the Alchemist palette and is also than $11 cheaper. I get that it's a lot more exciting to think you are getting "more colors for less money" in palettes, but if you are realistically not going to use some or most of the shades in a palette, it really doesn't pay to get it instead of one item that you will actually use. Coincidentally, if you already own Thunderstruck, buying the Alchemist palette might be redundant since you already have a close duplicate to one of the shades. 

I honestly feel the biggest pull to Alchemist will be the packaging and the fact that it's from Kat Von D. The product, while pretty, is nothing unique or new. I think if Kat Von D was going to release a duochrome palette many months after Moonchild arrived, then they should have created different colors. I typically really like Kat Von D products, appreciate the thought behind them, and always enjoy the packaging. But with this product, it seems as though more thought was put into making the packaging the huge draw than making an interesting shade selection. It makes me think that the thought process was:

This looks exactly like Moonchild, which has been out for at least six months, and ours has way less product for almost the same price. So, let's focus on making the packaging really cool so that people will be forced to buy it even though they already have a suitable replacement for the product. Oh, and let's market it for eyes and lips too so they don't think it's just a highlighter palette.

Remarking that this palette is multipurpose for the eyes, lips, and face isn't enough to make it unique. Moonchild can be used for eyes, lips, and face as well, as can the options from Makeup Geek.

I have high hopes that Alchemist will be high quality, and hope it's just as good as Thunderstruck. Moonchild and the Makeup Geek duochrome highlighters are also high quality, so if you are in the market for duochrome highlighters, it's just going to come down to personal preference. But, if you already have Moonchild or the Makeup Geek highlighters, Alchemist is really an unnecessary purchase. I have said again and again that a highlighter is a highlighter is a highlighter. And once you have one, you have most. The colors in Moonchild were unlike anything I owned, and that is what drew me to it. But a duochrome highlighter is a duochrome highlighter. So now that I have these, I certainly don't need any others. 

And also, you don't need a duochrome highlighter if you're not all that into it. Highlighter in general isn't a "necessary" part of a makeup routine, and most people prefer a champagne-toned highlighter. I think playing with Moonchild is a ton of fun, but it is absolutely not to everyone's taste. And that's okay! If you are completely happy with a highlighter already, you don't need to move onto duochrome highlighters just because they are "trendy" right now. 

The packaging of the Alchemist palette is absolutely beautiful, and I'm sure a lot of people will buy this simply for that. And while I have said that I understand that people like to collect makeup items, I think it starts sloping into negative territory when brands rely on that being the reason something will sell. I give Kat Von D credit that they at least made the Alchemist packaging beautiful and didn't rely on a lame gimmick (again, looking at you, Too Faced). 

I'm also sure that the hype will be intense, which tends to happen with all Kat Von D products. But, if the thought of buying Moonchild never crossed your mind, you shouldn't buy Alchemist. Because then you are only interested in the packaging and hype. And I'm not saying that Moonchild is the superior product, I'm simply saying that if a product that looks identical to this didn't interest you, then this probably doesn't interest you either.

And if you are considering buying Alchemist to be used as eyeshadow, I strongly discourage you from doing that. I think it will disappoint as eyeshadow since it was primarily made for the face (the colors will be sheer). You can buy much better duochrome shadows from Makeup Geek for significantly less money:

Overall, I don't think the Alchemist palette has good value or anything really going for it other than the packaging. I already own Moonchild (I love it, by the way) and Thunderstruck, so there is no reason for me to add Alchemist to my collection. I can see through the marketing. I know what kind of palette it is, and I know that Kat Von D was just a little too late to the highlighter party. And I won't be buying. 

One Week, One Palette: Kat Von D Monarch

For the sixth week of my one week, one palette project, I went with the oldest palette in my collection: Kat Von D Monarch. 

At one point, this was one of my favorite palettes, and I think it's because it was different than all my other ones. At the time when this first launched, there weren't many palettes with orange shadows, especially combined with silver and taupes, so this was really a unique palette for a while. 

I was really looking forward to this week in the project because Monarch is easily the least-used palette in my collection. And I never understood why I wasn't reaching for it. I would look at the colors and know that they were pretty and know I could get great look from them. But I had only used it once in at least a year, probably longer. So I was excited to have the opportunity to use it exclusively for one week. 

Top, from left: Entomology, Telepathy, and Tiny Death

Bottom, from left: Wrath, Papilio, Summerfly, Killing Jar, Delaney, Vanish, Disintegration, Shadow Box, and Deadhead

I used every shade in the palette last week and brought in one additional shadow. The biggest "flaw" in Monarch for me personally is that Vanish is the only transition shade available. And it is much cooler than what I like to use. I typically like a peach transition shade, so for a few looks last week I also used bareMinerals Velvet Pecan:

As usual, I used Make Up For Ever Pearl on my inner corner every day. 

Below are five looks I did last week:

Look 1:

Summerfly on the lid, Vanish and bareMinerals Velvet Pecan blended into the crease, Wrath padded onto the outer corner, and Entomology on the brow bone. 

Look 2:

Disintegration on the lid, Telepathy padded on top of Disintegration, bareMinerals Velvet Pecan and Wrath blended into the crease, Shadow Box padded onto the outer corner, and Entomology on the brow bone. 

Look 3:

Killing Jar on the lid, Vanish and Wrath blended into the crease, Shadow Box padded onto the outer corner, and Tiny Death on the brow bone.

Look 4:

Delaney on the lid, Telepathy padded on top of Delaney on the center of the lid, Vanish in the crease, Deadhead padded onto the outer corner and into the crease, and Tiny Death on the brow bone.

Look 5:

Wrath on the lid, bareMinerals Velvet Pecan blended into the crease, Papilio blended to deepen the crease, Deadhead padded onto the outer corner and blended into the crease, and Tiny Death on the brow bone. 

In the weeks since I've first started this project, I've tried to do at least six looks with each palette. I had a sixth look planned of using Papilio on the lid with Telepathy padded on top of it, but I cut this project off one day early. I imagine the look would have been similar to look 2. 

I cut the project off a day early because I wasn't enjoying the palette and because I was just sad in general. Putting dark, depressing colors onto my eyes wasn't helping my mood, and putting on my eyeshadow felt more like a chore than enjoyable. 

The election results hit me hard as a woman, an American, and a human being. I have never before felt the terrified, unsettling, and helpless ache that has resided in me since Tuesday evening. Look 4 (which I did on Wednesday) and look 5 eventually ended up in a dark, crusty blurred mess from me crying. I had black, silver, and orange streaks down my cheeks. And because of this project, I think I'll always think of this week when I look at the Monarch palette. 

Other than my emotional hardship with the palette, I felt on the whole that it was just too dark for me. I like the first four shades on the bottom row, but the rest look so dark and cool-toned for me that it was hard to draw inspiration or get really excited about using them. 

Wrath and Telepathy are my favorite shadows in the palette, and they have been since I first purchased it. I love wearing Wrath all over the lid, and love what it does when blended through the crease. Telepathy is gorgeous on its own, but it's also one of those transforming shadows that changes the look of whatever is underneath it. I love Telepathy applied over the shimmery dark browns and think it gives both colors a really beautiful brass or antiqued bronze look. 

Summerfly was once a favorite of mine, but man, the glitter fallout on it is bad. Really, really bad. No matter what I did, I had glitter all over my face for the rest of the day. For the life of me I can't figure out why brands allow that to happen. No one likes the look of glitter fallout, even people who love glitter on their eyes and face. 

Killing Jar left me wanting a little more. The color just felt too subtle to me and was very close to my natural skin tone. I would have appreciated if the shade was more pink or golden or something. Tiny Death makes no sense to me. It's a matte off-white color that is infused with glitter particles that largely don't translate onto the skin. Why even put the glitter in there? I liked the color of it better than Entomology for a brow bone shade on me, but was always annoyed to find the stray piece of glitter by my eyebrow. 

I had never touched Deadhead before this project and was surprised that I used it two days in a row. It's true that black can really nicely smoke out a look, but it's just not a look that I typically like on myself. Paring Deadhead with Wrath looked pretty, but I felt strongly that I had "Halloween eyes."

While I think all the looks I came up with were pretty and flattering on me, I didn't have any favorite looks of the week, which I think is pretty telling. 

When I told my friend about my struggle using the palette last week, she said at least I found something to declutter. And that's where I've struggled with this. Since Monarch is discontinued, it gives me some pause, especially since I love Wrath and Telepathy so much. I have two orange shades in my Shade and Light Eye and Viseart Neutral Matte palettes that would likely replicate the effect of Wrath. Telepathy, however, is truly unique to my collection, and I like how it transforms the other shadows. Because of this, at first I didn't think I would be decluttering. 

But now that a few more days have passed since I stopped using Monarch, I think I am going to declutter it. I didn't use it for the majority of a year, so Telepathy can't be that special or important of a shadow for me. The color selection is too dark and somewhat cool-toned and doesn't inspire me, and frankly, it's going to remind me for a long while of this shitty, shitty week where I thought I was going to feel on top of the world as a woman instead of sickened. 

Despite the sad events of the week and not enjoying using my palette, I didn't feel the urge to buy new makeup, and that's a small victory for me. Even though I didn't love using Monarch the way I have loved pretty much every other palette in this project, I still felt that there were so many possibilities with it, and that really made me feel the full scope of my palette collection. In the end, I'm glad I gave Monarch a full chance rather than just using it once in a while for one of the looks I liked. I'm glad I was able to see using it five days in a row that it just wasn't a palette I enjoyed using. That's just as valuable of an experience for me as discovering how much I love a palette when using it consistently. 

What I'm Not Buying: Kat Von D Metal Matte palette

Kat Von D's offerings seem to be the most coveted every holiday season. Last year's Mi Vida Loca Remix palette was a huge success and garnered largely positive reviews. It seems this year's Metal Matte platte will also be a hit.

But, I won't be buying it.

Generally speaking, I'm a fan of Kat Von D shadows. The Shade and Light Eye is one of my favorite matte palettes. The shadows have great color payoff, have some substance to them, and play well with some of my favorite shimmer shadows.

I also really enjoy Kat Von D's metal crush eyeshadows. Thunderstruck has been a favorite of mine for a while.

So, a palette made up of her metal and matte shadows? Perfection.

But I don't need it.

What I like about this palette is that it doesn't look like everything else we've already seen ten times over and certainly doesn't look like other holiday palettes offered this year. It also appears to flatter a multitude of skin tones and will look especially beautiful on people of color. I appreciate that Kat Von D's two latest palette releases seem to carefully consider more than light skin tones.

The biggest reason why I'm skipping out on the Metal Matte palette is because I don't think I would personally get a ton of use out of it. My skin tone is warm olive, and this palette leans a little too cool overall for me.

I already own the Viseart Dark Matte palette, so I don't have any need for dark matte colorful shades. And even then, that is one of my least used palettes because I don't make a dark colorful look very often. So, the dark half of the palette wouldn't get much use. And in order for this to be a "complete" palette for me, I would want different light matte shades. A warm peach or tan shadow is my favorite to blend most colors, so I would have to pull from other palettes to get a look I really like. And the light half of the matte shades would also go largely unused.

The shimmer shadows are beautiful, but I wouldn't regularly wear half of them (the blues and teals) and already have colors similar to the other half.

The only concern that I have with this palette is that Kat Von D as a brand traditionally has had quality control issues. When the Serpentina palette was released, there was not consistency in the shadows or across palette batches. Many people found Serpentina to be patchy and difficult to work with.

But, assuming that there are no quality control issues, I can see this being the "winning" release of holiday 2016. It's different, has colorful and neutral shades, has a mix of beautiful finishes, and looks as though it will flatter most skin tones.

There is certainly a lot to love in this palette if you will get use out of it. And that becomes the real decider on this one. I personally wouldn't get much use out of it. And as much as my gut tells me, "It's pretty! I need it!" I don't actually need it.

I give Kat Von D credit for making a really interesting palette. But I won't be buying.

What I'm Not Buying: Kat Von D Serpentina Palette

The latest eyeshadow palette from Kat Von D Beauty--Serpentina--has been teased for months. I have to say, this marketing strategy is exceptionally unappealing to me, and I won't be purchasing.

I mentioned this in my post about the Too Faced Sweet Peach palette, but I find it exhausting when brands talk about their upcoming projects months in advance and tease customers with filtered images just to drum up hype.

I get that cosmetics is a business and that engaging in this kind of marketing is clearly in the best interest of the company, but that's why it is so important to be an informed consumer and ignore the hype.

I don't have the best relationship with Kat Von D as a brand. I find that they often have quality control issues (the Shade + Light blushes that were pulled from shelves and the three different batches of Lolita liquid lipstick are just two examples) and are frequently out of stock in most Sephora stores. I have never seen another brand at Sephora with as many stock issues as Kat Von D.

As far as products, I own the Monarch palette. I really loved it when I first bought it because some of the colors are astounding, but the more I used it, the more I hated having to deal with the immense fallout and glitter that would rain down my face. I also bought the Shade + Light eyeshadow palette, but found it very difficult to work with. The colors had so much intense pigmentation that I found they were difficult to blend out and look nice. I much preferred the performance of my Viseart Neutral Mattes palette, so I returned the Shade + Light. I also own the Metal Crush eyeshadow in Thunderstruck, and really love the uniqueness.

I can therefore say that while I like Thunderstruck, the KVD Beauty eyeshadow formula is not my favorite. However, I think KVD Beauty always has a really interesting shade selection, and when Serpentina was first teased, I was a little intrigued.

That all went away, however, when the first "official" image of the palette was released and it had a black and white filter over it.

This is just annoying. I honestly don't see the point in it, other than to get people to go crazy over hype wondering what it will look like. I saw this filtered photo and was so disgusted by this new trend of marketing that I decided that unless the palette was so perfect, so me, so everything I've always wanted but somehow didn't have, I would be passing on it.

Some of you may say it's silly to pass on an item over its marketing, but it is important to me to not support brands that feed off and promote the hype and fear of missing out mentality.

Anastasia Beverly Hills recently released the Modern Renaissance palette, which I personally believe is the best release of the season (review coming soon). The company released the first mention and image of the palette the day before it was available for purchase. That, in my opinion, is an appropriate way to do marketing. The palette is also extremely high quality, and reviews have all been positive. Because of its quality, the palette is selling extremely well, and the brand didn't need to rely on hype and craze.

It's worth mentioning, however, that the ABH palette is permanent while the Serpentina palette is limited edition. Created hype is so much more significant when the palette is limited edition. With the hype in place, hoards of people will likely buy this palette immediately, having been teased about it for so long, sites will crash, and the hype marketing will have worked. That also is not for me.

When actual images of Serpentina were released, the colors were indeed beautiful, but again an easy pass for me. I simply don't wear such intense purple, green, blue, or red shades on my eyes. This also is not a complete palette, though it doesn't seem like it's trying to be one. There are no transition shades, crease colors, or highlight shades.

It is worth noting that this palette would look incredible on people of color, and it would have been nice to see some darker transition and highlight shades to make a complete palette.

I think Serpentina would probably be a welcome and refreshing addition to a lot of people's collections who like color and jewel tones and don't mind pulling other palettes or shadows in to make a complete look. Personally, I don't have a ton of use for it, and the marketing was a major turn-off, so I won't be purchasing.