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.

Duped: Makeup Revolution The Emily Edit: The Wants

If you saw my post yesterday, you'll know that I was very disappointed in The Wants palette by Makeup Revolution The Emily Edit. I had never before tried a Makeup Revolution product, in large part because I don't really like their business model of largely ripping off successful products from other brands.

I know this is a debate in the beauty community, but I am on the side of protecting intellectual property. Yes, many palettes are inspired by others. Just look at how many red-toned palettes came out after the success of ABH Modern Renaissance (like Huda Beauty Desert Dusk, Huda Beauty Mauve Obsessions, Urban Decay Born to Run, Wet W Wild Rosé in the Air, Jeffree Star Blood Sugar, and the new Urban Decay Naked Cherry [eye roll], to name a few), and that palette was inspired by the Lime Crime Venus palette.

But there is a difference between being inspired by a color scheme (and wanting to copy it for your own financial gain) and blatantly ripping off the color scheme, name, and packaging of an existing successful product, which Makeup Revolution has done on multiple occasions.

As I mentioned in my review, if there is one "influencer" whose product I would want to buy, it's Emilynoel83. I appreciate that she doesn't have any sponsored content, she appears to be a very genuine person, and she doesn't seem to be a content creator for fame or money. She really seems like she just loves talking about her passion of makeup. And even if buying this palette sends a message that people like Emily are the ones brands should be collaborating with instead of those who are racist, problematic, selfish, vapid, and dishonest, I think it was a worthwhile purchase.

And then I used it, and it was awful.

The colors lacked pigment, and they were dry, patchy, and difficult to blend. I couldn't have been more disappointed in it. And then I received several messages from people telling me that this is classic Makeup Revolution formula. It's just bad.

I was thinking last night about how disappointed I was in the palette, especially because I liked the color scheme, so I decided that I wanted to try to replicate it with shadows in my collection that are high quality. And, frankly, duping this palette felt highly appropriate since the brand made its success on duping other brands.

So, I did.

Here is The Emily Edit: The Wants:

And here is my duped version of it:

Row one: The Wants / Duped

The Cream / Viseart matte white

Hobby / Makeup Geek Desert Sands

Prayer / Costal Scents Petal Peach

Grateful / Colourpop Rosé All Day

Good Vibes / MAC Coppering

Side Hustle / Makeup Geek Typhoon

Row two: The Wants / Duped

Midwest / Viseart matte warm brown

Dues Paid / Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear

Eve Rose / Touch of Glam Beauty Merlin's Wand

Belle Violet / Touch of Glam Beauty Corrupted

Capricorn / Coloured Raine Queen Mother

Pi Phi / Viseart shimmer pruple

Row three: The Wants / Duped

Oh Heavens! / Make Up For Ever Pearl

Love Tons / ABH Love Letter

Pizzazz / ABH Macaroon 

Family / Ardency Inn Violet 

Top Story / Too Faced Molasses Chip

Apartment / Coloured Raine Dutchess

Row four: The Wants / Duped

Cupcake / Makeup Geek Cosmopolitan

Laughcry/ Lime Crime Rebirth

Cheer / Lime Crime Muse

Heartbeat / MAC Cranberry

Corduroy / Urban Decay Graffiti

Dark & Early / Coloured Raine Dethrone 

As with all of my posts on "duped" palettes, I have to give a few disclaimers. 

1. Not all of the shadows I used in my palette are sold as singles. Many of them were previously depotted from palettes.
2. Not all of the shadows are an exact color match. I'm making my own palette, so I sometimes swap in shades that I personally like more. 
3. In a few instances, I did not have an appropriate color match, so I improvised as best as I could. 

Now, I'm just going to be frank. I love how my duped palette looks. And I absolutely credit Emily with curating a great color scheme. But I like mine much more. I think mine is vibrant, rich, and the colors just pop out more than they do in the Makeup Revolution palette. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that mine has very high quality shadows. 

The biggest changes that I made to the palette were:

• Replacing Capricorn—a darkened purple shimmer that came off as black—with a rich warm purple shimmer. 
• Replacing Pi Phi —a dark berry matte—with a lighter warm purple shimmer
• Replacing Family—a matte dark purple—with a dark purple shimmer
• Replacing Corduroy—a matte dark green—with a dark green shimmer
• Replacing Dark & Early—a matte black—with a dark brown shimmer

For what it's worth, I didn't have an exact duplicate shadow for Pi Phi, Family, Corduroy, or Dark & Early, and that's because—for the exception of Corduroy—I don't like those colors. I would have replaced those shadows with other colors even if I had a suitable dupe. 

Corduroy was the only shadow that I liked the color but didn't have a dupe. (If anyone knows of one, please let me know.) I replaced it with the best option that I had, which is a dark green shimmer. 

I made other minor changes to the palette, such as making Prayer more peach/pink–based instead of rose/brown. Colourpop Rosé All Day is a close color match to Grateful, but it is just more true to color in the pan.  

Looking at my duped palette, I feel really excited to use it, which is how I felt about The Wants before I actually delved in. I plan on using this palette in the coming week to see what kind of looks I can come up with, again, inspired by Emily's color scheme. 

As a final note, I just wanted to say that trying to dupe a palette with shadows in your own collection is always a great way to temper the craving to buy something. I would also encourage you to depot some of your palettes so that you can use those shades in this process as well. I remember feeling timid about depotting my Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette, but I've been able to use the shades in it for many duped palettes, which I've really enjoyed. Another great thing about duping palettes is that they don't have to be forever. You can use one color scheme for a while, and then when you feel tempted by a new release, just deconstruct one of your other duped palettes and make the one that's currently tempting you. That way, you can use the inspiration from the latest new palettes without having to actually spend the money on things you already own. 

As for my Wants palette, I won't be using it again and it will be decluttered from my collection. But I only kind of consider it a wasted purchase. Yes, the quality was awful, and no, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. But, I'm glad I have tried the Makeup Revolution formula (and can now speak to it in future posts), and I feel pretty okay about buying an "influencer" palette that might inform the future of who is being offered these deals and opportunities.

Now, I have my own version of the gorgeous color scheme Emily curated, but it's better suited to my personal taste and is of great quality.  

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Makeup Revolution The Emily Edit: The Wants—Review and Looks

Today's post started as a typical "Weekly Looks" post, but as I was writing it, I realized that it was more useful to make it a review of Emilynoel83's The Emily Edit: The Wants palette by Makeup Revolution. I did four looks with this palette (plus a bonus look with another palette) and have a review at the end.

The Emily Edit: The Wants:

Look 1:

Lid: Belle Violet (applied wet)

Transition: Prayer

Crease: Love Tons

Inner corner: Oh Heavens!

Lower lash line: Love Tons

Brow bone: The Cream

I was not a fan of this look. Belle Violet has essentially no pigment, and even when applied wet, it barely showed up and was not true to color whatsoever. Prayer also was lacking pigment. Love Tons was the only shade that showed up well, but it was patchy and hard to blend. Sadly, the way I felt about this look is indicative of how I felt about the entire palette.

Look 2:

Lid: Top Story (applied wet)

Transition: Hobby

Crease: Corduroy

Outer corner: Dark & Early

Inner corner: Oh Heavens!

Lower lash line: Corduroy

Brow bone: The Cream

Overall, I enjoyed the concept of this look, but it was very frustrating to apply. Again, I felt I had to apply Top Story (the shimmer) wet in order for it to have decent color payoff, and I found the mattes difficult to blend (which you can see in my outer corner). I do like the color of Corduroy, but like the other mattes, it was patchy and difficult to blend. 

Look 3:

Lid: Grateful (applied wet)

Transition: Cupcake

Crease: Laughcry

Outer corner: Pi Phi

Inner corner: Oh Heavens!

Lower lash line: Pi Phi

Brow bone: The Cream

This was my favorite look that I was able to achieve with this palette. And by favorite look, I mean that I think it came out looking the nicest. It wasn't my favorite color combination. Again, I had to apply the shimmer, this time Grateful, wet, and I was surprised to find that it looks much more yellow-gold than green, which is how it looks in the pan. Cupcake is a very disappointing shade that, like Belle Violet, has essentially no pigment. Laughcry and Pi Phi were difficult to blend. 

Look 4 (photos taken a few hours after application):

Lid: Pizzazz (applied wet)

Transition: Cupcake

Crease: Family

Lower lash line: Family

Brow bone: The Cream

Yet again, the shimmer, this time Pizzazz, needed to be applied wet to get any decent pigment. Again, Cupcake was essentially invisible. Family also lacked serious pigment and was patchy and difficult to blend. I took these pictures a few hours after application, and as you can see, the colors have faded and transferred on the inner portion of my eye onto the brow bone. 

Look 5: BH Cosmetics Weekend Festival:

Lid: Wicked (applied wet)

Transition: Electric 

Crease: Dippie

Outer corner: Swag

Lower lash line: Wicked (applied dry)

In comparison to The Wants palette, using the Weekend Festival palette was a treat. I really loved this look. I chose to apply Wicked wet, but when it is applied dry on the lower lash line, it had a good amount of pigment. The colors were vibrant and easy to apply. 

Overall Thoughts on The Wants

When I first saw this palette, I was really pleased with it. It seemed to have a good color story, I felt like it could make a lot of looks, and it appeared inclusive. I also absolutely adore Emilynoel, and I have to admit that I really wanted to have a palette that she made (or at least curated the color selection). I love how much personality there is in the palette, and between the shades and the names, it really says Emily to me. I think it has great packaging, and I love the giant mirror in it.

Unfortunately, that's where the positives stop. This was one of the worst palettes that I have used in a long time. Every single shimmer that I used required wet application in order to have any kind of decent pigment. Every single matte shadow that I used was dry, patchy, and hard to blend. The worst offenders, I think, in the entire palette are Eve Rose (which literally looks like nothing), Belle Violet, and Cupcake. On a personal level, that's really disappointing to me because Eve Rose and Belle Violet are named after Emily's daughters, and Cupcake is named after her cat. So it's odd to me that these very special names would go to the worst shades in the palette.

There wasn't a single shadow that I used that I particularly enjoyed, and by the end of the week, I just didn't want to use the palette anymore.

Without being too dramatic, I have to say that I am so incredibly disappointed in this palette. I just don't think that it's good quality, even for $20 (plus tax and shipping, which brought mine closer to $30). I haven't really seen any negative reviews of this palette yet, and I have to say I'm really shocked by that. I honestly feel like the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill palette is of much better quality, and I don't particularly enjoy that palette or think the quality is very good.

I really, really wanted to love this palette, but I don't. And I think the issue is 100% Makeup Revolution's formula. I think that Emily curated a gorgeous color scheme, but I don't think the shadows she had to work with are of high quality. This was the first Makeup Revolution product that I've tried, and I can't say that I would go out of my way to purchase another product.

I'm not totally sure what I will do with this palette. If this was any other palette, I would immediately declutter it. But since it is Emily's and it is such a passion project for her, part of me wants to hold onto it. However, I know that is flawed thinking. Part of me wants to believe that if I use it again, the quality will be better, but that's just not going to happen. And I have too many fantastic shadows in my collection to try and make bad ones work.

In the end, I don't recommend this palette. I HATE to say that because I know how hard Emily worked on this, but liking someone's content and "wanting to support" them isn't reason enough to buy a bad quality product.

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At the end of this post, I just wanted to give another brief update on a personal matter. If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that last year, I had two major surgeries. This week, I found out that I'm going to need another surgery very soon and potentially more after that. It was expected, but a little disheartening nonetheless. When I had my two previous surgeries, I went a little silent on the blog, so I imagine I may post a bit more infrequently during that time. This surgery isn't as major as the other two, but it's still surgery and I don't know how I'll be feeling.