What I'm Not Buying: Huda Beauty The New Nudes Palette (with Dupes)

Huda Beauty has released their newest palette, which is called the New Nudes, despite the fact that the shades are neither new or inclusive of nudes. 

And I won't be buying. 

Before we get into that, I just want to say that if you've been reading this blog for two years, you'll know that the last US election really hit me hard. And I am still reeling from the recent one. While there is much to celebrate and be happy about, I don't think elections will feel easy or uncomplicated for me for a while. So in an effort to get my mind off of things, I wanted to talk about this palette and why you don't need it. 

But because I'm reeling from this election and my general disgust for a large portion of my country, this palette especially pisses me off for its lack of inclusivity in color story and name. 

Let's start with the name. The "new" nudes. 

So, this is a new color scheme? This is a new play on "nudes" that we haven't seen before?

Cool. Okay. 

But... what about the BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel palette?

Or the Lorac Unzipped that's been around forever?

The Lorac Mega Pro 3?

What about the Urban Decay Naked 3, the name of which seems to imply a "nude" color scheme?

Or that really non-inclusive Too Faced palette, aptly called White Peach?

But those are older releases! This is a NEW take on repetitive rose-toned "nudes."

Oh, so you mean like the new Charlotte Tilbury Stars in Your Eyes palette?

Or the Urban Decay Naked Cherry?

So, yeah. Calling something "new" doesn't make it new. Sorry to break it to you, Huda Beauty, but rose-toned palettes have been around forever. Just because you've got some chunky glitter shades thrown in doesn't mean you've made anything "new."

And, while we're talking, Huda Beauty, calling something "nude" seems to imply a skin color. And having a really light palette that is called "nude" is not only wrong, excluding, and insulting to literally every other skin tone, but that's also not "new." Brands have been making this gross misjudgment since before you were even relevant. In 2018, especially, this is a bad look. 

I could tell you about how repetitive this color scheme is and how you most definitely already have these shades already (and I guess I did by displaying the many similar palettes above), but I thought it would be better to show how easy it is to recreate this palette with shadows you already have. 

So, I did. I duped it. 

As a small disclaimer, I based my shadow selections off of these swatches, which are very clearly heavily applied and therefore not really indicative of true colors:

And I went from this:

To this:

Row 1: Colourpop Say I Do, Colourpop High Strung, BH Cosmetics matte peach, MAC Cranberry, Coloured Raine Ladyship, and Lime Crime Venus

Row 2: Colourpop Silver Lining, ABH Pink Champagne, BH Cosmetics matte mauve, ABH Rosette, Ardency Inn Rose Gold, and Viseart shimmery magenta

Row 3: Coloured Raine Heir, ABH Dusty Rose, Coloured Raine Moments, Makeup Geek Bitten, Make Up For Ever shimmery bronze, and Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear

Now, if you're going to argue that this duped palette doesn't have those chunky glitter shades, I would say to use any Stila Glitter and Glow shadows you might have. 

Like Rose Gold Retro:

Or Smoky Storm:

Here is a look I created with my dupe palette and Stila Rose Gold Retro:

Lid: Ardency Inn Rose Gold and Stila Rose Gold Retro

Transition: BH Cosmetics matte peach

Crease: Colourpop Silver Lining

Outer corner: ABH Rosette and Makeup Geek Bitten

Brow bone: matte white

Inner corner: Urban Decay Roadstripe

Lower lash line: ABH Rosette

Similarly with how I felt when I duped the Natasha Denona Gold palette, my duped New Nudes palette left me really underwhelmed. I think I made a version that is more friendly toward people of color, but there still feel to be too many light shades. Some of these shadows barely show up on me, and I have a light to medium skin tone. So how will those perform on people with a darker skin tone?

The New Nudes also feels utterly monochromatic. All of these palettes feel that way. Naked Cherry, Naked 3, Charlotte Tilbury Stars in Your Eyes—they're all one note: rosy. And if I'm going to spend upwards of $70 on a palette, it sure as hell better be more than one note that I've seen over and over.

And for the record, yes, I think promotional pictures of this palette look really appealing. I like pastel shades, and I like pinks and purples. But when I look at the duped palette with my shadows that aren't new to me, I'm just not that excited. And that's because it's the newness of products that really have the big pull over us, even when we know we already have those shades in our collection. And if I don't want to use my own shadows within this color scheme, why should I pay $70 for new versions of these same colors?

This palette just doesn't have anything exciting to offer—other than it's a new palette, and that newness excites people. It's a palette that a lot of brands have done, and it continues to be a palette that is not inclusive. It is meant for white people and others with a light skin tone. And if there is ANYTHING that the makeup community doesn't need, it's exactly that. It continues to astound me how many brands do not prioritize diversity and inclusivity, and I'm disappointed in this latest offering from Huda. 

For me, I have owned the Naked 3 and decluttered it, owned Loraz Unzipped and decluttered it, owned the Carli Bybel palette and decluttered it, and can dupe this palette with shadows in my own collection—the combination of which doesn't excite me. This color scheme is one that I don't feel I can get too many diverse looks from, and I just have other palettes within my collection that excite me more. 

There's nothing new about The New Nudes and nothing that makes me want to buy it. So, I won't.

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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: 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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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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