What I'm Not Buying: Kat Von D Everlasting Glimmer Veil

Kat Von D has released a new lip product, called Everlasting Glimmer Veil. 

And I won't be buying. 

In the makeup world, I am a self-proclaimed eyeshadow addict. That was the first kind of product that really sucked me in, and I've been enamored with eyeshadow since. That's why the vast majority of content on my blog is about eyeshadow. Those have been the most difficult products for me to resist purchasing. In pretty much all other areas of makeup, I have a pretty tame collection, though "tame" is subjective. 

My lip product collection, I would say, is pretty lean. And I think that's because it has been challenging over the years to find colors that flatter me. I have a warm olive complexion, and I've just found that most lip colors look a little... off on me. That's not to say that I haven't found great ones—I certainly have. But I tend to live within a few color families that I know work for me (and this is mainly mauve). 

So when I look at people who are always up on the new lip products, I find that a little amazing. Lipstick just isn't where I play with makeup, so the releases always tend to pass by me, a little unnoticed. 

But this one didn't. 

Kat Von D announced a new lip product to her line, which can either work on its own or over her matte liquid lipsticks. And, as the name suggests, these products are shimmery/glittery. 

Let's look at swatches:

As you can see, there is a range of colors available with neutral and colorful options. And if these were liquid eyeshadows, I would certainly be interested in the orange, purple, teal, and blue options. 

The main draw of this product, I think, is in its marketing, as a product to be worn over liquid lipsticks: 

And the effect is very pretty:

But, this product is $22. And in reality, you can layer products you already have over other products you already have and achieve, probably, a similar result. 

Unless I'm missing something, this product just seems to be a (kind of late to the game) version of metallic liquid lipsticks. Like the ones from NYX:

Or Colourpop:

Or Jouer:

Or Too Faced:

Or the multitude of brands that have come out with a product like this. 

Personally, I've never been the biggest fan of the metallic lip trend. And I think that's because I grew up in the 1990s/2000s and relate metallic lips (and all the other "90s trends" younger girls seem to think are so cool) with being an awkward pubescent girl trying to achieve these looks:

But what's cool about makeup is that it is so personal, and everyone has different tastes and things they feel most flatter them. Metallic lips just aren't that for me. 

And in terms of glitter or sparkle, if I have any desire to add that to a lip color, I have Jouer Skinny Dip lip gloss:

While I am not personally a lipstick or lip product addict, from what I have seen from people who claim to be is that they continually buy the same colors over and over again. And the reason they give for buying the same thing is that they want to try whatever "formula." I feel that is something I hear all the time. It's definitely something that eyeshadow addicts are guilty of as well, but I feel it is even more prevalent with lipstick. 

But, here's the thing. When you have found a formula and color that you really love, I don't think it serves much purpose going out and buying more of the same colors in different formulas. I've seen people who will buy one lipstick, really like how it performs, and then buy every single color available. And then another new product will come out, and the cycle repeats itself. And the thing is, it's not like it is reinventing the wheel each time. Most lipstick formulas, I would say, are quite similar. Some of my favorites are Marc Jacobs, Bite, Estee Lauder, NARS, and MAC, but I also have an all-time favorite from Maybelline and Revlon. And just because you find a new formula that you like, it doesn't usually mean that you no longer like the last formula you discovered that you loved. And then you just keep accumulating all these lipsticks in the exact same color that—for the most part—probably don't perform all that different. 

My guess is that the people most interested in buying the Glimmer Veils probably already have colorful metallic liquid lipsticks or lip glosses that they can layer over other lipsticks and get the same effect. For those who are a little intimidated by color, I imagine they will gravitate toward Thunderstruck, which is the lightest, most neutral shade. And from what I can tell, Thunderstruck will perform similarly to any shimmery lip product. 

One last thing that I'd like to talk about is the marketing of this product. I want to reiterate that I really enjoy Kat Von D as a brand. I think the brand typically comes out with interesting products or color schemes that I haven't really seen before, and I like the ethics of the company in terms of being cruelty free and vegan. With other brands, I usually do a bit of an eye roll when I see they have released yet another new product, but I always pay attention and get a little excited by anything new from Kat Von D. (I also like that the brand doesn't come out with a new product every month like other brands.) But the marketing of this product as a "transformer" for the brand's liquid lipsticks feels like just that to me: marketing. Granted, I have not personally tried this product, but from what I have seen (including in the demo Kat Von D did), it seems like the effect could be achieved with many existing products that people already have in their collections or less expensive drugstore options. 

This product also feels like "makeup to play with." And what I mean by that is that this is makeup for people who want to post on Instagram with a totally fun, colorful look. Or people who just want to play around and get inspired by doing different things. I can also see this as a "going out" or special occasion product. And all of that is fine, don't get me wrong. I think playing around, being inspired, and trying new things is really great and exactly how makeup should be used. But I don't think this type of product will be an everyday staple for most people. And because of that, I just think looking into cheaper options might be the smarter way to go. 

While I think the concept of this product is interesting and find the (PR) lip swatches really pretty, I just don't think this product is all that practical or flattering outside professional photos. (See Temptalia's swatches here.) Metallic lips just aren't a trend that interests me, so this is an easy pass. 

What I'm Not Buying: Ofra x Nikkietutorials

Instagram brand Ofra Cosmetics has teamed up with YouTube personality Nikkietutorials for an incredibly expensive collaboration of three liquid lipsticks and a highlighter.

And I won't be buying.

I've mentioned before that I am really not a fan of collaborations. And that is because usually what happens is that either the price is crazy high or the quality of the product is pretty bad, or a combination of both. The reason for this is that both parties need to be paid. So, unless the brand wants to take a slight hit for the added exposure of working with someone (and very rarely do brands decide to do this), the price has to go up or the products need to be cheaper to make while selling for the same price.

As a disclaimer, I have never tried Ofra Cosmetics. And I have never heard of them outside the YT world. The first time I heard of them is when they collaborated with KathleenLights on a liquid lipstick, and then I only heard about them through the avalanche of people wanting to get something Kathleen recommended.

Here's my thing: I don't like or trust brands like this that only exist because they have paid some person on YT to shill their products. I think it wholly compromises the integrity of what the YouTube platform was once supposed to be. I don't know how in the hell regular consumers are expected to trust most people on YT when the entire platform has become more of a home shopping network than women shooting the shit and talking about makeup.

If the only reason I am going to learn about your brand is because you paid KathleenLights or Jaclyn Hill or Nikkietutorials to talk about you, then I am sure as hell not going to buy anything from you. End of story. This is my personal preference.

I have recently delved into the world of indie makeup (specifically eyeshadows), and I have not heard one of these "major" YT personalities talk about the brands I have purchased from. I have tried Morphe, Colourpop, Violet Voss, BH Cosmetics, etc. and the shadows from Fyrinnae blow all those out of the water. They are even better that a lot of shadows I've tried from Makeup Geek. And yet, none of these "influencers" talk about Fyrinnae. And they are supposed to be makeup enthusiasts who have made a career out of trying makeup products and "informing" people of great new products.

Thing is, I didn't just recently learn about Fyrinnae or other indie brands. Not by a long shot. I have been aware of the indie community for years. But I never dipped my toes in because 1.) I didn't think I would like loose shadows. 2.) (And this is embarrassing to admit) I wasn't hearing about them all the time the way I was hearing about MAC and Urban Decay and Too Faced, and so I figured they weren't very good. But now I see some of my indie shadows as the best in my collection, and I feel they are the best kept secret in this community.

And the reason they are a "secret" is because the brands haven't been paying people gobs of money to shill their products. Many of the brands are a one-person shop, and turnaround time can be a couple weeks or more because of that. But when I see these people on YT claim that Morphe makes the greatest shadows of all time and that if you can't work with them, you're bad at makeup (looking at you, MannyMUA), I have to call major, major bullshit.

And so because of that, I just have zero interest in a brand like Orfa that seems to be riding the coattails of these people on YT.

Let's talk about this collection of products.

You've got three liquid lipsticks and a highlighter from a small, internet brand. Since this is all packaged together and you cannot buy these products separately, that usually means the products are discounted in some way. Personally, I think this collection of items should cost $35 at the most. I think that's a fair price, leaning on the generous side. 

You wanna know something hilarious? This collection has a (fake) retail price of $79!!!

Can we all take a moment and pick our jaws off the ground or massage our cheeks from laughing too hard? When I first heard that price, I laughed so hard and actually said, "You have to be f***ing kidding me." And I instantly felt bad for all the young people out there who were going to spend this money (or their parents' money) on this ridiculous overpriced stuff. 

I said it had a "fake" retail value of $79 and that's because, "conveniently," Nikkie has an affiliate coupon code! Yay! No one expected that at all! And not only that, the coupon code is for 30% off, bringing the price down to $55.30. 

Now, I probably don't need to tell you this, but this entire scheme is complete bullshit. If you have ever worked retail or know someone who owns a business, you know that most sales are utter crap. Retailers mark up the original cost of the item to whatever the sale price is. So, if something is typically $20 and they are running a 20% off sale, they will mark up the original cost of the item to $24 so that when you apply the discount, it comes to $20, which was the original price. People are much more likely to buy something if it is on sale, which is why this is something many retailers do. 

The cost of this collaboration was never supposed to be $79. And, as I said, Nikkie "conveniently" has an affiliate coupon code. So, people think that they are getting this huge discount, but they're not. It is setup that way so that Nikkie can get profits off of the people who use her code. Even still, $55 for this is, in my opinion, a ripoff. I think all this stuff is overpriced considering prices of midrange brands sold at Sephora. 

As I mentioned, you cannot buy any of these items individually, and, inevitably, there is at least one product in this bundle that will not work for most people who buy it. This is just not a value whatsoever. 

To give this collaboration some credit, I do think that effort was made to include as many skin tones as possible. Even if something is not done perfectly, and even if this effort means that all the products cannot physically work for everyone, I am happy to see that an effort was made to be inclusive. 

With that said, I can say that, personally, I would get use—maybe—out of the lightest lipstick shade. And I don't even like liquid lipstick, so that's a stretch. 

I wouldn't use the highlighter. I've mentioned before that a highlighter is a highlighter and I already have plenty. Added to that, I don't think the three colors swirled together would look good on my skin and I would not use at least one if not two of the individual colors as highlighter at all. I also would not use these colors as eyeshadow since I already have a metric ton of eyeshadow that I love. Why would I try hard to make a highlighter "work" as eyeshadow when I already have eyeshadow? I wouldn't. 

The bright pink lipstick would not flatter me, and I highly doubt it would be a color that most people would enjoy or would have purchased on their own. I also wouldn't use the metallic brown shade. I think it's a cool shade and am glad she thought to include a shade like that, but I personally would not wear it much if ever. 

So, this was an incredibly easy pass for me. It was so easy that it kind of slipped my mind to write a post on it. But I really wanted to talk about how products are marketed and how shady this kind of behavior can be. Especially in a platform like YouTube, which can be incredibly manipulative. When you are watching QVC, you know you are watching an advertisement. When a commercial comes on, you know exactly what it is. But when you have subscribed to a person on a platform like YouTube to learn how to apply makeup and to learn what people enjoy, you don't immediately think that you are watching an advertisement. Many people on YT are very deceptive about disclosing if they are being paid to talk about a product. And that is because they DON'T want people to know they are watching an advertisement. They want people to think they are watching a friend who is honest. And that is grotesque to me. 

This collaboration reminds me of everything I dislike about the beauty community and specifically the YT community. And I won't be buying.