Weekend Looks: Duped Modern Renaissance and Sephora Pro Editorial

To complement my incredibly productive week, I have had a very relaxed weekend. I've continued watching movies at home, which has certainly been a highlight of my month, and I've been working toward making improvements on the blog.

In terms of makeup looks, I seem to have taken the Pantone Color of the Year to heart as I've been loving purple. (As a side note, my love of purple has absolutely nothing to do with the color of the year.) I suppose this is only a slight deviation from my love of pinks, oranges, and corals, but I'll take it. I created two looks that I loved this weekend, including one that has quickly become an all-time favorite.

Here are the two looks I did this weekend.

Look 1: Duped Modern Renaissance

Lid: ABH Macaroon 

Transition: Makeup Geek Cupcake

Crease: Natasha Denona Nina's Orchid

Brow bone: Viseart white

Inner corner: Makeup Geek Phantom

Lower lash line: Natasha Denona Nina's Orchid

Look 2: Sephora Pro Editorial 

Lid: Electric Violet

Transition: Myiesha

Crease: Eliza D

Brow bone: Porcelain

Inner Corner: Urban Decay Roadstripe

Lower lash line: Hector E

Look 1: Duped Modern Renaissance

Since I wrote a post about my duped Modern Renaissance palette, I've updated the palette. This is something that I often do with my custom palettes, especially ones that are "dupes" of popular palettes. As I start working with a color scheme, I figure out what works for me and what doesn't, and I adjust the palettes accordingly. As of now, I am very happy with the way this palette looks (but that doesn't mean that I won't change it again), and at this point it is less of a "dupe" and more "in the spirit of" palette. With that said, I absolutely love this palette, and I have been getting a ton of use out of shadows that I haven't touched in months, which is also something I find so exciting and inspiring about custom and duped palettes. In terms of the actual look that I did, I love it. I hadn't used Natasha Denona Nina's Orchid much since I first bought the 5-pan palette that it came in (number 10) years ago, and I wanted to see how it would look in the crease. I loved it. I thought it was pretty and almost neutral, but with a bold splash of color. I love this electric purple in the crease and am looking forward to working it into more looks.

Look 2: Sephora Pro Editorial 

This look took the cake for me this weekend, and it frankly was my favorite look I did all week. I love this look. And I mean I really, really love it. I've said this before, but I've always felt conflicted about Sephora Pro Editorial. I absolutely love the middle two rows, but I'm not nearly as crazy about the top and bottom rows. I did a declutter this weekend, and I thought about this palette. I knew that I truly loved parts of it, but I wondered if I loved it enough to make up for its shortcomings. And sure enough, when I used it for this look, I was swept off my feet in rich pigment. This is what I feel ABH Subculture wanted to be, which is saturated pigments but also completely bendable and little to no fallout. I wasn't expecting to love the look of electric violet and red, but I really do. When I thought about what color to add to the lower lash line, I contemplated the electric violet or a darker purple, but I wanted to be a bit more adventurous and go with a shimmery orange. And I think it turned out fantastic. A shimmery orange on the lower lash line has been something I've done a lot recently, and I think it just adds a little bit of interest to the look. I'm still frustrated that parts of this palette are not very strong, but the parts that are strong are so phenomenal that this is staying in my collection.

Weekend Looks: Sephora Pro Editorial vs. NYX Brights

So, last week, after I wrote about the NYX Fire palette, I continued to be intrigued by the dialogue surrounding the price increase of the NYX In Your Element palettes. As I mentioned in that post, the Fire palette was the first experience I had with NYX shadows, and I was really impressed. And I said that if the quality of those palettes was the same as other NYX palettes, then I, too, would be really disappointed with the price increase. So I made a conscious decision to buy a NYX palette that had caught my eye but that I had previously chosen not to buy because I had similar colors in my collection. While I don't like to bring new makeup into my collection on a regular basis, there have been a couple of times where I felt a little uninformed as a blogger due to having limited or no experience with a product. And this was one of those times. 

So I thought it could be interesting to try to create the same look with two separate palettes, one being from NYX and one being something I already know I love. And that's what I did this weekend. 

Look 1: NYX Brights 

9 on the inner lid, 6 on the outer lid, 4 in the crease (supplemented by Colourpop Cannonball and Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear), and 16 blended above the crease (supplemented by the yellow shade in the NYX Fire palette). Marc Jacobs highliner in Whirl(pool) on the waterline. 

Look 2: Sephora Pro Editorial 

Chris and Helend P on the inner lid, Electric Violet on the outer lid, Tangerine blended into the crease (supplemented by Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear), and the yellow shade from NYX Fire blended above the crease. Marc Jacobs highliner in Whirl(pool) on the waterline. 

Overall, I am impressed that the two looks came out as similar as they did. But, if it's not obvious by the look descriptions above, I struggled with the NYX Brights palette. I had to pack on the color and apply several layers. And even then, I still had to go in with other shadows to get the look I was after. The orange shade in the crease, especially, just was not very pigmented. When I finally caved and applied Colourpop Cannonball, it felt like such a treat to use a shadow that had pigment and was easy to work with. And I feel like my overall feelings can be summed up by the fact that I went in with the yellow shade in the the Brights palette and ended up needing to use the yellow shade in the Fire palette to get it to show up. 

The Sephora Pro Editorial palette by comparison was so nice to work with. I've written about this palette before, and while I have mixed feelings (because the glitter shades are awful), I really love the colorful mattes. I had to supplement this look with Makeup Geek Coca Bear and the yellow shade from the NYX Fire palette because there were no comparable shades in the Pro Editorial. 

In terms of comparing these two palettes, I personally strongly prefer the Sephora Pro Editorial. With that said, the NYX palette can still make pretty looks, but in my experience, it just takes a little more product and time/effort. However, I think the NYX Brights palette has a better overall color scheme than the Sephora palette. I would have much preferred if the glitter shades in the Sephora palette especially were taken out in favor or some shades of yellow and lighter blues. 

But, the main purpose of this experiment for me was to compare the performance of these NYX shadows with the ones in the Fire palette. With tax, I think I paid around $20 for the NYX Brights palette, and the Fire palette was $30. In my experience and in my opinion, the quality of the Fire palette is far, far superior to that of the Brights palette. The packaging of the Fire palette is also considerably better than the Brights palette. And for the upgrades, I would happily pay an extra $10. In fact, I don't think the Brights palette should cost $20. I had pretty high expectations going into using the Brights palette because of the performance of the Fire palette, and I was disappointed. Again, that doesn't mean that the Brights palette is unusable, but it was not a palette that impressed me. And I will be giving it to a friend, especially since I have and really enjoy the Sephora palette. 

Separately, I would just like to praise the Marc Jacobs highliner in Whirl(pool) as this was by far my favorite part of both of these looks. I've previously used up a few Marc Jacobs eyeliners, but I was put off of using them after I used a sample-sized one that came in a holiday kit. I'm now convinced that the formula must be different on the sample sizes because Whirl(pool) reminded me of how much I used to love these eyeliners. It didn't budge on me all day, which is a complete anomaly. Also, the color. I love the color. I'm hoping to get brave enough to wear this to work because I just want to wear this all the time now. I cannot remember the last time I loved an eyeliner this much. 

What I'm Not Buying: Sephora Pro Cool Palette

The Sephora Collection X Sephora Pro palettes have officially launched. I've already written an anti-haul post on the warm palette (here), and this post will be dedicated to the cool palette. 

Because I won't be buying. 

As I said in the post about the warm palette, when I first saw the cool palette, I really, really wanted it. But, honestly, that feeling went away really quickly. And it is because, like the warm palette, I was able to see—immediately—that I already have all the colors in this palette.

At a glance, there is a lot going on in this palette. There are light/champagne colors, rosy shimmers, berries, taupes, and standard matte shades. When you break the entire thing down like that, it doesn't sound very extraordinary or unique to me at all. And I think what is happening with this palette, which is something that happens with a lot of palette, is the "group attractiveness effect." And what that means, essentially, is that if you were to look at each of these colors on their own, they likely wouldn't look that special to you. Or, if you were to look at each color individually, you might realize that you already have that color in your collection. But when you look at the entire thing, taking in all the colors at once, it all of a sudden seems completely unique. But it's not. It is just a collection of a bunch of typical shades.

Let's look at swatches:

These swatches were provided by a Sephora Pro artist, which is always something to keep in mind. These were not provided directly by the brand, but there is still a strong association with the brand. What I found interesting is that these swatches look far less appealing to me than the actual palette. And that's because the colors all just look so similar. The majority of colors on the right arm, for example, do not look all that appealing to me because they are just variations of white/cream. And apart from the few berries shades on the left arm, I'm not digging that one so much either. 

This palette also seems like a solid amount of it would not work on various skin tones. There are definitely parts of it that I think could work for all skin tones, which is great, but I always think it's better if entire palettes (or close to it) can work for all skin tones. 

Let's look at the palette again:

Do you know what I see when I look at this palette? The Lorac Mega Pro 1:

It is also very similar to the Mega Pro 3:

The rosy shimmers look exactly like the Lorac Unzipped:

And it also reminds me of the Tarte Tarteist Pro:

And ABH Modern Renaissance:

From my own collection, I have two custom palettes that give me the entire cool palette:

Between these two palettes, there are shadows from Natasha Denona, Lime Crime, Viseart, Too Faced, MAC, Coloured Raine, Makeup Geek, Costal Scents, ABH, and Colourpop. 

The Sephora Collection X Sephora Pro palettes are $68, which is a lot money, unless you are comparing it to the outrageous prices of the Natasha Denona palettes. I have a few Viseart palettes in my collection, which are pricier than these palettes from Sephora for less shadows, but I still think that $40 and up for a makeup item is expensive. And I like to keep that in mind whenever I consider buying something. And that is why I have to evaluate all items with a critical eye. If I spend that much money, I don't want it to be for something I already have. 

And as I have said in other posts, I love my custom palettes so much that I don't see any palette replacing them for me. 

I think it's great that Sephora is upping their game and trying to compete with some of the bigger brands. It's exciting to see Sephora improve formulas (hopefully). But, as with the warm palette, this palette just comes way too late for me as I already have all these colors. And, frankly, I like the arrangements of my customs palettes more than the layout of the Sephora palettes. So there is really no reason for me to buy this. And I won't. 

What I'm Not Buying: Sephora Pro Warm Palette

Sephora is releasing three "Pro" palettes this summer, in warm, cool, and editorial. This post is dedicated just to the warm palette. 

I won't be buying. 

So, here's the thing. I don't know what it is about consumerism and marketing, but when I first saw this palette (and the cool version, to be honest), my first thought was that the palettes were so beautiful and that I had to have them. 

Still. After all this time. After all this "makeup rehab" and anti-hauling, I still have these impulse moments of "I have to have that."

From what I can tell, this is a Sephora Collection x Sephora Pro release, and I honestly have no idea what that means. I didn't realize that the two things were separate. Either way, this palette costs $65. 

Let's talk about that price for a moment. In some ways I think that price is really steep. And in others, I think it's not that bad at all. If we look at this palette in relation to other Sephora brand items, I think it's a lot of money. And that's mainly because Sephora brand items are usually considerably cheaper than other products in Sephora, and from what I have seen, Sephora brand eyeshadows aren't really that great. So, in that sense, this seems like a lot of money. 

However, and maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I feel like the quality of this palette is going to be quite a bit better than other Sephora brand items. This release feels like the brand put thought and effort into it and like they are now officially trying to compete with other brands sold in Sephora stores. And so when I compare the number of shadows in this palette to something from Natasha Denona (with her, frankly, outrageous prices), $65 feels like a steal. 

BUT. All of that means nothing if you already have all of these shadows in your collection. And if you are a person who has more than a minimal eyeshadow collection, my bet is that you already have all of these colors in your collection. I say that especially because if you are a person who is new to makeup and looking for your first big eyeshadow purchase, I would think this is definitely not the right palette to buy because of its size. So, my guess is that most people interested in this are the makeup obsessed. 

To get to the point of why I'm not going to buy this palette, let me show you my warm custom palette:

This palette is made up of shadows from Makeup Geek, MAC, Costal Scents, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Coloured Raine, Morphe, and Zoeva, among others. 

And it is important to note that these are just the shadows in this custom palette. That is not accounting for all the shadows I have in other palettes in my collection. 

Something I've realized about my own palette is that a lot of the matte browns look identical on my skin. And I think that is absolutely going to be true of this Sephora Pro palette as well. 

Let's look at the colors:

Like my palette, while there are subtle differences between several of the shades, I don't think the differences are distinct enough that it will be noticeable once applied onto the skin. 

Let's look at swatches. These came from "classylassy" on Reddit. You can look at the full post here. 

 

(Note: these swatches were applied with primer.)

I'm just going to be blunt here. There is absolutely nothing special about this palette. Nothing at all. Except that it's a new item.

And I would encourage everyone reading this right now to just take a moment and consider that.

This palette is filled with bronzes, golds, reds, tans, and oranges. Just like so many other things.

Like the Natasha Denona Sunset palette:

Or Colourpop Yes, Please:

Or theBalm Nude Beach:

Or Urban Decay Naked Heat:

Or Smashbox Ablaze:

Or Too Faced Sweet Peach:

Or Viseart Warm Matte:

Or Tarte Tarteist Pro:

Or Morphe 35O

Or Violet Voss Holy Grail:

Or ABH Modern Renaissance: 

The thing about each of the palettes I've posted above is that, at one time, these were the "it" palettes that everyone had to have. I'm sure there are many people out there, plenty of whom are considering buying the Sephora Pro Warm palette, who have at least one or two or more of these palettes. 

I've said this multiple times, but if you are a person who collections makeup and that's what makes you happy, then go for it. But if you are a person who is having a hard time resisting the hype, I would really encourage you to look at all of these palettes. Think about the time in which all of them were hyped, and then look at them within the context of all the other palettes. No one, not even professional makeup artists, needs all of these palettes. No one. The most fun and exciting thing about each of them when they were first released was that they were new. That's it. 

And that's the only thing that's exciting about the Sephora Pro palette as well. It's new. That's it. But guess what? Soon, it won't be new. And all that hype will have died down. And there will be something else new that everyone is obsessing over. And at some point, you just can't keep up anymore, and you probably won't want to. Because you will have spent so much money on makeup and you will have continued to buy the same things over and over. 

I very literally have all of the colors in this palette already. I don't need to spend $65 just to get more of what I already have because it's new and shiny. Although the color scheme is appealing, these are just colors that I already have arranged in a new way. I absolutely don't need this palette, and I won't be buying.