23 September 2017

Is the Huda Beauty Desert Dusk Palette the worst eyeshadow palette ever?

If you've been around the make up world for the last few years, you'll know how bad eyeshadow palettes are criticised.

Every YouTube video I watch for every eyeshadow palette, has been pretty bad lately. A bit of history, I didn't purchase the HB rose gold textured palette due to the really really bad reviews, mainly the glitter shadows, although I liked the colours. I then received it as a present, and I literally kicked myself that I did not buy it sooner. It's one of my faves!

Most reviews I watch, the reviewer would say they hadn't watched any other reviews so they were not biased. I've decided to do things a bit differently. For this review, I went through the most popular videos on YouTube, took all the 'opinions' about this palette, and will tell you if these claims are true/false. The opinions are of course my own, just like the others, but I wanted to be different lols.

So, here's the palette.


So Huda categorised her shades into:

- Eight matte shades:



The mattes are pretty pigmented. They blend really really well. There is kick back in the shadows, but this is as expected with pigmented colours. One thing I noticed was Amethyst isn't a true matte, there's definitely glitter in it. I thought it might have been from another shadow, but even in the deeper layers, there is definitely a fine glitter in it. But it's so fine, it definitely doesn't make a difference.

They are really blendable, and work pretty well.

- 6 pressed pearls




With flash:


These are crazy pigmented. They are different to the textured glitters in the Rose Gold palette. They're really buttery, pigmented and work really well with a brush.

- Three duo-chrome Toppers



With flash:


Huda actually says these are eyeshadow 'toppers'. These should be used with another shadow underneath. I've tried this with and without, and feel these look really good either way, but also very different if you use them underneath another shadow. I feel this is a really cool idea, as it just gives more ways to use the shadows.

Retrograde is a pink shadow - with blue glitter.

Twilight is on the similar spectrum as Retrograde -with pink/blue glitter.

Celestial is a gold shadow with pink glitter - this reminds me of my topshop highlight.

One pure glitter:



With flash:


So this is the shadow a lot of people have issues with. I'll touch more on that below. The reason I swatched twice was because the right is without a setting spray, and the left is with a setting spray. Huda actually says this is used best with a setting spray. I personally feel this works best with a glitter glue, because it literally is a loose glitter!

I actually think this is really unique. I am a huge fan of loose chunky glitter, and normally buy single loose glitters ranging from £10-£12. This is a really cool shadow, and it being in a palette is much better than purchasing single ones at a time. (I may write a post of my loose glitters, should I?).. If there was a palette of pressed chunky glitters, I'd so purchase.

Huda says these should be used on top of another shadow.

True or False?

Mostly, the reviews for this palette have been OK-ish. I've taken actual opinions from other reviews/YouTube videos and here's if I agree or not!

  • The eyeshadow colours are scattered; warm shades are not with warm shades, this is really bad! - Uhhhh... lol.. I don't even know what to say to that. I think that this palette is really eye catching. When I first saw it, I knew I needed it. I think Huda and her team probably worked really hard to make it eyecatching. I have to say - the mattes, Amber & Saffron are really similar. I wouldn't have minded if one or the other wasn't in there, and replaced with a different colour. 
  • The glitter eyeshadows break when you aren't even rough with them - Ok so I think these are mad buttery. I saw one girl's 'Twilight' break, so this is the first shadow I used. There was no way it could have broke if you use it normally, I stuck my brush in it as I normally would, if not more forcefully, and nothing happened except a normal dent. 
  • Matte's aren't pigmented and are streaky when applied, like the ABH subculture - no they're buildable and definitely really pigmented. I have to admit, the reviews of subculture made me steer clear of that palette - so I can't give an opinion on if they are similar. 
  • My shade Cosmo has fallen out! I turned my palette around - and shook it. I am happy to say it's still in the pan, and not one piece of glitter fell out when turned around. When I put my brush in to get the swatch with the setting spray, the glitter moved a lot and caused a dent - which is worrying, however, it's not going to look like a normal shadow in a different pan, because this is near enough the first shadow of it's kind! 
  • This palette lacks an inner corner highlight. - Nefertiti pls. 
  • The duochromes are not good with a brush at all - Yes, they definitely work better with your fingers, I found that they didn't look as glittery when applied with a brush, however I feel this is the case with a lot of glitter shadows. 
  • Amethyst isn't as pigmented as it seems. True. I don't feel like this is as pigmented as the others, this is probably due to the the certain pigments used in this colour. The other mattes are fab though. 

My overall opinion:

Do not purchase this palette if you're not light with shadows. A little goes a really really long way, for both mattes and glitter.

Do not purchase this palette if you are a beginner in shadows. This is noooot a beginner palette. This is a really creative palette.

This is a pricey palette - if you feel like the colours are not what you would wear, there's no need.

The only colour I don't like is Amethyst, as I'd never wear a bright purple shadow.

This is the most innovative, unique palette out there so far. After all, if it was the same as a staple palette, wouldn't Huda be slated for copying another palette?

Huda, you're doing great sweetie!

5 comments

  1. Replies
    1. Move pls bish we live in 2017 and don't discriminate people based on skin colour. Back to the village you go ✌��

      Delete
  2. I am definitely no beginner at makeup and own upwards of 40 eyeshadow palettes, both high end and drugstore, and I find all the shimmers/pearls to be terrible except Turkish delight, blood moon, and royal. And when I say terrible I mean worse than a lot of drugstore. They are so powdery, crumbly, and ashy, which is not how shimmers should be. The matters are wonderful though. This pallets is very confusing because I literally didn’t even think it was possible for shimmers to be that bad until I bought this pallets. And for $65 it is shockingggg. I literally don’t understand if I got a dud or what, but I bought it straight from the Sephora store. So I totally get the bad reviews.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am definitely no beginner at makeup and own upwards of 40 eyeshadow palettes, both high end and drugstore, and I find all the shimmers/pearls to be terrible except Turkish delight, blood moon, and royal. And when I say terrible I mean worse than a lot of drugstore. They are so powdery, crumbly, and ashy, which is not how shimmers should be. The matters are wonderful though. This pallets is very confusing because I literally didn’t even think it was possible for shimmers to be that bad until I bought this pallets. And for $65 it is shockingggg. I literally don’t understand if I got a dud or what, but I bought it straight from the Sephora store. So I totally get the bad reviews.

    ReplyDelete

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