With the huge growth in the makeup community, more brands are popping up and constantly releasing new products. Makeup gurus on YouTube receive PR packages, meaning they get all the new makeup for free and have to review it for their viewers. Eyeshadow palettes are something every brand comes out with constantly, and a lot of them are overhyped. People get so excited over the newest launch, only to be disappointed with the performance.
Here are some palettes that I believe are overhyped products that have disappointed me, or others:
Urban Decay Naked Palettes $54
These palettes are considered a “cult favorite” in everyone’s collection, meaning almost every makeup lover has one, even if it’s not something they use all the time. The Naked Palettes are most likely one of the first high end palettes a makeup junkie buys in their collection, yet it might be one that gets stuck in the back of the drawer and never used after they’ve collected more. Darienne Cannao, a makeup collector and lover said, “When I first started experimenting with makeup, I had no idea what I was doing. So one year for Christmas, I asked for the Naked 2 palette and thought that was the best palette you could ever own. As I’ve gotten way more into makeup, I’ve realized that the quality isn’t as great as I once thought. They aren’t bad palettes at all, but I would mainly recommend them to someone just starting out with makeup.” They are great palettes for your basic, everyday look, but the quality is not the best when you compare it to other eyeshadow palettes.
Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palettes (and its sister Palettes) $49
Another cult favorite, another overhyped palette. Too Faced is known for their cute and colorful packaging and products, yet their Chocolate Bar Palette collection is a big “bleh.” It has a lot of natural colors, besides the couple pops of pink here and there. The eyeshadows do have great pigment and a great formula, but it’s just another boring set of palettes. The newest palette to the collection is the White Chocolate Bar palette, which has a bunch of pastel eyeshadows. The colors are very chalky and the colors themselves don’t go together, which makes it very hard to create a cohesive look with the one palette.
Huda Beauty Rose Gold Palette $65
Overpriced? Yes. Over hyped? Definitely. Huda Kattan is a social media beauty guru and made her own company — we love a woman entrepreneur. Yet, her makeup is extremely overpriced and over hyped. She recently came out with a setting powder with many shades, and she completely ripped off an Indie Brand with the same “baking setting powder” concept. Huda’s first big release was her Rose Gold palette, and there was a lot of controversy around it. Huda re-released her palette because her first release got poor reviews. Even with the remastered palette, her color selection is very boring and her palette price is not worth it.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Sultry Palette $45
This brand is known for their very pigmented, yet loose eyeshadows. ABH has been around for a while, but after the release of the Modern Renaissance palette, they have been in the spotlight. The brand has had their highs and lows with palette launches, and their recent holiday launch is definitely one of the lows. Anastasia Beverly Hills released a palette that has a lot of the same neutral eyeshadows to their previous releases, but with a pop of pink. Beauty gurus on YouTube rave about the palette, but honestly it’s not that special and there’s a great, yet less expensive version out there. Colourpop and YouTuber KathleenLights collaborated on a collection, and the eyeshadow palette is very similar to the ABH Sultry. It has the same sort of shimmers, natural colors and even a pop of pink. The palette does have a couple blue shades, but honestly, the palettes are very, very similar.
Natasha Denona Sunset Palette $129
Natasha Denona is one of the most expensive brands in the makeup industry, and her eyeshadows perform very well, yet the Sunset Palette was one of those palettes that was talked a lot about, but was extremely overhyped. $129 is extremely expensive for an eyeshadow palette, especially if the eyeshadows don’t perform the best. Once again, Colourpop makes a palette called Yes, Please, which has the same yellow color and entire color scheme. The palette does have a few less shades, but the entire color story is the same. The Colourpop palette is 8x less expensive than the Natasha Denona palette, and the performance is pretty much the same.
Overhyped eyeshadow palettes don’t necessarily mean they are the best. Sometimes the cheaper the better; it all depends on performance!