HUDA BEAUTY: TEXTURED SHADOWS PALETTE ROSE GOLD EDITION.

REVIEW & SWATCHES. 

Huda Beauty is one of the most influential beauty bloggers in the world. Her Instagram has nearly 16 million followers and from blogging and makeup artistry she's turned her hand to business. Her brand now produces eyelashes, liquid lipsticks and most recently this eyeshadow palette. This is the only Huda Beauty product I own, although I've heard very good things about every single other product, especially the eyelashes. 

I ordered this eyeshadow palette from Cult Beauty, a website here in the UK which stocks hard to get hold of brands. This product is also available from her actual website and other assorted retailers. On Cult Beauty this product was priced at £54 which was slightly more expensive than I'd anticipated although it does contain 18 shades, 6 foiled finishes, 1 shimmer and 11 matte shades. With a price of £54 and containing 18 shades this works out at £3 per pan. 

I absolutely love the look of this palette. I think it looks like a very well thought through cohesive palette with a lot of range of the looks you can create. The colours work very well together, there are enough light & dark colours, transition colours and groups of colours which work together to create a full look. This is often a big criticism of mine- that the shades don't work well together and that you cannot create a look from start to finish using only one palette. Additionally, the colours in this palette are totally up my street, they're mostly warm earthly tones but with a few pops of colours for more out-there looks. 

The packaging for this product is absolutely awful. After looking at several reviews I've seen that the packaging has been highly and widely criticised for being 'too cheap'- I completely agree. There is an outer cardboard sleeve with the iconic Huda Beauty eyes on the front but underneath this the same type of cardboard material. The clear section in the front of the palette is also made out of thin plastic. The whole thing just feels flimsy and un-luxurious (don't know if thats actually a word). For the price of this palette I just expected something sturdier and a bit more substantial. 

L->R: Dubai, Fling, 24K, Rose Gold, Trust Fund, Angelic.

L->R: #Blessed, Bossy, Flamingo, Shy, Bae, Moon Dust.

L->R: Black Truffle, Suede, Coco, Maneater, Henna, Sandalwood.

As for the actual products I just find this palette disappointing, and it totally pains me to say I because I had such high expectations (as did everyone). The matte shadows are nice but not amazing, I prefer the formula of ABH (Anastasia Beverly Hills) and MUG (Makeup Geek) shadows. I've also kind of found that they can tend to muddy up when they're applied and then blended together, although this could just be the way I apply them but I've seen others say this. As for the foiled shadows I find a lot of pros and cons about them. Huda Beauty recommends that they're applied with a finger and not a brush because of their foiled texture, and when I've used my finger they are amazing. They're different to other brands such as MUG foiled eyeshadows or shimmers in that they're very textured and coarse. In some respects this is good but only being able to apply them with a finger leaves a lot of problems. If you're doing any kind of precision work e.g. putting a shimmer on the lid or doing a cut crease, not being able to use a brush makes it very difficult to be at all precise and brushes do not pick up any product AT ALL so using a finger is really the only option. Additionally because these shimmer shades are so textured they are quite heavy on the lid. I've also had problems applying liner over these shadows, my  or my liner breaking up because of them. Don't get me wrong, these shadows are beautiful when used with a finger  (as you'll be able to see from the swatches) but they're difficult to work with and can be uncomfortable to wear. Again, this could be down to my eye shape and size, I don't have a lot of room to work with which definitely doesn't help! 

(I've included a picture of the pans after they've been used so you can see just how textured and chunky the shadows are.)

Overall I've just found this palette disappointing. £54 is a lot to pay for an eyeshadow palette, I feel I'd be a lot more forgiving if it was cheaper but raising the price also raises expectations. I will, of course, continue to use this palette, I hate being wasteful of makeup and I always try to use up a product even if it's not my favourite but I definitely wouldn't repurchase this product and, for the price, I don't think I'd recommend it. 

thanks for reading,

CATRIONA

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