Playing Favourites

Did anything cement my status as a 21st century beauty consumer more than the purchase of this Jaclyn Hill Favorites Palette by Morphe Brushes? I'm not a rabid follower of the big "YouTube gurus", but when someone has two million subscribers, it's hard to deny their success and influence. These YouTube stars really are the new category of celebrity in the social media age. I wasn't falling over myself to secure this palette (it immediately sold out when it was first released in January this year), but I figured it was fate when I randomly woke up in the middle of the night EXACTLY when the palette was scheduled to be restocked. Presale began at 10am California time, which was 3am for me in Sydney. I wasn't crazy enough to set my alarm for that time, but I figured if I woke up later and it was still available, I'd order. But for whatever reason, I naturally abruptly woke up 3 minutes after 3am. I took that as a sign.

I'd never heard of Morphe Brushes except from YouTube, but as far as I know, they're a relatively affordable American makeup brush and cosmetics company. You can buy everything on their website and they ship internationally, though they do have one physical store in Burbank, California. Information about the origin of their products was hard to find on their website, but their eyeshadows are made in China, as I suspect are the rest of their products. I personally don't mind makeup being made in China, though I know not everyone will share that view. A lot of cheaper eyeshadows with decent/good pigmentation are made in China, like Wet n Wild, Sleek and MUA. I was expecting this palette from Morphe to be comparable to those brands, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it's a step up.

First things first, the price. The 28-pan palette was $27.99 USD and I used Jaclyn Hill's affiliate code for 10% off (bringing it to $25.19 USD). The real killer was the shipping. Like my experience with my ColourPop order, shipping was almost as expensive as the product. In this case, $20.45 USD, or 81% of the cost of the palette. Ludicrous. All up, the palette cost me $62.53. Considering I get 28 colours, I figured I could live with $2.23 per shadow, especially since the shadows on their own are $2.29 USD each. I did have a hiccup ordering with my credit card and had to resort to PayPal, but things worked out in the end.

The palette assembles Jaclyn Hill's purported favourite shades from the Morphe individual eyeshadow range. While the palette was limited edition and won't be restocked again, each 1.5g shadow can be purchased alone, though it'll be a more costly exercise and a bunch of them are currently sold out on their website. Morphe also does several premade 35-pan eyeshadow palettes, but the shades aren't individually labelled and apparently the quality of these palettes is inferior to the individual shadows.

(Source: Morphe Brushes)

It took me forever to search and compile the names of the shadows when only the number was provided on the Morphe website, but it seemed like a worthwhile exercise for ease of reference. What's most impressed me with this palette has been the uniformity of pigmentation. I'm pleased to say there wasn't a single dud. The ultimate test of a good cheaper eyeshadow comes down to how the mattes perform. Anyone can do a shimmery or metallic shade with high colour payoff. The mattes here however, were smooth, not powdery or chalky, pigmented, and easy to blend. In general, the texture of these shadows are probably the best I've encountered for the price point, especially because fall out is kept to a minimum. I would still recommend wearing a primer or cream shadow underneath these shadows to increase their vibrancy and wear time. They could probably hold up fine on their own, but I did notice some fading during the day.

In terms of the colours, sadly the highlight shades weren't for me (Pearl and Glisten are too light and whitish, so I'm left with Pink Moscato, which I occasionally mix with a bit of Lustrous). A lot of the warm brown/orangey shades (Caffè Macchiato, Spice, Dazzling) recall the Too Faced Semi-Sweet Palette. A few of the matte shadows, particularly the mid-tone browns, are also very similar (Toasted Hazelnut, Crème Brulee, Nuts For You), but they're such staple shades that it doesn't hurt to have 3 of them. Having said that, I would've preferred if they swapped one of them for a darker brown similar to Deep Cocoa. The only matte in the palette with comparable darkness is Secretive, but that's a vampy reddish burgundy that can be at odds with a more neutral look. I'm glad however, there isn't a black in there, because ... boringggg.

My favourite and most used shades in the palette are Caffè Macchiato, Spice, Golden Glory, Marbleized, Dazzling, Caramelized, Deep Cocoa, Burlesque and Secretive. Predictably, they're mainly the warm browns/bronzes. Still, I love the inclusion of pops of colour in the form of jewel-tone hues, summery brights, and whimsical shade-shifting pastels. It's what makes the palette so appealing to me, because it offers something different while still catering to all your neutral needs.