What was the most disappointing eyeshadow palette you’ve tried? Did you just swatch it in store or did you buy it? Did you keep it?
Urban Decay’s Black Palette was a pretty big bummer. Then MAC has had some majorly disappointing quads (which I always think of as quads, distinct from palettes).
Thanks to Jessica for today’s question!
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Too Faced Enchanted Glamourland palette was a let down for me.
the elf little black beauty book was a major disappointment for me
Mac Evil Eye Quad was a disaster!
Christine, I also think of quads and palettes separately, too. I just started getting into palettes, so I only have the two UD NAKED ones. I know I am in the minority, but I don’t love the original. I can’t say it’s a bad palette, but I didn’t find it as great as everyone else made it out to be, but I LOVE the 2nd. I feel the 2nd suits me better, has more variety, and I end up creating more looks with it. I also find all the shadows in it work for me. Virgin in the original is SO DRY. It looks like it has a dry film layer over it. It’s also hella ashy on me and I’m light-medium. Naked shows up when I swatch, but doesn’t on my lids. And I’ve never touched Creep or Gunmetal other than to swatch. I am someone who adores Half Baked, so it was the one I was happiest to see in the 2nd even though I think it’s a little random/out of place in the 2nd. Also, I wanted Hustle to be darker, and Busted is a slightly darker version. I’ve used the 2nd more than the original, and I’ve had the original since before Christmas. I actually had no intention of buying it…I only did to curb my want for NAKED while the 2nd was sold out on UD, haha.
The MAC snow globe palette in warm from the holiday 2011 collection 🙁
Gah I felt like that entire collection was a hot mess. Unless it’s a new pigment or something truly outstanding, I tend to steer clear from MAC specials.
I have to agree with Christine Urban Decays Black palette was a major let down. I’ve only used it once and wish I could get my money back for it. It was no where as great as I anticipated it to be nor do I feel like I can use the colors because they come out sooo super dark. $36.00 for it to just sit in my drawer. 🙁
I don’t normally buy things without checking reviews and sWatching the product first so the only ones I’m a bit disappointed at ate the mostly matte 120 palettes and 88 palettes. They’re not all bad but a lot of the matte shades are powdery, dry, and even non do pigmented when applied on eyes.
All Stila and ELF palettes!
I absolutely LOVE the UD Black Palette! My personal favorite is ‘Cobra’ 🙂 It’s a great smokey eye color for me!
I’ve lucked out
I’ve lucked out when it comes to eyeshadow palettes. Out of the 15 that I have the only one that disappointed was the Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Collection in Petal Pusher.
Givenchy Prismissime Arty Palette. I became mad to find it (it was LE and out of stock almost everywhere), I paid a lot of money for it and it is impossibile to use. The colors have the worst pigmentation ever and a poor longevity too. The only cool thing of this palette is the packaging (stunning).
I have this smokey eye palette from Kat von D that’s kind of a disappointment. The colors are very pigmented but they don’t blend well and the cream shadow they included was bone dry when I bought it.
I also got this Sephora Eden palette, mostly because I liked how they listed where in Africa several of the parts and ingredients came from and who produced them. It was nice and I wish more companies did stuff like that, but the colors were all pretty sheer. It’s nice to look at. I think about giving it to my niece or my sister sometimes.
that will be the one from mac quite cute collection, the cutie quad, I didn’t buy when the collection came out, and then I saw in my closest cco. What a mistake was to buy that quad, poor pigmentation and only had 1 color with decent color pay off. Thanks god the lady at the cco let me exchanged for the a wonder woman quad.
that will be the one from mac quite cute collection, the cutie quad, I didn’t buy when the collection came out, and then I saw in my closest cco. What a mistake was to buy that quad, poor pigmentation and only had 1 color with decent color pay off. Thanks god the lady at the cco let me exchanged for the a wonder woman quad. I also didn’t like urban decay naked palette 1, I know many people love it, but it has too much fall out in some eyeshadows, the #2 I really love.
NYX’s Lake Moss palette. The colours look gorgeous in the pans but applied and blended, they all turn the same muddy black colour. Mac’s Caviar Dreams quad was a bit of let-down too, just because the shade “Caviar Dreams” shows up so poorly and palely.
How funny-that was the one shade in my palette that actually works *beautifully*!
I kind of like the UD Black palette…
The most disappointing for me was definitely MAC’s 6 Beauties Play It Cool palette from the Tartan Tale collection. The colours looked great in the pan but were all muddy and similar when swatched, wtith appalling texture and colour payoff. The Bobbi Brown Peony & Python palette (or Python & Peony or something) was similar to Beauties Play It Cool and it was a let-down too.
My BH Cosmetics 28 Neutral Palette. I actually use it pretty often now, but when I first got it, I was disappointed in the pigmentation and how much product I have to use to create the looks I want. Also, I had heard there were a lot of dupes for mac neutral colors and I just didn’t agree at all once I had the colors in front of me.
I was disappointed in the UD black palette at first because all the colors appeared black when applied. I couldn’t see the subtleties between the colors. After giving it more of a chance and playing around with it, I could see that half of the colors are black-based, but the silver, purple, and blue are all very deep versions of their color and they work really well to intensify a colorful smoky eye.
I’ve had the most disappointment in Stila palettes. The mattes especially can be powdery, patchy, and just blah!
The most disappointing palette that I’ve recently tried has been the NYX Crimson Amulet ($24.99). The eyeshadows had tons of fallout, pigmentation was terrible and the liquid liner burned my skin. While the blushes and highlighter were good overall it was a waste of money so I returned it.
@Zadidoll Oh, yikes. Mine just got delivered today. I haven’t opened it up yet. Sounds like a return trip to ulta might be in my future.
I found the original Naked palette to be a big disappointment, but not due to quality or anything, and I actually really like all the colors-individually. However, I bought the Naked 2, and when I took out the original to compare, I found that the 2 really complement one another. The same goes with BoS IV; I just don’t find much cohesion. But then, I find I usually have to supplement pallettes with other shadows anyway, so I guess these issues really aren’ta deal-breaker for me.
Then there are the countless drugstore pallettes I’ve bought over the years, but given the cost, even if 1 or 2 colors worked out, it was worth it. Also, I knew what to expect.
The black palette and the Naked palette were crap in my opinion. Didnt buy the Naked2 as a result.
Bobbi Brown’s Nude Palette! I hate it!
Ahhh it’s so weird but I agree – I actually love a few of her powder eyeshadow singles but that palette was the dumbest thing I’ve ever bought, could hardly tell I had eyeshadow on at all. Used it twice then threw it out, what a waste.
UD Naked. Not a fan of UD shadows.
Mac Shadowy Lady… darn hard to get payoff! 😛
Agree with the black palette. Such a waste of money
hated the UD Black Palette as well. Apparently there was supposed to be different colors in there, but they all just looked black.
I’ve never heard someone say that didn’t like the UD Naked palette. Nothing wrong with that, I’m just in awe right now lol
Nyx Jazz Night Pallete
The black palette I wasnt a fan of either … I was expecting so much more.
Black Palette totally, I’m a big smokey eye person and I could barely tell the difference between all of the shadows, total waste of money.
Two Faced Smoky Eye Palette
Jordan: I hated the UD Naked palette too. Big hype over nothing. Didnt like UD Naked 2 either
Smashbox Click It, You’re It from holiday 11. Color payoff sucks, but the gel liners aren’t too bad.
As a woman of color, any Clinique palette is wrong for darker skin. Love their skincare but the colors are for lighter skin tones.
That’s easy a Kat von D palette I bought a couple of years ago from Sephora.. total crap on all levels. Fallout and no pigmentation to speak of. I have not purchased any of her other products as a result.
All Bobbi Brown powder shadow palettes to me are overpriced with little payoff. I gave up on her powder shadow a long time ago.
Kat Von D palette. It was the disappearing shadow. Took many coats to even build color and mid day, it was a faded disaster. Total garbage.
wet and wild’s all matte palette. Chalky, dry, and hard to blend colors.
The Elf palettes are just awful. There might be 3 out of 12 shades that actually show up, with primer. Luckily it was a gift. The Wet n Wild 8 pans were a little disappointing. The Comfort Zone one is amazing, but I really only see myself using half of the colors in the other 2. I got them for 2/$3 at CVS though!
A four pan from Smashbox that was on sale on Sephora. I was making an order to get my birthday item last year (my first Jack Black lip balm), and threw that in as well. The quality was all right, nothing spectacular, but the colors don’t seem to go together, and they’re not really colors I like, either. To be honest, that was the last time I jumped on a product solely because it was a great deal.
Interesting to see some hate for the Kat Von D stuff, I find it on par with my UD shadows, quality wise. (Though I agree, the cream shadows in them are useless.)
@Quinctia I really like the Kat Von D pallettes; I have all of them except Angeles & Mi Vida Loca, only because the colors don’t work for me.
I loved both Petal Pusher and Comfort Zone (Yes, Petal Pusher is very weak, but I love the purple shades in it), but I think I’m in minority here :p
I didn’t like Elf 32 colour palette, the colours were very boring to me.
Mac hearterette ( don’t know if it’s correctly spelled) and dame Edna as I remember so far… Both doesn’t have any payoff color …
UD Rollergirl.. Wanted to love it, but just couldn’t make it work for me.
UD BOS IV I think (the one with the iPod thing) not UD standard at all eyeshadow wise. Concentrate more on the make up and leave the technology to the experts IMO :/
Too faced smokey eye palette. I was so bummed..I like one matte highlight shade, the rest are just hard to work with, don’t blend well and I am bummed I wasted the money on it.
Two Faced Matte Pallet.
Urban Decay BoS IV 🙁
I collect ud palettes and I had to pass on the black palette. I swatched it in sephora and was disappointed that they all seemed pretty alike to me. I like black and dark eyeshadows, but I have plenty of similar eyeshadows in other non-ud palettes and It didn’t seem worth it to me.
I was pondering this today while making a few purchases! I generally prefer to buy single colours as I find I tend to use one or two in palettes and the rest go to waste.
UD Naked for me also. BORING!!!
Too Faced’s romantic eye palette. I wanted to love it so much but I just couldn’t. The beautiful green shade is not nearly as pigmented as I’d like it to be, along with some of the other lighter colors. I kept the palette but I don’t use it very often. I looked at reviews and swatches online and it got good reviews. Maybe I just got one from a bad batch 🙁
The nyx palettes where you get like 12 eyeshadows are awful.
The mac Cult of Cherry one with the bright green in it. I’ll give it another try but from what I remember the green was weak so I kind of forgot about it
A stila palette that looks like a gigantic circly swirly thing (yeah I know, great description). I bought it at Nordstrom rack so couldn’t really refund it. The colors come out chalky and the colors all end up looking the same when you actually put it on no matter how different they look in the pan. I just stay away from stila after that.. which is a bummer since I am going to IMATS and I know they have amazing discounts.
Naked 2. There is no need for it really and I cannot stand the glitter and fall out.
L’oreal quads or palettes are always dissapointing to me…
BH coemetics eyeshadows palettes. Also the Bobbie Brown Pastel Eye Shadow Palette
The Body Shop was disappointing for me 🙁 didn’t last that long plus you need to put a lot! Not really worth the price… I like Shawill cream shadow palettes from Korea. Super affordable (*I already got 3 of 12 color palettes)! 😀
Sonia Kashuk Eye Shadow Quad in “Cotton Candy”. I was looking for more or less neutral colors, leaning to warm. The shadows were pale orange, warm pink, milk chocolate, and pale yellow, looked promising in the pan. But they all looked the same on the eyelid, like off-white talc.