Have you ever purchased a mega set or vault?

I have! The one that stands out to me is Tom Ford’s Boys & Girls lip color sets; I know I purchased one of the sets that included a black lacquered box with 50 shades in it. With Tom Ford, you actually paid more because of the box, but it was the only way to get the Boys & Girls shades at the time so paying $50 or whatever extra was worth buying more time to review (they used to drop around Thanksgiving, which is… stressful to process).

If I expected to review a full range of shades, I’d definitely buy a vault/mega set, though, but I have found that they’re often released much later than the individual shades. I stay away from mega palettes; anything with more than 30 shades gets harder and harder for me to review in a timely manner. Nobody cares that it’s 30 shades – it’s still only counts as one review – but it takes 2 to 3x longer to review than a typical palette!

— Christine

18 Comments

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Mariella Avatar

Nope. The price is always a bit alarming, even if it’s good value, and almost invariably they contain many items or shades I don’t use so that diminishes the value considerably. I remember when UD came out with their Naked vault and I I already owned 2 or 3 of the palettes in the vault….

Kalyn Avatar

I purchased the UD 24/7 pencil liner vault a few years ago (maybe holiday 2015? 2016?) and it was one of the best purchases I’ve made! It had something like 40 eyeliners in it, essentially their entire 24/7 range at the time. I haven’t had to purchase eyeliner since and I have a liner to go with any look I could ever come up with.

Ana Maria Avatar

For people that use regularly colorful eyeliners I can see the pencil liner vault making sense. Especially since the UD 24/7 formula (in my opinion) is great. Even if you purchase one every 3-5 years (assuming it takes that long for the formula to expire / dry out), it’s still a good deal.
For people like me who wear sometimes brown and rarely black, it’s just a box of crayons. 😆
I’m curious, did in the meantime at least finished the black one? 😀

But if the formula is good (haven’t tried them to comment), the MUFE Artist Color Pencils seem better in a vault (they are targeted eye, lip & brow) . I’m surprised MUFE doesn’t sell a vault of those.

Kalyn Avatar

Honestly the black is one of my least used! I mainly use brown/green/blue so those are the farthest along. The only one I’ve finished so far is Invasion (dark teal) but a few others are almost done.

Nancy T Avatar

Almost! I did buy just about every single piece of both MAC Selena and Aaliyah collections (no regrets!) and UD GOT collection (what was I thinking?), minus a piece or two of each. It probably would have actually been wiser to buy both as vaults looking back on it now.
As for mega-palettes, I have no idea what I’d do with one, to be honest? Storage can be a little tricky, although I’ve managed to find a spot for my UD GOT e/s palette, so I’m sure I could. But lately, I find all larger palettes of 15+ shades or so to be just too much. The only ones I wouldn’t mind owning would be Viseart’s Vol. 1 and 3.

AJ Avatar

I never have — I think most of them don’t really make a lot of sense for anyone who isn’t a full-time reviewer. If I’m going to spend several hundred or even a thousand dollars on makeup I’d rather spread it out across things that I’ve chosen with the idea that they’ll look good on me and fill a niche in my collection, rather than having 50 of the same formula of lipstick, not all of which will work with my complexion and teeth.

Ana Maria Avatar

I think the biggest sets I purchased were two Sephora favorites kit with 6-8 haircare products (a dry shampoo and a `no-frizz` styling one). Anything else it’s too huge for me, and I wouldn’t ever purchase a mega set of make-up.

Ana Maria Avatar

Related to this topic, I’m really wondering how many people get the $450 Drunk Elephant vault with fridge. 😆
Thinking money wise, I probably spend more than ~$450 on skincare each year, but that would likely include: 3 cleansers and 3 SPF face creams, 4-5 make-up removers, a full sized AHA, two full sized BHAs, 1.5 full sized retinol product (or a full size and a mini), 2 vitamin C products (after 6 months they stop being as efficient for me), 2 full size moisturizers, 2 hyaluronic acid boosters, 1 face oil, 1.5 eye creams, 3-4 clay masks, and maybe 3-4 more boosters (azelaic acid, niacinamide, peptides, etc.). And this is just a rough estimate, the vault covers all basis for starters, but would need a lot of products replaced after 3 months.
The products are good, but not best and I can get better/same quality for lower prices… and I could care less about the fridge… but somehow with a 15-20% Sephora sale (+ ebates, that goes even 10% during special events), if you like the brand… well… it almost makes sense to me. 😀

Caslon Avatar

One of the best purchases I ever made was splitting a Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche mini lip vault with a friend – our skintones and colourings are such that all the shades that look awful on me looked great on her, and vice versa! It worked out to like, $8 a mini (in Canadian dollars at the time) and even mini-size lipsticks take so long to use up that I still have them all (lol).

Rachel R. Avatar

I don’t purchase megapalettes. They’re too unwieldy to use. I gave away the few I got as GWP from Coastal Scents, e.l.f., etc.

The only vaults I’ve purchased were Makeup Revolution’s Chocolate Vault I and II, and the Chocolate Heart sets from the last two years, all when they were steeply discounted. Otherwise, I don’t do vaults. They’re usually too expensive.

Iris Avatar

I was gifted the Urban Decay Basquiat vault (actually I was gifted 2.5 of them, but that’s another story), and I bought the UDx20 vault with all the original colors. I use both regularly, although the Basquiat pieces are more for display.

Alecto Avatar

No. I coveted the UD 24/7 eyeliner vault, but resisted. I also seriously considered the ColourPop lippie set, mostly because of how the price broke down per each; there would have been a decent number that I couldn’t have used, but my office mates, and possibly sister and mother, would have had some nice hand-off choices from me that I’d be happy to share.

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