Lethal Cosmetics Pressed Powder Shadows (Part 1 of 3)
Today, I’m sharing swatches of Lethal Cosmetics Pressed Powder Shadows across three posts (75 shades in total). This post features swatches of their new more recent palette releases (though all shades can be purchased individually) and have more traditional palette packaging with names on the back of the carton. They’re magnetic, so each shade can be removed easily.
The Lethal Cosmetics After Dark Palette ($47.00 for 0.68 oz.) contains 12 shades and is the brand’s newest release, which was recently restocked. The Lethal Cosmetics Dreamsign Palette ($37.00 for 0.57 oz.) contains nine shades (and is currently out of stock as a palette).
Lethal Cosmetics is a German-based brand that is known for its stronger ethics policy. In the spirit in a return of eye makeup (hello, masks!), I thought it was the perfect time to try out this brand that I’ve seen readers mention over the last couple of years, especially as there seem to be fewer palette/eye makeup launches from mainstream brands (part of the larger trend of color cosmetics being weaker as industry shifts towards skin/hair plus current events) so I have the bandwidth to accommodate some more niche brands and their single ranges.
As a heads up, I believe the shipping fee to the US was a lot lower previously, but due to recent shipping restrictions, they are shipping through UPS expedited, which is free on $150+ orders or $19 otherwise.
I’ve been curious about this brand for a long time. I’m so happy to see you swatching them (and generally trying more niche and independent brands)!
My prayers were heard! Thank you so much!
Finally a nice indie for us Europeans with reviews we can trust.
Indeed, only 6.55 eur shipping cost and no extra VAT or customs. Hope these review well, my wallet hopes otherwise!
My thoughts exactly, Mariia!
sooo excited to see this brand here! i love them! 🙂
Pastels that don’t look dusty; nice! The shimmers look very sparkly and well pigmented, too.
The only thing I find a bit difficult to go with is the exorbitant shipping charges during these current circumstances. I would need to wait for everything to get back to normal in order to even entertain purchasing these.
Really eye palette are trending down? Brands have cut or retreated new relases??? How strange! I mean, until 3-4 months ago brands launches new palettes almost every months or so… And considering the reviews, the relevance influencers gave to eyepalettes over other product… Honestly it’s difficult for me to believe that palettes are not trend anymore. Maybe this trending down is sonething due to covid instead? Productions of powder makeup are mostly located in Italy. Maybe Covid closed most of them or there were difficulties to find materials? Maybe this lack of new palette is simply due to the fact that in the previous months no one was open to product them…
Yes, per NPD, sales of makeup have been in decline (skincare, fragrance, and hair are up, which account for prestige beauty remaining flat YOY) – 7% decline in 2019 vs. 2018 specifically in makeup. It may be part of a more typical cyclical trend (industry has historically cycled between heavier on makeup and then heavier on skincare), and yes, it is worsened by COVID. A lot of eye makeup sales have been reflected by good sales still in brow products but there’s more pressure and difficulty in selling palettes — but with mask requirements, the needs of consumers have shifted but brands haven’t been able to catch up.
This was really, really obvious last holiday season – tons of palettes were released and then quickly turned around with up to 50% off markdowns before Christmas even occurred (instead of everything getting marked down post-Christmas). You also see it with brands like UD, famous for palettes, routinely discounting their fairly new palette releases by 50%. ABH has also discounted their palettes more often and faster than before.
You have to remember that most brands operate at least a year out, if not two or three years, so what you see land in stores this week was likely conceptualized two years ago and in production six months to a year ago! Some brands will have late launches because their inventory wasn’t made yet or they’ve delayed a spring or summer launch in anticipation of not having fall/holiday ready (summer/fall/holiday would be the launch timelines I’d expect to be impacted because those would have been in production in late Q1 and presently).
Just to add: this doesn’t mean that palettes aren’t being made or aren’t still profitable, but there has been a noticeable slow down, especially by some brands (e.g. brands like Natasha Denona and PMG move palettes differently than a brand like MAC).
Wow, thank you for this very interesting insight on the makeup industry! I’m always curious about how this things work!
No problem! 🙂
Thanks for the info Christine. Do you think there will be a rise in support of indie brands vs mainstream brands? Indie brands just seem to be turning out consistently high quality products these days.
I’m sure there may be some, but it really depends on how in-person shopping looks in the future, IMO. If it continues to be difficult to see/swatch in person, then the “risk” of ordering online is now something you can’t avoid – like there are plenty of readers who prefer and typically buy in-store only, and others who prefer that method only shop online for brands they have a good track record of (e.g. if someone already has all of Natasha Denona’s palettes previously, then they’ll likely buy the newest one without having to swatch it in person).
It also depends on the types of indie brands and the price points. For single eyeshadows, indies are often cheaper, but their palettes are often $50+ and it’s harder for mainstream customers to “see” the value because there is often an association that indie is also affordable/cheap relative to mainstream brands. Two additional issues that are typical for indies are: longer turnaround times (and resulting out of stock/long lead times before restocks) and cost of shipping.
What I have noticed, though, is that brands get talked about because they have something new to talk about more than anything else. When brands are quiet, the buzz is low to minimal. For example, Coloured Raine has limited releases (which isn’t a bad thing!), but I feel like I rarely hear about them in the interim and they run frequent sales on their core range. Similarly, theBalm is a more established brand that seems to be similar – limited releases and a lot of high % off sales (honestly, who wouldn’t wait for a 50% off sale for theBalm?).
Indeed we don’t see Colourpop releasing the same but rearranged colors as a new palette every other week anymore.
ColourPop’s lack of releases is definitely a result of the pandemic and not an actual slowdown by choosing, LOL! Though I think they were slightly slower to start off the year (pre-pandemic) compared to the prior year – like not quite as rapid-fire but by no means “slow.”
After Dark is calling my name, but I’m also here to say that an ethics statement that doesn’t include something about diversity in hiring and employee treatment is incomplete. (Yeah, it’s Germany, different culture around diversity). I also want to add that I’m only more aware of this because I’ve been diving deeper into black owned brands lately so it’s not like I’m the Queen of Wokeness since I probably should have had greater awareness before.
It’s not just the culture, it’s the actual numbers that explain why the kind of diversity that is talked about in Germany cannot be the same one that is talked about in e.g. the US and the UK. According to Wikipedia, 500.000 people of African descent live in Germany, that’s 0.6% of the population. And with our labor laws being as strong as they are, a German band doesn’t have to talk about employee treatment for us to expect for it to be a fair treatment.
Lethal is actually a brand with only 7 employees, where they all have various jobs inside the brand. They all participate in the manufacturing of the products.
Their social media team is composed of Binta and Molly, and Binta is a Black women.
Their is also another woman of color in the team, but I do not remember her name.
The swatches look lovely and the brand has done well with the pastel shades. I love the shimmery elements of both palettes, but personally there are too many mattes in them for me.
Ooh, I remember seeing this brand when I was playing with online “build your own palette” tools. Theirs is particularly good! It’s good to see these swatches look pretty solid. 😀
Oh this is exciting!
I own the afterdark palette and the dreamsign one too, plus 12 other shadows in one of their magnetic palettes.
I love all of them, except the three glitters from dreamsign, as they have a bit of a gritty texture and some fallout.
The mattes are especially good, and I love those pastels mattes from the afterdark collection.
I really really really am anxious to know how well these shadow perform. I’ve been on the fence about ordering from this brand before. I’m thrilled that you are reviewing them!