Desert Dusk

Huda Beauty Desert Dusk Eyeshadow Palette ($65.00 for 0.89 oz.) is a 18-pan palette that features eight mattes, six "Pressed Pearls," three "Duo-Chrome Toppers," and one "Pure Glitter." It's a story of hits and misses, and I think that there will be some who really enjoy it and others that will find the better shades too dupable and the more interesting shades needing too much work and/or improvement to be "worth" it. This palette will be best suited for someone who likes using their shimmers with a dampened brush, fingertips, and/or adhesive base and prefers their mattes to be thinner (and does not care about how they feel in the pan, only about how they perform on the lid).

The mattes are supposed to be "highly-pigmented" and "butter-smooth." The formula has a chalkier, drier feel to them--almost sandpapery in a way--with a thin texture that has slight to moderate powderiness in the pan. I did not find these shades to be that prone to fallout; I did not feel like I had to take great care to minimize fallout and ultimately had little fallout after producing looks from this palette. Something I noticed was that while the matte shades looked fairly matte on the lid, most of them had very tiny, almost imperceptible micro-pearl in them. The pigmentation varied but most were pigmented and fairly blendable to very blendable. They wore anywhere from seven to eight hours on me.

The "Pressed Pearls" are supposed to be "rich" and "add depth and intensity" and can be used alone or layered over the mattes. The consistency of the formula was creamier and slightly denser, but the eyeshadows never felt stiff or difficult to pickup on a brush. These were the ones that applied well with a brush, though I noticed a couple did not appear as metallic after blending as they did initially. They were also quite pigmented and wore between seven and eight hours.

The "Duo-Chrome Toppers" are "ever-changing illusions" so the colors are designed to shift. The brand recommends blending these "into the base shadow with a brush or apply with finger to maximise the reflection." They are not as chunky as last year's Rose Gold eyeshadows, and they definitely bind together better on the lid, but they were not very usable dry, even when I used a fingertip. I tried patting on top of other eyeshadows with my fingertip, and the majority of product just stuck to my fingertip with little transfer and visible shift over the base eyeshadow. I also tried the same layering technique using a brush and had better results but they were still subpar. The best technique I found was using a flat, synthetic brush dampened or even using a light adhesive on the brush. By the name and limited description, they seemed design to be layerable, e.g. not fully opaque.

The "Pure Glitter" is described as a "ready-to-go formula" that can be "dabb[ed] on with a flat brush." The idea that it is a "Pure Glitter" is an odd way to put it, as pure glitter seems like it would just be glitter/sparkle and nothing else, but the ingredient list for Cosmo is as long as all the rest of the eyeshadows. The idea of it being "ready-to-go" and the recommended application not mentioning adhesive or even dampening the brush also suggests that it can be used as-is. Well, not really--there is a creaminess to it, but it is half-loose, half-pressed, and moves around easily in the pan. It doesn't fly away like a truly loose glitter would when applied directly onto skin or over a powder eyeshadow, but it does not stay in place for long at all. To use this, I would recommend using an adhesive base or patting over a cream product.

The palette will be available September 18th.