What palette had a lot of potential but missed the mark for you?
Melt’s Muerte palette — such a cool color story but a let-down in performance.
— Christine
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I’m surprised anyone would say Melt Muerte since I’ve heard nothing but praise for that palette lol. I admit it’s a unique color story but so impractical. None of the looks I’ve seen are attractive which made me pass on it bc I know I wouldn’t end up loving it or using it.
As for me, I have to answer ABH Soft Glam. Good formula, performs well but the color story falls flat on me. I’d switch a few shades out to provide more depth. Idk I tried to love it but just didn’t and I ended up giving it away!
I’ve been disappointed by quite a few palettes, but the two that let me down the most are:
1. Viseart Liaison—I had such high hopes for this one, but I really dislike the shimmers in this palette.
2. Marc Jacobs Stilleto—I had this on my wish list for so long, then finally bought it when Sephora was having a VIB sale. It’s not a bad palette, but nowhere near as great as I thought it would be.
I agree with you about Stiletto. It got good grades, people seemed to really like it and I just felt meh about it.
I’ve been debating buying Stiletto for a while and almost decided to. Thank you for this question, Christine, and for these responses!
I so badly wanted both of these palettes, but was unable to get them before they went out of stock. Good to hear I wasn’t missing out on anything!
Agree on Viseart Liason. I like the mattes, but the shimmers were too “chunky”.
Not expensive or anything, but one that disappointed me was the Emily Noel from Revolution. The color story is lovely, but the shadows were just not good.
The Emily Wants would be my pick as well. I wanted those greens so badly but they were just murky and muddy looking.
Urban Decay Born To Run – I have pulled it out to use but haven’t. It’s a lot of my colors in one palette which is great but I get overwhelmed by the choices. I had given up on the brand but saw this palette and really wanted it. The helpful hint of breaking it into quads or quints has been useful for other palettes but still have not tried that with this palette. More is more in this case and too much is a deterrent.
Marc Jacobs Edgitorial. I returned it. I thought I would love it and my Sephora had testers of all of those “new” (at the time) palettes except that one so I bought it based on how great it looked here and because it really looked like my kind of palette. After trying it a few times, I realized there was only 1 shadow that was worth keeping and that I couldn’t dupe and it was too pricey a palette to keep for the same of 1 shade so I returned it. I’ve only returned 2 makeup items in the past decade or more and that was one of them.
In my collection, I can think of a few:
1. Melt 420. Interesting color story, and some unique shades. The quality isn’t there.
2. Too Faced Peanut Butter and Honey. I got this really marked down, knowing it wasn’t very good, just for collecting’s sake. The color scheme is great, but only about half the shades are any good, and they’re not the ones unique to the palette. If the bright yellow and the cool nougat shade had been good, it would have been a neat palette.
3. NARS Narsissist Dual-Intensity Eyeshadow Palette. The quality is great, but there aren’t any mid-tones for my skin tone. I wish the black had been swapped out for something more useful.
4. Viseart Theory in Amethyst. I adore the purple color story, but the mattes don’t blend well. I gave my first one away to a friend who was really wanting it. I was going to buy just the shimmers as singles, but then I ended up getting a sale where it was cheaper for me to repurchase the palette.
It’s becoming clear to me that as creative and hyped up Melt may be, they have a serious pressing issue. So many of their palettes have issues. Smoke Session, 420 and Milleniax all have issues. So much inconsistency throughout the brand that I’m hesitant to purchase from them. I have Gemini and it performs quite well except for the Gemini shade which is quite chunky and you need to use your finger to apply. Mine is OK but I think its tone is too similar to the mattes and I would have preferred another color. Something lighter? But I’ve heard horror stories of their other palettes. Smoke Sessions being the worst. They are too expensive to have such issues imo
Melt seems to be really inconsistent. You’re right, they are too expensive to be having these issues. I have a reformulated Smoke Sessions for more than a year, and it’s been fine. All my friends say their 420 is great. I think they really do have some pressing or batch issues they need to address.
Marc Jacobs stiletto
UD Naked Ultraviolet Palette! And Melt Millennial Pinx, too!
Both have/had very interesting and different color stories from the usuals we see on the regular. The quality of both, though, was painfully disappointing.
Funny thing is, I rarely do a pink and gray eye, if ever. But when I saw the look Raw Beauty Kristi did with Millennial Pinx, and how it brought out the green in her hazel eyes, I fell for that palette. Until I found out about its quality, that is.
As for Ultraviolet, wonky inconsistent quality issues aside, it would have seriously benefitted from having a deep purple or plum matte. It needed that!
Nearly every Urban Decay palette in recent memory except for the Naked Honey. The eyeshadow colors just get really muddy on my eye and lose any definition/ vibrancy after about 30 minutes. This has happened with Born to Run, Naked Cherry, Naked Reloaded, Naked Basics, etc… I don’t recall having this problem with the original Naked palette or the old Book of Shadows line, but maybe I just didn’t notice it then? I have tried switching up my application style, trying different primers, and more, but at this point I don’t have to work nearly as hard for better results with eyeshadows from other brands, so I’ve just about given up on the brand’s eyeshadow formula.
I’m starting to get that too from their newer palettes! What brands work for you?
Melt Millennial Pinx and Melt Radioactive. I so wanted these to work out. They did not.
100 percent agree!!! I still have my Muerte palette because it was a gift and it’s beautiful to have on a vanity, but the performance was terrible.
For me, just about every Tarte palette I have ever purchased (and there have been many). I am often really drawn to them and they end up looking all the same on my eyes, with colors that are not opaque or vibrant, Do not blend well, and are not long wearing. And the same could be said of Too Faced for me. Although, I do seem to find a random gem of a shadow in my Too Faced palettes. At this point, I don’t even bother with either brand anymore.
I think UD missed the mark in Naked 2 by not making it a genuinely cool toned palette. They should have left Gunmetal out of Naked 1 and put that into Naked 2. And the brand should have added that perfect taupe shade of Mushroom. All those soft warm shades at the beginning of the palette are wasted.
Other than that I wished that the Melt Smoke Sessions palette had not been so closely alligned with cannabis – it really put me off.
For me, it was Charlotte Tilbury original Pillowtalk. In “theory” it looked good, but in practice, all four eye shadows turn very bright orange on me and don’t even resemble what’s in the pan.
I had heard nothing but great things about the Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette, and LOVED the other palettes I bought from them, so purchased it in a sale.
Both the shimmer and matte formula were not the same quality as Safari Raine and the colour story just wasn’t for me. Hard pass.
There was a Lorac “nude” palette that seemed promising but after one use…nothing showed up. I returned it to Ulta and the manager trying to tell me I used it wrong for “my coloring”. She recommended wet brushes, fingers and layering. I told her I shouldn’t have to work that hard.
Then the Benefit blush palette. It was so light and nothing showed up. I love Dallas and the OG Hulu but that palette was a dog for my coloring. Returned.
Tom Ford’s Nude Dip. Just didn’t do it for me. It was just way too sheer and I had some Visearts that did better. BUT, my pretty on my paler friend. She is rocking it!