The holidays are right around the corner I thought it was only fitting to do a Christmas-themed post! Or, more of a scrooge-themed post. I love Christmas, I love buying gifts, spending time with family and eating too much. But Christmas is a big time for mass consumerism and don't the makeup companies know it. There's limited edition gift sets and palettes, some of which are beautiful and I'm sure completely worth it, but I want to share a few of the things I think you can live without.
Usual disclaimer, I haven't tried any of these products so I can't comment on their quality. If you love any of these things, that's amazing for you, makeup is subjective so no product is going to appeal to everybody. I'm not trying to bash brands or products, I just think that I will be saving the money I could spend on these products for something I'd love more and maybe you could too.
Usual disclaimer, I haven't tried any of these products so I can't comment on their quality. If you love any of these things, that's amazing for you, makeup is subjective so no product is going to appeal to everybody. I'm not trying to bash brands or products, I just think that I will be saving the money I could spend on these products for something I'd love more and maybe you could too.
Pur Cosmetics and The Grinch Good Enough to Steal Palette
The first thing I will not be buying is the Pur Cosmetics collaboration with the Grinch... I have seen this in more anti-hauls than hauls which says a lot really. My first gripe is with the packaging, this thing is bulky, it has pop ups and the product is in a seperate drawer that has no lid. This palette is clearly meant to be a display piece as well as makeup because this is going to be pain in the arse to store in the same way you would your other palettes. I know a lot of people are not fans of makeup purely for display, but I have no real issue with it, I picked up the Revolution Halloween highlighter purely to put on my vanity and not to use, but this doesn't go with my decor and I don't have anywhere to display this. I also think that the packaging is going to take you a long time to get in and out of so I wouldn't reach for something like this on a daily basis when I'm getting ready for work.
My next issue is the product itself, I believe there is a blush, a highlight and eyeshadows and these all look the same. The shadows are neutral with a pop of green and red which makes sense being that this is Christmas and Grinch inspired, but none of the shades look very vibrant or have a lot of depth. Looking at the shades they don't inspire me and I can see a lot of looks with this palette will look the same. The palette also contains one of those green to pink lipsticks, like the Lipstick Queen one or the Barry M one that's been around for decades. Again, I see why they did this, but I don't like it. I feel like for a lot of people these lipsticks were only good for 'clickbaity' 'OMG I'm testing green lipstick' Youtube videos and not a makeup product that people take seriously. I
used to own a lipgloss like this and I actually wore it to death, but I think including it in this palette was purely a gimmick, especially when this palette is $42.00 (I can only find it on US websites so may not even be available in the UK) I feel like Pur could have included a high quality lipstick that people would actually wear.
My last issue with this is the premise of the Grinch, I freaking love the old(er) Grinch movie and the story to death and the whole moral of the story is how Christmas is about love and spending time with your family, not about material things... and now there is Grinch shit absolutely everywhere! It kind of defeats the point really, I know that's not Pur's fault they're just taking advantage of an opportunity. I know that Pur and Illumination are trying to promote their brands, and they're companies designed to make money, but it just rubs me up the wrong way and its another reason why I will not be buying this.
I Heart Revolution Chocolate Vault
I feel like every time I talk about Revolution I need to point out that they are my favourite brand and I definitely don't want to bash them, but they sure go hard at Christmas. Revolution have a tonne of different gift sets and calendars and I think its pretty great. If you have a makeup lover in the family it means you can get them a good quality gift set for a pretty reasonable price. I won't be buying or receiving any of the sets, but purely because I own pretty much everything I want from Revolution.
One thing I just don't get though, is this Chocolate Vault gift set. This has a whole six eyeshadow palettes from Revolution's Chocolate Bar palettes, along with two face palettes and three lip glosses all for a pretty penny of £60.00
This collection began as Revolution's dupe of the Too Faced palettes but Revolution have put their own spin on it and they now have a tonne of different variations. The collection is mostly neutral palettes with a few different pops of colour in each palette. The collection has four palettes that you can pick up separately and two 'exclusive' palettes, which from reviews I've seen they don't look particularly exciting.
I just don't get who this is for. If you're a lover of this collection of palettes, its a waste of money to pick this up to get two new palettes when you probably already own some if not all of the palettes that already exist and I think there should be the option to purchase the exclusive palettes separately. I don't own any of the Revolution Chocolate Bar Palettes, but I already have a lot of eyeshadow and I don't think these six palettes would add a great deal of variety to what I own. I also don't think this is suited for somebody just getting into makeup because its just too much! I feel like Revolution should have bought out a set with one of the Chocolate Bar eyeshadow palettes, one face palette and the glosses for a price a lot less than £60.00 and it would be perfect for the teen in your family who's just starting to experiment with makeup!
I feel like Makeup Vaults have their place for brands like Urban Decay because you can actually make a saving on the palettes, or buy it as a luxury gift to really treat a special person in your life, but I don't think this is the place for it... sorry Revolution!
Ted Baker All Eyes On Ted Gift Set
Something I definitely won't be picking up is this or any of the makeup sets from Ted Baker. I think I'm right in saying that Ted Baker only sell makeup in gift sets at Christmas, that or nobody speaks about it.
The packaging of the Ted Baker sets always looks amazing so I picked up three sets a couple of years ago and trust me when I say absolutely everything was trash. All of the eye products creased, the eyeliner smudged, the brow pencil was dry, cheek products were all glitter with nothing else and the lipsticks smelled like cheap plastic. Nearly all of it went in the bin (I'm just forcing myself to finish the last nude lipstick in my Finish 9 by New Year project) and I wasted quite a bit of money on the sets, but I still found myself looking at this collection in Boots because it looks so pretty! I've learned my lesson though, so if you see any Ted Baker makeup trust me and walk straight past it.
The packaging of the Ted Baker sets always looks amazing so I picked up three sets a couple of years ago and trust me when I say absolutely everything was trash. All of the eye products creased, the eyeliner smudged, the brow pencil was dry, cheek products were all glitter with nothing else and the lipsticks smelled like cheap plastic. Nearly all of it went in the bin (I'm just forcing myself to finish the last nude lipstick in my Finish 9 by New Year project) and I wasted quite a bit of money on the sets, but I still found myself looking at this collection in Boots because it looks so pretty! I've learned my lesson though, so if you see any Ted Baker makeup trust me and walk straight past it.
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