What I'm Not Buying: Sephora Pro Warm Palette

Sephora is releasing three "Pro" palettes this summer, in warm, cool, and editorial. This post is dedicated just to the warm palette. 

I won't be buying. 

So, here's the thing. I don't know what it is about consumerism and marketing, but when I first saw this palette (and the cool version, to be honest), my first thought was that the palettes were so beautiful and that I had to have them. 

Still. After all this time. After all this "makeup rehab" and anti-hauling, I still have these impulse moments of "I have to have that."

From what I can tell, this is a Sephora Collection x Sephora Pro release, and I honestly have no idea what that means. I didn't realize that the two things were separate. Either way, this palette costs $65. 

Let's talk about that price for a moment. In some ways I think that price is really steep. And in others, I think it's not that bad at all. If we look at this palette in relation to other Sephora brand items, I think it's a lot of money. And that's mainly because Sephora brand items are usually considerably cheaper than other products in Sephora, and from what I have seen, Sephora brand eyeshadows aren't really that great. So, in that sense, this seems like a lot of money. 

However, and maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I feel like the quality of this palette is going to be quite a bit better than other Sephora brand items. This release feels like the brand put thought and effort into it and like they are now officially trying to compete with other brands sold in Sephora stores. And so when I compare the number of shadows in this palette to something from Natasha Denona (with her, frankly, outrageous prices), $65 feels like a steal. 

BUT. All of that means nothing if you already have all of these shadows in your collection. And if you are a person who has more than a minimal eyeshadow collection, my bet is that you already have all of these colors in your collection. I say that especially because if you are a person who is new to makeup and looking for your first big eyeshadow purchase, I would think this is definitely not the right palette to buy because of its size. So, my guess is that most people interested in this are the makeup obsessed. 

To get to the point of why I'm not going to buy this palette, let me show you my warm custom palette:

This palette is made up of shadows from Makeup Geek, MAC, Costal Scents, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Coloured Raine, Morphe, and Zoeva, among others. 

And it is important to note that these are just the shadows in this custom palette. That is not accounting for all the shadows I have in other palettes in my collection. 

Something I've realized about my own palette is that a lot of the matte browns look identical on my skin. And I think that is absolutely going to be true of this Sephora Pro palette as well. 

Let's look at the colors:

Like my palette, while there are subtle differences between several of the shades, I don't think the differences are distinct enough that it will be noticeable once applied onto the skin. 

Let's look at swatches. These came from "classylassy" on Reddit. You can look at the full post here. 

 

(Note: these swatches were applied with primer.)

I'm just going to be blunt here. There is absolutely nothing special about this palette. Nothing at all. Except that it's a new item.

And I would encourage everyone reading this right now to just take a moment and consider that.

This palette is filled with bronzes, golds, reds, tans, and oranges. Just like so many other things.

Like the Natasha Denona Sunset palette:

Or Colourpop Yes, Please:

Or theBalm Nude Beach:

Or Urban Decay Naked Heat:

Or Smashbox Ablaze:

Or Too Faced Sweet Peach:

Or Viseart Warm Matte:

Or Tarte Tarteist Pro:

Or Morphe 35O

Or Violet Voss Holy Grail:

Or ABH Modern Renaissance: 

The thing about each of the palettes I've posted above is that, at one time, these were the "it" palettes that everyone had to have. I'm sure there are many people out there, plenty of whom are considering buying the Sephora Pro Warm palette, who have at least one or two or more of these palettes. 

I've said this multiple times, but if you are a person who collections makeup and that's what makes you happy, then go for it. But if you are a person who is having a hard time resisting the hype, I would really encourage you to look at all of these palettes. Think about the time in which all of them were hyped, and then look at them within the context of all the other palettes. No one, not even professional makeup artists, needs all of these palettes. No one. The most fun and exciting thing about each of them when they were first released was that they were new. That's it. 

And that's the only thing that's exciting about the Sephora Pro palette as well. It's new. That's it. But guess what? Soon, it won't be new. And all that hype will have died down. And there will be something else new that everyone is obsessing over. And at some point, you just can't keep up anymore, and you probably won't want to. Because you will have spent so much money on makeup and you will have continued to buy the same things over and over. 

I very literally have all of the colors in this palette already. I don't need to spend $65 just to get more of what I already have because it's new and shiny. Although the color scheme is appealing, these are just colors that I already have arranged in a new way. I absolutely don't need this palette, and I won't be buying.