So we all know HUDA Beauty almost own the hyped Eyeshadow Palette market! And I had my eyes on this palette for YEARS! And finally picked it up for myself in the Black Friday sales. And I’ve been using it on and off for the last 2 months and thought it was about time I shared with you what I think.. as well as whether I think it’s worth the hype that it has!
It’s worth noting I also have one of their mini palettes in Warm Brown Obsessions and I’m pretty much obsessed with it!
HUDA Beauty Desert Dusk Palette
Price & Packaging
I mean, it’s no secret that these palettes are expensive. At £56 a pop, they’re by no means the most expensive palettes out there, but they are still quite a financial commitment! The packaging is really nice! It comes in a cardboard (but really rigid) packaging with a decent sized mirror and 18 pans. It has a reflective elements on the packaging that gives is a luxe feel and the magnetic closure just weirdly brings my joy!
It also has a good amount of weight to it, and not really sure why, but it makes it feel that little bit more high end!
Colour Story
The colour story is described online as ‘vibrant, highly-pigmented shades that reflect the exotic landscape of the Arabian desert around us’. Realistically (to those of us who think more literally) it’s a collection of warm neutrals, purples and coppery-golds. You have 18 shades in 4 unique textures: 1 dazzling glitter, 8 creamy mattes, 6 shimmering pearl shades and 3 duo-chrome toppers.
I love the colour story! I feel like you can create everything from an everyday neutral look to a bright and popping gorgeous eyeshadow looks!
Formula
With the four different formulas all looking completely different, I’m going to break this down per the different formula:
Matte Shades – The matte shades are really really pigmented! They come off slightly drier than the more buttery formulas that are out there, but they still are really easy to work with and come with great colour payoff!
Pressed Pearls – These are effectively a shimmery shade, but with a slightly pretentious name! These have a much more buttery texture to them, which means they look gorgeous applied both with a brush and with your fingers. But, I would say you don’t really need to wet these as they are really pretty by themselves!
Duo-Chrome Toppers – These are Retrograde, Twilight, Celestial by the way. They’re basically a slightly chunkier shimmers that have a duo-chrome effect to them. They’re really pretty, but I would say you can only really pick it up when you are in bright light,… which in the middle of Winter in the UK, it doesn’t happen all that much!
Pure Glitter – So Cosmo is chunky! It’s a really weird texture, where it’s a glitter with very little base colour (which is not what it looks like in the pan), which means it swatches dreadfully! However, applied on to the top of an eye look, it’s actually really pretty and a more wearable way to wear glitter!
Overall Thoughts
Is it worth the money? And are there better palettes out there for cheaper (and even around the same price point)? Yes. But, do I love it? Will I use it? And so I weirdly still recommend it? Yes. I would say, wait till this is on some kind of discount and pick it up then, but all in all, this is a really beautiful palette and I’m so pleased I picked this up!
Have you tried this? If so what did you think?
Katie x