Average price for a gorgeous palette used to be around $25, but those days are ancient. Brands like Anastasia, Urban Decay, and Huda Beauty are now cranking them out at $40 and up. As beauty fans wonder why palettes are getting so expensive, their eyes are justifiably wandering to places making dupes that look eerily similar to big name brands — at a much sweeter price. “That, in my opinion, is extremely tempting because, I mean, $10, even if it’s popping or not. I would just buy it because it’s pretty. I’m that person.” “Personally, that’s what’s going to make or break. I just feel like sometimes the budget-friendly palettes just don’t have enough opacity. They swatch great, but when it comes down to the blend situation, that’s when you really see who’s in your corner and who’s not.” “It’s a little bit warmer. It’s not as pigmented as the ABH color but it’s also not as dusty as I thought it was gonna be. I’m pretty impressed.” “To get it to show, you have to really dig and dig and dig and dig,” she said about the Retro Love shade. “You’re wasting product.” Subculture was initially dragged for the fallout disaster in its first round of palettes. Anastasia Beverly Hills corrected those palettes by fixing the powdery formula — meanwhile, the cheaper Retro Love palette’s final formula still has Subculture’s old flaw. Damn! You can also see that while both eyes look pretty — the Anastasia side is a touch more bold. Jackie also admitted that both palettes had some fallout when applying the shadows, but she preferred the Subculture palette’s final look because of the bold color. “I know the first thing people are going to say is ‘well, not everybody can afford it,’ and I absolutely agree. But look at what e.l.f. is doing. Look at what NYX is doing. Their stuff is affordable. Their stuff is pretty good.They’re not duping products. They’re just making their own dope stuff that other companies could dupe themselves.” “There’s just something annoying about a knock-off,” she continued. “It’s a little cheesy to me. It’s a little weird.” Not only was the palette a tribute to her mother Anastastia Soare and her love for neutral, bridal makeup — but the leaked images made the brand vulnerable to more dupes. “I don’t think I shared a big reason as to why we don’t leak products far in advance. It gives counterfeiters a running start,” Claudia wrote on Twitter. It must really suck to spend time creating something that is a tribute to your mother as well as an exciting release for fans — just to have your creation leaked, copied, and potentially sold.
