***ULTA MINI HAU***DERMALOGICA & JUVIA'S PLACE***

 

***TOP 5 PRODUCT OF OCTOBER***

 Ebin New York Secret of Pharoah Collection: Golden Empire

..

Sally Hansen Pure Natural Spring

Essence Eye Lash Primer

Ulta Gel Eyeliner Pencil

 Natasha Denona Pastel Eyeshadow Palette

***ODEN'S EYE***UPDATED REVIEW***

✪✪✪Oden's Eye Update Review✪✪✪

☆☆A Positive Spin☆☆

★★★(Previous Review Below)★★★

 

**Previous Review**

★★Mini Review★★ 

In the last year and a half, Oden's Eye has made quite an impact on the Indie Makeup Community, propagated by trusted mini and midi YouTube beauty-related channels. I say trusted, but are they? Some of them I believe absolutely, although they may or may not be receiving PR. Some of them, I am not quite sure about. Either way, this review is about my experience and my thoughts on the eyeshadow palettes that I tried, and perhaps my reasons why I may or may not give the brand a second chance.

Hype -  Hype can be quite a dangerous thing to the consumer. Are consumers more likely to purchase a product from an unknown average run-of-the-mill person, or a well-known YouTuber or celebrity? When you think of things on a grand scheme, most consumers are more likely to purchase items based upon a well-known person because they are "trusted and recognizable," however, does the consumer ever stop to think about the motivation behind the sponsorship of these "trusted and recognizable" indviduals. The answer is simple, trusted and recognizable individuals are the very epitome of influential persons that consumers see as reliable, knowledgeable, and honest about the products they are marketing. But how true is this notion? What about the products, the overwhelming amount of products these individuals receive, so much that it is impossible to accurately and fairly review each and every single part of whatever the campaign is compromised of. Secondly, what about the commission or payments received for promoting said products? This is certainly a contingent factor on how the reviewer may rate or perceive these products.

Getting back to my initial notion about the average American consumer viewing another average American consumer provide uncensored reviews and details about a product. Now please understand that I not specifying this to just my experience with Oden's Eye, but with any product that is promoted with such enthusiasm, avidity, and eagerness. I personally would find a review to have validity when presented by someone who has little to nothing to gain by being free with their opinion and providing both constructive criticisms as well as attributes of the product.

My personal assessment: The three palettes I bought were fair to decent. I didn't care for the packaging and I didn't care for the split pans in the middle of each palette. I also find the names of each palette a bit confusing, or maybe annoying is a better word. I did not care for the textures of the shimmer/metallic shadows at all. They are either too chunky creating a hellified mess on my face or too thin requiring an absurd amount of layering and even if used as toppers it's difficult to do so because of the chunkiness of the other textured shadows. I did, however, really enjoy the color stories, not just of the palettes I chose, but also of all the other palettes on the website and that does make me want to maybe give this brand another go, but I am undecided at this time. 

The moral of this review as with any product that is over-promoted by various individuals is to take your time and read multiple reviews, some by experts, but most by average consumers. Overhype culture is real and is easy to get caught up in, so buyer beware.

Price: $65 (8/10) 

Color Story (7/10)

Inclusivity (7.5/10)

Application (7/10)

Wearability (7.5/10)

Matte to Shimmer Ratio (8/10)

Packaging (10/10)

Brand Reputation (10/10)

***SPELLBOUND BEAUTY MINI REVIEW***

***

MINI REVIEW***

Spellbound Beauty

I first purchased from Spellbound Beauty a couple of years ago when I found it on Etsy. It is a female-owned one-woman show, with its proprietor being a young, enthusiastic owner whose goal is to ensure that her customers are ultimately satisfied which is the reason I continue to return to purchase from the brand. For the purchase of this review, I will be concentrating on the two most recent eyeshadow palettes that I have acquired and added to my collection.

 The Wild Thing

Admittedly so, this palette is reflective of several colorful palettes that are inundating the beauty market at this time, none of which are especially unique in color story or quality. While I find the color story "standard" for a colorful palette, what truly sets it apart is the unique and well-presented quality of the palette. In fact, I ended up selling or giving away many of my colorful palettes with similar color stories because the quality in this particular palette is above par and sets itself apart from mediocre copycat palettes.

Firstly, the shadows blend beautifully. I hate that phrase, but there are literally no other words that can do justice to the significance of how well the shadows blend. This includes the deeper shades, which you may or may not be aware can give an eyeshadow wearer a lot of trouble. This is not the case with the darker shade in the bottom right corner on the end, the third shade on the bottom row and the fourth and fifth shades on the middle row. Additionally, that beautiful yellow shade with an orange/mustard tint on the top row, the third shade over is pigmented, but not to the point where blending it is an issue, but building it up is an easy task. Also, to boot, the outer packaging is just sick!!!

The Rituals Palette

As I am honest with all of my reviews, I will say that this is not my favorite color story. Not that it's not unique, mysterious, sexy, and beautiful; however, it's just not something that I go for personally and doesn't match my personal aesthetic. With that being said, again the quality of this palette is remarkable. I am able to make a fantastic smokey silver/gray eye look, specifically with the top row, and even another beautiful look with the second row. The palette has several sections divided into quads that one can make a beautiful look with, but as I said it's just not my personal aesthetic. The first row, 2nd and 3rd shades are outstanding and even the second row, 5th shade is beautiful. Any eyeshadow lover that finds the color story appealing would certainly not be disappointed with the eye looks that they are able to create with The Rituals Palette from Spellbound Beauty.