Purple eyeshadows are a serious weakness of mine. You can add them to your lower lash line, outer corner, all over the lid, as a highlight – you get the point 😉 For years it’s been a mission of mine to find the perfect set of purples. So, it should come as no surprise that I scooped up the Bling Boss palette from the new Jaclyn Hill Vault. This baby has some mixed reviews, so I knew going in there would possibly be some issues.
BLING BLOSS PALETTE
Retailing for $15, this jewel toned palette contains ten shadows in both matte and shimmer finishes. Morphe made big promises about the formula being creamy and pigmented. But when influencers got their press packages, the reviews were less than stellar. That’s where things get a little foggy. According to Jaclyn Hill, Morphe had the first batch pulled in order to fix the issues. A few weeks later, it was announced that the new “second edition” palettes were ready. There’s some controversy over whether any of that is even true, but I’m not here for drama, so you can come to your own conclusion about all that.
You’ll see a V2 on the back of the boxes (some have stickers covering V1), apparently that’s to differentiate between the first and second batches.
FORMULA & SWATCHES
One of the biggest issues people had with the “first edition” was the patchy swatches. When it comes to eyeshadow, it’s not uncommon for a shade to swatch iffy, but perform beautifully on the lids (and vice versa). That’s why I always make sure to use palettes extensively before I review them.
Like others have stated, the mattes in this palette swatch mediocre at best. They require quite a bit of building, and definitely aren’t one swipe swatchers as shown on social media. However, on the lids they perform quite well. They are easy to build and blend, and I didn’t have to fuss much.
The shimmers on the other hand were totally opposite. They are exquisite to swatch. They come off creamy and ultra pigmented, but on the lids they are so finicky. When applied with a dry brush, there’s almost zero pigmentation, and even with a dampened brush layering is required. If you use your finger you get much better pay off, but Bling Bling still gave me serious pigmentation issues.
As for the staying power, these lasted fine all day on my lids. In general, I don’t usually have issues with shadows fading or creasing, so I didn’t go in thinking these would either. If you have oily lids, I always suggest a primer – and even if you don’t I suggest one. Shadows appear brighter and you have the added security of all day creaseless wear.
TOP ROW
BOTTOM ROW
As you can see from the swatches, the mattes are patchy. I had to dip into each one about 3-4 times in order to get what you see above. Is this just a bad “batch” per se? Maybe. But, the overwhelming majority seem to agree that the quality is off. Since this is my first Morphe eyeshadow experience I can’t attest to their other formulas, but I would not consider this ground breaking.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, I’d say you get what you pay for with this palette. In fact, I used a $3.50 off code at ULTA, as well as $5 in reward points so I barely paid anything – and even that might have been too much. The shimmers are practically useless, and that’s really the entire reason I wanted it. But if you want to check this out for yourself, you can find it online and at ULTA stores. There are three other vault palettes to choose from, each one containing ten shadows and retailing for $15.
Have you tried any of the vault palettes? I’d love to know how yours performed!
This post contains affiliate links, for more information click here.