Picture it: you scroll through Instagram or watch your fave YouTuber, and there it is: a new eyeshadow palette. They’re excited by it, you’re excited by it. You want it. Oh, how you want it! But, there’s that little nagging voice in your head, telling you about your large eyeshadow stash. And that’s right, you own a lot of palettes! But you still want that new shiny thing! Oh, the dilemma.
In this post, I’ll tell you how to not to succumb to temptation and enjoy your own stash. I’ll use Beauty Bay’s new Age of Opulence eyeshadow palette as an example, because it’s a palette I’m really, really lemming right now.
I find the “duping the vibes” approach (that I’ve first seen on Hannah Louise Poston’s channel) very useful, especially for palettes of any kind that will invariably include shades you won’t use or with textures/finishes you don’t like.
I’ve already done it once for Instagram with Mac’s Tempting Fate palette and ended up with a shadow combo I actually liked better than Mac’s. (Many, many moons ago I also tried to straight up dupe Melt’s Blueprint stack, that coincidentally shares some vibes with the Age of Opulence palette.)
Step 1: why do you want it?
There’re great reasons to shop beauty products, and then there’re less good ones. The less good: you just had a fight with your mom, you’re exhausted from work, you’re depressed by the state of the world, you’re unhappy with your life. All these issues demand a response – but buying an eyeshadow palette isn’t one of them.
The usual question that a beauty blogger would ask is “does it fill a hole in your collection?” but we don’t ask that. Because: even if it does and you truly don’t have anything like this particular palette, it’s the wrong question. The right question instead is:
Step 2: what’s the reason you’re attracted to this particular palette?
Sometimes, we succumb to packaging. Or a pretty embossing. Or a specific formula that’ll make you think that sure, you own this shade of violet, but this one has a duochrome! Maybe it’s a whole other reason. Be honest with yourself. What exactly makes this piece of makeup so covetable for you?
In my case, I had to realise that I find the rich jewel tones and the gold-purple-blue combo of the Age of Opulence very appealing, although (and here’s the kicker) I generally don’t wear that colour combo. I love it – but don’t wear it. Case closed, right? No.
Step 3: get in closer
Because I still want it. And I guess that you’ll understand that, and also have experienced something similar as well. So, we’ll get in closer. In every eyeshadow palette there’s usually a shade that you really want, and some that you don’t really care for. So: here’s where the title of the post comes in. We’re not looking for dupes in our stashes, we’re looking for a vibe. In doing that, we’ll find our perfect palette, made up of shades we already own. What looks would I love to create with the Age of Opulence palette?
Easy: I’d love to do three looks particularly: one that is just made up of the super rich gold-bronze called Jazz. Or the taupe-y Vintage? Love these kinds of neutrals, and yes, I do own a lot of them. I wear them for one-and-done looks. Then, I’d love to use the matte purple (Velvet) and the matte burgundy (Speakeasy). I would love to pair both with a multichrome like Clionadh Sand Blast. And then, the rich shimmery blue called Decadence – again, I’d pair that with Velvet. For my own perfect palette, I’d also add a light beige blending shade, some light gold inner corner highlight, and maybe a dark navy to add dimension to any of my imaginary looks. So, out of a twenty shade palette, I’m actually most drawn to – FIVE. I’d very likely never dip into the other ones.
Step 4: realise (and swatch) what you own
At this stage, you’d have pulled out a lot of your eyeshadows, very likely had a great swatch session, and rediscovered not only products you had forgotten about, but also realized that you absolutely love what you just pulled out and created. Maybe you have an empty palette and put together your dream palette out of single shadows. Maybe you’ve just swatched your perfect colour story. But very likely, the need to go out and buy a new thing has died away.
Step 5: start again!
Here’s the beauty of this whole project: you’re not stuck with a premade palette. Instead, if you realise that the palette and the colour scheme you just created is slightly off and doesn’t match your needs, you just start over.
This if what happened to me this time: this post was written, pictures taken, and I had this wonderful colour story laid out before me. And then I realized that for everyday use, it was just too much: too big, too many possibilities. I decided a nine-pan palette was much more what I had in mind, and switched a few shades around and eliminated others.
Who knows, maybe I’ll do that again tomorrow. But today I wore a look that combined So Quiche, Plumage, Melon and Fantastical, and I loved it. (Although I’ve to say that Plumage must be some of the worst mattes I’ve ever encountered. Stay away. So maybe I’ll switch that one for ABH Axis again at some point. Who knows, and isn’t this the whole fun?)
A few pointers to successfully “duping the vibes”
Like the title says, this isn’t about finding a perfect dupe. It’s about duping the thing you’re most attracted to: a colour combo, a fine shimmer in a lipstick that can be duped by a gloss or pigment, a blush shade you can achieve by layering. In the end, it’s about customization and finding the thing that’s perfect for you.
As a beauty lover, you’ll very likely have a large stash of products you can choose from. Also, as a beauty lover, beautiful products will excite you. But: that excitement doesn’t mean you need to buy new things all the time. Sometimes, you can just admire pretty colour combos from afar. Also, if you’re like me, you own wonderful products already! And very likely, it’ll also excite you to play around with them, pull them out and swatch them. I’ve yet to come out of those swatch sessions and think “I definitely need that new thing because I don’t own enough makeup yet!”
Please note that this post is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods or money for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
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