Sephora Collection Allure Beauty Editor Palette

In the August issue of Allure magazine, there was a full page write-up on a new makeup collaboration that Sephora did with the Allure Beauty Editor team.  The full palette itself actually contains five smaller palettes, each of which is designed to fully create one "look" such as bold eye makeup or bronzed skin.  The Allure editors combined their collective knowledge to cut through all the products available on the market to put together perfectly matched eye shadows, a face product, and a lip gloss.  Each of these palettes make it really easy to create one look and are a great choice for a makeup beginner or for trying a new look. 

Sephora states the following on their website, "A collection of makeup created in collaboration with the beauty editors of Allure Magazine.  This extensive collection includes five fashionable color palettes selected by Allure Editor-In-Chief Linda Wells and her team of top beauty editors.  The main component holds all five palettes and a portable compact.  The compact in interchangeable, so choose any palette, snap it in, and go!  Each palette contains six eye shadows, one blush or bronzer, and one doe foot lip gloss.  These high-payoff eye shadows are totally blendable.  Each lipstick is non-sticky and can be swapped among palettes."

In Allure magazine, it states that the motivation behind the palettes was that every single shade was usable.  The beauty editors wanted to avoid a common issue among eye palettes; you use one or two shades all the time and then the rest of the shades go to waste in your traincase.  I agree with this issue since I have very few palettes where I use every single shade consistently.  But to play devil's advocate with this palette collection, I am sure that there are very few people that will use every single shade in this palette collection (and they are all sold together it seems since I can't order specific shades on the Sephora website).  So I understand the logic that went into putting these shades together but I still don't find this collection to be the end-all among all the palettes on the beauty product market today.

Here are the palettes (with details provided by Allure Beauty Editors)...

All Fun No Sun - A palette of coppers, bronzes, and browns.  "Bronze makeup is an easy (and safe) way to look sunkissed, but the key is incorporating other colors.  This palette holds a matte bronzer and shimmery bronze shadow as well as metallic shadows - shell, taupe, copper, deep brown, and purple - plus a rosy gloss.", states Catherine Devine, editorial assistant.

Color Theory - A palette of sharp jewel tones like violet and green.  "If you like bold colors but aren't quite sure how to where them together, we've made it easy: Wear any two of the strong eye shadows (teal, violet, blue, pink-purple) together, or layer the brown or matte brown on top.  Pink-y nude gloss and blush keep the rest of the face soft.", states Sophia Panych, associate editor.

Beauty 101 - A palette of soft nudes and taupes.  "With office makeup, you want to look pulled-together but not boring.  Get that effect by blending a bit of the champagne or shimmery lavender eye shadow with the browns and grays here.  You won't look too neutral with peachy pink blush and gloss." states Daisy Shaw, assistant editor.

Sparkles Fly - A palette of black, bold gold, and orange.  "This kit contains all the ingredients for a party look: sparkly gold, copper, and purple shadows, plus a scarlet gloss.  Blue-gray and black shadows offset the shimmery colors and can be liners if you wet them; gold and pearl are highlighters, and the tan blush balances the look.", states Dina Mekawi, producer.

Where There's Smoke - A palette of smoky charcoal and grays.  "The building blocks for the ultimate smoky eye: an intense black, a pearly white, and two shades of gray.  As an alternative, swap the black and gray for the eggplant or forest green shadow.  The berry gloss amd rosy blush complete the sexy theme.", states Jennifer Yee, associate market editor.

As I stated in the beginning of this post, this collection of palettes is great for someone just getting into makeup.  This would be the perfect present for a girl in her late teens or early twenties but I am willing to bet that many people already own over half of the shades in this palette.  I like every single one of these palettes and there are some great shade choices in all of them but I know that I own most of these shades already and if I don't own it than there is a reason for that (like the tan blush - I would never wear this shade on my cheeks).  All Fun No Sun and Where There's Smoke are my favorite of the collection but I can safely skip this whole thing since there is nothing that unique about any of the shades.

I understand the concept of why these are in palettes and I hail Allure for putting together palettes that real people can use but I feel like they left a big part of there audience out since many women already have these shades and have mastered at least two of three of the looks that the palettes create.  I would be more interested in seeing a collection of individual products picked out by the Allure editors and then they show us how they work together to create the looks.  Just my thoughts...

photo courtesy of Sephora