Between Huda Beauty’s main brand and the side brands of Kayali and GloWish (I’m not fully sold on Wishful yet), I’m becoming more of a fan these past two years than ever before! Today, I will be discussing the remaining unreviewed products I own.

GloWish Micro Mini Natural Eyeshadow Palette in Moss

The Glowish quad is nice! It’s more pigmented than I expected, which is to say it’s the same Huda quality I’m used to. Unlike the 9-pans that are normally made in China, this quad was made in Italy like the bigger Huda palettes. So, that was interesting to see. A lot of people say the quality between the 9-pan and full size ones are different, but now that I have the Empowered and Naughty palettes to compare, I really don’t see a difference from the Obsessions palettes I own. Then again, I’ve only purchased the ones rated high in reviews.

The shimmer in the Glowish quad didn’t have the impact I usually prefer, but since it’s part of the Glowish line, I assume it’s not meant to be super attention-grabbing. That’s the only complaint I have. I don’t get creasing, I don’t have longevity issues, and the kickup isn’t that bad. I like this, but if I’m being perfectly honest with myself, Moss gives similar vibes to the Natasha Denona Mini Gold palette, but ND’s has way more interesting shimmers. To those that like muted earthy yet pigmented colors and like satins instead of shimmers, I recommend getting the GloWish quad. However, those that like a lot more sparkle with a quality that’s at least as good, plus even quicker to blend, I recommend spending the extra $6 to get the Natasha Denona Mini Gold, which has an fifth eyeshadow too.

Huda Beauty 1 Coat WOW! Extra Volumizing and Lifting Mascara

An example of this mascara being worn is in the section with Glowish quad eye looks and the first two eye looks for the Naughty palette. For those curious, I’m using the COL-LAB mascara (in the pink writing not purple) in the last two eye looks showing the Naughty palette.

My version of one mascara coat is to pull the applicator out of the tube and apply the mascara to my lashes in repeated swipes until I’m satisfied with the length and volume, and without dipping back into the tube a second time. I start with the side of the wand that forms an hourglass shape, as that feels like I can get closer to the root of my lashes that way. I keep building up that single layer before turning the wand to the side that looks fully curved without an inward dip from brush base to brush tip. That side of it helps to comb out the lashes so they don’t look clumpy and/or remove visible clumps gathered on the tips.
I prefer to stick to the single coat. Waiting for the mascara to dry and then applying a second layer only adds slightly more volume, but no additional length. I’m satisfied with the volume I get from one coat, so I don’t get extra value trying to build my lashes beyond the first coat.

I don’t get any smudging throughout the day, but I do get some flaking. The amount is acceptable to me, so I don’t count it as much of a negative. However, I have mascaras that give me the same results with less effort and don’t flake at all such as the MAC Megastack, COL-LAB mascara, and Essence Volume Stylist 18hr Lash Extension Mascara. So, this isn’t something I plan to repurchase. Also, this takes normal effort to remove with my Bioderma Micellar Water.

I should also note that I’ve used this mascara at least five times in a little under two weeks and the mascara consistency has gotten thicker. I have a much easier time getting volume, but the amount of clumps I have to remove from the tips of my lashes before it has time to dry is another annoying attribute that guarantees I won’t repurchase it.

Huda Beauty Empowered Eyeshadow Palette

As I said in my Swatchfest #6 post that included this palette, but not a full review, Manifest It is that strange gel formula that Huda included in the Naughty palette, but the pigment is in cream form instead of the circular balls. I took a cosmetic spatula and recombined the clear hard waxy gel and pigment together to get an even coating of color. Unlike Slippery, I find that there’s enough pigment in my mixture to actually use Manifest It as a visible opaque eyeshadow and not just as a primer base. It looks fine on my eyes if I keep it away from any folds and lines, but if I put it in the inner corner or some of it strays from the lid and into the crease, it can look a bit textured and take some extra smoothing over with a flat brush or my finger, in addition to creasing and moving, leaving me with a bald patch in those spots. It looks passable for a few hours, but by mid-day the combination of eye movement and spots on my lids that product oil majorly exacerbate the creasing. So, I try to keep this shadow for use in areas of low movement and away from areas that show signs of “maturity.”

After two hours wearing Manifest It on the inner half of the eye compared to the worst of it by the end of the day.

The standard powder mattes are all great. It’s the typical Huda Beauty type of mattes that are pigmented and easy to blend. My issue is just that these shades are too similar on my eyes, so I’m a bit limited in the variations of looks I can come up with. Big Dreams and Rebel end up looking the same. That’s also the case with Power and Best-Self. Get It is darker and brighter than those two, but if I use it in the same eye look it will overpower them and just look as though I applied Get It by itself. The three mattes that stand out the most are Winner, Confident, and Legacy. In the case of Winner, it has equal depth to Big Dream and Rebel, but the aspect that sets it apart from them is how cool toned it is.

We have two gel hybrid eyeliners that can be used as eyeliner, eyeshadow, and/or as an eye base. They aren’t waterproof or transfer-proof, since I can rub the spot where they are applied and get a faded imprint on my finger, but they at least don’t smear. They’re easy to pick up on a brush, but not as easy to get off the brush and smoothly onto the eyelids, especially with other shadows already built up on the lids. I don’t have much patience when it comes to passing over the lash line repeatedly, so it’s actually easier for me to use Confident as a liner instead of Worthy. Because Purpose is a richer color that takes less effort to build up, I don’t mind as much using that one as eyeliner. I like applying it to my eyes with my finger for a smokey look and to increase the intensity of a typical multichrome used on top of it. It does fade on me as the day goes on, as it’s not that rich of a black color, but it’s still visible enough for me to be satisfied with it being included in the palette.

Courageous is described as being “multichromatic” and has a slight shift that can be seen in the pan, but not as evident on my eyes. It also has its own black base, so using it with Purpose isn’t necessary. Even though it’s not very shifty, it’s still a pretty eyeshadow and great for smokey looks. It has a little too much slip to it, which is prone to creasing on my eyes, so I try to keep it out of lines and folds as well.

As for the golds, they’re both beautiful, reflective, and shimmery, but Limitless is extra flaky. So I prefer to use Charisma out of sheer ease of use, though they both have a scattered effect if not applied wet.

Visionary is similar to Provocative from the Naughty palette, but I prefer this color, tone, and fact that it feels smoother on the lids. I’ve had the Naughty palette a little longer, so perhaps I feel a slight difference because Visionary is newer. The mixture of swirled colors turns out to be very similar to how Do It looks, which is yet another reason I feel these shadows are repetitive. Besides the slight tone difference (bright copper versus brown-copper), Do It is shinier with visible shimmer whereas Visionary is smoother, so they have textural differences and one gets to choose which shimmer intensity one wants.

Bold Moves is an interesting mottled shadow combining “white gold and true gold metallic speckles.” Considering this is a mostly warm leaning neutral palette, but with some cool toned options, this kind of shimmer is a good bridge between them. It’s creamy and adheres to the lid nicely, but I apply it damp if I want to avoid a mess when applying it to the inner corners.

I bought this for $46 on Black Friday, so I’m glad I didn’t pay full price. It’s just a little too repetitive in color story and the shimmers are a little too creamy for my eyes, so I don’t think I’ll be using it very much. The quality is good, but there are so many factors that will determine whether these shades will work for someone or not.

Huda Beauty Naughty Nude Eyeshadow Palette

The last photo above has the swatch of Untamed because I accidentally skipped over it when I was doing swatches in order. I also re-swatched Passion and Hard because those shades needed to be mixed/rubbed together more thoroughly to show a solid color. It would have looked unflattering on the eyes to have random lighter and darker lines or patches on the eye if I just applied it like a duochrome.

I have to address the fact that Passion in this palette is like Astral Amethyst Moon in the Pat Mcgrath Huetopian Dream palette. It’s the surprise blue pop in a neutral palette. However, at least Passion is blue shimmer with a burgundy base, and that burgundy color works well with all the other pink and red-leaning shadows in this palette.

I had the Empowered palette first and dealt with Slippery the same way as Manifest It and the weird gel pigment bubble shadow in the Essence Coffee to Glow Palette; I used a cosmetic spatula to mix half of it together fully. It doesn’t turn into anything pigmented enough for me to wear on its own, but it does make a pretty good eyeshadow base for helping the shimmers stick to the eye.

Hard has a creamier feel to it than a standard matte, but it’s definitely still a powder that sets on the lid to a dry finish. The color it turns into basically just looks like my eyelid color. So, I haven’t found a use for it.

While I appreciate a pigmented and blendable product, the shade Untamed was so difficult to work with. It goes on the lid intensely immediately, even when I use a small amount. If I try to blend the edges, it fades to a dirty dark color that doesn’t show the burgundy tone anymore. It looks too harsh and unblended if I don’t at least try to smooth out the edge. Applying a lighter eyeshadow color on the edge tones it down far too much. Blending it out also wipes too much of it away. So, it’s extremely finicky trying to get the color to show true to how it looks in the pan, not be overblended (which takes 3-5 seconds to overblend) and lose color or look patchy, but also not look like a solid block of color. If I finally get it to look nice, adding a shade to my lid and it slightly traveling higher into the crease forces me to have to play the game all over again to try and fix it and avoid it looking patchy and messy. The time it usually takes me to finish an eye look is the amount of time I have to spend on just Untamed alone to make it look good. Thankfully, after dealing with Slippery and properly swirling together Passion, Hard, Flower Power, and Provocative, the only shadow left in this palette that gives me trouble is Untamed. Regarding the marble/swirl shades, the shimmers seemed the tiniest bit creamier than Hard which made them a little easier to mix evenly.

The five other shimmers are easy to apply, but Shameless, Flower Power, and Tantric are a bit flaky (though not to the extreme of the golds in the Empowered Palette) and I prefer to dampen my brush to apply them. I will get shimmer fallout if I don’t use something like a glitter primer or the Slippery shadow underneath to keep it in place. Dampening my brush works for getting it to adhere, but not for a full day. Another nice thing about these shimmers is that I don’t have to deal with creasing when I use them. As for the seven other mattes, they’re quite pigmented and blend nicely. It’s not as quick to use as Pat Mcgrath or Natasha Denona mattes, but these are still quite good.

When this first launched, I was instantly drawn to the palette (admittedly the swirl patterns were a big part in that). What stopped me from getting it was my concern with it having too many similar looking shades. On my skin tone, this proved to be true. My second and fourth eye looks above used entirely different shadows, yet they look quite similar. Hard doesn’t show as a color on me. Hypnotic barely shows. Rough shows slightly more. Slippery may as well be a primer. Please Me, Provocative, and Irresistible look similar even in swatches, let alone on my eyes. I was surprised to see the opposite being true for the dark shades Untamed (mahogany red-brown), Naughty (warm neutral leaning brown), and Spicy (dark cool brown) that remain distinctly different as long as they aren’t used in one eye look. In a way, having paid $34 for this palette via Sephora makes up for it.

The other benefit to Naughty Nude is that there are various textures and finishes to experiment with, something I always admired about Huda palettes. However, because these shadows are organized in a way that isn’t as easy to distinguish between these similar colors, it takes extra time to plan out a look. This makes sense for a super colorful palette, but it’s a bit strange when I consider one of the benefits of a neutral palette is normally its easy of use.

This is a nice quality palette, but I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for it. For my preferences, I honestly wish I played with the Nude Obsessions Rich palette below so that I could have realized it’s like a condensed version of Naughty Nude, or at least similar enough. I had that one a whole month before purchasing Naughty Nude, but hadn’t used it beforehand.

Huda Beauty Nude Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette in Rich

This is the oldest (in terms of release date) of the palettes I’m discussing today, but it’s my favorite of the bunch. The majority of the 9 colors are distinctly different from each other. The quality is just as good as the full size palettes, though perhaps slightly less pigmented. I don’t mind this though because there’s more control of the intensity of the eye look this way. Also, I think most of the shadows in the Rich palette are more shimmery and reflective, something I also like, and in shade tones I like even more than what’s offered in the Naughty palette.

Huda Beauty Lovefest Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette

This was an unexpected addition to the post. Sephora had this and many other Obsessions palettes for half off during their Labor Day sale. It’s always the same song; several of the colors appealed to me, but I didn’t want to get it for full price because the orange shades looked too similar and I figured the two lightest mattes could look identical on my eyes. Plus, by now I certainly had all the warm toned shades (especially oranges, pinks, and browns) I could possibly want from the brand. However, I couldn’t resist that price.

I was correct that I can’t tell Shades 2 and 6 apart when I use them in the same eye look. Thankfully Shades 4 and 9 are different enough. The mattes perform just like my other Obsessions palettes. Shade 3 is a low impact shimmer that is smooth to the touch and basically looks like a satin on the eyes. Shade 5 is a pretty duochrome that brings the sparkle and drama that I want. Shade 7 is a medium pink that works to brighten the inner corner of my eyes, but also makes for a pretty lid shade. I’ve had this for the shortest amount of time out of all of these reviewed today, but so far so good!

Just as I was finishing this post, I remembered there are in fact a few extra items from the brand(s) I haven’t reviewed. From Wishful I have the Honey Whip Peptide Moisturizer that I’m waiting to open once I finish up one of my current moisturizers, a mini of the Thirst Trap Juice HA3 Peptide Serum that I used a few times and didn’t notice it doing anything, and a ton of samples of the Eye Lift & Contour 1% Bakuchiol & Peptide Serum which I still haven’t tried. There’s the GloWish Luminous Pressed Powder I stopped using and didn’t finish testing. I also have a deluxe sample of the Easy Bake Loose Baking & Setting Powder, but it’s in a color that’s too light for me. I could try to use it despite that, but I feel that it would throw off my ability to see the results properly. So, I don’t see myself reviewing any of those anytime soon. However, there are two things I intentionally skipped reviewing that I decided I will include.

FauxFilter Luminous Matte Concealers in Crumble 7.1N and Butterscotch 7.5G and FauxFilter Color Corrector in Mango.

The reason I wasn’t intending to post about the concealers is because base products don’t excite me to review. It’s only when I find concealers comparable to my holy grail ones that I want to share my results with everyone. In addition, this is a bit of a regret purchase. I knew Crumble wasn’t full coverage enough to adequately conceal my extreme dark under eye circles and that it made my under eyes look about as dry as Tarte Shape Tape, but I purchased an additional shade anyway. I was more intent on trying to solve the mystery of how to make it work instead of asking myself if this was going to add something of value to my collection. Considering I can get more coverage from a single shade of the original Tarte Shape Tape (Deep) over buying Crumble and Butterscotch to mix with from Huda, it should have been obvious what I needed to do, but I somehow convinced myself finding the perfect color combination would make the Huda concealer magically suit me better.

Using the under-painting method, like with my Givenchy concealers, I’m able to get the coverage level I want, but at the expense of having a shade match that is darker than my cheek area. So, I don’t wear this combination on light makeup days that I plan to skip foundation. I typically match my foundation to my forehead which is darker than the lighter parts of my face, but lighter than my areas of hyperpigmentation. I either get this middle-ground depth that’s a combination of the various colors on my face, a slightly darker shade for summer, or a color that matches the lighter parts of my face that typically works after winter. So, I can use the combination of Crumble and Butterscotch with my middle-ground and summer foundations. The reason I took a break from using these concealers though is the fact that I can get similar coverage level to my combination of Givenchy concealers, with it looking and feeling less dry. The Huda concealers at least have the benefit of being long lasting, provided I pair it with the right powder and ensure that more is applied in the beginning if it starts fading within the first five minutes and any creases get smoothed out a second time before more powder is added. That process of keeping an eye on it in the beginning and making adjustments early on can get me a good ten hours of wear. If I don’t pay enough attention to my skin absorbing some of that product or not smoothing out those creases, it goes downhill quickly where I might only get six to seven hours where it’s significantly faded and looks awful. So, because of the dryness and mindfulness required, it’s taking a backseat until I finish up the ones from Givenchy.

As for the Huda Corrector, it made sense that if the concealers looked dry, the corrector should have the same finish, yet I bought it anyway. I was too intrigued by the Mango shade to skip it. Every brand of color corrector I’ve seen has a pink that’s too light for me to use and/or an orange that’s very deep and practically as dark as my under-painting shade. They’re also either so opaque that they don’t blend in with the rest of my skin or they’re so sheer that they don’t hide enough. This is the first corrector I’ve ever seen that’s deep peach/deep pink-orange with decent coverage and in liquid form. I’ve seen some cream ones that come close, but creams crease too much under my eyes. So, I’m able to use Crumble if I have this corrector under it. I even use Mango sometimes by itself and in other areas with discoloration. Of course, I still have the dry issue and needing to babysit it in the beginning, but because it camouflages well enough to my satisfaction, I continue to use this from time to time unlike the concealers.

Now, I consider us caught up on my Huda and sub-brands collection! If anyone wants a review of one of those specific items I mentioned that I own but don’t plan to post about, just let me know (via comments, email, or Instagram) and I’ll reconsider it.

That’s everything for today! Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤