I love mini-things. I love that they don’t take up too much room, and that they don’t last forever. So when I heard the excitement about Huda Beauty Obsessions shadow palettes, I needed to try one.
Presently, there are 4 Obsessions palettes – Warm Brown, Mauve, Electric, and the one I chose, Smokey. In fact, Smokey was out of stock in my Sephora when I shopped for it during one of the Sephora sales in November. I ordered it online, and fortunately mine arrived in one piece. I had heard that some women had smashed pans because Sephora hadn’t been taking the time to pack their boxes adequately lately.
The Huda Beauty Obsessions palettes contain 9 shades, each pan measuring 3/4″ x 3/4″. The palette itself is travel friendly, as it measures 3″ x 3″ and includes a nice big mirror inside. I’m not sure if the palette is made of heavy cardboard or some type of plastic, but it feels solid. And it has a magnetic closure that I like a lot.
Smokey has a lovely collection of 5 metallic shimmer shades, a few mattes and 4 mattes. Actually, a couple of the shades were hard to pin down in terms of their finish because they didn’t seem to be clearly one thing IMHO. I found that some of the shades seemed to have a coating on them that I had to “break through” initially in order to get good color. The one I had the hardest time with was silver – and that happened to be the shade that made me choose the Smokey palette because I needed a good silver along with other warmer metallics and neutrals. Unlike the other metallic shades in the palette, the silver has glitter in it. When I first started using the silver, it looked like silver glitter on a sheer base – very disappointing. In fact, the silver looked lousy in my first swatch photos so I had to do them again. But after finger swatching it a few times, I got better results. It is powdery, and you can feel the chunks of glitter in it. I find that it applies better with a damp brush, but all in all, it is a good pigmented metallic silver glitter.
The pigmentation is great for most of the shades including the silver that I initially thought was a failure. A couple of shades seem more powdery than others (black, silver glitter and metallic pink shimmer), but the powderiness tends to stays in the palette rather than on my eyes or face because I try to remember to tap the brush. They blend quite well for me.
I wear them over primer always, and the shades wear well for as long as I have them on.
Let’s take a look.
Huda Beauty didn’t name the shades, so I’ll call ’em and describe them as I see them. You may call them something else! The palette leans toward cool-tones though there are some warm tones too. If I were laying out the palette, I probably would have put the metallics together and then the mattes instead of the random way they’re arranged, but I guess it doesn’t matter.
Starting on the left and going across the rows:
- black matte: a deep rich black that is rather powdery
- camel matte: a warm orange-beige shade
- rose gold metallic shimmer: so pretty, one of my favorites
- silver metallic: this is the one that started out sheer with glitter but has turned into a good silver metallic
- brownish-eggplant with some warm, copper shimmer
- copper metallic shimmer
- dark brown matte
- medium brown matte
- pink metallic shimmer: also rather powdery in the pan.
You can see some of the powderiness at the edges of the swatches because I packed on the color and didn’t tap the brush.
Although it has a few quirks, Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions is a good palette. I like that it’s a combination of shimmers and neutral mattes so I don’t have to go hunting for a matte palette to create an eye look. That variety coupled with its small size makes it a perfect travel companion, or perfect to keep on my vanity for creating everyday neutral looks.
For $27, Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions is worth it in my book. Available on the Huda Beauty website, at Sephora and Sephora at JCPenney.
Have you bought any of the Huda Beauty Obsession Palettes? If so, what do you think about them?
That silver looks gorgeous! I loved your review and swatches!
Thank you, Leelo. The silver is fabulous. Wore it to a party on Saturday night, and it was just the right amount of bling!
Good morning from California………beautiful pallet. Love the colors, specially the “matte”…….I know my daughter and granddaughters would love this. Have a beautiful day. 🙋🏻❤️🎄🎅🏼🎁
It’s a pretty one, DiEtta. You should try some metallic shadows just for a little pop at the center of your lid. As long as you use matte in the crease and V, a little metallic shine looks great at any age IMHO 🙂
My friend bought this palette and she loves it! I was shocked at how small the palette is though, I mean I knew it was small but I had no idea it was that tiny!
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I love love love the size of this palette. Even at this petite size, I’ll never use it up 😉
So very pretty. I can’t do a smokey eye though. But I may check one of the other colors out.
I don’t do smokey eyes either, Sandy. It’s too much darkness for me at this stage, and just too much color over all. I’ve been using the metallic shimmers on my lid along with the mattes in the crease and V, and I like it just fine. These metallics are very pretty, and surrounded by the mattes, the metallic give just enough pop in the center of the lid. Worth a look!
This is the one palette from Huda that has been tempting me. Your swatches are stunning, and may just push me into the purchase! It’s good to know that the finicky shades to ultimately work, but the silver is definitely the one that most attracted me to the palette!
I really needed the silver along with other favorite shimmer shades and neutral mattes in a tiny portable palette so this was worth it for me even though and because the shades are staples. I don’t regret buying it at all because if I’m going away for a night or two, this is the palette I take with me. You might like it especially for that reason
I want Mauve Obsessions and Warm Obsessions very badly, but I’ve gone and exceeded my palette-quota for 2017. Is the silver a foil? I struggle with foils at first as well, but use of my fingertips to pat on the colour helps.
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Oh yes, the palette quota! I know I’ve exceeded mine but this mini didn’t count, lol. No, none of these shimmers are foils. Although they do well as finger swatches, applying them with a brush is better. For the silver, a damp brush works well.
The colors in this palette are really nice – a collection of staples! Glad the silver worked out for you, it must’ve been quite an “oh noooo!” Moment since it was a deciding factor!!! I have one Huda palette (Desert Dusk) and I am in love with it!
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The Desert Dusk palette is stunning. I would have loved it, but I have bought too many palettes this year many of which I have never used. I’m much better at using the little palettes that I can throw in a bag or get to easily. You are right – I was very ticked off when I thought the silver was a fail. Glad I kept at it.
Just got this over the weekend and haven’t tried it yet. I wanted it for the silver shade too! It’s very hard for to find a silver that doesn’t turn blue on me. I hope I won’t be disappointed.
Whoa, that’s interesting, Cindy. I’ve never heard that before. It doesn’t turn blue on me, and it’s a good shade for blue eyes. I’ll be curious to see how it works for you and if you have to “dig down” initially to get the shade to show up.
I think I have all these shades, so I won’t need to pick this one up. Thanks for the swatches!
I’m sure you must. I’m on the go/traveling a lot so I love having all these shades that are my go-tos in one tiny palette.
This is the one I bought too. While it’s not perfect it’s definitely fun to use and a great price. I bought it during the 20% off sale so it feels like a bargain. The silver is the one shade I don’t see myself using much.
I bought it during the 20% off sale too, so I think it’s definitely worth the discounted price! I wear mostly white gold or silver jewelry so the silver was the reason I bought it. But the other 3 metallics are gorgeous, and I find myself wearing the pink and the copper a lot too.
Thanks for the swatches!
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It reminds me of Viseart Theory palettes although this has 9 shades compared to Viseart’s 6. I can see some powdery stuff. I don’t think my local Sephora carries Huda, I am afraid to order online coz of the horror stories. I have seen the warmer shades, I am debating whether I should buy or not….
Yes, you nailed it, Kathryne. In fact, I had thought I’d do a comparison post about the Huda Smokey and Viseart Theory – is it Minx? – if I were home I’d check. But yes, Viseart has 6 pans that are slightly larger than the 9 smaller ones from Huda Beauty. The Viseart palette doesn’t have the silver that I needed. I may do a comparison yet, but I wanted to get the Huda review and swatches up because I think it’s a great little gift or stocking stuffer. The Viseart shades are more muted though they are close but not dupes. The consistency of the shadows is quite different too. Huda is powdery in the pan (talc is the first ingredient), but their shadows are more buttery than the Viseart, go figure. I need little palettes because I travel/am away from home quite a bit so this palette fit the bill for me. You may have the shades in Smokey and Warm Browns in other palettes, so you may not need it.
That is a lovely neutral palette. All of the colors are something I would get a lot of use out of. Like others, I think the palette was definitely inspired by Viseart creations though.
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I have the Viseart palette as well and was going to do a comparison initially, but I decided to just swatch and review the Hude Beauty first because it’s such a good deal. I will do that comparison post one of these days. The Viseart palette has only 6 shades in slightly larger pans, and it lacks the silver that got me to buy the Huda Smokey palette. The Viseart shades are much more muted. Viseart has the edge on quality. I like having them both!