Sometime last year, Bad Habit Beauty became popular for its dupes and great eyeshadow quality. And because the local beauty community loves a bargain and great quality products, good dupes are always welcome. It didn't come as a surprise then that many of Bad Habit's palettes slowly became a hit in the online beauty market in the Philippines.
While Bad Habit has actually come out with their own palette recently, their dupes continue to remain extremely popular. For this week's post, I'm going to be reviewing their Athena palette which is their dupe of Huda Beauty's Desert Dusk palette.
If you're on Instagram, you've seen Huda Beauty and the Desert Dusk palette quite a lot. And then you saw the price tag and felt your heart breaking.
Or if you were like me, you caved and bought the palette but later decided that you don't consider Huda Beauty a cruelty-free brand. I quickly decluttered the palette (since you can't return makeup in the Philippines) and decided to opt for this palette as an alternative instead.
Huda Beauty's Cruelty-Free Status
After consulting many cruelty-free resources, Huda Beauty's cruelty-free status is unclear. Some sites do not include them in their list of cruelty-free brands, like Logical Harmony and the brand does not have any CF certifications. However, the brand does claim that their beauty products (makeup and skincare) is cruelty-free, but not all of their products are.
This is because Huda Beauty sells mink lashes and the owner has even claimed that while these lashes are made of mink hair, they are manufactured through cruelty-free means- which obviously doesn't make sense based on this article from the Dodo. This seems rather questionable and misleading to me, because some of the products are cruelty-free, but some of them aren't.
And for me, as long as a brand offers products with animal hair (mink lashes or natural hair brushes), then I don't consider them cruelty-free. Unless Huda Beauty decides to phase out their mink lashes and switch to faux mink lashes in the future, I won't buy any of their products. Anyway, back to the review.
The Palette
The Athena palette comes in sturdy cardboard packaging and features 18 shades in matte, metallic, and pressed glitter finishes. A lot of the metallic shades have interesting properties as well. Some have a duochrome finish (blue and red and purple and blue), and there's also that chunky and multi-dimensional pressed glitter.
I have actually had this palette for a long time and it looks somewhat beat up. I already hit pan on Purity while Justice has a really noticeable dip in it.
This is a warm-toned palette and has a really nice color story. It's a comfortable foray into color if you like neutrals but want to try more colorful shadows without going for a rainbow palette.
The Shadows
Here are the shades swatched by row on bare skin (I made sure to shoot this when it wouldn't be so hot so I don't get sweaty). I didn't use primer on any of the shades except for Daring, just because it's a pressed glitter than will only work with some sort of adhesive anyway, I used the E.L.F. glitter glue for it.
First Row
Second Row
Third Row
I think the overall quality of the eyeshadows are amazing. The mattes are buttery and soft without losing their color payoff when you apply them to your eyes. Since they're so soft, they can kick up a lot of powder, and they can fall on your face with you're doing your makeup. I don't consider fallout an issue and always do my eyeshadow first so I love the matte shades in this palette.
In the same way, I also really like how the the metallic shades are formulated. They all have this soft and foiled texture that make them easy to work with. They're also extremely pigmented and a little truly goes a long way with them, especially when you don't set your eyeshadow primer. You won't need to dig to get the level of pigmentation that you want. While most of the shimmery shades differ in color, I do wish Divine and Cunning didn't look so similar to each other.
However, I will say that you really will need an adhesive with the pressed glitter shades (Fierce, Epic, and Daring) because they're pretty crumbly in texture and can end up on your face. I also did notice that they don't last throughout the day and end up creasing. I have used the E.L.F. glitter glue with other pressed glitter shades and it has worked fine with them, so that's something to consider.
My Final Thoughts
I think this is a palette that is worth picking up, even if it's not that expensive to begin with. I am thoroughly impressed by Bad Habit Beauty's shadow formula and have no qualms recommending this palette to anyone. It even photographs beautifully as you can see:
As someone who has owned both palettes, I can say that the quality of both palettes are the same to each other, and you can get that same quality at a more affordable price. So if you don't want to break the bank for the Desert Dusk palette but feel like you're missing out on those colors, I recommend this not only as an alternative but because it's simply an amazing palette.
Where to get it:
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