EM Michelle Phan Party Life Palette Review (In Depth With Swatches)

Back in September I purchased a party life palette sample, and I absolutely hated it. I posted a blog (can be viewed here) and EM cosmetics messaged me on Facebook and offered to send me a free full size life palette, at absolutely no cost. First off, how could I refuse!? Anything free is amazing, but the fact that they wanted me to change my mind (hell I wanted me to change my mind) was awesome. The palette was sent next day air to my home as promised and I was absolutely thrilled. It is now November and I finally have had time to play with it (I am so terrible, I know!). All words are my own, and I was in no way paid to create this review. Thank you to EM cosmetics for sending me this at no cost, and I wouldn't hate it if you sent me more things to review ;).

At first glance the first thing you will notice is the size of this palette: it is quite large. Their are 8 lip products, 4 blushes, and 24 eyeshadows. There are several different life palettes, and they retail for 75$ each. The packaging itself is plastic, but it is extremely solid. The palette comes with double ended shadow/angle brush, and a tool to remove the pots. I am told that the pots are refillable, but I don't see anywhere on the website to reorder single pots yet. Product can be viewed at emcosmetics.com

SWATCHES/LOOKS

First up is the upper left hand corner. From Upper R working counterclockwise: 

LIPS: fuschia affair, and lavender lust

EYES: midnight dance, eventing sky, lavender stars, pink sparks, lilacs in love, and twinkle & glimmer

BLUSH: pink soiree

If you go to emcosmetics.com and click on the party life palette, their are four look tutorials created by Michelle. I followed along with the video and recreated the looks to test the product. No eyeshadow primer/mascara/ or foundation was used for these looks. This is my bare face (just brows filled in) and eyes :)

LOOK 1: MIDNIGHT DANCE

THOUGHTS:

When I swatched this quad of the palette I wasn't impressed. Funny enough this is the same quad that I received as a sample that I hated as well. The weird thing about this quad is that it doesn't swatch well, but it does show up well on your eyes and face. This is my favorite look out of the entire review. The colors were highly blendable and pigmented. This is a look I would honestly wear everyday. It's soft and pretty. YAY! 

Upper right hand corner from upper R corner working counter clockwise:

LIPS: chic, and wine a lot!

EYES: black sky, dance floor, blue pumps, cake & confetti, blue cosmo, and spwarkle

BLUSH: party in pink

LOOK 2: PARTY IN PINK

THOUGHTS:

All of these colors are insanely pigmented. The look created by Michelle is cute, but it isn't exactly my taste. I don't care too much for a dark pink on my lids because I think it looks awful with my skintone, but ironically enough I wore this look to dinner and got a few compliments so I guess it does suit me. I love that this palette does everything. The blue shadow (blue pumps) that I used for my liner and waterline really made the look. I will say that the shadows used for lining (any of them can be used for lining) are perfect with the angled brush that comes with the palette. 

Bottom left working from the top right counterclockwise: 

LIPS: caramel, and just fab

EYES: mink coat, rich rust, bronze cuff, copper groove, gold lame, and poppin bottles

BLUSH: sexy nude

                             

LOOK 3: MY OWN CREATION ( I HATED THE ONE MICHELLE CREATED)

As said above, I did my own look for this quad because the one to demo the product looked rediculous lol 

THOUGHTS:

This quad reminded me of a holiday party because its chock full of glitter and neutral tones. When I think of fall I think of deep cranberry colored lips, and eyes that remind me of the changing leaves. This quad definitely delivers that. I love copper/metal type finishes so I was really happy with this part of the palette. I swept the copper color all over my lid, highlighted the inner corner with the golden color, accented my brows with the silver, and lined my lashline and waterline with the black shadow. The lipsticks are moisturizing, long wearing and beautiful. A + for sure!

Last but not least bottom right quad working from the right side counter clockwise:

LIPS: peach fizz, and on the prowl

EYES: black moonlight, late night, midnight swim, confetti, hazy, and girl time

BLUSH: sassy chic

LOOK 4: OUT ON THE TOWN

Following along with the tutorial

Yes, I meant to leave the fallout! It's a demo, remember? <3

My face is red because I did this right after I worked out..oops!

THOUGHTS:

Like the 3rd quad this part of the palette has a few shimmery golden/copper tones as well as a shimmery black (which I love!), a grey color and a blue. The lip color in this look is bright and cheery and I really love the on the prowl shade. It's a perfect red. Overall, I was impressed with the pigmentation, I just wish that the shadows with glitter in them were easier to blend (thats to be expected tho!)

BLUSH SWATCHES: 

Pink Soiree, Party In Pink, Sassy Chic, Sexy Nude

I love the blushes from this palette and I will definitely use them a lot. There is a blush in each tone (bright pink, flesh pink, peach, and nude) so I can use them for any look.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I am very happy that EM cosmetics was kind enough to send me this palette because my initial review really put me off the entire brand. As a die hard Phan girl of Michelle's -- this deeply upset me. Since they sent me this palette, I have ordered a few other items from them (which I will be reviewing soon!) My only issue with this palette is the pricing, and the way the shadows and lipsticks are set up. The price is steep for me, and I am not afraid to admit it. You are getting a lot, and they do offer free returns if you don't like it (GREAT IDEA!), but even thought I know the palettes are great, I doubt I will be dropping 75$ for one anytime soon. I hope they do another $ or high % off sale soon because I will definitely take advantage then. Another concern is the anatomy of the palette. The shadows are close to the lipsticks, and unless you are using a lip brush, your lipsticks are going to smudge our of their homes. The shadows had a small amount of fallout, but I am worried that once this baby gets broken in..if chunks of shadow will end up compromising my lippies. Time will tell, but those are my concerns.

Do I recommend this product? Yes, I do. Do I still love Michelle Phan? Yes, I do. She is, and I feel will always be my beauty idol.

My suggestion is to wait for a sale, and pick the life palette that suits you best. Just because its named party life doesn't necessarily you have to use it for that specific purpose. Their are shadows in here that I could use everyday. 

Look for more EM cosmetics reviews to come :) This took me 4 days to compile lol so bear with me. College is hard!

Em by Michelle Phan Party Life Palette Sample Review (with Swatches)

I love Michelle Phan (along with millions of other people), so when she finally (FINALLY!) launched her makeup line EM by Michelle Phan, I was immediately intrigued. I have followed along with Michelle since she lived in Sarasota, FL back in 2007. (she lived about 2 blocks from me! *GASP*) Anywho, I think she is incredibly talented, sweet, and drop dead gorgeous, I mean come on have you seen her?!? I didn't want to invest in a life palette just yet because they are 75$, and because it is a new makeup company. I usually don't buy a new anything unless its from a brand I trust and have had a pleasant experience with in the past. A lot of people are complaining because her "life palette's" are so expensive. Well, you have to realize that you are getting 24 eyeshadows, 4 blushes, and 8 lip shades, so the price per item is only $2.08. Still, the initial price shock is hard for people to understand, which I totally get. I am a college student with no guaranteed income (another word for I don't have a job!) so, 75$ is a lot of money for me, especially if I don't know if the product is going to be worth it.

Last week, Michelle was doing an offer to try a sample size life palette of your choosing for 10$ shipping included. I decided that it would be my best opportunity to try it out, because a lot of the times I feel like reviews are biased, or paid for by the larger blogs (you won't get none of that here hunny!).

The shipping was super fast, which I love, because lets get real who wants to wait for your new stuff? Not me!

The Palette came in this cute little pamphlet

When you opened the pamphlet, this is what you saw

This sample contained 3 eyeshadows and one lipstick. The eyeshadows are the three on the bottom, and the lip is in the far right corner.

 SWATCHES

No primer from Left to Right: Medium semi-matte pink, Dark Purpley black with pink and silver glitter, Gunmetal silver with silver glitter, Purple lipgloss with multi flake glitter

With Primer (same colors as above)

Lip Gloss swatch

Used all three eyeshadows for this look with UD primer

Full face look using all products from the sample palette

IMPRESSION

The shadows all felt velvety when swatching them with my fingers, but the color payoff was not good at all, and I had expected a lot more. I only swiped my finger once through each color, and as you can see in the first swatch photo, the colors barely showed up. With primer, the eyeshadows did perform better, but at this price point, and the fact that its considered a luxury brand- the eyeshadows didn't hold up when compared to cheaper alternatives like Stila, Nyx, and even fellow luxury brand Urban Decay. 

During application I had to dig in quite a bit to get any color to show up, and although 2 of these shadows are dark, they actually apply quite softly (not sure if its because I didn't dig into them, or because they really do not have any pigmentation). I am wearing this look during the day, which is odd because this is the "Party life" palette. I expected a lot more vibrancy and POW, and quite frankly, more GLITTER. 

The lip gloss however is really nice. In the palette it is purple with multi colored glitter but it actually applies pretty sheer with just a hint of glitter. I've been wearing it for a few hours now and my lips still feel moisturized and look nice, so that is a plus.

Overall, I have watched and read about 100 different reviews on the life palettes, and it seems that I am the only one who doesn't see much of the hype behind it, which I find odd. 

I am really disappointed in this specific palette, and I cannot fathom spending 75$ for it, when I compare the color payoff to those really cheap Walmart makeup sets that come out around Christmas time and retail for $14.99 (OUCH!!!). The color payoff just isn't there, and the fact that these shadows come in small pans just makes me angry. As said above, I love Michelle, and I totally support her videos and her journey. She is my makeup idol, so this is like a double blow for me. To even write that I was really disappointed by this product really upsets me.

I am going to do some more research, but I don't see myself spending the money for this or any of the other palettes anytime soon. I will however, look into their lip products and palettes because as said before I am quite pleased with the lip gloss sample I received.

FINAL VERDICT: SAVE YOUR $$$$$$