Disclaimer: This post is based on opinion and observation by the lead writer of this blog. Any thoughts and or opinions this controversy should be respected by the readers that pass by this blog!

Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! This no April Fools joke because it is another Cosmetic Controversy and it is a big one! Let’s get into it!

Controversy: Kat Von D made some very heated comments towards UK brand MakeUp Revolution for their EYe Contour Light and Shade pallet which according to her that they copied the entire pallet from color all the way down to artwork. Some of the tags she used include “Cheap Ass,” “Boot Leg,” and a few more and this was on Instagram by the way. It was in response to an article that Cosmopolitan did on the MakeUp Revolution pallet and they are known for making items that look similar to other higherend products and sell them for less which their Light and Shade pallet is $15 which you can get on Ulta’s website.

She did make a video as a response since there were two sides which one side said “Good for her for dragging MakeUp Revolution” while the toothers said, “She was unprofessional for doing this.” Which her video was a way of telling the difference between ripoffs and dupes.

Truth: Actually, MakeUp Revolution is not the only one who has “copied” others. A lot of companies have been doing this for years which some companies get inspired by each other and make similar colors to what they carry.

For instance, I almost got Big Apple Red once by O. P. I. which is a very popular nail polish brand and they are known to have their stuff sold for $8+ in stores like Target and Ulta and then one of the Target workers told me that you’re better off just buying two bottles of Ruby Ruby by Sinful Colors for $2.99 each when I had one bottle in hand. I saw the logic in that and did get just two bottles of Ruby Ruby since they look similar in the ruby red color and I did save an extra $4 while picking them up.

An article I did find when researching this that there is that one company that is the innovator and wants to make the items first and there is that one company that tends to study the make of the product and then make it and sell it for a lower price point which they also pointed out that MakeUp Revolution did this by making their own version of the Real Techniques Bold Metals brushes that were released in 2015 and goes onto say that MakeUp Revolution does this so they can make their products more accessible to their customers and it is true since we as customers who want to save some money do want to go for the dupe over the higher priced item.

We do see the good in that but where is always the good there is the bad. According to Glossible, the reason why it is bad for all this existing is due to the lack of innovation behind creating the products and all thanks to social media labs are working at their hardest and not getting new customers.

Okay? Uhhhh that is interesting to read but isn’t social media the reason why we buy some of these items? I am now seeing a lot of videos where it says “YouTube Made Me Buy It!” in the title which they mention a lot of drugstore and some high end makeup that other YouTubers have been talking about whether it is the Essence Lash Princess Mascara or the Too Faced Chocolate BonBons pallet, people are looking towards those videos to get an idea of what they want to pick up whether it is drugstore or not.

What point I found interesting in this person’s article is that they quoted a blogger’s post that brands are starting to put a formula into a pan and decorate it with their signature look and put it out there so we can “ooh and ahh” over it and some of these companies don’t bother to tweak the formula to make it better. I can see where she is going with that because remember Too Faced’s Chocolate Shoppe set for Holiday 2016? If not, let me tell you!

Too Faced did three holiday sets last year and one of them was both for Sephora and Ulta while one of them was for Ulta and the other Sephora. The set that was carried by both is the Café New York Hotel set which is my fave by the way that features the coffee scented pallets in Gingerbread Coffee, Egg Nog Latte, and Peppermint Mocha alongside the sample size of their ever-famous Better Than Sex Mascara. While the Ulta exclusive set happened to be the Merry Macarons set which is in that same resort looking packaging with the same mascara sample and a pallet of twelve vanilla scented shades named after cookies and finally the Sephora exclusive set was the Chocolate Shoppe set that features eye shadows, blush, bronzer, highlighter, mascara, primer, and a lipstick and everything but the primer and mascara had the signature Chocolate Bar scent that Too Faced is known for! People had problems with the Chocolate Shoppe which some of the more matte shades weren’t showing up as much as the shimmer ones and one reviewer on YouTube said the bronzer in this is not as pigmented as the full-size verison as the Chocolate Solei bronzer while the other two sets were way more pigmented than this one and I can test to that since the Merry Macarons one was a big sell out in my town and did manage to get it for Christmas though and can see why the other two were popular. What I found interesting is that some of the shades in the Chocolate Shoppe were also featured in the White Chocolate Chip pallet that came out with the Matte Chocolate Chip Pallet that came out Black Friday last year and they were limited edition online only on Sephora for the White Choocolate and Too Faced only for the Matte Chocolate and I can see where not much creativity would be there since some of the shades did overlap in these two pallets. I did see a reviews where some of the shades didn’t show up or build up as well as the original counterparts and when they touched them there is a bit of a scratchy feel. I did find it interesting how Cookie Dough appeared better in the White Chocolate Chip better than the one in Chocolate Shoppe from what I’ve seen in reviews. Now I can see why the article talked about another point where companies are trying to get their stuff out the fastest and I can see how that can be a problem. One good example is the the Power of MakeUp pallet that Nikki Tutorials collabed with and the quality in that one was not as great and had inconsistencies in some of the shades and I did say in my reviews to be honest that the pallet should’ve been pushed back to test the pigmentation a bit more before being released. Now I can see why the Stardust pallet by Vegas Nay had a better quality.

Thoughts: I am agreeing with Karina Kaboom that brands do get inspired by others and of course we do see a lot of dupes out there in the drugstore, including the drugstore area of Ulta, for people to get an affordable product. What I find interesting is that a lot of videos on YouTube do mention dupes of some of the products that the creator does get either from an online indie brand or in the drugstore. One example is that some people like the Hot Pot shadows from Coastal Sense as an alternative to MAC and another company rising in popularity is known as Karity which their shadows are dupes for MAC shadows as well. So buying a dupe is not that bad especially when makeup users want to save money.

Another thing is that I don’t see higherend brands getting on some of the other brands for making similar things to what they have. Perfect example is Urban Decay and their Naked pallet line! Of course MakeUp Revolution did their own line which is called the Iconic line and I have the Iconic 2 which does look similar to the Naed 2 and I enjoy very much. They did do an Iconic Smoky as well and Urban Decay didn’t do what Kat did by pretty much cussing them out. Two other brands that did similar pallets to the Naked Pallet Line were of course Coastal Sense with their Revealed palets (1, 2, 3, and Smoky) and CoverGirl who started doing similar pallets at the beginning of this year which they had a sticker saying, “Similar to a $50 pallet!” I admit that I do want to get the other Naked pallets since I have both of the Basics and the Smoky pallet and I do have all four of the Revealed pallets and yes the third one wasn’t the greatest to most people but I do enjoy the Coastal Sense ones since not only I get ten more shadows than the Urban Decay ones, especially my Smoky pallet, but looking at the price you do get it for cheap and I don’t feel like I have to run out to get the Urban Decay ones. But as said before I don’t see Urban Decay acting like what Kat did since they know they have a big reputation to hold and of course people will still buy their items or others would just go for the dupe instead.

And finally, since I mentioned reputations, in case if you are wondering, I think Kat was unprofessional with what she did. Yes, I know about the backlash and knowing that she could have done better about this. Remembered how I did that one Cosmetic Controversy about brand owners acting badly? I kind of think this fits that category because we are the customer and there are times we like to look up to the owner of the brand as someone who is amazing and can be an idol. I should’ve mentioned this in that post but looking at it now I can put this here. I admit I do have my tube of Ion from her Studded Kiss line and my best buddy Vivi does have her products and she wants to keep buying but I can’t tell her or you guys you shouldn’t stop purchasing because of this backlash. Like with Jeffree, Kat should’ve taken this matter to a private message and tell MakeUp Revolution that she doesn’t like what they did instead of taking it to Instagram and YouTube. I admit I saw the video and I know how much hard work she puts into her stuff including the artwork but MakeUp Revolution didn’t copy the artwork from what Vivi saw and I would believe that if I seen it. Maybe the pallet looks like the Shade & Light but the only thing that MakeUp Revolution can’t take is the original artwork from Kat for their pallet. Iremembered how my dad described the artwork on the Girls on Film pallet at Ulta when I first got into MakeUp Revolution and it was a girl with a camera if I remembered and my Unicorns United pallet would have a unicorn on it. In the end, it felt like it got blown over and should have been handled a lot better instead of being public matter, especially with the hash tags which really is not that great.

If lessons were learned from this, from what I saw in videos, yes there will be a dupe version of some companies’ products, yes people will get the dupe over the highend, but a company’s owner shouldn’t bash on others since people will probably look up to them and even decide to keep buying from them or not. Look at Jeffree Starr, apparently now (update) from what I am hearing he is starting to shape up slightly. Hoping Kat doesn’t fall into the “Owners With Bad Attitude” category like the Z Pallet owner just did.

Well, that is about it! This was a hard one to do since looking at it from the side of how people deemed it unprofessional, Kat should’ve done it privately. I am saying not to bash on either Kat or MakeUp Revolution because they are both businesses and they are human. Who knows what else will happen but when you look at it, MakeUp Revolution does have some original items in their line that people do like and I am one of them. I will still get Echo by Kat at one point probably until I have extra cash for it or as a gift.

That is it for this post! I know it was a lot to throw out at you guys but hoping you pulled through! Next up is my Convention Spotlight on MegaCon 2017 which we will be doing our first year of press there! Yay! Stay tuned!