Huda Beauty Eyeshadow - Real vs Knock Off review and swatches

The Real Huda Beauty Textured Palette

Huda Beauty Textured Eyeshadow

Award-winning beauty blogger Huda Kattan is a beauty industry sensation so when she started her make up company, Huda Beauty, she took the internet and shops like Sephora by storm. Coming from the Middle East originally she moved to Los Angeles to train as a make up artist. After she became a make up artist, her and her two sisters, created her hit brand of Huda Beauty starting with lashes then moving onto; lipstick, nails, eye shadow and even stick on 'tattoos'. In this blog post I will review Huda Beauty Textured Shadow Palette Rose Gold Edition then I will show you a fake copy you can buy on Ebay and the comparison to the real version and if it is worth the extra money to get the difference in formula.

Swatches from Dubai to Shy (Real)

Starting off with swatches the first photograph shows what the textured eye shadows actually look like swatched on my arm then a few of the matte shades underneath as well. On the back of the palette it says 'Directions: Apply gently around the eyes with a brush. Foiled textures deliver their maximum pay-off when applied with fingertips' so I used my fingertips for swatching with extra precautions for the textured shadows. I did find already that with the textured shadows I was getting a lot of fall out just from swatching so it will be interesting to see how it will work out actually on my eyes (a little worried about how they will work out now!). The matte colours are a lot more pigmented than the textured eye shadows which is a little disappointing considering the textured shadows are what makes this palette unique from other palettes. There is some really nice colours in this palette tho with 'Fling' (second swatch), 'Rose Gold' (forth swatch) and 'Angelic' (sixth swatch) being good shades which will work together perfectly. Onto the second set of swatches...

Swatches from Bae to Sandalwood (Real)

I finished off with the matte shades of the palette working from the end of the palette. I did find that the 'Moon Dust' (second down swatch) shade has a really nice shimmer to it almost like highlighter which will be perfect for the inner corner of my eyes. I much preferred these shades than the last ones as she does have very strong matte shades. There is enough to be able to make a really dramatic look with the mattes then just add some of the textured shadows over the top for a bit of sparkle.

I Used The Shades; Bae, Flamingo, Shy,
  Moon Dust, Angelic and Maneater. 

As you can't judge a palette just on swatches I decided to try it out to see how it goes on my eyes and if I can make this palette work on an every day level. As I was going for a pastel colour outfit I decided to use all the pink shades to match my jumper for the day. To start off with I used my usual Benefit Porefessional to prime my lid ready for the base colour then I used a blending brush to cover the whole of my lids (from the bottom of my eyebrows to the top lash line) in the shade 'Bae' as it perfectly suits my skin tone then I moved into using the shade 'Shy' over the top of my crease and the side of my eye. Next I used the shade 'Flamingo' (the brightest shade of pink that is in the palette) on the side of my eye moving up into the top of the crease coming half way over my lid ready to blend with the lighter shades I'll put in next. Using the shade 'Moon Dust' I used a small flat brush to pack on the colour in the inner corner of my eye bringing it towards the middle of my eye where it meets the pink shade then using my blending brush I moved it together to make it look more transitional. As I haven't used any darker shades I decided to add in the shade 'Maneater' to make the crease pop a bit more then added the shade 'Angelic' from the textured shadows where both colours meet in the middle to make my eyes look bolder and more awake as I didn't have enough sleep the night before. I then blended, with my finger, the textured shadow over both sides to make it look more transitional again. I really liked using these colours as it matched my outfit perfectly and the only issue I had was that the textured eye shadow doesn't come off that easily from the finger onto the eye lid and I did find I had a little bit of flaking by the end of the night. I will do another look using more of the textured shadows to see if it was just because it was already over quite a lot of matte shadows. I will recreate this look again using the knock off palette to show you the difference on the lid as well.

Top one is the fake one,
Bottom one is the original

As soon as you put the two palettes together you can already tell the difference. The fake one doesn't have the shimmer on the lids or on the rose gold writing but instead is just like it's printed, you can see that the bottom one (the real one) looks much higher quality when it comes to the printing on the packaging. It feels a lot more flimsy and it is larger in size than the original and doesn't feel as heavy as the original as well. I was surprised to see how similar it looked to start off with so if people haven't got the original you wouldn't be able to tell much difference until you look at the back and the writing is in French instead of English like the original. I've heard horror stories about knock off eye shadow palettes giving people eye infections or causing allergic reactions in people as you have no idea what is in the eye shadow as they just print the same ingredients from the original box but there could be anything in there. I'm not promoting knock off or fake make up, I am going to show you the difference between paying the extra money for a real thing or paying a quarter of the price and risking it for a knock off or fake one. Looking on eBay I've found at least fifty knock off Huda Beauty Palettes on there and the one I purchased was only $3.50! so it was worth buying just to compare to the original.

Fake palette on the left, Real on the right.

Close up of the fake palette.

Opening it up, you can still see little details on the packaging which are only slightly different. The next thing I noticed is how different the colours look like! I couldn't believe it! The whole appeal of this palette is not only the amazing formula but the fact it has textured shadows which are something you buy this palette for! As I opened up the fake palette there was a lot of fall out over the whole of the palette and the window is covered in different coloured eye shadow. There were no textured shadows at all, they are more like highlighters than anything, they do have a lot of shimmer to them but that's about it. The shade 'Maneater' is spelt 'Mane Ater', the shade 'Angelic' is spelt 'Angeuc', the hash tag is missing off the shade '#Blessed'. A lot of the shades are completely different like 'Fling' which is originally a textured shadows red is instead a bright shimmery pink, '24K' is meant to be a textured green like gold but it is bright yellow in this palette, They've made the shade 'Black Truffle' shimmering instead of matte and the shade 'Maneater' isn't only miss spelt but instead of a really nice burgundy they've made it another hot pink like shade. So onto swatches...

Swatches of the top row (from Dubai to Angeuc)

So in the original palette these were all the textured shades, but as you can see in the fake one they are just shimmering shades which aren't like the original shades at all! It look a few swiped to be able to get some of the pigmentation out of the pan as well which is disappointing compared to the one swipe of the original palette in comparison. Some of the shades are nice like the shade 'Trust Fund' as a coppery shimmer shade but considering these are all meant to be textured shadows I am really disappointed so far, Some of them have so little pigment you can barely see them.

Swatches of the middle row (from Blessed to Moon Dust) 

In the orignal palette the first shade is meant to be a textured shadow then the rest are matte apart from the last shade 'Moon Dust' which is meant to be shimmering. However, there were no textured shadows on this row either, instead the first shade 'Blessed' was shimmering instead then there was a matte shade what didn't have much pigment in it then another shimmering shade 'Flamingo' which is originally a hot pink matte colour. The shades 'Shy' and 'Bae' lacked so much pigment they didn't even show up on the swatch and 'Moon Dust' is more of a highlighter than anything.

Swatches of the bottom row (from Black Truffle to Sandalwood)

The last row I was feeling a bit more optimistic for as in the original palette this row holds all matte shades which have really high pigment and I was curious to see how this one turns out in comparison. Like in the original they actually stuck to having them all matte shades. 'Black Truffle' had really high pay off especially for a black and the next few shades were okay until the shade 'Mane Ater' which is completely different to the original shade I like so much which was disappointing. Over all the bottom row seemed to be a lot more pigmented and easier to swatch than the past two rows as you can actually see all of the shades on the swatch.


Using the fake palette I will re create the eye shadow look I did with the original palette so you can really see the difference in shades compared to the original. Using the same prepping as last time I used my Benefit Porefessional Primer on my lids to give a nice base colour and to make sure the eyeshadow is in place properly and will stay there all day without budging. I went in with the shade 'Bae', which now seems to be a yellow shade where as in the original palette it is a nice creme shade, all over the lid from the inner corner up to the brows and down to the outer corner. For above the crease I went in with the shade 'Shy' bringing it up to the bottom of my eyebrows, this seems to be like the original shade 'Bae' not the original rose pink shade. I then went in with the shade 'Flamingo' which is meant to be the really nice bright pink but instead is almost a burnt orange bronze colour instead from the outer corner to the middle crease. For the inner corner to meet the shade 'Flamingo' I used the shade 'Moon Dust' which is almost like the shade in the original just slightly off as it has a more orange undertone than the original creme undertone. Using a blending brush again I tried to make it look more transitional but it wasn't budging much as they aren't as pigmented as the original palette so I have to keep packing more product on. Originally I used the shade 'Maneater' to really make the crease pop as it is a really nice burgundy shade, but in the fake palette it is a neon pink but I put it in the crease anyway just to show you the major difference in all the shades. This is much more like what the original shade 'Flamingo' is meant to be. I then used a dash of the shade 'Angelic' in the middle of the lid to really make my eyes pop, but as it isn't a textured shadow like it's meant to be I just used a blending brush instead of my finger tip. This is a really nice shade but as it isn't a textured shadow it isn't the exact shade. The finished look is completely different from the original as the colours are so different. I do like some of these shades tho and think the colours together in this look really nice, it's just a shame they are so far from the original shades like you would expect even from a fake palette.

To get the original palette for yourself  you can get it from:

https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/huda-beauty-textured-shadows-palette-rose-gold-edition.html

for $56.00

for the fake palette I just put it in eBay and I can't find the exact link, just remember that you have no idea what is in the fake product as they just copy to writing from the original box!