Even though I’ve been reviewing products left, right, and centre on this blog, I feel like I’ve neglected a huge part of my collection: my eyeshadows. In particular, I rarely ever talk about any of the eyeshadow palettes I have in my arsenal. So, I took to my Instagram account (which you should follow if you haven’t already!!) and asked my followers which palette I should review. Some awesome individuals chimed in, and here we are! The first on my list is the Melt Cosmetics Lovesick Stack. I also will eventually make a “Palette Collection” video using only the shadows in this palette in the near future. If you’d like to learn my thoughts about it, please keep reading.
Overview
I purchased this palette a little over a year ago from the Melt Cosmetics website during their 30% off sale. Honestly, I was leaning more toward the Dark Matter stack at the time, however, because it was sold out for what felt like an eternity, I decided to get the Lovesick stack instead.
The stack comes with 4 shades:
- Promiscuous – a beautiful deep purple with a slight blue shimmery shift
- Fixated – a matte dark slate
- Amélie – a peachy pink shimmer
- Lovesick – a rich, deep red
With the discount, I ended up paying about $45 CAD, which didn’t include shipping. The price seems a little steep for only 4 shades at first glance, but when you compare the size of these enormous pans (0.125 oz./pan) versus other single shadows like the ones from MAC (0.05 oz./pan), the price is fitting.
The packaging is definitely interesting as it comes as a literal stack of shadows which all are magnetized and snap together. All the different stacks can be stacked together, which is kind of neat, but not the most practical or travel-friendly. Apart from that, I think the packaging looks and feels very sleek.
Formula
The Lovesick stack comes with two shimmery shades (Promiscuous and Amélie) and two matte shades (Fixated and Lovesick). Unfortunately, without a primer, none of the shadows perform well at all. If applied with a brush, they barely show up, which is a little disappointing, however seeing as I never use shadows without primer, this isn’t a huge deal for me.
When used with a primer, the shimmery shades perform significantly better, appearing more bright and apply much more smoothly. The matte shades, however, are very dry, powdery, and patchy. The shade I was most excited about, Lovesick, was not nearly as pigmented and smooth as I expected it to be, which was a real disappointment. These shadows take a lot of work to look true to pan, with the majority of them needing a black base underneath to really stand out. The only low-maintenance shade, in my opinion, is Amélie. All it needs is a standard primer and can be applied with a brush or fingers and will look just as it does in the pan, and is quite easy to work with.
L to R: Promiscuous, Fixated, Amélie, Lovesick. Brush swatches with no primer
L to R: Promiscuous, Fixated, Amélie, Lovesick. Brush swatches with primer
Here, I included a swatch I made using my fingers to show how swatches online can sometimes be deceiving when it comes to how pigmented shadows actually are. When swatched with my fingers, the shades look much more vibrant and smooth, when the reality is that without a proper base they are all very dry and crumbly.
L to R: Promiscuous, Fixated, Amélie, Lovesick. Finger swatches, no primer
Final Thoughts
Although the shades are beautiful, their formulas just don’t live up to the hype. Even if used with a base, the matte shades are just too difficult to work with and just take too much effort to show up as expected. I’m not sure if I’ll be buying anymore of the Melt stacks any time soon. When the total price is taken into account, they just aren’t worth it to buy from Canada, and there are absolutely much better and cheaper alternatives available.
Have you tried any of the Lovesick stack or any other of the Melt Cosmetics stacks?
What are your thoughts?
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