Morphe x Ashley Strong Affirmation Magic Artistry Palette

Morphe and influencer Ashley Strong recently released their second collaboration (I think?) and this is a multi-piece collection. I picked up the eyeshadow palette because this screams fall tones and as the self-proclaimed queen of jewel monochromatics – this was a must have. You can grab yours on the Morphe website or at Ulta Beauty for $22!

Ashley Strong rose to fame winning the James Charles-led reality web competition Instant Influencer last year where contestants “battled” to become the next big beauty influencer. Ashley, or @strashme, as she is known on Instagram was the only contestant I’d previously followed before the show premiered. This collection with Morphe is just one of the collaborations she’s released since the show’s end, but the first I’ve picked up.

I was intrigued by the palette since it was first announced, but a little while after release I began to see some rather unflattering reviews about formula performance especially on darker skintones. I really wanted to try it out because I usually love the Morphe formula.

So I went to my local Ulta and grabbed the palette for myself! While I have done a full makeup look with it, I do have a pretty good feeling of how the formulas perform from the swatches. Overall, I don’t believe it’s a bad palette – especially for $22! This isn’t going to perform like Pat McGrath for $22 let’s be honest with ourselves here. You are getting each of the 18 shades for about $1.25. I really enjoyed the sparkly shades the most – glitter, duochrome and shimmer really shinned (no pun intended) here! And the mattes fell a little flat. Primarily because the four brown mattes all blended into my skintone and disappeared. I would have preferred more variation in the brown shades to cover blend and crease shades for more skin tones.

However failing the mattes are, the sparkly shades more than make up. There are some subtlies to some of them that allow for the trick of the light to catch and make them more or less powerful and that’s where the magic in the title comes in I guess! Two duchromes in the top and bottom rows also dupe more expensive versions of those shades that will set you back more than $22 for just those two alone. So is it worth it for the price? Absolutely! If you are looking for some solid fall shimmers that aren’t overwhelming to work with – look no further. The shades can be blended to be less bold or packed on to really stand out.

Finally, I want to talk about the packaging because I think it’s really neat! All the shades are named with titles of affirmation. Monday you can use “I Am Empowered” and Thursday you can use “I Am Magical” so you never forget who you are. The palette has french doors that fold out when you open it up and on the inside of the doors are two motivational affirmations or meditations. Such a nice touch to add when there are so many that use makeup as a creative outlet for the rest of the world – including me!