Is there some Dark Magic in Morphe's Vault?

Today I'm going to conclude my reviews on the ill-fated Morphe/Jaclyn Hill collection of eyeshadow palettes known as The Vault, by focusing on the last of the four for me to cover - the Dark Magic palette.

This is the one that I was most hesitant to try; deep shadows are harder to blend and are generally messy at the best of times, so I usually wear lighter shades as I'm not patient and precise. So how have I fared with widely-reviewed as badly performing shadows from such an inconsistent collection?

... It's worth the wait; like with my Armed & Gorgeous palette, I'm really enjoying my Dark Magic palette and don't have any problems with the quality. All of the shades apply well, wear well and the shades don't fade - there was some creasing on my heavily hooded eyes at the end of a nine hour workday, but that's become pretty normal for me over the past several months, as I'm very concerned that the folds in my lids are becoming more pronounced. 

The formulas in this palette are great - a special shout-out for the shimmer shades, which are the smoothest out of all four palettes in The Vault. I prefer eyeshadow palettes with larger numbers of matte shades in comparison to shimmers, so that's another huge plus here. In the original Jaclyn Hill palette I find the dark green matte shade [Enchanted] tricky to blend, but I haven't had any trouble with Inside Job, so if you wanted to love Enchanted but didn't, here's your new chance.

On the downside; Inside Job is an extremely similar shade to Enchanted from the original Jaclyn Hill palette, so could have been swapped for something else, since most people who will buy this palette are people who have and enjoy her original one and are going to get the same thing twice. I've not got any major issues with the formulas or colour story; I just can't help remembering that Jaclyn has publicly said that she hates cool tones, so just how authentic is this palette as an extension of her "favourite, must-have shades"?

Dark Magic is the most unique palette in The Vault with it's cooler, grungier tones, and I've not seen similar colour story anywhere myself (except maybe the upcoming Venus XL2 palette by Lime Crime?), so think that Dark Magic is actually my favourite palette from The Vault since it's such a breath of fresh air. I can't help but think that maybe it's a case of everyone being too judgmental with this collection; Morphe and Jaclyn have made no secret of the fact that the four The Vault palettes are made up from the leftover shadow shades that where cut from the shortlist from being in the original Jaclyn Hill palette. So if we already knew that we were getting the shadows that where left out of the original palette for not being good enough and getting them at a fairly cheap price, I have to reason that maybe we all shouldn't have expected the best shadows in the world from this collection? 

[The claims of the palettes being recalled, reformulated, repressed, imported and distributed inside 6 weeks is another issue, and is one which I can't play devil's advocate for]

To sum things up; my Dark Magic and Armed & Gorgeous palettes are great - I niggled over a few similar shades in them, but the formulas inside both palettes are very good. Bling Boss isn't the best in terms of quality, but the formulas are workable and I love the shades in that palette, so I'm content to work with it. Ring The Alarm was a disappointment due to the soft & muddy formulas and unexciting colour story - I've not used it since my testing and review last year, and think it's easily skippable.


The 4-palette complete collection for The Vault came from Morphe UK [they now have a UK warehouse, so you won't be charged any custom fees] for £49, but is no longer available to buy.

The Dark Magic palette can be bought alone and costs £15.

Cult Beauty will be getting stock of the sets and individual palettes soon, so you may want to keep an eye on their site.