Colourpop Just My Luck Palette Review + Swatches

So many members of the beauty community have been pleading with brands for a non-neutral palette. And, just our luck, Colourpop delivered. … Get it? The Just My Luck palette? Anyway. Toward the beginning of March, they released this beautiful green, monochromatic palette. I wanted to have this review up prior to St. Patrick’s Day so you could use it as St. Patrick’s Day inspo, but it’s me and I’m always late. It happens. So today we’re doing a Colourpop Just My Luck palette review — including swatches, a few different eye looks, and some dupes I found in my current collection.

the basics

Just My Luck is a 9-pan pressed powder shadow palette and, like the other palettes in this monochrome collection, retails for $12. Each pan is .04 oz, and the palette is labeled cruelty free and vegan.

A lot of Colourpop’s palettes are housed in a cardboard packaging, but the 9-pan monochrome palettes are contained in a heavy duty plastic. Just My Luck’s packaging is an intense emerald green color with snap closure and a large mirror. Like It’s My Pleasure, the shade names are printed on the back of the palette as well as under each shade.

the shade selection

In my Beauty Trends I Want to See post, I mentioned I wanted to see greens, of all varieties. So you know I was amped when Colourpop dropped this green mono-chrome palette.

The Just My Luck palette contains a mix of 5 mattes and 4 metallics.

From left to right:

• Chances Are…: matte fresh mint
• Kiss My Hass: matte spearmint
• 50-50: metallic mossy green
• Big Banks: metallic jade
• Mary Jane: metallic chartreuse
• Olive U: metallic olive green
• Act Natural: matte emerald
• Mo Bamba: matte forest green
• Charmed: matte khaki olive

the review

the good:

Unsurprisingly, I enjoy this palette; however, there are a couple of complaints that I’ll address in a minute. My standout shades are Chances Are…, Olive U, Big Banks, and Mary Jane.

Something I love about the Just My Luck palette is that it’s truly a green palette. At first, I was a little afraid of that Charmed shade; it looked like a dark brown, which makes sense with the palette but something I already have. However, it’s definitely a green.

Like my review of It’s My Pleasure, the metallics in this palette are amazing. They’re soft and punchy, wet or dry. And I have created so many different looks with this palette, which I love. I don’t like a palette that only warrants inspiration for one or two looks.

the ehhh:

Though I love this palette, I have some complaints that I just can’t shake. There are definitely some interesting and unique shades in Just My Luck. However, some of the shades are extremely similar on the eye and hard to tell apart–like Kiss My Hass and Act Natural or Charmed and Mo Bamba. I wish there was a shade that was tinted a little more toward gold; I think that’d have made a great addition to the palette, especially for those of us who tend to wear color in a more subtle way.

Another downside to this palette is the staying power. Colourpop always claims to have long-lasting shadows, and I haven’t ever had an issue with staying power. But I’ve struggled with this palette. Both of the looks I created for this post didn’t last but a couple of hours on the eye before they transferred and wiped away. And I tried extremely hard not to rub my eyes. I really want this to work, so maybe it’s because I was using a different base than usual. Here’s to hoping.

In the same lines of staying power, those last couple of darker, matte shades have my buttons pushed. In my opinion, they’re hard to work with. They apply pretty patchy and are a bit difficult to blend out. You can tell in the swatches, Charmed is pretty patchy. I even went over that a couple of times. These darker shades also had a pretty high amount of fallout, so keep that in mind and maybe do your eyes first when working with these shades.

However, having said that, it is pretty once I get it on the eye. And I do like using this shades as liners.

the looks

#1

I was really inspired by that Big Banks shade; as soon as I opened the palette, I gravitated toward this shade. And it’s not something I typically use, but I am in love with look.

• First I blended the shade Hunts (a deep orangey brown) from the Jaclyn Hill x Morphe palette* into my crease.
• Next, I deepened the outer corner and outside of the crease with a little mixture of Buns and Chip from that same Morphe palette*. Together, these shades created a warm, darker brown.
• Now comes the fun stuff. I used a small brush to apply a pretty hard line of Big Banks along the crease–kind of like a failed cut crease. But in that direction. Then I patted Big Banks on the rest of the inner most portion of my lid with my finger.
• Once the green was applied, I blended a little of those warm browns to hide the harsh line between the green and outer corner.
• And I finished off the eyes by applying a mixture of Enlight and Beam (to create a champagne color) from the Morphe palette* to highlight the inner corner and brow bone, smudged a little of Hunts and Chip along the bottom lash line, and topped it off with my Hourglass Caution* mascara.

#2

It’s no question you can create a bright and vibrant green look with the Just My Luck palette, but I was inspired to create something pretty simple and wearable that was a little more sultry and dark. And it was so. easy.

• Start by applying Charmed all over the lid, into the crease. I used a fluffy blending brush and kind of diffused it all over my lid and into my crease. My advice with this is to start light and build it up to your desired deepness.
• On a dense pencil brush*, I applied Olive U to my lash line. The concept was that it was going to peek above my liner, so I created a pretty thick line of this glittery olive. Then I sort of blended it out so it wasn’t harsh on the lid.
• Next, I drew a quick wing with a forest green emerald liner. I wasn’t too precise, because I blended it out with a brush. Then on a liner brush, I applied 50-50 on top of than wing I created and sort of smudged it all together. I wanted to keep a slight wing shape, but didn’t want it to be too harsh and sharp.
• To finish up I highlighted the inner corner with whatever highlight I used that day, probably Hu$tla Baby* from Fenty, smudged a little 50-50 along the bottom lash line, and applied a few coats of the Hourglass Caution* mascara.

the dupes

I thought something fun in my eye shadow palette reviews would be to see if I could find any dupes in my current collection. I only found 3 potential dupes, and while they are pretty similar, they are not the same.

Big Banks/Mali

Big Banks is that metallic jade shade, and the Masquerade palette* from Juvia’s Place has a very similar shade called Mali. It’s a little lighter but gives a very similar effect on the eye.

Olive U/Telepathy

I actually thought I had quite a few shades that could potentially dupe Olive U, but I was wrong. Telepathy from Colourpop was the closest I found, but it’s a little more golden. It’s almost as if you placed Mary Jane on top of Olive U.

Charmed/Savanna

The only other shade I had something similar to was Charmed. Natasha Denona has a shade called Savanna in her Safari palette* that is pretty darn close. To be honest, I prefer Savanna; it isn’t as patchy and is a little more pigmented. Of course, the whole Just My Luck palette is cheaper but if you have the Safari palette, you have a similar shade to Charmed.

Let me know if you want to me to include dupes in my future reviews or if you’d like me to swatch potential dupes from the It’s My Pleasure palette.

the bottom line

The bottom line is I’d recommend the Colourpop Just My Luck palette IF you are attracted to the colors. If you already have a pretty extensive green collection, I don’t think it’s necessary. But for the price and the decent quality, if you think you’d wear these shades, I don’t think you’d be disappointed.

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You may also be interested in these posts:

• Colourpop Going Coconuts Review
• Colourpop It’s My Pleasure Review
• Colourpop Uh Huh Honey Review