Morphe X Jaclyn Hill The Vault Collection

When Morphe and Jaclyn Hill announced a new collaboration last summer, the online makeup world was very excited. Then the first reviews started coming in and the product was pulled and ‘updated’. Regardless of what actually happened between the announcement and the final release of this palette collection, all I knew was that this was the first ever Morphe release that had me excited. Excited enough to not believe the mostly negative hype, so I bit the bullet and bought the palettes to see what I’d think.

Morphe X Jaclyn Hill The Vault eyeshadow palette collection

Let’s not beat about the bush: I am not a Morphe fangirl. Where some people swear by the affordable brand and own multiple palettes, I never really hopped onto the Morphe hype machine. I tried some of their shadows in the 12 NB palette, but I disliked that palette so much that I decluttered it before I ever got around to reviewing it. The Morphe x Jaclyn Hill The Vault Collection is a set of 4 palettes that retails for €55, or you can buy each palette individually for €17 a piece. I got mine via the official Morphe website: they now have a European warehouse, meaning you no longer have to pay for customs.

The Packaging

Part of the appeal of these palettes for me was the format. My biggest pet peeve about most Morphe palettes is their sheer size. I don’t want 35 shadows in a large palette that I will have difficulty to store. These palettes contain 40 shades all together, spread out over 4 individual palettes, each with a singular color story. So these are the same size as most regular sized palettes.

The Palettes

The four different palettes come housed in a cardboard box that has the same styling as the palettes. The palettes are white, made out of cardboard and each one has a smallish mirror in the lid. The individual palettes are very slim, think Zoeva eyeshadow palettes. That makes these palettes small enough to pack for travel and much easier to handle than the larger standard sized Morphe palettes.

4 Palettes

So which four palettes do you get inside? You get a warm toned palette called Ring the Alarm. A purple toned palette called Bling Boss. An army green and gold palette called Armed & Gorgeous. Finally there is a dark, smokey palette called Dark Magic. There are two palettes with a warmer undertone and two palettes with a cooler undertone. Let’s have a closer look at these palettes. I will be discussing each one individually.

Ring the Alarm

Ring the Alarm is the warmest palette in the bunch and I think a lot of people’s favorite. These are the tones that we have seen a lot though, so that why this is not my favorite. I only got this because it was part of the set. Getting the set was however as expensive as getting three palettes, so I sort of got this for free. But this is not my favorite in terms of color story.

Many people in the beauty community will tell you that warm tones are the easiest to do, which is why this palette is outperforms the others in terms of swatchability and smoothness of the shadows. The color story is one however that we have seen many times before and I think something most people already own. However, if you do not own a warm toned palette yet and are looking for a good warm toned palette, then this can be worth a shot.

The Swatch

As you can see, the swatches of Ring the Alarm look very promising. Texture wise this is a very smooth formula and the shimmers look especially stunning. There are more mattes than shimmers and in terms of blendability these shades work really well.

The Application

To create this look, I used all the shades in the palette.

Overall, this palette surprised me despite it being yet another warm toned palette. I like these tones, but this palette is a bit of a one trick pony and one that doesn’t me inspire me.

Bling Boss

Bling Boss was one of the palettes that spoke to me the most when I spotted these online. It is a purple and berry palette and with that a bit more cool toned. If you get one palette from all of these, then I think this one is your best bet. This color scheme is right on point with current trends and a very safe bet no matter your eye shape or undertone.

This palette has a different layout from the first one. Where that had more mattes than shimmers, this is skewed the other way with 2 satins and 4 shimmers. I like how not everything is matte and there are a few different textures in this palette. That makes this palette a lot more versatile and easier to play with. I find this much more inspiring than Ring the Alarm.

The Swatch

As you can see the swatches of this palette work nearly as well as the first palette. There are a few shades here that are a bit more difficult to work with. There is a matte transition in the top left row that shows up quite sheer on my skin, but can be build up. Also this palette has a black with glitter. Not my favorite shade in any palette, but they can work well as liner, but don’t expect the glitter to show up.

The Application

This is the look I created with all the shades in the palette. I tried doing a halo eye this time.

I had no issues creating this look and this palette is one that I feel I can take into other directions as well. You could easily use this palette to create an all purple look or go more neutral. The lighter shades work well and can be build up. The shimmers in this are especially great. They foil well, but this palette also plays well combined with some of the shades in Dark Magic.

Armed & Gorgeous

Armed & Gorgeous is the second warm toned palette in the bunch. Where Ring the Alarm is all oranges and reds, this is all mustard yellows and olive greens. And I am down. I am usually not a fan of gold eyeshadows, but I am living for the mustards and greens in this palette. You also get a good matte brown, which is another reason why this palette will also play well with the other palettes in the set.

As with Ring the Alarm, Armed & Gorgeous is a palette that favors mattes over shimmers. There are 4 shimmers and 6 mattes. The olive gold color in the bottom right is insanely good and as far as golds go, that is my favorite type of gold. The shade selection I feel is also more unique, because a mustard palette is something we haven’t seen much before.

The Swatch

This is one of those palettes that can be a bit more difficult to work with. While these all swatch well, I felt that some of these were a bit difficult to blend with a fluffy brush. Still, you can make it work if you use the shades in the right way as some of these do not allow themselves to be blended easily into the crease. So while pretty, this palette does require a bit more thought.

The Application

I used all shades in the palette to create this look. The greens are on the lower lash line.

What this palette works out to be if you want it to is a soft golden toned look. While these shades may not be your everyday neutrals, you can create a look like that with this palette too. I like the greens on the bottom lash line. Pro tip: if you want to incorporate more color into your looks, but you don’t want to start doing a green crease, then adding the color to your lower lash line is a great way to incorporate more color.

Dark Magic

Dark Magic was a palette that appealed to me, but it also looked a bit dark for my skin tone. However it is more of a cool toned palette and that is totally up my alley. I was very curious what this would look like and I think out of all of these, this one surprised me the most. This palette also got a lot of slack from a lot of people, but again, I think that if you use it well, you can create some stunning looks with this.

As some of the earlier palettes, this one contains mostly mattes. There are just 3 shimmers and 7 mattes. The shades of this combine really well with Armed & Gorgeous as there are more greens and teals in here that will go nicely with the olives and mustards in the other palette. This palette contains some great transition shades too, which makes this a great companion palette to all the palettes in this set.

The Swatch

The swatched of this look stunning, but like Armed & Gorgeous, Dark Magic is a bit more difficult to apply well. Probably because these shades are so pigmented, it can make them a bit more difficult to blend. As dark as these look in the pan, I find that on the skin they sheer out quite a bit and you can see the actual colors a lot more.

The Application

I used all the shadows in the palette to create this look, apart from the matte black. I don’t like matte blacks, so I left that one out of the equation.

Despite how dark this palette looked in the pan, I hope you understand I was surprised with how this turned out. I really like this look I created. As a standalone palette, this isn’t my favorite though. I’d rather use this palette with some of the others in the set to round those out and have some more shades. But as you can see this is a stunning palette that gives a great, grungy look.

The Conclusion

I am going to have to against popular opinion here and say that I really enjoy these Morphe X Jaclyn Hill The Vault Collection eyeshadow palettes. My favorites have to be Bling Boss and Armed & Gorgous, but Dark Magic definitely took me by surprise. Ring the Alarm I feel is a bit redundant, but I also understand why they include it in the set as it is probably one that appeals to so many people. I definitely do not recommend getting the full set unless you like 75% of what you see here. If you only like one or two I think it is best if you buy them individually.

What is your favorite Morphe eyeshadow palette?