Palette Comparison: Tarina Tarantino Magical vs. Maybelline Violet Femmes

So today I received Tarina Tarantino's Jewel Eyeshadow Palette in Magical, and thought it looked awfully similar to something I already own... Maybelline's Eyestudio in 120 Violet Femmes from their fall collection. So, I did a comparison!

Specifically, the colors that I thought could be dupes are:

this dark eggplant purple

this rosey taupe

I did wet and dry swatches of the palettes, so here are the dry swatches to start:

Maybeline Violet Femmes, applied dry

Tarina Tarantino Magical, applied  dry

Top: Maybeline Violet Femmes, applied dry
Bottom: Tarina Tarantino Magical, applied  dry

taupes dry

These palettes look much more different on the skin than in the palette. Those eggplant purples look the same in the pan, but come off extremely differently - the Tarino Tarantino one applies so much darker, it is more similar to the darkest purple in the Maybelline palette.

On the other hand, the taupes I would call near perfect dupes when dry.


And now for the wet swatches:

Maybeline Violet Femmes, applied wet

Tarina Tarantino Magical, applied  wet

Top: Maybeline Violet Femmes, applied wet
Bottom: Tarina Tarantino Magical, applied  wet

purples wet

And when applied wet, we can see the opposite situation! The rosey taupe in the Tarina Tarantino palette applied so much denser than the Maybelline version, they look nothing alike any more.

However, by  some strange magic, those eggplant purples that were so dissimilar when dry are now basically perfect dupes! They both have the same warm brown undertone, warm purple shimmer, and uneven application - so weird.

So, to summarize: to me the taupes are dupes when dry, and the eggplant purples are dupes when wet. Even though the rest of the colors in these palettes aren't dupes, they will create extremely similar looks on the eye. 

I think both of these would be especially gorgeous on brown eyes, and while the Maybelline is a lot more affordable (around $8, versus $32 for Tarina Tarantino), it was limited edition.I like both of the palettes but unfortunately, the light color in the Maybelline palette is pretty useless because it has horrific application and just looks like a silver glitter dusting. I would recommend the Tarina Tarantino palette because of the availability, silky, dense formula, and because the light pink shade is a beautifully unique iridescent pearl. 

Hope that was helpful!

-<3 Christie