first impressions: em michelle phan day dreaming sampler

hi guys! my sampler of the em michelle phan life palette has arrived!

last weekend, they were offering six different samplers of parts of their life palettes for $10+tax and free shipping for september. the samplers include 3 full sized eyeshadows and a full sized lip color, plus a $10 credit toward a life palette ($75).  i chose the day dreaming sampler, from the day life palette, which includes misty mauve (lip), and silver lining, fantasy, and storm kiss eyeshadows. the sampler came wrapped in pink tissue paper, packaged in an extremely thick black bubble mailer, with a thank you note. impressions continued after the photos (click to jump). (click here to see a look i made with this set.)

 

silver lining, fantasy, and storm kiss (swatched over milani eye primer (L) and dry (R)), misty mauve

so, my impressions!!

1. packaging: for a sampler set, this is really impressive. i do feel that the $10 price point is about right (maybe slightly high) for the amount of products you get in here, 4 full sizes of a lip color and eyeshadows. i like how it's packaged. it's a bi-fold cover and inner bottom part, where the pans are, is it's own clear plastic covered case, so you don't damage the products. 
2. products: i like the color selection and color payoff of these shadows. they're probably best with a primer but i swatched them both over primer and dry so you can see the difference. this lip color is very buildable or it can be sheered out. i like it a lot.
3. depotting: if you were to get just the sampler, or if they ever sell single pans, they are magnetic and have the names written onto the backs of them. the pans in the sampler are glued to the plastic, but you can wedge a sewing pin in there to loosen and remove them. i put mine back into the card for now.
4. overall: i really like this concept. the packaging is very well thought-out, the products are pretty good, and the price point is doable.
5. downer: i have yet to receive any indication of the $10 toward a full-sized life palette. i added one to my cart for kicks and it only took off for this month's free shipping. so it's not through my emcosmetics account. maybe it's a code? i dunno. aside from the packing slip, there wasn't anything else in the package......

impressions/quibbles about the life palettes and em michelle phan, in general:

• while i know that they've spent a lot of time developing this product and it is probably as low as they can reasonably sell the line for, i still think that the brand as a whole is a bit expensive
• i feel like they should have done the life palette a bit differently.
• i love that they did the samplers, it's a great introductory to their brand and their most hyped product
• again, i don't totally like the price point of $75 for a palette (plus free travel palette)
• i like how the life palettes are adjustable, to where you can move the pans in and out of the travel life palette
• i don't like how there are 6 different life palettes, each with 4 exclusive sets
• i think they should have included a custom palette as well; so at the $75 price point, you can pick which of the four different sets you want to put into your life palette. between some of the life palette options, i only like one or two sets in each one, but i don't want to pay for multiple whole palettes just to have a particular 1/4 of the palette
• i think they should include small samples of their other products when you make an order
• free ups shipping after $75 is kinda a lot. for this month, it is free on all orders, but otherwise it's $7+ just for shipping
• michelle phan just announced that they're planning to open a flagship store
• hopefully the brand will become more mainstream and easier to obtain than ordering online

em michelle phan products can be purchased at emcosmetics.com.
~Lin-chan ^.~