The cosmetics industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, so why even cater to fandoms? They know that there is still money to be made by creating cosmetics that are themed around a fandom. Especially a fandom with fans both young and old such as Harry Potter. The question with any of these products is do they really hit the mark with the fans? Do they pay homage to the source material or did they just slap a label on it to get us to spend our money? Keep reading to find out my thoughts on the Ulta Beauty X Harry Potter collection.
You don’t have to be a die-hard fan to know the color scheme of the Potter verse of know which animals are associated with each houses. So it makes sense that they would break the collection into four separate nine pan palettes with the option to purchase a matching cosmetics bag. They also offer a bundle of all four palettes for one price. In addition to the eye shadow palettes, the collection also includes lip glosses, lip crayons and a makeup brush set. With these products being specifically targeted to Harry Potter Fans you might expect that these items would come with a higher price tag to capitalize on the fact that we want to support our fandoms and represent our Hogwarts houses. Surprisingly enough the collection comes with a pretty modest price tag product prices start at $10.00 for the lip products and $16.00 for the eye shadows.
Ulta Deathly Hallows Makeup Brush set $25.00 ulta.com
While these products are affordable are you getting the quality that you pay for? Let’s find out. I took the time to test each of the eye shadow palettes and lip products and here is what I found. The matte shades are highly pigmented for long wear. The shimmer shades performed well for what they are. They aren’t intended to be dark, they are intended to use as a highlight or topper over another color. Each 9 pan eye shadow palette has a good variety of shade ranges to ensure that each palette is versatile enough to be used every day or when you need a bolder look for a night out or a cosplay event.
The lip glosses are good for what they are. They are a gloss they aren’t meant to be long wearing. Fortunately they are not super sticky. Out of the 4 glosses I tested only the shade Howler had much color. Keeping in mind that they were glosses I would have liked to have seen a more gradual increase in the shades building up to that shade. The lip crayon in shade Expecto Patronum has a nice creamy texture as well as a subtle vanilla fragrance. It wears similar to a traditional lipstick, if you are planning on wearing it all day it will require some reapplication.
Ulta x Harry Potter lip products starting at $10 Ulta.com
When it comes to beauty products the formula is above average for products in the same price point. From that perspective I feel it was money well spent. As far as sticking true to the source material I feel that they started with a really sound naming scheme, but once they got past the lip products they threw caution to the wind and hoped nobody would notice. Out of the 36 eye shadow colors only 10 shades had names that actually related to Harry Potter. The others were random selections that could have been used with any palette with a magical theme.
9 Pan Eye shadow Palettes $16.00 each Ulta.com
My final thoughts on this are that the product itself is worth the money. It’s a good formula, there’s a variety of shade ranges and regardless of which house you select there are many versatile uses for these products. But Ulta’s team really dropped the ball when it came to sticking to the source content. Not only am I a fan of the books and films but I actively play the Wizarding World game which is what the branding indicates that the material may be sourced from. As a makeup enthusiast this product hits all of the marks, but as a Harry Potter fan I have to say that Ulta failed this wizarding challenge.
