Dupe the Mood: Huda Beauty Gold Obsessions

Going over my current collection for similar shades to the Huda Beauty Gold Obsessions 9-pan palette.

About ‘Dupe The Mood’

I’m starting the Dupe the Mood series to see if I can recreate the vibe or “mood” of a palette with eyeshadow shades I already own. There’s been so many amazing, beautiful makeup releases that I find myself swooning over lately. But it can get overwhelming to keep up!

So I hope this series can also help inspire you to search what it is we have in our current collection first, and see if there’s some similar shades in there before deciding on the purchase.

I love makeup shopping, discovering what’s new on the market, and trying out new makeup- but I’m also trying to be a little bit more mindful about it, and reduce impulse buying. But if after “shopping my stash”, I can’t find anything too similar, still feel it in my bones and am thinking about it a week later— I’ll add it to the cart!

I’d like to have a better edit of pieces in my collection, and look for things that are special, or things that I need or really love vs. always wanting the newest item that just launched.

So if it’s not a hard yes, I hope with these series, I can help to show you how easy it can be sometimes to get the same mood of a palette, and won’t need to purchase every new item that gets released.

Let’s Dupe the Mood of the Huda Beauty Gold Obsessions

When this palette was released I really, really wanted it. It caught my attention and not many do as of late. There’s something about the color story, textures and arrangement that got me starstruck. If this was released 6 months ago, impulse shopper me would instantly add it to cart. But in the efforts to control those impulses and practice mindful shopping, I waited it out and let my initial high calm down a little bit.

The Huda Beauty Gold Obsessions palette is described as: “A limited-edition release that you won't want to miss, this palette stars nine gold-standard shades in three delectable finishes; there are pigment-packed, buttery mattes, metallics that rival liquid gold and shimmery toppers that emulate the decadence of fine champagne. Not to mention the all-new texture that features in the endlessly glamorous edit — a pink shimmer and gold metallic base that's actually adorned with flakes of gold *heart eyes*. Dotting earthy neutrals amongst the varying tones of the titular shade, this palette is a gold mine of versatile, glowing looks.”

It’s an absolutely gorgeous palette for sure, and I do typically lean towards pinks and golds and pinky neutrals of the sort, so of course I was drawn to it. I could already start imagining what types of looks I was going to create. However I also knew I already had way too many pink tones eyeshadows and endless golds in my palette collection. So I thought to embark on a journey to see if I can find anything similar before deciding whether I wanted the palette or not, or if it’ll fill a gap in my collection.

Then I started peeling back the layers, and during my first dupe the mood attempt, I can already see so many shade overlaps to that in the palette in terms of pink peach neutrals, mauves and even the antique golds and shimmers. What was a little hard to dupe was the standout true yellow gold shade that seems to be the star of the palette. Again, it was one of those moments where I needed to decide whether that one shade would be worth purchasing an entire palette for - because it’s not like it’d be a yellow gold I’d be wearing often anyway.

And then I dove further in my collection and found a forgotten gem: The Fenty Trophy Wife Killawatt Highlighter”! But of course! It’s not technically and eyeshadow, but finding this further proved to me that the palette would be a no-go because I haven’t even made a revisit to the Trophy Wife highlighter since I bought it in my Sephora 2019 haul. For the purposes to dupe the mood and yellow gold of the Gold Obsessions, it would do, and indeed it was a very close match.

Read on to know what else the dupe shades I found are! They came from the palettes pictured above and I understand to some it may be tedious to look for 9 shades from 7 palettes that would otherwise just be in one convenient 9-pan palette.

However if your collection is as extensive as mine, some palettes hardly get used at all, and during this Dupe the Mood process it’s a nice discovery as well as a great chance to use what I have when it calls for it. Also, with this particular colour story and number of shades, it’s very rare I’ll be using all 9 shades on my lids that have a limited space to them. Most of the time I go for 2-3 shades and call it a day. It’s nice knowing if I am looking for a rose gold, bright yellow gold kind of eye- I have shades in my collection that can achieve the look for me!

The Similar Shades: Mine vs. Theirs

Here is my version of the shades I chose, inspired by Huda Beauty’s Gold Obsessions. Pretty close, right?

How I choose the shades is by looking at the official swatch photos from Huda Beauty’s website, and watching live swatch reviews of various content creators on YouTube and seeing what comes to mind that I have similar in my collection. I’ll grab a couple of palettes that have shades that may match, then I do some swatches of it on my arm and I’ll make a final pick on what shade I feel comes the closest to the one I’m trying to dupe.

I found it a little bit more challenging for the Gold Obsessions, as real swatches differed one from the other quite drastically- perhaps due to lighting and what not. However I stumbled on a fellow lovely beauty blogger, Evelien of Mooigids.nl’s review of the Gold Obsessions (click here for her blogpost- she is from the Netherlands so it is in Dutch, but some of her posts are also in English so please do visit!) and found her swatches to be the most consistent and clear. So in addition to comparing my dupe swatches to the brand's official swatches, I’m also comparing it to hers.

Do keep in mind that sometimes these swatches do vary and are sometimes deeper/lighter than what is shown. So these may not be exact dupes- but more or less, we’ll be able to capture the vibe.

Shade Descriptions and the Palettes they are from

Side by Side

Here are all the shades side by side with the official swatch photographs from Huda Beauty, in the skintone closest to mine as well as the one from Evelien of Mooigids.nl. Like I mentioned before, swatches may vary and are sometimes deeper/lighter than what is shown, and do vary with different skintones, so keep this in mind.

These are mine below:

The Look I Created

Here’s the look I created using the similar shades I found in my collection for the Gold Obsessions. I took inspiration from many of the looks created by Natasha Denona herself, and used 4 shades out of the 9 for this eye look- with a focus on that stellar yellow gold.

Huda’s look that inspired mine

Details of my look:

EYES:
Huda Beauty Gold Obsessions inspired colour combination using shades #6, #9, #4 & #8

All over base and deepened for outer eyelid V: #6
Outer upper lashline: #4
Inner eyelid: #9 applied wet
Inner corner: #8
Inner lower lashline: #9 applied wet
Outer lower lashline: #4 & #6

You don’t need the exact palettes I have to recreate this look inspired by the Gold Obsessions. It is one of those palettes that is a color story of neutral pinks, peaches and golds that I’m sure many of you have amongst your stash. The most difficult to match would perhaps be the yellow gold, and you can also achieve this by using a yellow eyeshadow base and then a gold shimmer on top, or a gold highlighter!

If however you can’t find any similar shades and are truly in love with the Huda Gold Obsessions, and wearing gold and pinks is your style- it is a palette that would be a great addition to your collection. It has such an array of golds that complements the mattes and neutrals well in the palette itself, and an easy color story to navigate.

If you’re thinking to nab this- I believe it is only available at CultBeauty.co.uk at the moment and it is limited edition. If you wanted it and missed it, don’t worry- Huda Beauty always has regular releases and who knows? Maybe there’ll be a larger version of this 9-pan gold palette! I think that would be quite the beauty, too.

I hope you are enjoying this Dupe the Mood series! If you have any requests for other palettes you’d like me to dupe the mood to- feel free to leave a comment below, or DM me on my Instagram.

Have a lovely week, my friends!