Deck of Scarlet – My Review on the Beauty Subscription Service for Palette Addicts!

Have you heard about Deck of Scarlet? It’s a beauty subscription service that sends you one palette every two months for only $29.95. Sounds kinda magical, right? The eyeshadow palette addict in me says yes! But can a bi-monthly palette subscription service give you the quality we expect and love from our favorite brands? I put it to the test and have my thoughts to share with you!

Deck of Scarlet

How the Subscription Service Works

So As I said, this palette subscription service costs you $29.95 every other month and you have the option of skipping or canceling anytime — so if the palette they are going to send out that month doesn’t jive with you, you can easily skip that palette and see if the next palette (in 2 months) will speak to you more. Once they reveal what palette they will be sending out, they email all their subscribers and give them 5 days to preview the palette and decide if they want to skip or not.

For $29.95 you get one face palette and one or two extra products inside the box. Typically the palette contains three eyeshadows, two cheek products, and two lip products. The extra item can either be a gel liner, liquid liner, or a lip liner or pencil product.

What Else does Deck of Scarlet Offer?

They also offer to customers the option of purchasing past palettes. They call them “Decks” and they have them all available on the website so that if you want to collect or own them all…no matter when you sign up you can purchase them. I think that’s a really cool option! However…they each retail for $44.95. I personally don’t think the quality is enough to warrant that high a price tag. And I would image you’d have to be a die-hard collector to purchase them all (they have 8 out right now).

Another service they have available is that they’re now selling single eyeshadows ($12), a magnetic palette ($16), liquid liner ($15), eyeliners ($13), and lip liners ($13). I have not tried these single eyeshadows (and haven’t heard any reviews) but I am excited to see Deck of Scarlet expanding.

Sign Up for Deck of Scarlet

My Thoughts on the Deck of Scarlet No4 Palette Edition

I mentioned the Deck of Scarlet No4 palette in my Monthly Makeup Reviews back in October, so I’ll leave that at the end of the post if you’d like to watch. But let’s talk about the formula of the powder and lip products first.

The Powder Products

The highlighter and blush formula was very nice and smooth, blended beautifully onto my skin and I liked the sheen the highlighter gave me. It was a bit more glittery looking than wet looking, but overall I thought it was nice. The three eyeshadow shades felt dry when swatched, but I had no issues blending them. I had to use a glitter glue underneath diamond dust and new york or I got fall out like crazy. Diamond Dust also requires a wet brush, concealer, or something underneath it to help you pack it on. Without it, it can look just like a sheer wash of color.

I will say, though, it’s hard to get a lot of variety of looks if you are just using this palette and only have those three eyeshadows to work with. I really wish they would’ve made new york a matte shade…and then also got rid of the two potted lip products and gave us two additional eyeshadows.

The Lip Products

You got a total of 4 lip products in the Deck of Scarlet No4 edition. Which I think was just way too many. The lip pencil and lip liner duo wasn’t my favorite. They were extremely emollient…and not in a good way. At least for me! I found that they felt too slip-slidy on my lips and I was always finding that it was either on my teeth or had gotten smeared across my face somehow.

The two lip products inside the product were a bit better — not as messy and behaved more like a traditional lipstick. The purple Maria doesn’t show up quiet so intense as it appears in the pan…but I find I like it that way as it makes it more wearable for me.

The Packaging

I really, really appreciate that the palette is split on the top so that you can keep the lip products closed and protected while you are using the powder products. That’s definitely something unique about these palettes and something I really appreciate. The art work on the palette is stunning! Seriously, this is something I would love to get in a bigger size and hang on my wall — it’s so pretty! The palette itself feels very sturdy and heavy duty — very luxe. I definitely don’t think they cheaped out on the package!

Overall, Would I Recommend?

Yes and No. I think if you don’t mind having lip products in a pan/palette, then this might totally be something worth checking out! The eyeshadow palette addict in me kinda cries over the wasted space (go away, lip products! There could be more eyeshadows there!), but I can’t deny that the lip products are very nice. Now the lip liner and lipstick duo was a total bust for me, but looking at past Deck of Scarlet editions, they change that up: they’ve send liquid liners, gel liners, etc in previous editions. And I appreciate that! Having 4 lip products was totally overkill in this 4th edition, in my opinion.

Are they Worth Purchasing Separate?

Deck of Scarlet does offer them for sale on their site for a one-time purchase of $44.95 and at that price…I think it’s way too high. While the eyeshadows and cheek products are nice…they’re not that high end! The quality seems more drugstore/Target type of brand (if that makes sense, lol). The $30 subscription fee is more on-par with what I would think this palette should retail for, to be completely honest. Maybe even a bit less.

Sign Up for Deck of Scarlet

I hope this review was helpful to you! I know I kinda went back and forth on it a lot. But to sum it up — I love the concept, I think the powder product quality is nice…but I just don’t like the lip products. And since 4 out of the 9 products in the Edition Volume 4 were lipsticks, it wasn’t worth it to me.

If Deck of Scarlet ever removes the lip products from the palette and starts to just make it an face palette then I would totally consider canceling my Boxycharm subscription and getting Deck of Scarlet for a time. The eyeshadow palette addict in me would be over the moon excited to see what I get each month!

What do YOU think about this palette subscription service? Are you subscribed? Would you? I’d love to know in the comments! <3

Thank you for reading (or watching) my review! Your support means so much to me! If you found this helpful…save my pin down below so others can find it! <3

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This post is not sponsored. The product reviewed was sent for editorial consideration. Some links used are referral links — I receive $5 to spend at their site for each person who signs up through my link and the person signing up gets $10 off their first subscription purchase. Any questions about my disclosure, read HERE. ? Thank you for your support!