Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions VS Colourpop Yes, Please! | Do you need both?

Hello everyone! How have you been? I know I’ve been a bit absent lately, but I have been very busy and tired. You just can’t force blogging you know? I was pretty much blogging full time through September and October, so taking this month easy has been very nice.
And I just know I’m going to go crazy with blogging in December since that is often when I get a lot of inspiration for content!

Today I have prepared for you a comparison of two full on Fall eyeshadow palettes! While the Colourpop Yes, Please! came out over a year ago, the Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions is still relatively new, released just a few months ago. When it was released, I was totally enamoured with the colour scheme. I knew I had almost all of those shades, and yes, they seemed pretty common and neutral, but I found myself lusting over the warm Fall browns regardless. All I want in Fall is a warm brown smokey eye, so I purchased it anyways.

So what are the results? When you actually compare these two palettes, do you really need both? Let’s find out!

Let’s start this out with a few overall comparison pictures, and then we will dive into each palette specifically, and then do some shade comparisons between the palettes.

The Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions contains 9 shades overall, where 5 are mattes and 4 are textured metallics. The colour scheme really stays in the warm brown range, with one warm yellow. In contrast, the Colourpop Yes, Please! comes with 12 shades, where 8 are mattes and 4 are smooth metallics. The shade range in this palette is slightly larger, including a cool yellow and a bold red.

Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions

This palette includes everything you need to make a warm brown eye look. I like that it has shades with varying depth, however, I do think the top right terracotta matte and the bottom center terracotta matte are very similar and basically redundant, especially when applied to the eye. All of the shimmers in this palette are either gold or brown.

The mattes blend well, have good pigmentation and are consistent in performance with Huda’s previous palettes. However, they do work best on a tacky or unset primer, as the deeper shades don’t build well on top of others. If you want some real depth to a look, you will need to use a tacky base and start your eye look by applying the deepest shade first to your crease, and then blending that out with lighter shades (reverse blending method).

The shimmers in this palette are really quite nice, but again work best on a tacky base. They are like a lot of Huda’s metallics or shimmers lately, they have a lot of dimension and sparkle to them. They aren’t just a smooth metallic, with the exception of the bronze shade on the middle right of the palette.

Colourpop Yes, Please!

This palette includes quite a few similar shades to the Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions, but with some additions. Two shades that I think really make a difference are Spoiled and Note to Self, the red and neutral brown. Adding a neutral brown really does open up your options, and you even have a more cool-toned yellow to work with. As for the metallics, you have either golds or muted orange-reds to play with.

I would say that the mattes in this palette perform very similarly to those in Huda Topaz. The Colourpop eyeshadow formula is one of my favourites these days. It is very pigmented, blendable, and overall impressive. However, again I have noticed issues with building the deeper brown on top of other shades, so reverse blending is the best technique in my opinion.

The metallics in this palette are pretty, but they are all more of a smoother metallic, so the reflect isn’t always as sparkly or brilliant. But they work well and are easy to apply to the eye. As always, I suggest using a tacky base to help them adhere.

The Matte Comparisons

On to the swatch comparisons! In each comparison the shade from Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions will be swatched above the shade from Colourpop Yes, Please! Unfortunately, as you may have noticed the shades in the Huda palette don’t actually have names, so I have labelled them by their location in the palette.

Below is an overall look at the similar mattes in the palette. Are they close enough for you?

The first comparison is the yellow shade in each palette. As you can see, these are actually quite different. The HB Top Left is more of a warm yellow or a tangerine, whereas the CP Mischief is more of a cooler yellow.

As you can see, both palettes include a light peachy shade, and these are incredibly similar.

In terms of the terracotta shades, I truly think that they are all incredibly similar, and both palettes seem to have redundant shades! Yes, CP Big Cocktails is slightly brighter than HB Top Right, and both HB Bottom Corner and CP GNO are slightly deeper, but I really do think all of these shades look the same on the eye. The difference in depth is just not enough.

As for the matte browns in the palettes, HB Bottom Left is actually more of a satin than a matte. The shade is slightly cooler than CP French Kiss, which is a warm chocolate brown that is a true matte. As previously mentioned, in terms of performance, I have found that both of these shades have trouble building on top of others.

The Metallic Comparisons

For the metallic comparisons, there were fewer shadows that were similar to each other between the palettes. As you can see, I was really only able to compare the golds.

For this first gold comparison, you will see that they are really quite different. CP Yes, Please! includes a much lighter and brighter yellow than anything that is in Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions. CP Butter Cake is a very light gold metallic, whereas HB Middle Left is a medium gold.

As for the warmer gold metallics, you can see that HB Top Center is a warm textured gold and has a lot of reflect, whereas CP Chauffeur is a warm smooth gold, and doesn’t have quite as brilliant a shine.

Shades unique to the palettes

One last thing that I thought I would point out are the shades that are unique to each palette. As previously mentioned, the Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions includes two brown metallics that you won’t find in the Colourpop Yes, Please! And the Colourpop Yes, Please! includes a red and neutral brown matte, as well as some more fiery metallics. Even though I didn’t take a picture of it, CP Yes, Please! does also include a cream shade, which HB Topaz doesn’t, but don’t you already have a million cream shades in your collection?

Just to give you an idea of how these palettes perform, here is a look from each palette. First is a look from the Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions.

And here is a look from Colourpop Yes, Please! And just so you know, I was able to create this exact look again with the Huda Beauty Topaz Obsessions, but it doesn’t have the light cream shade.

Final Thoughts

Overall, these two palettes definitely have a huge amount of overlap. However, the shimmers really are quite different, in shade and in texture. One thing that is a bit annoying is that both palettes have redundant terracotta shades. Why!? I have to say that that is one of my makeup pet peeves for sure.

With regard to which palette does it better, or if I could only keep one, which would I keep? I don’t really know what the answer is. I really like both palettes, and both have their strengths and their weaknesses. The shimmers are much more brilliant in the HB Topaz, but you have less variation in shade. The shade selection in the CP Yes, Please! in mattes and metallics is definitely more expansive, but the shimmers aren’t quite as sparkly.

Honestly, I don’t think any person NEEDS both, but I am happy to have both. Whichever you decide to purchase will have to depend on what you are looking for. 

Do you own either of these palettes? What do you think of them? Which would you prefer if you were to purchase?