Hey there, Beautiful Blossoms! Yes, it has been quite some time since I last blogged, but there’s just been too much activity outside the blog life that has kept me busy like a headless chicken. Anywho, morbid quip aside, my mind mused over the makeup brands I’ve come to own over the years and one of them was Karity. I still own a couple of Karity products and once you read the rest of this post.

Discovering Karity was a complete accident – during my eyeshadow hunger heyday, I wanted to look for an eyeshadow palette that was above the Coastal Scents palettes, bh Cosmetics (their offerings were pretty much Coastal Scents interchangeable or I simply didn’t find the palettes they offered at the time appealing to me) the drugstore makeup, but not above the Sephora or Ulta offerings, because I found them to be boring or overpriced. I already owned the color stories that I wanted, but I always believed I needed a general, colorful eyeshadow palette to use beyond the pinks and purples that made up the bulk of my eyeshadow collection (can you tell that I have a type?)

And so, I turned to Google. Sure enough, the usual suspects came up when I typed in eyeshadow palette, but one name caught my eye: Karity.

One click later and I found myself into a rabbit hole of an indie brand that’s trying to strike it rich in the already saturated makeup market. To this day, I don’t know what it is that drew me to Karity – their makeup palettes could be considered private labeled (plain black packaging with their fairly simple branding) and the colors weren’t any different than what Coastal Scents or bh offer on the regular. But for some reason, I just had to have their Frost palette and one click later, I was pretty much on the lookout for my delivery. This was my first venture into the brand, so I really had no way of knowing how this was going to end: either I struck luckily, or I just dropped a little over $30 for a dud.

Eventually, my palette arrived and nervously, I checked the palette. The online pictures did not do justice – the eyeshadows were more sparkly and shimmery in person, which heavily leans towards my personal preference for eyeshadow in general. The colors were really just the standard set that would be handy for an MUA or a non-neutral makeup wearer would use and were nothing to write home about.

So it sat in my makeup stash until one day, my cousin Kaithlyn and I decided to go through it and see what brands I’ve accumulated over the years. She came across the Karity Frost palette and asked if she could swatch. I gave her the go ahead without putting much thought – swatches were one of the fun parts of makeup, after all.

And that’s when I finally learned that Karity’s eyeshadow was a hit – the eyeshadow she swatched had a good payload and didn’t need much. What a relief it was to know that my impulsive buy turned out good!

And then the wave of matte eyeshadow as a trend came along. I wasn’t really into matte eyeshadow, but after learning that they added a nice buff to shimmer eyeshadow, I found myself looking at Karity again and it turns out that their Matte palette complemented their Frost palette. Buying it was a no-brainer. Eventually, Karity expanded their offerings to include lip products and more eyeshadow palettes. During the warm and orange eyeshadow wave, I seriously considered buying their Picante palette. But after really considering whether I’m going to get as much use out of the palette as a casual makeup user, ultimately logic won that war of attrition and I opted to skip on the palette.

Eventually, Karity simply fell out of my orbit, along with makeup in general. And then today, out of curiosity, I decided to visit the Karity website to see what new goodness might just soothe my makeup itch. Only to find this:

It seems silly to be upset about the closure of Karity, considering the fact that I only bought 3 products (2 Frost, one of which I gave away, and 1 Matte palette) from them, but it was a heavy reminder of just how saturated the makeup wild west is (and just how much harder indie makeup brands have it, especially with COVID). And call me a sentimental goof, but the brief joy of discovering the brand on a whim, gambling on one of their palettes, and learning that it was a hit purchase made it tough (but understandable) post. Of course, there are still indie brands out there that are staying afloat, but something about Karity just tickled my fancy in a way that not many brands have done.

I guess I’m just going to hug my Frost and Matte palettes a wee bit tighter when I look at them again.