Prada Beauty: Not Beautiful Yet
Ever get a product with big promises and little delivery?
It’s like when Uber Eats eats your food.
The exasperation level increases 10-fold when the disappointment transpires from a well established luxury brand.
Prada. Lipstick. Eyeshadow. High-tech.
Sounds perfect until the reality of the professed luxury brand slaps you in the mouth. And the eye.
Prada launched their beauty line recently with much hype of ‘high tech’ products. The licensing partnership with L’Oreal initiated in 2019 brought value to the anticipated line due to their promotion of advanced cosmetics technology. From the products to the packaging, Prada Beauty is a long way from revolutionary.
Hyper Matte Lipstick in Fuoco and Dimensions Eyeshadow palette in Pink. The colors are very different from Prada’s promotions to real life. (Image: (AKJAM Publishing)
Lips: Abominable
Prada Monochrome Hyper Matte Lipstick (Fuoco R28) is uses micro fit technology to “feel weightless all day”. Maybe their actual tech advancement is time-travel to subpar formulations.
Hyper Matte wears like we’re in the 90’s as it pulls on lips like a dry cake powder. The feel is reminiscent of the old-school Kevyn Aucoin powder-tissue matte technique. The colors are deceiving for their unspectacular spectrum. A more ingenious color palette may have counterbalanced the horrid wear. Prada’s promotional photos show a beautiful pout blurred like dreamy powder lips sans lines. Too bad we don’t walk through real life in Adobe Photoshop. The only lipstick to date that has given this pouty effect is Tom Ford. Oddly, Hyper Matte is not transfer proof. This leaves an embarrassing just-shoved-a-sandwich-in-my-mouth ring. It feathers, dries and crumbles at the corners while sinking into lines you didn’t know existed.
One likable detail is the cross-hatches in an ode to Prada’s Saffiano leather. Yet again, this is not new and quite weak compared to the more intricate designs from brands like Dior.
An ode to Saffiano is likable, not spectacular. (Image: AKJAM Publishing)
Head to Target for L’Oreal’s $10 lipstick instead of dropping $50 on this shameful excuse for a “tech” lipstick.
Eyes: Unprepossessing
Prada Dimensions Eyeshadow (Pulp 06) is described as “micro-Pixel pigments ensuring strong color density in one stroke”. Stroke with what, a magic wand?
The eye shades have a better application than the lipstick, but the promoted pink color is not achieved even after multiple strokes. Though not similar to the hues pictured online, the colors are smooth and generally pretty. Again, not unique. At the end of the day, the shadow settles a bit and does exactly what it says it will not do- creates creases. The claim is that it will smooth the eye area after using for 28 days. Unfortunately, this product is not lovely enough for daily use. The included touch-up brushes are also very cheap and not suitable for application close to the eyelashes. One glimmer of hope is that the shadow does not fall, which is one of their selling points. But, in this era, most other brands have eyeshadows that prevent the same thing. Lastly, $80 for the Prada eye shadow palette is not justifiable given that the case is a cheap plastic.
Bottom Line
They’re not breaking any innovation barriers with this one. L’oreal is a brand synonymous with drugstore aisles. The Prada cosmetics line is just that at an unwarrantable price point.
Most luxury brands have launched beauty lines because it brings in high revenue by catering to relatively lower price-point shoppers. Also, everyone wants to be a STEMmer, but few can do it. Prada in the hands of L’Oreal has failed to produce the basics expected of a luxury line. Failing at effective lipstick and eyeshadow in 2023 is simply embarrassing for brands this big. Maybe stick to things less complicated like lip balm. Customers should save their money for brands that have proven themselves in the luxury beauty sector, like Tom Ford x Estee Lauder (make-up not skincare).