eyeshadow

Cargo Vintage Escape review & swatches

- Dessie Leave a comment

cargo-vintage-escape

I know that it’s a bit late for an autumn palette review, but it’s so cold and gloomy outside, and I thought that a little warmth, be it in the form of eyeshadow, will not go wasted.

The beauty pictured above is Cargo’s Vintage Escape eyeshadow palette. If I’m not mistaken, it was a limited edition and it was part of last years fall collection, but you can still find it on Amazon or eBay for a fraction of the full price. Normally I’d be wary of fakes when shopping on these two particular sites, but since Cargo is not one of the most expensive brands out there I don’t think there is danger in this particular case.

The palette contains 12 shades (5 matte and 7 shimmers) of eyeshadow and a dual-ended brush. Usually the brushes which come with palettes like this really suck (I’m looking at you The Balm cosmetics), but surprisingly enough, this one is pretty good and I find myself using it. The shader side is soft and picks up shadow well, and the liner side is, well, a gel-liner brush – not hard to mess up.

The colour selection is gorgeous – there is not a single shade I don’t like. Somehow it captures every pretty autumn colour – the soft and deeper browns, copper, blue-gray, muted green and even a deep matte black. I look at it and I see my favourite season.

Below are the shades swatched over the Too Faced Shadow Insurance. For every colour there is a finger swatch on the left and a brush swatch (done with Zoeva 234 Smoky Shader brush) on the right.

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Harvest Moon is a matte white/yellow. It’s pretty sheer, but works great as a inner corner highlight or browbone colour.

Cuddle is a shimmery light pink. It looks coral in the pan, but it’s not.

Frolic is just beautiful. There’s no way to capture this colour on pictures and the swatch does not do it justice. It’s rich warm brown with green shimmer. There is something similar in Wet’n’Wild’s Comfort Zone palette, but Frolic is way prettier in my opinion.

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Crisp is pretty close to Harvest moon colour wise, but shimmery. It looks just a tad yellower to me.

Hot Cocoa is a warm matte light brown. Perfect transition shade.

Autumn is a matte muted orange. I really like this one, because it is so hard to find a wearable orange eyeshadow.

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Cinnamon is a deep bronze metallic shade.

Twigs is a shimmery blue-gray.

Black Crow is a deep matte black.

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Withered Leaves is a shimmery gold-green.

Rustic is a shimmery copper.

Chestnut is a deep matte warm brown. It looks really dark on the eyes.

All of the shades are pigmented, buildable, easy to blend and don’t have a lot of of fallout. The mattes are definitely on par with my Urban Decay Naked Basics 2.

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The packaging is brown leather on the outside, and black plastic on the inside. The palette closes with a magnet and comes with a big mirror. It doesn’t look cheap and it’s sturdy.

Pictured below is the list of ingredients. I did my research online and it turns out that Cargo is a cruelty free brand and does not test it’s products or ingredients on animals. Cargo products are also not sold in China. Sadly, the company is owned by TPR Holdings which does own other brands that conduct test on animals.

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Overall, I love Vintage Escape. I love the formula, I love the shade selection, I love the diversity and the fact that you can create a look using just this palette and nothing else. On me the shades wear well for 6-7 hours over a base. When it comes to Cargo eyeshadows I’ve heard that they are a bit of a hit or miss – sometimes the palette will be good and sometimes not so much, but this one is a true gem in my opinion. If you can get your hands on it, make sure to get it.

Dessie

Wet’n’Wild Coloricon Vinyl Collection Review & Swatches

- Dessie Leave a comment

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Today I’m gonna share with you a short review of the Wet’n’Wild  Coloricon eyeshadow palette in the shade “Vinyl Collection”.

The palette was part of a limited edition collection released last summer, but you can still find it online (eBay & Amazon).  The collection included five different eyeshadow palettes of which I ordered three, but ended up giving away the other two and keeping just the one pictured here (big surprise – I’m a sucker for neutral shades). I got them from the brands bulgarian Facebook page.

The palette contains six different eyeshadow shades, a brush and a sponge applicator. The packaging is typical for Wet & Wild, but is white instead of the brands traditional black. I actually like it better like that. Sadly, quality wise, nothing has changed. The packaging is still prone to breaking and opening inside your makeup bag.

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Wet’n’Wild is Peta-certified, cruelty-free brand, which, as they state on their web-site, has never tested and will never test on animals. Not all Wet’n’Wild products are vegan, though. Here  you can find a list of products made by the brand, which are vegan. This palette is not one of them.

The palette contains two matte and four shimmery shades. They are swatched below, without base, going top to bottom row.

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  • The left shade on the first row is a matte beige, which is not very pigmented. It may work well as a blending color over a good base, but is certainly the most disappointing color of the palette.
  • The right shade on the second row is a champagne pink with chunky glitter pieces. The pigmentation is nice. I like the color and would wear it as all-over the lid shade, but the glitter puts me off a little bit.
  • The left shade of the second row is a gorgeous, buttery, pigmented bronze. It’s beautiful!
  • The right shade of the second row is a nice, shimmery, taupe color. This looks amazing all-over the lid and is pigmented and blendable.
  • The left shade on the third row is olive green mixed with gold. It’s beautiful and pigmented. This one I find the most unique of the palette.
  • Finally the right shade on the third row is a rusty brown matte with big pieces of gold glitter. The pigmentation on this one is way better than the other matte, but is still lacking a bit.

Overall I think the quality of the shadows is good. The shimmery shades are as good as the shadows in the popular Coloricon palettes of the brand like Comfort zone for example. The mattes are not as good. Same goes for longevity. I would not skip base on these shadows. I like the color selection a lot. The shades look great next to each other, but you cannot create an eye look only with this palette (or at least I would not). That being said – I don’t reach for Vinyl Collection a lot, because as pretty as the colors are, they just do not work with my skin tone (believe me, I tried). I might use the taupe and the green, but the rest are just not for me, so I might pass this away to a friend.

My rating: 3/5 – not bad, but I would not spend time hunting it down on eBay.

 

 

 

Essence All About Roses Eyeshadow Palette Review & Swatches

- Dessie Leave a comment

essence-all-about-rosses

Essence is well known for it’s affordability and sometimes surprisingly good quality. I’ve never tried the eyeshadows of the brand before, but last week I picked up a palette of their regular range. It’s just that in the month of love and wine eight rosy neutral eyeshadows seemed like a good investment. The “All about…” palettes from the brand are available in 3 more shades and retail for a mere 9 leva (less than 5 euros).

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The palette contains 3 matte and 5 shimmery colors. They range from light to dark and all have pink/rosy undertones. At first I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the shadows at all – they seemed very poorly pigmented and chalky. However, after I swatched them a few times and dug under the top layer they got better. The pigmentation improved and the formula was slightly creamier. There is a medium amount of fallout when I use them and they definitely need an eyeshadow base underneath. Here are the swatches of the colors:

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Those are the top and bottom rows from left to right. They are swatched over Artdeco’s Eyeshadow Base. Unsurprisingly the matte shades are less pigmented followed by the light shades. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised by the matte pinky/taupe shade on the bottom row(third one in the second picture) – I see myself wearing it as an all-over-the-lid color a lot. Sadly, the rest of the bottom row is not impressive at all. The top row swatches ok.

For it’s price I think the palette is ok. I would not run to the store to buy the rest of the range, but some of the shades are pretty nice and I see myself using them. Overall I’d give it a 2.5/5 – the color selection is beautiful, but the quality is not so great, which of course is to be expected in that price range.