First Zoeva Palette + Sephora Experience

Last Thursday, I had my second visit to Sephora in Sydney as I wanted to check out a few things that everyone seems to be raving about! It was a little bit busy but it wasn't hard to get around. I did have to step back from groups of young girls who went swatch crazy at some stands haha. Have you been to the Sephora stores before?

I've been to one other Sephora and I think it was in Paris and it was very quiet compared to the Sydney one. I asked a lovely SA if they had something that would help stick down glitter and pigments (still on the hunt!) and she directed me to someone else who suggested the Makeup Forever Aqua Seal and a Zoeva Matte Primer. Unfortunately the Aqua Seal was out of stock but she kindly gave me samples of both. Yay! I have yet to try the Aqua Seal but the Zoeva primer seems quite nice as a regular eyelid primer. Overall, the staff there were friendly, it looked like they were always helping customers and I didn't feel like I was constantly hassled for their service. I liked being able to test out products in store as it's always a gamble purchasing online anything new.

I didn't leave without making a purchase though. After what felt like forever in front of the Zoeva stand, I decided to buy the Zoeva eyeshadow palette in En Taupe. Most of their palettes looked so beautiful and it was really hard to pick just one. I was trying to compare the palettes to what I already had at home. I guess you could say that En Taupe had similar shades to the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette which I have but I think I panicked a little and got it anyway! Haha!

En Taupe contains 10 eyeshadows in a light, sleek, strong cardboard package. The lid has a magnetic closure and there's no mirror included. The mixture of matte and frosted eyeshadows have their names printed below them which is very handy. The eyeshadows themselves run mostly on the cool neutral side which matches the name of the palette. None of the shades are too crazy or 'out there' so this would be great for someone starting in makeup. 

On to the swatches! My arm is little more tan than usual due to my morning runs in the sun and I had to swatch the shadows a little further from my wrist as I just got a tattoo there! Since I am terrible at describing the shades, I had the help of Temptalia's review to use on here. All the shades were swatched without a primer and using about three swipe each (my arms are quite tan too).

Top row

Stitch By Stitch | Cool matte white. It isn't very pigmented, so it's nice to lightly set the brow bone area.

Handmade | Light gold frost with peach undertone.

Gallery | Medium matte grey taupe. 

Hour By Hour | Light-medium matte peach beige. This shade is good for setting the whole eye lid area. It's a bit powdery and not too pigmented

Old Master | Matte grey purple with some gold sparkle. 

Bottom row

Spun Pearl | Cool pearly white. Love this so much for inner corner highlight!!!

Sheers & Voiles | Cool grey beige shimmer.

Outline | Medium taupe brown with a metallic sheen.

Wrapped In Silk | Medium frosted taupe.

Exquisite | Medium matte mauve. This is a great shade to include to amp up the silvery shades.

Overall, I like this palette although I'm not in love with it. I think my skin tone is a little too dark for some of these shadows which tend to look the same on the lid or don't really show up. The shimmer shades have a lovely consistency whereas the matte shades are a bit dusty or light. I always use a primer on my eyes so that helps with getting better colour payoff. In saying that, these shades are nice for everyday especially at work where I tend to go a little overboard with my eye look so this palette is good for keeping it light.

Zoeva En Taupe eyeshadow palette is available on the Zoeva website for 17.50 Euro (ships internationally) or at Sephora for $39 AUD.

Have you tried any Zoeva eyeshadow palettes?