Blogging the Brands’ Zoeva Eyeshadow – Review by Sandra Cormack- Professional Hair & Makeup Artist
I love great makeup brands and the brands I love vary considerably in price. What I don’t love is cheap, nasty, chalky, low-performing products and these have no place in my kit. Certain brands that are low-priced aren’t poor quality-voila Zoeva!
As a professional I was certainly aware of Zoeva but hadn’t got around to buying any products, as I had plenty of other brands in use, or I had recently got rid of them as I just hadn’t got around to using them. Zoeva is manufactured in Germany (the eyeshadow packaging is made in Italy) and was created in 2007 by Zoe Boikou from her home and which quickly grew to be the successful, respected, global business it is today.
During a chat with fellow makeup artist Helen McNeil, she said that she really rated their eyeshadow palettes and as I respect Helen’s opinion I decided to get myself a couple of them. Beauty Bay’s free Courier Delivery the following day meant I could get test swatching them straight away. I was very impressed with my purchases.
There were a number of palettes to choose from, I choose ‘Cocoa Blend’ & ‘En Taupe’.
Now for those of you who like a flashy metallic or hard plastic design with a mirror encased in the lid, these probably won’t be to your liking aesthetically, but for me,the packaging was fine and I’m more impressed with how the product inside performs.
Cocoa Blend palette: Contains 4 matte shades:
Bitter Start (cream white), Substitute for Love (peanut butter colour), Freshly Toasted (red toned brown) & Beans are White (espresso dark brown)
Contains 5 Shimmers:
Sweeter End (taupe satin beige), Warm Notes (wine/cranberry), Subtle Blend (golden/ bronze brown), Pure Ganache (gold/copper) & Delicate Acidity (plum).
There is an additional sparkly one: Infusion (matte dark brown with glitter).
Favourite colour: ‘Pure Ganache’ – the most amazing gold/copper colour that is so bright without being glittery and amazing colour payoff even when applied dry.
Substitute for Love & Freshly Toasted are perfect transition shades.
This an almost perfect warm-toned palette for creating everything from a day look, evening look or smoky eye. What would have made it perfect would have been the inclusion of a charcoal black, but shouldn’t every palette have one? The names are wonderful and link in with the coffee/cocoa theme.
I found very limited fall down and they were a dream to blend.
‘En Taupe’ palette: Contains 4 matte shades:
Stitch by Stitch (soft white), Gallery (soft grey/taupe), Hour by Hour (peach/pink toned beige) & Exquisite (purple/brown).
Contains 5 Shimmers:
Handmade (peach/pink/gold), Spun Pearl (silvery white), Sheers &
Voiles (pink/silver), Outline & Wrapped in Silk (shimmery/taupe).
1 sparkly one: Old Master (grey/purple).
If you are looking for a perfect neutral toned palette, then this is the one. Like the Cocoa Blend palette blended so well with minimum fall down. Some really inspired names evoking images of fashion houses and fabrics.
I have been using these palettes since I purchased them a couple of weeks ago on a range of jobs: weddings, corporate shoots and live broadcasting. They were the only palettes I reached for, as they were suitable for all ethnicities between them.
If you were stranded with only the ‘En Taupe’ palette you could use a couple of colours ‘Handmade ‘& ‘Spun Pearl’ as a face highlight, ‘Gallery’ as a contour. Mix ‘Handmade’ & ‘Exquisite’ then mix with some lip balm and you have a lip colour!
These palettes are particularly great if you don’t want to spend a lot of money, but are looking for great quality and pigmentation.
What I liked:
1. The shadows are encased in a hard cardboard packaging which means they are light for travel and environmentally friendly and recyclable.
2. They are not vegan but they DO NOT test on animals and are cruelty free.
3. They DON’T contain parabens, mineral oils, fragrances and phthalates.
4. They DO contain Vitamin E, have superior pigmentation and are very easy to blend.
5. Price – £18 each
What I didn’t like:
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm…nothing!
If you have these palettes or are considering buying them, let me know what you think of them, I’d love to know!
**Disclaimer: This review was created by me. I purchased these products and received no fee or compensation from either Beauty Bay or Zoeva.