cargo cosmetics 'Shanghai nights' palette.
Packaging, price and external details.
Girls, guys, let me introduce you to this little beauty that cargo cosmetics kindly brought into our world, it goes by the name of the shanghai nights palette.
This palette retails for around £35 and among other places can be purchased on Beauty Bay, I've been told by a few people that they are able to find this in their local TK- MAX for...wait for it... £9.99! so its defiantly worth just checking in there first as you could save yourself a massive £25, but I mean lets be honest, it will only be spent on more makeup anyway!
The packaging alone is simply gorgeous, this is my first product from cargo and I must say I'm very impressed! I don't know about you but I think packaging is equally important as the actual product because I mean, the product could be amazing but if it smashes while you're walking the dog? The Too Faced chocolate bars are a prime example of this, the tin packaging makes the palettes very prone to breaking.
This to me is my perfect packaging, I feel like if I took this traveling there's no way my shadows would smash but it's also magnetic and has a flexible hinge so the 'lid' bends right back, much like the naked 1 palette!
The palette also has a fairly large mirror which to me is very important in a palette, it doesn't bother me as much in blushes/foundations etc, but in an eyeshadow palate I feel like they are vital, most palettes are chunky enough as it is without having to carry round a decent sized mirror as well...can I get a 'hell yeah'?
Inside the palette!
This beauty has 12 unique shades including,
4 mattes// (Wai Tai, Skyline, Bund and Hu),
5 metallic shades// (Lychee, Jin Mao, Street Style, Ginger, Jade),
2 // satin shades (Neon, Bar Rouge)
1 glitter shade// (Night Life) .
This palette is so versatile, the choice of shades means you have the option of creating both a neutral or dramatic look which again makes it great for traveling, although if you are anything like me, you will still end up taking 4 other palettes knowing full well you wont use them, just in case!
Each pan contains 0.8g (or 0.03oz) which is slightly less than a mac single shadow so a fairly good size considering each shade works out at just under £3 compared to £10 in mac. The palette also comes with a double ended brush but sadly being the idiot i am i forgot to take a picture, my brush actually broke before i used it but ive glued it back together and its an ok brush, one side is a fluffy brush and the other is a thick brow like brush!
The inside of this palette kinda gives me Anastasia of Beverly Hills feels but I don't think it's suppose to be a dupe for it, although I could be wrong so let me know I'm the comments.
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As you can probably tell the shade 'ginger' is my favourite and I've used it for the last week every single day, it's such a beautiful shade for summer and even though the heat it's clung on, 'hu' is another great one for an all over base as its light enough to make the colours pop without making you look like you've decided you want that drag queen glam!
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As you can probably tell the shade 'ginger' is my favourite and I've used it for the last week every single day, it's such a beautiful shade for summer and even though the heat it's clung on, 'hu' is another great one for an all over base as its light enough to make the colours pop without making you look like you've decided you want that drag queen glam!
swatches/formulae.
Before we get into the swatches I just wanted to say, please excuse my god awful fake tan in this picture, I can assure you it didn't look that bad in person (it defiantly did who am I kidding?).
The swatches are just one minimal pressure single swipe of the shadow with no shadow base or primer underneath so as you can see the colour payoff is very impressive, something which I didn't expect, for some reason I expected them to be lacking pigmentation and just have like a glittery top layer, oh how wrong I was!
On first impressions I found that the shades are incredibly buttery and 99% of the shades had an even pay off which is buildable, I also didn't get any fall out from any of the shades which to me is important as i like to do my eye makeup after my foundation, (please don't shoot me beauty gurus!) so unless I'm playing the leading role in the black swan, i don't want black dots all over my face.
I especially love the formulae of the metallic shades, I would go as far as saying they are actually some of the best eyeshades I have tried, which is a very bold statement!
Now, without sounding like a picky Polly I want to talk about the problems I occurred with this palette, As you may be able to see the blue shade did come off a little streaky, this may be rectified with another layer but I cant confirm that, although I can say that it was the only shade that did come out patchy, none of the other mattes had this problem.
You may also be able to see that the second from left shade 'hu' does swatch a bit chalky, however this wasn't something I noticed when applying to my eye and I don't recall any fall out from this shade so it may just be that I picked up too much product!
Is it bosh or worth the dosh?
well I mean its pretty obvious what I'm going to say to this, yes yes yes yes! this palette is so worth your money, especially if you manage to get it for £10.
Not only is the shadow formulae to die for, the palette is clearly very well made, its hard to find the perfect travel palette but cargo have hit the nail on the head with this one.
