En Taupe: a first look at Zoeva

It turns out having nothing but a nude eyeshadow palette gets very boring after a month and a half of daily use- which is all that I had for my ‘quick weekend at home’ when the surprise lockdown hit. I tried my best to survive with my trusty Inglot freedom palette (which is the only thing I had for years), but I treated myself to a Beauty Bay skincare haul and fancied something new- so I ordered the Zoeva En Taupe palette.

Zoeva is cruelty free and the palette was €25.75 for ten shades, and I'm really into taupes and cool-toned shadows so of course I had to try it!

packaging

Of all of the Zoeva eyeshadow packaging, this had to have been the most uninteresting. Take a look at the other palettes they offer, they’re Pat McGrath standard in my opinion! The packaging for the En Taupe palette, however, is very basic and unexciting, though I do like the rainbow holographic foil that’s used both on the inside and outside. I also enjoy the name of the shadow clearly printed below each individual pan!

It particularly bothers me that at the bottom of the cover there’s the product weight; it’s a little detail that completely spoils the design and could easily have been removed- it’s even replicated on the back! Come on Zoeva, it's all about the little details. The packaging itself is simple cardboard, there’s nothing wrong with that, and the palette doesn’t have a mirror on the inside- again, not something that bothers me terribly.

shade selection

As fairly standard, the En Taupe palette offers an even amount of finishings; five matte and five metallics.

The colour story of this palette isn’t as interesting as a lot of my palettes, but I do get an excited ‘what magic can I create today?’ feeling when I start playing around with it.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that there are enough deeper shades offered in the palette- even those two darker shades on the very right apply much lighter than they appear in the pan.

top row

Stitch By Stitch: a pinky off-white that works well as a base.

Handmade: a creamy yellow/orange/pink duochrome that I only have heart eyes for.

Gallery: a matte light taupe that I adore as a transition shade.

Hour By Hour: a regular pinky-brown, almost warm-toned, that also works great as a transition shade.

Old Master: a gorgeous dark taupe with gold or copper glitter, it’s truly a sensational shadow.

bottom row

Spun Pearl: a white/pale pink shimmer

Sheers & Voiles: a brown/pink/purple shimmer that I love- if only it applied pigmented on the lid!

Outline: a deep metallic brown

Wrapped In Silk: a gorgeous metallic purple that I love to deepen my crease. It’s actually my favourite shadow in the palette

Exquisite: a deep matte purple that unfortunately applies a lot lighter on the lid

pigmentation, formula & blend

This is where En Taupe really lets me down. Maybe I’m too used to the high quality of ColourPop, maybe I’m just terrible at makeup- regardless, I’m terribly disappointed with this palette. I almost never use eyelid primer, unless I’m working with loose powders, but the pigmentation of this palette leaves a lot to be desired and I’d be curious to see if it helps at all.

I’m actually wondering if I got a faulty or old product, simply for how difficult these shadows are to apply. If I want any kind of colour I have to dip back into the pans over and over again, and the shadows take longer than they should to blend- and even then I’m still not completely happy with the result. I hate using my fingers to apply eyeshadows, but it really seems like that’s the only option for this palette.

I found the mattes to be incredibly powdery in this palette. On one of the days that I was playing around with this palette I had been testing skincare, and the serum that I had used made my foundation slip and caused my eyelids to be very dry. All of the mattes that I subsequently applied picked up on my dry patches like crazy. While the mattes create some serious kickback (I always tap the excess off) they oddly never cause any fallout on my cheeks. Take of that what you will, I suppose.

The shimmers, while gorgeous and super creamy, take a lot of work. Darker taupe shade Wrapped In Silk takes several dips to show up in my crease, and the three lightest shades Spun Pearl, Handmade and Sheers & Voiles are not as pigmented as I’d like- such a pity for such pretty colours.

Am I just really bad at makeup or is this just a fluke bad Zoeva palette? All in all, I really love the looks I've been making with this palette, but it took a while for me to figure out how to make them work for me.

Do you have a favourite Zoeva palette? Let me know in the comment section below, or tell me on Instagram- I’m @lapetitemis and I keep it up to date with what I’m working on so make sure to follow me! Thank you so much for reading and I’ll be back in a few days with a new skincare post!