The Cocoablend eyeshadow palette from Zoeva has been a more useful addition to my eyeshadow stash than I anticipated. I am not a huge fan of neutral palette. I find they can be very samey and I like bright eye looks and lots of textures. However, neutral palettes continue to be extremely popular and new ones are being launched all the time. I have a Zoeva brush set which I really like and use regularly. When I saw that Selfridges were now stocking their eyeshadow palettes, I was intrigued. I took the opportunity to have a play and I was pretty impressed.
The Cocoablend palette is a warm toned neutral palette with four mattes one shimmers and five satin shades. The standout colour for me is Warm Notes, a warm cranberry tone. Despite being a shimmer shade, I use in my crease very regularly. The shades are a good quality, apply well, even the matte shades and the cranberry and burnt orange shades provide some interest.
The packaging is cardboard with a geometric print. There isn’t a mirror so the palette is extremely light. Perfect for travel but it is a bit big for the makeup bag. It is functional but not overly exciting and yet, I reach for this pallet more than others. The mixture of warm and cool tones work with every look and the satin shades are really good quality.
Having played with the palette I thought it was nice but I was prepared to walk away from it. It was only when I asked the price of it that my makeup junkie senses started to twitch. The Cocoablend palette has 10 x 1.5 gram eyeshadow pans for £18. For context, a MAC refill shadow is also 1.5 grams but cost £10 each. This is a great value palette. There are less shades than a naked palette so it is a bit less overwhelming. A bonus for me, as a woman of colour is that there is only one shade (Bitter Start) that is a dud on my rich skin tone. For me as a fan of brighter shades, it means that the colours that I really need or would wear are in this palette as opposed to several shades of similar mid brown tones.
If you have a Selfridges near you were you can swatch the colours I would recommend that you do. If you are a fan of a neutral palette I think you can order them without swatching. The shades are pretty true to what you see online and the quality wont disappoint.