Cargo Vintage Escape Palette

Cargo Vintage Escape Palette - £35.00

Whilst this palette was in stock on Debenhams I wanted to bring it to your attention, because this might just qualify as my favourite palette ever. It's neutral enough that it compares to the likes of the Naked palettes in terms of wearability but the shadows are versatile and pigmented enough that you really can produce a show stopping look with this.

The top picture was from when I photographed the palette when I first bought it and the second picture is a more recent snap - I wanted to show you guys just how much use I have had from this one in a few months - you can see me hauling it here back in November, every shade has been touched and I'll admit to having to run a wet wipe round this palette just to make it look presentable for photographs!

All the swatches are one swipe up and one swipe down with my fingers, so as you can see they're all massively pigmented, but a 217 touched lightly to them buffs them in to look totally natural, or you can really pack them on with the 239. The only shadows that aren't totally smooth are the darkest two - you can see that Black Crow in comparison to the rest isn't maybe quite as pigmented and buttery as the others but I don't reach for black shadow all that much so it doesn't make much difference to me, and it can still be built up with more than 2 swipes of a finger if you're really keen for a deep black pigment.

The matte shades in general in the swatches look slightly less smooth than the shimmers (that's Harvest Moon, Hot Cocoa, Autumn, Chestnut and Black Crow, with chestnut being probably the worst looking) but that doesn't really transfer to the lids when used with a brush so it's really not a problem.

You can see me using the shadows in this post and this post, and I'd say overall my most used shades are predictably Cuddle, Frolic, Cinnamon and Rustic, but I love all the shades and have used all of them multiple times, with the exception of Black Crow which I've used a handful of times - though as I say that's down to personal preference!

The quality of these shadows really is up there, I'd say actually more so than the Naked palettes and the wear time without creasing has been super long - my eye make up has still been fully intact every night when I'm taking off my make up having out this on in the morning, so it's a minimum of 12 hours!

I'm trying to sound vaguely balanced in this review but honestly, it's just a rave. I love this palette a lot, it really doesn't let me down on any front and it's perfect for both every day wear and building up for a night out. There's really nothing bad I can say (and that's not something I say all that often!)

Cargo Northern Lights Palette Review

Cargo Northern Lights Eyeshadow Palette £35.00 £24.50

When I noticed online that Cargo had two eyeshadow palettes go into the Debenhams sale my interest was piqued. If you watched this haul video back in November 2014 you'll have seen me raving on about the Cargo Vintage Escape palette, which ranks as one of the all time best palette purchases I've ever made. I can't find that one online now anywhere, nor was it in store when I purchased this palette the other day, but if you do ever get the chance to get your hands on it then hug it to your chest and run for the till before anyone tries to take it off you, every shade is wearable, they're buttery soft, super pigmented, blend easily and generally just perform incredibly. 

Anyway, having had such a positive experience with that palette I'd been meaning to get back and try more Cargo for ages, but hadn't gotten round to it - till now. 

The Northern Lights palette currently has 30% off at Debenhams, the fact it's a percentage reduction makes it sound like it could go back up in price so I decided it was as much of an excuse as I needed to grab another shadow palette to add to my collection, and it's one I fully recommend you grabbing too.

I'm glad though, that I didn't buy it online and did wait till I saw it in store, as I loved it even more in store and a few of the shades clearly come up very differently swatched to how they look in pan, all for the better in my opinion. For example I thought Fjord - the bottom left shade - would be blue judging by the palette, but it comes up more of a slate colour with hints of bluey green shot through it. Finland (3rd from let bottom row), which has a distinctly yellow hue in the palette is actually a gorgeous gold. Aurora, above Finland in the top row, is a definite rose gold tone with a hit of bisc shot through just to deepen the colour slightly, whereas I thought it would be very pink and very not wearable on my skin tone. Lastly Greenland, which I thought would be a really dark, deep green is actually pretty black when used, with iridescent green sparkles that catch the light when you move. 

The shades are all beautiful - though Osetra, Finland and Lapland are my personal favourites - and they all blend beautifully and build beautifully. I swatched the top row quite lightly and you can see how pigmented they are, but also how they could be applied with a very light hand and buffed away with something like a MAC 217. The bottom row I did two layers of colour to each swatch and you can see from that how easily they build and how you could really pack on the colour with something like a MAC 239/242 (or one of the flat ended brushes from the Urban Decay Naked palettes).

Speaking of brushes, this one comes with a double ended fluffy brush, one side slightly bigger and the other side smaller - not quite tiny enough to be a pencil but small enough to get under the eyes. I don't have a whole lot to say on the brush, it's good enough to be kept around for emergencies and doesn't quite deserve to go straight in the bin but it's definitely not a great brush - but at the end of the day I didn't buy the palette for the brush. I do think bad brushes in palettes cheapen them slightly and to be honest I'd rather just not be given a brush at all, but I realise for some people they do like having the brush in the palette and, like I say, this one isn't the worst I've come across.

Overall this palette is another winner from Cargo for me, I just love the quality of the shadows,  they perform as well as the likes of Urban Decay and better in some places. I'm not overly keen on the faux snakeskin casing but, to be honest, what's inside is pure eyeshadow gold. 

PS Just realised this is the first post of 2015 - happy new year everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and festive season <3