Chantecaille Save The Sharks Palette Review and Swatches

Here it is, the newest Chantecaille palette, this time it's in aid of sharks. Probably not the species we think of when we hear about endangered animals, but according to Chantecaille, up to 73 million sharks are killed every year for their fins. As with every special edition palette, Chantecaille donated a percentage of proceeds to the relevant charities. This time 5% of proceeds from the Save The Sharks Palette will be donated to the BLOOM Association to ban unregulated shark fin trade.

The palette features 3 eye colours and a cheek colour, all of them made up of two colours (there's no overspray here!). Great White, the highlighter is a sandy beige with a white fin in the middle, Grey Reef is a glistening sandy grey with a lighter brown fin in the middle and Black Tip is a deep ocean blue with a black fin in the middle. Also includes Sea Anemone Cheek Shade, a golden coral color that is universally flattering on all skin tones, inspired by the underwater gardens of the tropical seas.

Despite reading not very positive reviews about the palette, I'm actually very happy with it. The eyeshadows aren't particularly unique, but they are nice colours, and they are smooth as butter. I did have some blending issues with the darker colours, but nothing major. The blush is my absolute favourite of the whole palette, it's a gorgeous coral shade, very pigmented and easy to use. It also has a light pink highlighter fin in the middle, but it's too small to use alone with a blush brush so I just mix the two shades together usually. The highlighter could be used with an eyeshadow brush though.

The palette costs $83 (approx. £55) in the US and £75 in the UK (I'll never understand why Chantecaille is so much more expensive in the UK), but I luckily managed to get mine for £40 on eBay. I'm very happy with it at that price, but I'm not prepared to pay the full UK retail price for Chantecaille products. Available from Space NK, Harrods, Liberty, Harvey Nichols.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with this palette after the jump!

Chantecaille The Evening Duo Review and Swatches

As you know, I love Chantecaille palettes, especially the pretty ones. The duo I'm going to review today I wasn't sure about buying for ages. Normally Chantecaille palettes retail around £75 for 4 shadows, whereas this duo retailed for £70. Ouch! However, since it was reduced to half price in the SpaceNK sale, I finally decided to buy it. So was it worth it?

The palette comes in a box about twice its size which causes a bit of a surpise when you pull the compact out of the box. The compact itself is shiny pewter decorated with 7 large(ish) and 7 small Swarovski crystals. Inside you find the two eyeshadows (Charmeuse and Carbon), as well as an eyeshadow and an eyeliner brush, and a full size mirror in the lid. The eyeshadows appear quite large (maybe because the palette itself is so small?), and in fact they are 2 g and 1.5 g each respectively.

Charmeuse is a light metallic pinky-nude colour with tiny sparkles and Carbon is a matte jet black. They are both smooth, they glide on effortlessly, blend really well and are well pigmented. You can use Charmeuse as an all over colour and Carbon as a liner, or crease colour which is what I did (plus used Freesia in the middle of the lid to blend the colours together and Perle on the browbone to highlight). You can see the pictures of the look at the bottom of this post. The eyeshadows lasted on me all day on top of a primer and looked really lovely.

All in all, this is a lovely palette, but not for £70. I know it's Chantecaille, but still, £70 for 3.5 g of eyeshadow is a bit pushing it. I'm happy I got it for £35 though. Sadly I don't think it's available anymore, but you might find it on eBay if you're lucky. It is still available on the Chantecaille website (US) at full price.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with this after the jump!