Cargo Shanghai Nights – First Impression Review

 

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Welcome to my blog! Today’s post is rather special. I’m dedicating this post to a friend who was in Shanghai for International Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition recently and he shared some of the highlights of Shanghai at night pictures which I thought would be interesting to be added in this post.

I’m feeling very excited, so let’s get started.

I happened to have a new eyeshadow palette in my latest collection. And it’s the Shanghai Nights Eyeshadow Palette by Cargo which I want to talk more about in this post.

I got this Cargo palette from Winners recently and the packaging has been screaming out my name for review. Finally, I decided to give in after seeing these pictures taken by my friend of Shanghai while he was there. It sort of reminds me of the palette I have and hence I collaborate both real life picture of Shanghai with the Shanghai Nights eyeshadow palette.

I wasn’t particularly looking for another big eyeshadow palette but since I’m the infamous eyeshadow junkies, I took a double take when I saw the price on this palette. I was lucky enough to pick up this palette from Winner for $16.99, I was over the moon 😉

The packaging itself is stunning, really colourful cardboard with bright pictures of “Shanghai at night”. You all know by now if you’re following my blog post that I’m an eyeshadow junkie and this palette really stands out in my collection with this bright packaging. It opens up to quite a substantial size mirror, 12 beautiful shades and a dual ended brush.

The brush is decent, nothing great but definitely preferable to the typical sponge tip applicators that often come with palettes.

Let’s look at how this palette reminiscent the night lights of Shanghai! 

Starting with the top row from left to right there is:

• A deep, cool toned matte taupe shade,
• A bright, satin blue which I thought was going to be stunning but really just doesn’t show up very well,
• A lighter, cool toned matte taupe,
• A gorgeous pinky champagne, shimmery shade that actually swatches and goes on the eye beautifully,
• A shimmery mid toned brown, still on the cool side and finally
• A shimmery white shade that doesn’t show well on my skin but makes a truly beautiful inner corner highlight.

The bottom row left to right is:

• A matte off white shade, perfect for a browbone highlight if you don’t like shimmer up there,
• A deep army green-ish grey, shimmery shade that swatches quite true to colour and I like a lot,
• A really pretty deep gold, shimmery shade,
• A more true army green shimmer shade that doesn’t swatch well,
• Another huge let down which is a bright, satin purple and finally,
• A shimmery black that I personally like and is definitely quite pigmented.

[Shade names closed up pictures: Wai Tai, Skyline, Bund, Lychee, Jin Mao, Neon, Hu, Street Style, Ginger, Jade, Bar Rouge and Nightlife]

There are four matte shadows, five glittery metallic and three shimmery eyeshadows in this palette.

I personally like the color selection. There are some Taupe, Brown, Black, Champagne and brighter colors such as Blue, Green and Purple. But if the colors are your thing, I say go for it!

Swatches without primer. What you see is what you get. It’s pigmented enough and the texture smooth and soft. The shimmery shadows feels creamy whereas the matte might need some improvement on longevity and better pigmentation.

A short eye makeup tutorial on how I did this look.

It lasts for a long time but not forever kind, if you know what I mean. If you used an eye base or eye primer before the shadows then I can easily say I could lasts for 6 hours without touch up. Another thing I noticed is the matte and metallic shades faded faster than the shimmery ones.

Lastly, for picture perfect I applied eyeliner and false lashes by Elf and VOILA!

Overall, there were a bunch of hits and misses in this palette but I feel like for the regular price of US$39.00 on Cargo website the good shadows don’t make up for the bad ones and I could never justify purchasing this if it’s not for $16.99 or on sale price. I love the concept of it and the way the shades are laid out, if it was of better quality you could definitely do many many eye looks with it on its own.

Lastly, for $16.99 a palette I’m not even complaining, lol! I’ll get another palette anytime for Holiday giveaway.

Would you pick up this palette? Don’t forget to leave your comments down below.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read.

Sharon xoxo

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