Product Review & Swatches: Cargo Shanghai Nights (Ulta Online Exclusive)

I'm so excited! I received my Cargo Shanghai Nights Palette from Ulta and I got a chance to take photos, do some swatches & create a look to show you! I was super drawn to this palette from when I first saw the promo photos of it because it has nice shades of gold, bronze, taupe, bright blue and purple! I think there's a great variety of colors to create a multitude of looks.

Now, I have to tell you the truth, I had never touched a Cargo eyeshadow before this, but I had a hunch they may be decent because they came highly regarded by Marlena from MakeupGeek during one of her videos. And let me tell you, I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the quality, they are similar to the Lorac eyeshadows, but they feel even more smooth, buttery and richly pigmented to me, I noticed very little powdering from the mattes (this is to be expected of all mattes, though).

The packaging of the Shanghai Nights palette is to die for! It has a nice weight to it, although it's made of reinforced cardboard and its covered by a plastic overlay, it feels sturdier than some plastic palettes I own. I would feel very confident traveling with it and knowing it won't break. You are receiving a nice amount of product for $39, it contains 12 eyeshadows, each at 0.03oz (or 0.8g) - for comparison, MAC eyeshadow singles are 0.05oz full size (or 1.5g). The price here is amazing, this palette retails for $39 regularly, but I picked it up during Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty Sale for $20!

The eyeshadows consist of a wide variety of brow-bone shades (Neon, Hu), crease/transition shades (Wai Tai, Bund, Jin Mao), pops of color (Lychee, Jade, Bar Rouge, Skyline) and shades with depth to them (Street Style, Night life). 

I noticed right away that there were 4 mattes (Wai Tai, Skyline, Bund and Hu), 5 metallic shades (Lychee, Jin Mao, Street Style, Ginger, Jade), 2 satin shades (Neon, Bar Rouge) and 1 glitter shade (Night Life).

So not only is there a great variety of shades that can be used for different purposes, but there are also many finishes in this versatile palette. All of the shades in this palette are limited edition.

Bonus! It even comes with a dual-ended eyeshadow/liner brush, which I used to complete my look today. This brush is versatile because one end can be used to pack on eyeshadow and the other end can be used for more precise application under your lower lash line and above your lash line as well. The bristles are flexible and soft.

These shadows were not applied over primer, they are very richly pigmented, the only one that wasn't as vibrant as I was expecting was Skyline which appears as a gem-tone blue in the pan but swatches more like a navy. I was extremely impressed with Wai Tai and Bund, they are very rich and smooth shades, especially for mattes, and they were very easy to blend out. Jin Mao and Lychee performed very well and true to the shades in the pan and Neon was a tad sheer, but very pleasant.

Night Life was much more pigmented than the black from the Everything Nice palette I reviewed last week, and I found during application that much of the glitter doesn't really stick to the eyeshadow itself and therefore won't show up much, if at all (I'm perfectly fine with this!). Bar Rouge is a stunner, I love this fuchsia reddish purple shade. Jade was also less its namesake and more of an army green with shimmer. Hu, Street Style and Ginger looked exactly the same when applied or swatched as they did in the pan.

Here's the look that I create today with the Cargo Shanghai Nights palette:

I used a whopping 8 shades in my look and I feel that it didn't turn out muddy at all and you can see precisely where I placed each shade, even though I did some major blending! The performance of this palette was spectacular and I highly recommend it. It has treated me better than many of my higher end palettes and I am very excited to start collecting Cargo's Limited Edition palettes.

Here's a guide to show you where I placed each shadow if you own the palette and want to try out this look!

Too Faced Everything Nice: Eyes of the Day Look

Too Faced - Everything Nice Night-time Look - Ambient Lighting

I just couldn't wait to create a look with the Too Faced Everything Nice palette I reviewed yesterday, so today I decided to achieve this Night-time look with quite a few of the colors in the palette. I also started this out with a Daytime look for those of you who are into a more subtle eyeshadow application. I'll show you which colors I used from the palette to create this look.

Too Faced - Everything Nice Daytime Look - Natural Lighting

For the daytime look, I kept it simple and classy, appropriate for work and not too dramatic, this is why I skipped out on using a black eyeliner and just applied mascara (in this case I used L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly mascara). I did not apply any makeup to my lower lash line - I usually avoid doing this in the daytime because if there is a good amount of sunshine, it can be irritating to my eyes and I can tear up, causing makeup to smear.

First, I used Dream On in my crease in a sweeping motion, to create the backdrop for my crease shade.
Then I used Be You as my crease shade in a more precise usage than Dream On. All Over You was applied all over the lid and blended into my crease shade. Turtle Dove was applied to feature out my crease transition as a browbone highlight, right under my eyebrows. Secret Lovers was applied to the outer corner of my eyelid in a V-shape to create a 3D effect.

Too Faced - Everything Nice Night-time Look - Natural Lighting

 For Night-time, I wanted to vamp up the look and really pump it up full of saturated colors, since the lighting becomes more dim, I wanted the colors to really pop and stand on their own.

Too Faced - Everything Nice Night-time Look - Natural Lighting

You can see that my basic look is the same as the Daytime look because I essentially just built on from there, adding on top. Another big difference is the addition of liquid eyeliner at the very end and layering it with Chocolate Moon to get a sparkly slightly smoked out, fully opaque effect. 

I added Too Glam to the inner third of my lower lash line and Head Over Heels to the outer third (be careful with this shade because the large glitter particles can hurt your eyes if you don't stick to the outer edge of your lashes). I warmed up my crease color to by adding more pink to the transition shade using Kindness is Free with a very light hand. Then I took this same shade and went in a large V-shape below the outer third of my bottom lash line for continuity and so there is no harsh break between my skin and the dark navy blue (Head Over Heels).

Too Faced - Everything Nice Night-time Look - Ambient Lighting

 Hope you guys enjoy these looks and I'll try to use the other shades from the Everything Nice Set an upcoming Eyes of the Day post! If you're interested, you can purchase it at Sephora.

Product Review & Swatches: Too Faced Everything Nice Palette for Sephora Holiday 2014

The Sephora-exclusive Too Faced Everything Nice (That's What Pretty Girls Are Made Of) Set retails for $56 and is currently available for purchase here. There has been so much hype and speculation over this palette and I spoke about it really briefly in a previous post. UPS just delivered mine so I've put together this review ASAP. Basically, this set is a variation of the Too Faced Few of My Favorite Things Set from last Holiday 2013.

This year the bag is... not as spectacular as last years. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's a bright fuchsia color that doesn't particularly appeal to me and secondly, it has chunky glitter particles adhered to its backside. I'm not sure why Too Faced went this route over, say, a clear window panel, but the glitter catches onto other fabrics and flies off everywhere. The back of the bag does not have a smooth texture, it is rough due to the large pieces of glitter. The cutest part is the zipper which has a round ornament on it, but it does add even more bulkiness to an already large bag.

The next issue I have with the bag is that it was not designed to fit the Everything Nice palette! Deceptively, they come in the box together, next to one another, but the box is much thicker than the bag and the zipper of the bag does not open the whole say, so you could never fit the palette inside. I suppose it's meant as a "bonus" for us to keep other makeup inside.

The inside of the Everything Nice Set is a charming little number. It consists of 20 fairly large (basically full sized) eyeshadows, 2 blushes, a bronzer, a highlighter, a deluxe mascara (Better Than Sex) and a 3-piece mini brush set. You're receiving a great variety of color in multiple textures, including shimmer, matte, satin and glitter. I think some basic math will tell you that this set is worth the price - I can see them selling for double or triple on eBay once stock runs out at Sephora.

For me, deluxe sized mascaras are cute for travel, so I'm happy to have received the Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara. I like the conventional yet slightly bulkier mascara wand, I find that it gives me extra volume and carries a good amount of product so I won't have to re-dip during application.

The synthetic brush trio has cute handles, which have glitter suspended inside a layer of resin (which is what I would have preferred the makeup bag to be) so the glitter is really only aesthetic but won't scratch or fly off. The largest brush might be useful for contouring under your cheekbones, there is a decently sized eyeshadow brush and a liner brush (can also be used as an eyebrow brush). You're getting a nice variety of brushes and they are held securely in the set by a plastic strap so they won't fall out every time you open the palette.

Too Faced Everything Nice - Sephora Holiday 2014
Sweet Pink, Papa Don't Preach, Chocolate Soleil, Inner Light & Synthetic Brush Trio

Swatches of Too Faced Everything Nice - Sephora Holiday 2014

As you can see, these colors all swatch well and are of the quality I always expect from Too Faced's products. All of the face products are smooth and buttery, easy to apply and blend.

• Sweet Pink is a light blue-toned pink with golden finely milled glitter.
• Papa Don't Preach is a shimmery bronze peach color which was exceptionally smooth
• Chocolate Soleil, their cult classic, smells like chocolate and is a warm mid-toned bronzer.
• Inner Light, a re-promote from the Be Bright palette, is a pale golden highlight with fine gold glitter 

Eyeshadows in Too Faced - Everything Nice Set for Sephora Holiday 2014

A quick overview of the shadows will reveal matte, satin, shimmer, metallic, glitter and duochrome shades. This set contains a wide variety to please every taste. Some shades are even multiple finishes, such as metallic shimmers and they are interesting and unique.

Swatches of Row 1 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Turtle Dove - pale highlight white matte, will not achieve fully opaque color
• Dream On - neutral nude matte
• After Hours - metallic dark gold, super pigmented and buttery
• Fawned of You - light caramel-toned brown matte, very highly pigmented and smooth
• Knockout - appears dark brown in pan but secondary swatch reveals medium brown matte

Swatches of Row 2 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Paper Roses - pale baby pink shimmer
• Kindness is Free - pearlescent pink shimmer satin
• Mauvelous - lilac silver shimmer (re-promote from Too Faced Be Bright Holiday 2013)
• Be You - warm taupe matte, well pigmented
• Secret Lovers - dark chocolate brown shimmer, very pigmented and smooth

Swatches of Row 3 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Heaven - light nude matte, fairly weak pigmentation
• Shiny Happy - metallic green-toned gold shimmer
• Honey Pot - metallic yellow gold, very smooth and highly pigmented
• Don't Settle - antique gold metallic shimmer
• Girly - green burnt orange/brown duochrome - the most unique color in the palette, I love this one; re-promote form the Too Faced - Pretty Rebel palette (thanks to reader Selina Alexandria for the info!)

Swatches of Row 4 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Totally Fetch - bright fuchsia pink satin, re-promote form the Too Faced - Pretty Rebel palette (thanks to reader Selina Alexandria for the info!)
• Live It Up - purple shimmer with sparse blue, less intense than Totally Fetch and Too Glam
• Too Glam - satin metallic emerald green with fine shimmer, extremely pigmented
• Head Over Heels - dark navy blue with cobalt blue glitter densely packed inside
• Chocolate Moon - dark brown with sparse gold glitter - this color may be an attempt at black, but the opacity just isn't there, so I would say that it comes off much more like a dark brown

I really like this palette, of course there are some misses (Head Over Heels, Chocolate Moon, Heaven) but for the most part, this palette is absolutely fantastic. You will be able to create a wide variety of looks, and even the worst of the palette is still definitely usable, you just have to layer and work with the product. Overall, the consistency of all of the powders is very good, the extra bonuses of the set are a cute addition, and it would make a beautiful holiday gift for any makeup fan. The packaging is cute and sturdy, even though it is made of a condensed and covered cardboard. 

If you are considering purchasing this set, I recommend doing so early, because last year's equivalent sold out in a few weeks and I suspect this will do the same due to its high quality and great value.