“Set in a beautiful spring inspired watercolor illustration, the “Suited to a Tea” palette features 12 cream based eye shadows with this season’s must have colors.”

I’ve never been all too familiar with Cargo Cosmetics. I know they were carried in Sephora for a few years, and I probably swatched some of their products here and there, but aside from a lone nude lip liner floating around in my collection, I never really delved into their selection.

When I saw their new spring line in Kohl’s a week or so ago, I was drawn in by the cute packaging and “tea” theme to the collection. I’m a sucker for all things having to do with tea (as well as coffee, if truth be told), and I had to take a peak inside the adorable package that held their Suited To A Tea Eye Shadow Palette. I mean, just look at it; all pink and dotted with teacups and makeup?! Of course it helped that I immediately fell in love with the spring-y, pastel selection of colors inside this palette too–there were not only a good range of shimmery  neutrals but also some lovely purples and blues and even a smoky gray-green (oh my!). The inside of this palette had a look reminiscent of a watercolor palette and that just went straight to the heart of me.

I couldn’t help myself. I had some Kohl’s cash and have been longing for some fun, colorful shadows I could still see myself wearing to work, so I figured I would give it a shot…

There are twelve 0.045 oz shadows in this palette, as well as a double-ended shadow brush that has a shader brush on one end and an angled liner brush on the other. As I said earlier, all the shadows are cream shadows and are very smooth and, well, creamy to the touch. The colors also all love lovely “tea party” themed names:

• Top Row: Ganache, Bloomsbury, Crumpet, Devonshire, Oolong and Tisane
• Bottom Row: Petit Four, Earl Grey, Wedgewood, Ritz, Macaron and Mayfair

Again–how cute is that?

Now, as soon as I got this home and started testing out the colors, I realized they were all pretty sheer. They swatched better on my hand (below) when swiped with a finger than they applied on my eyelid with a brush. Even still, the hand swatches below still took 2-3 swipes each, but that built them up to decent swatches and they looked really pretty.

When it came to applying them with a brush, that was another story. I really had to pack them on to my lid to get a strong color payoff and the process was rather frustrating. On one hand, I liked how the brighter colors–like the sky blue Wedgewood or the pearly pink Macaron–weren’t super bold. I liked that they had the potential to be “work colorful” and add a spring-y pop to my eyes without my look being too dramatic for that everyday sort of wear.

On the other hand–what’s the good of shadows so sheer you need to spend 10 minutes diligently patting on each color, only to have to reapply even more after any attempt at blending washes the color almost completely away? Especially when it comes to the lighter shades, like the lavender Petit Four–it was damn near impossible to get enough color on my skin to make it show up like that.

::cue the sad trombone::

Swatches

Verdict

This, sadly, is a palette you can skip.

I might sound like a broken record here, but the color payoff of these shadows was pretty sad all cross the board. They just aren’t as nice on the skin as they are in the pan. I’m so sad; these all had the potential be lovely colors if they had lived up to their looks! I wore a look where I blended Petit Four and Ritz with some basics neutrals from my Naked Basics palette over Urban Decay Primer Potion, and–honestly–it was pretty lackluster. They were a nightmare to work with and kept sheering out so much when I tried to blend that I found myself reapplying them again and again and again… Not fun.

To make matters worse, they also proved have no staying power on me. Despite mixing them with powder shadows and using a primer beneath them, I still had a horrible amount of creasing a few hours later. (It was about 3-4 hours later when I noticed the creasing, tops.) They settled into a muddy, thick purple line in my crease. Embarrassed, I blended them back out with a finger as best I could, just to make it through the rest of the work day buuuuuuut when I checked myself in the mirror at the end of the day, they had still managed–somehow!–to crease on me again!

I hate to bash a product, but this whole palette was a terrible let-down. Normally I can think of an alternate use for a failed product but the only thing I can see using this for, maybe, is a smudge along the lashline–and even then, given how sheer they are, I just don’t think they’ll make it worth my while.

Sorry Cargo; this palette missed the mark big time.