If you’ve been following my overview of the September beauty launches in Romania, you already know that I bought one of these new launches, which is the Cococa Blend Voyager eyeshadow palette from Zoeva.

My first and biggest complaint is that the palette is much smaller than I expected it to be. Granted, I didn’t look it up on other websites as well, but on the Sephora website it looked bigger and it didn’t say how much product it contains. The regular Cocoa Blend palette has 10 eyeshadows and this one has 6, so I expected it to be about half the size. However, I think the pans may also be smaller because they contain only 0.9 grams each. But now that I played with it for a few days, the size doesn’t bother me anymore because it is great for traveling or to carry it in a small makeup bag in a purse, so from this point of view, the size is just right.

The palette costs about 14,5 euros, but I got it on sale for 20% off, so I ended up paying only about 11 euros, which I think is a fair price, considering the quality of the product. It has a sturdy cardboard packaging with magnetic closure, it also has a protective sleeve and the names of the eyeshadows are also imprinted on the palette, which is helpful. It has no mirror, but that doesn’t bother me. The palette is made in Italy – although Zoeva is a German brand as far as I know. I don’t know about their brushes, but the rest of the makeup products are cruelty-free.

And now let’s get to the most important part of the review. The swatches and my opinions on the eyeshadows.

Let’s start from right to left, like they are arranged in the palette.

Bitter Start – the shade you are probably having trouble seeing on the right is a matte white, but kind of a dirty white. It’s an overall lid color to set the base or to be used as a base. It basically doesn’t show up on the skin.

Substitute for Love – this is a matte light caramel brown, which is most suitable for the crease.

Freshly toasted – a matte rich chocolate brown, to be used in the outer corner or in the crease for a more dramatic look.

Pure Ganache – a shimmery antique gold, which I think is best for a pop of color on the center of the lid or to highlight the inner corner of the eye.

Warm Notes – a satin dark pink, almost red shade. For me, it’s the star of this palette. It looks so great, it’s definitely one of my favorite pink shades I own.

Subtle Blend – it has an interesting finish, something of a matte combined with fine glitter. It’s a more cool-toned brown, that I think could be used both in the outer corner or on the lid.

The swatches don’t look so promising, at least the mattes and I know I was a little disappointed with them when I took the picture, but after actually applying them on the eyes…they are great. All the mattes have some kick-off, but once you apply them on the eyes, they blend like a dream and they have no fall-out. On a side note, I don’t know if I’m using correctly these terms in English, but what I’m trying to say is that if you dip the brush into the pan, even lightly, there is quite some powder that spreads on the packaging because the eyeshadows are very smooth, but when you tap the brush lightly and apply them on the lid, there is no powder getting on your face.

Now for the shimmers and satins, the eyeshadows that were most problematic was Pure Ganache, the golden shade. The texture is very crumbly, so that’s why I ended up making the biggest swatch for it because I had so much product on my finger. However, once I saw that it’s a little more fragile, I did what I do with most shimmers. I took a synthetic flat brush and used it to apply the eyeshadow. It worked perfectly, I didn’t even need to wet the brush for the color to glide smoothly on the eye. The other two satiny-shimmery eyeshadows are easier to apply, even with a regular blending brush.

I didn’t test them on their own, because I always like to use an eyeshadow primer – it simply makes the eyeshadows stay put and the colors more vibrant – so I did the same with these eyeshadows. I used them with my usual primer – which is a very affordable drugstore one, so nothing fancy – and they didn’t crease on me, they didn’t wear off or become muddy for the entire day.

So, what I can say about the Zoeva eyeshadows judging from this palette only is that the formula doesn’t seem like much when you just swatch them on your hand – which is why I don’t rely only on swatches – but once you actually use them with makeup brushes on the eye, they are easy to work with and you don’t need to do anything special to blend them nicely. Just to have a flat brush on hand for those shimmery shades. Or use your finger if you’re on the go.

I’m not the type of person to spend much on makeup and I’m not interested in spending hundreds of euros on expensive eyeshadow palettes, but I am willing to pay a little more extra for something like Zoeva, which, at least in Romania, has like a medium price point – more than drugstore but not as much as high-end products. So far, our Sephora only has another Voyager palette, the Caramel Melange one, but it’s only brown shades, so I’m not interested in it. If they bring more palettes from this brand, I will definitely try other palettes from them.

For example, I would love to try the Screen Queen palette or the Eye See palette. I’m very tempted to try their blushes too because they have the Opulence blush palette at Sephora, which contains two blushes and a highlighter….Decisions, decisions… Let’s see what else I’ll buy at my next paycheck or if I decide to save up for a big shopping spree before the holidays.