Thursday 4 August 2016

So; did my Sephora order arrive safely?

Today I'm concluding my Kat Von D Serpentina palette saga. I mentioned here that I wanted the palette, but probably wasn't going to bother ordering it from the Sephora website, as the last eyeshadow palette I ordered through them arrived to me badly damaged and getting a refund (they won't order replacement products for overseas customers) was a hassle.

Then I posted here that Kat herself has said that stock for the palette is so low that it's expected to sell out in the next few weeks [it was only released a couple of weeks ago], so of course I panicked and ended up ordering one...


Well my order has just arrived, so it's time to see if my previous problem was was a one-off, or if I'm in for more headaches with the Sephora customer service team.



Ta-da; my palette arrived in perfect condition. Well, near-perfect condition; the back of the palette had a small smudge of [what looks to be] the red shadow, so there was a minute where I thought I'd open it and find the red shadow to be smashed.

As the palette has proved to be so popular that it will soon sell out, I wanted to share swatches and my first impressions right away, so that people who are considering buying it can see what they would be getting, before it sells out.


These are my first impressions of the shadow quality, not a complete review:

The Serpentina palette has such unique bold and colours; the only other eyeshadow palette I've seen which contains colours that are similar is a $100 Visart one on the Sephora site (and they are only similar, not the same). The palette contains eight jewel-toned eyeshadow pans in matte, glitter and shimmery finishes, plus one tub of loose pigment -  Bloodmilk (matte brick red), Medusa (bronze shimmer), Ankh (matte black with gold glitter), Queen (rust glitter), Hieroglyph (copper shimmer), Nile (ocean blue shimmer), Scarab (emerald shimmer), Venom (matte royal purple), Prophet (fool's gold loose pigment). 

The shadows all swatched perfectly; they felt silky smooth, have fantastic pigmentation, easy to blend & build up with little to no fallout, and there is no heavy shimmer/glitter that doesn't adhere to skin and goes everywhere. Ankh did feel a bit drier compared to the others, but I didn't had any problems with it's performance in my swatch.

The only drawback for this palette is that the shades are all so intense that I wouldn't class Serpentina as a one-stop 'complete' look in one palette, at least not for my comfort levels; I will have to use another palette alongside this one to incorporate a few neutral shadows to prevent me from feeling that the bold Serpentina shades are wearing me, rather than me wearing them. The other palettes I have [Monach, Crysallis and Innersteller] all have three more neutral base shades above the shadow pans, and I think that the Serpentina palette would have been closer to being perfect if it had the same format.


Order the palette here for $45 [about £35]. International shipping is $16 [about £12].

Remember that in the US tax is added separately to the cost of the item, unlike in the UK where it is included in the price (so over here the palette would be around £47 to buy).



Speed of international shipping; I placed my Sephora order last Friday, received shipping confirmation (from New York) on Tuesday, and received my parcel (in England) two hours ago.


Kat's demo looks, using the shadows from this palette
Kat is wearing the loose pigment dusted over her lipstick. It looks stunning. I'll have to try that...

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