Discovering the cat's meow? [Review for The Cat's Pajamas eyeshadow palette by Laura Lee Los Angeles]

The Cat's Pajamas [Southern saying meaning that something is awesome - same as bee's knees] eyeshadow palette is something that I was interested in because of all the drama around it and the brand founder (a YouTube 'influencer') herself; I wanted the opportunity to decide for myself what I thought, so when UK stockist Beauty Bay emailed people a 24-hour-only 50% off code for this palette a little while ago, I jumped on it. 

I think I've had the palette for close to two months now - in any case, it's definitely been over a month - so I now feel as though I've been wearing the shadows enough to have been able to provide valid thoughts and opinions on it. So with that being said, read on for my verdict...

Okie Dokie [matte off white], Scatter Brain [pale gold shimmer], Bomb Diggity [matte caramel], Cray Cray [matte deep burnt orange], Redonkulus [copper shimmer]

Quirky [shimmering deep purple], Kooky [matte berry], In One Ear [shimmering burgundy], Out The Other [shimmering plum], Odd Ball [sparkle matte black].

Every shade (except for Odd Ball) really impressed me when I switched them upon getting my palette; very pretty shades and rich pigmentation. And my first good impressions carried through to applying them to my eyes, as both the matte and shimmer formulas are buttery smooth and very easy to blend.

Laura Lee has a site and sells the palette there for $40.

You can only really use the white shade Okie Dokie as a brow and inner corner highlight; I've found that it has a sheer formula & is a bit powdery and doesn't build up evenly on the lid, which is  pretty common for white powder shades. This issue didn't strike me as a huge deal as Id only ever use a white shadow as a highlight or mixer shade, for which uses it's lovely.

The formula for the shade Oddball is the only shade I had a bit of trouble with, as the pigmentation isn't great and it is a bit patchy & harder to blend compared with the other shadows [see my sloppy demo pic with the shade]. Plus it is sprinkled with silver sparkle, but the sparkle hardly shows up once the shadow has been applied; personally I'm pleased because I'm not huge on glitter, but why bother putting some in the formula if it won't be visible once applied?

As I said earlier, both the appearance and formulas for the other eight shades are all great to me, however my biggest issue with the palette ended up being that the shade selections are a bit underwhelming; Bomb Diggity and Cray Cray are similar once applied and blended, as are Scatter Brain and Redonkulas, as well as Quirky and Out The Other. You can see the difference in shade depths a bit individually, but when used in looks they do look similar and muddy together, as seen in my demo looks.

The quality of the shadows [except the white & black shades] is great and the price-per-gram-of-product is great too, so I'm certainly not mad at the palette. However I do think the colour selection is a let-down; individually I love the shades included, but when I began to use the palette I found that there actually isn't a lot of variety in looks I could do with the palette - there are only two clearly different looks you can achieve [neutral or purple]. 

For the price I paid I'm quite happy with Cat's Pajamas; If I went through my eyeshadow collection I'd be able to dupe all of the shades,  but it is very convenient to have my favourite shades/finishes of shadows all together in one palette, so I don't need to spend time rooting through various palettes when I'm short on time/feeling lazy, or when I'm travelling somewhere and want to take makeup with me. If you like the colours then I'd recommend waiting for sales or money-off codes, as the shadow quality is mostly nice and is worth owning. However I don't think the palette is worth the full RRP, as three of the eight good-quality shades are just slightly deeper versions of the others, so I think that the limited amount of looks you can achieve [using this palette only] ultimately make's Cat's Pajamas quite a boring palette, despite me loving the shades in it individually. 

You can buy the Cat's Pajamas palette on Beauty Bay for £35.

Sign up to emails from the site, as they regularly send out codes and hold flash-sales on selected products.

I wouldn't advise that purchase method for international customers, as the international shipping and customs charges majorly bump the price up.