Kat Von D Esperanza Eyeshadow Palette - Review, Photos, Swatches

It was love at first sight.  I spied the Kat Von D Esperanza Eyeshadow Palette on Instagram and, had I been a cartoon, hearts would have been floating above my head.  I went to Sephora.com and bought it, swatch unseen.  I've used other Kat Von D shadows before and I've always found them to be of excellent quality, so it wasn't a huge gamble to buy it without waiting to see how it faired on other beauty blogs.  I'm happy to report Esperanza, Spanish for "hope", is fabulousity.

Esperanza contains eight 0.035 oz shadows in matte, pearl, and high-glitter finishes including one transformative color veil.

• Selena (glitter purple) 
• Dayglo (transformer shade, iridescent white) 
• Galore (pearl peach) 
• Placebo (matte peony pink) 
• Santeria (glitter greenish grey) 
• Archangel (sparkle seafoam green) 
• South (matte beige) 
• Dog Roses (sparkle bronze)

All of the shadows are creamy and blend exceptionally well without fading away into nothingville.  Even Archangel, the pastel mint shade, applies beautifully without being chalky or patchy.  A true feat for a pastel shadow, amiright?!  Tracy at Beauty Reflections, I'm looking at you! ☺

Sunlight / NW20 skin

Flash / NW20 skin

Dayglo, the transformer shade, adds a golden/green duochrome finish to any shade you layer it over.  I swatched it over Archangel (pearl), Placebo (matte), and Santeria (glitter) so you could get an idea of the results across the different finishes.  I think it looks pretty jazzy, especially over Placebo!

Archangel, Dayglo over Archangel / Placebo, Dayglo over Placebo / Santeria, Dayglo over Santeria

The palette design is all kinds of Dia de los Muertos gorgeousness.  It's a cardboard palette, so if you're a die-hard fan of plastic and/or metal packaging, this may not be for you.  The palette contains a full-sized mirror, which makes it even more desirable for the frequent flyers among us, or those who find themselves applying makeup on the go.

I'll be featuring some looks I've put together with this beautiful palette soon for a few face of the day posts, so keep your eyes peeled!  This is a gorgeous palette with fantastically-formulated shadows.  LOVE IT.

My Rating: A+
Cost: $36.00
Where to Buy: Sephora

Just looking at Esperanza makes me think spring is right around the corner!  Though for selfish reasons, I kind of hope it's not because that means everything should be completely planned, booked, set up, and done for our April 26th wedding and GIRRRRRL - it's NOT!  This week I've got to lock down a DJ, a rehearsal dinner place, book a hair consultation (FIND a hair example I like), schedule our engagement shoot, find something to wear for our engagement shoot and rehearsal dinner, finish our wedding website, test out my wedding makeup ideas (including learning to apply false lashes), narrow down the decoration ideas from the 80 thousand on my Pinterest board, and maybe only 15-16 other things.  I need a mimosa and some 70's soft rock, STAT!  Bring on the America.  "Ventura Highway...in the sunshine...where the days are longer, the nights are stronger than moonshine..."  PS: What exactly do they mean by "alligator lizards in the air"?  Anyone?

On an unrelated zen note, check out this gorgeous hawk we saw in the woods off our back porch this weekend!  We looked it up in the bird book my mom gave Jason for his birthday and think it's a Broad-Winged Hawk.  What a beaut.  It just looked around for a long time and then flew away in an amazing whoosh!