I am honored to be featured on Deb’s blog HeadphonesThoughts. You can see my guest blog post below and on her blog.

Today I am going to review La Vie Neutral eyeshadow palette by Chella. I have the travel size version, which came as part of a Birchbox. It’s for the first time I heard about Chella as it is not a popular brand in the UK. I would like to try more products from this brand.

 

About the brand

Chella is a brand based in the US, in Southern California. It was founded in 2003 thinking of 21st-century women. The brand is mainly focused on the brows and the eyes, selling products that go from makeup to eyecare. The main idea behind the brand is to create salon-quality products to use at home.

 

About the product

The La Vie Neutral eyeshadow palette embraces warm neutrals, sure to inspire you to live every day to the fullest. With two pearl and two matte water-resistant shades, this palette is designed with the modern, multi-tasking women in mind.

 

Features

• Buildable and blendable

• Longwearing

• Waterproof

• Cruelty-free and vegan

• Parabens free

 

Price and availability

I did online research about product availability and found that in the UK you cannot buy in any physical shop. You can buy the travel size version line on websites like Amazon or eBay and the price is about £20.

In the US this brand is widely available. You can find it in Macy’s, Sephora, Walmart, etc., and you can buy both travel and regular size. The full size costs $45 and the travel size is around $20. Both are in quad format and the unique difference is the quantity of product.

Packaging

The product comes in a square pan holder, with a transparent plastic lid. The four pans in the travel size version are disposed of in a 2×2 layout (the full-size palettes come in 4×1 layout), alternating matte and shimmer shades. The travel size does not include any brush to apply.

The travel size contains 1.1 g of product with an equal amount of each shade. It is a good size to carry on your handbag or to take with you when you go on a trip.

 

Shades and Swatches

As mentioned previously, the palette contains two matte and two shimmer shades. The matte shades are both brown, one darker than the other is. The shimmer shades are very different, one is a copper-gold and the other is a clear pearly shade. The names are Femme, Vitality, Instincts and Dynamic.

The video below shows how the swatches look.

 

My experience

I haven’t heard about Chella before and I was very excited with this palette, as I love to discover new brands and products. It was appealing to me even before I opened it, as it is in neutral brown shades, which are my favourites and keep me in my comfort zone.

The election of shades is good, with the matte shade Instincts to use as a transition shade in the crease and Dynamics to give intensity to your look applied to the outer V or upper lash line. Then it has the shimmer Vitality, ideal for the lid and the pearly Femme which I like to use to illuminate the brow bone and tear duct.

All the shades are highly pigmented in the swatches. I would even say that the shimmer shades are too much pigmented, you should be careful when applying, mainly if you apply with your finger, as they can give too much intensity to a day-to-day look. They feel creamy and soft when you touch them.

 

That high pigmentation is also the first thing you notice when you apply it to your eyes. Some eyeshadows behave differently in the swatches from in the eyes, with a big difference in pigmentation. Nevertheless, this is not the case of this one; they behave on the eyes as they do on the swatches.

One very positive point is that they are buildable. That is an important characteristic for me; I prefer to increase the intensity of the products, as I want or need. I like to start with a small quantity of product top-up layers if I need more intensity.

They also blend really well; as you cannot see any patches after blending for a very short time. That makes this product a very good option to use in the mornings when you are short of time. You have the colours you need and you can blend them quickly, achieving a flawless look. This palette is my first option when I am late and I need a 5 minutes look.

Another important point of this palette is that it doesn’t fade, even not the shimmer shades, something that is not easy to find as most of the shimmer shadows fade to some extent. I use to do my face makeup first, and this palette allows me to do that.

The brand claims that they are waterproof. I have not tried this as it is not characteristic I use to look for in an eyeshadow. I like to remove my makeup before swimming. However, I should say that they last all day in my eyes. I apply them in the morning and when I remove my makeup before going to bed the eyeshadow is still there, in place.

Finally, something very important for me, as I wear contact lenses, they don’t irritate my eyes. I can wear eyeshadow all day and my eyes don’t feel it.

In summary, I like this eyeshadow quad. It has all the important characteristics I look for in an eyeshadow. They are pigmented, blendable and long-lasting. I would like to have the possibility of buying more Chella products in the UK.

 

✔ Pros

• Highly pigmented

• Buildable

• Blendable

• Long-lasting

• Doesn’t irritate my eyes

• Cruelty-free

• Vegan

 

❌ Cons

• Has only four shades

• Not easily available in the UK

 

❓Would I recommend the product?

Yes, I recommend this palette. It has the basic shades for a day-to-day look but you can build them up to get a special occasion look. You can use it on its own or in combination with other eyeshadow palettes. They are easy to apply, which make them a good option for beginners.

I recommend the travel size better than the full-size product. It has enough product for using long time, it is handy to carry when you travel and it is not very expensive.