Review| Kat Von D Ladybird (True Romance Eyeshadow Palette)

For work, nothing says business and "I didn't spend two hour recreating that super glittery purple ombre duo-chrome smokey eyes before my commute" than matte eyeshadows. It's soft, non-fussy, and mostly flattering. So why do women gravitate toward shimmers and frosts over completely matte shadows? The formulation of matte eyeshadows can easily veer into chalky, dry, and fall-out territory. Ugh.

KVD is a line that seems to target young women heavily tattooed looking to revamp their image into a professional one. Why else the full coverage and super effective foundation/concealer?? (I'm kidding.)

 I've never been scared to try out a new line, especially if they have such pretty eyeshadow palettes. I especially wanted the Ladybird ($36 retail at Sephora) palette for the all-matte texture and variety of colors for complete looks in one place. 

 The color names are listed on the back in case anyone cares. I do enjoy the portability of the palette and see it as very travel friendly since you won't run out of looks entirely. Of course, there are no glittery colors to spice up your crazy night-life, but are you travelling for work or play anyway?

Under natural lighting, you can definitely tell that the palette will give you warm neutral eyes, barely there taupe looks, or even a smokey look if you felt like it. The colors are very versatile leaning cool AND warm. It even comes with a liner in Immortal Love (a dark brown that's not too harsh to tighline with), which is in itself both a great and horrible thing as the pencil tends to fall out of its holder every time I open the palette up. Good thing it's a snap closure on a hardy tin material. 

The swatches below are taken in various conditions of outdoor lighting and made with two swipes each over no primer.

Overall, these shadows have good pigmentation and don't come onto the lids as patchy or dry as the swatches suggest. They are however, mattes, meaning that they will be drier with a little more fall out than other shadows you may be used to. I don't experience fall-out with application, but you can see for yourself that the shadows do create dust even if just sitting in pan. 

They wear for an excellent amount of time with no creasing or fading, especially over a primer. I really enjoy the fact that there's a great variation of color, as many matte palettes also want to be completely neutral. (Read: as boring as it gets...) Of course, the choice of orange and purple may be questionable, but it's exactly what I expected from a line like KVD. 

A lot of these colors also act beautifully as crease blending shades for a large range of skintones, so this palette could also supplement the others that you have. I wouldn't rush to buy this palette over the many offerings on the market, but it's definitely the best matte formulation that I've tried. If you're one to shy away from glitter of any type and don't have crepey or mature lids, this could be a winner for you. 

XO, Be