Charlotte Tilbury The Dolce Vita eyeshadow palette

A little while ago, a new exclusive brand was added to the beauty Valhalla that is Selfridges in London. The brand? Charlotte Tilbury. Started by MUA Charlotte Tilbury, the entire line focuses on wearable, easy to apply make up that can achieve anything from a day time to a night time look. When I was in London, I of course had to check out the brand and this eyeshadow palette in The Dolce Vita was one of the products I took home that day.

Charlotte Tilbury The Dolce Vita Colour-Coded Eyeshadow palette

The Dolce Vita is a brown toned eyeshadow palette which is neutral but anything but standard. When I looked at these online, my gut told me I would love The Vintage Vamp the most. Once seeing the palettes in real life, I changed my mind and went with The Dolce Vita instead. The reason? The champagne highlight in this is INSANE, plus I like how this is browns, but different. The Dolce Vita retails for 38 pounds from Selfridges.

In other words, this is a high end make up brand, so my expectations were high. The first aspect is the packaging and the box the product comes in. The box itself is a cardboard reddish brown box with rose gold letters. It already looks very sleek and sophisticated. The compact inside has a similar color.

The box provides quite a bit of information. From the obvious color name and brand name to a list of ingredients, a slogan and an easy to use guide of the product. The Charlotte Tilbury philosophy is that the make up should be easy to use. Therefore the four shades in this palette have been laid out the way they are. The color selection was made to enhance your eyes in the best way and there are different shades that coordinate with different eye colors to reach maximum effect. In total this palette comes in 8 different shades.

The compact itself is sleek and very luxurious looking if you ask me. It is plastic but I like the simplicity of the design. Not only that, but to top things off, the compact is sleek, compact and easy to manage. This fits perfectly in my hand and the no fuss design makes this easy for traveling and throwing it in an overnight bag. Once it opens up, the shadows are encased in a shiny rose gold base. The lid closes easily and the entire inside of the lid is covered in a good sized mirror.

What Selfridges says:

Beauty is how you feel inside and it reflects in your eyes. Charlotte Tilbury has de-coded the secrets to iconic, mesmerising eyes with these colour-coded eyeshadow palettes. Each one contains four harmonious colour ways that offer a complete ‘desk to disco’ eye colour wardrobe and an easy to use application ritual that is fail-safe to follow.

Again, the easy to use mantra is what this product leans upon. The eyeshadow palette should give you every look you may wish for in an eyeshadow palette. It can take you from day to night in a heartbeat, while given you plenty of options to play around. You can follow the 4 step guide as provided on the packaging or you can experiment to your heart’s content. Let’s have a look at the shades.

As I mentioned before, this eyeshadow palette features brown shades. They are however, different from your usual browns:

• Shade 1 is a rose toned champagne highlight that packs just the right amount of shimmer that it can be used in a multitude of ways.
• Shade 2 is a reddish medium brown with a hint of golden shimmer
• Shade 3 is a dark chocolate brown with a hint of golden shimmer, but looks almost matte
• Shade 4 is a copper/gold/ bronze pressed glitter

(I am using the numbering from the back of the packaging)

The way these shades are laid out will give you a basic explanation of how to use this palette. The MUA in the store explained it to me as follows:

Start with Shade 1 all over the lid for an easy go-to day look (you can go all the way up to the brow with this if you like). If you want to enhance your eyes a bit more, Shade 2 makes a perfect crease shade. For a heavier, smokey look, Shade 3 can be applied to the Outer V. For an extra pop of the eyes, you use your finger to dab on a bit of Shade 4 on the center of your lid.

Of course you don’t have to do it this way, but I do find that applying the shades in this way makes for a foolproof application every time that is not only easy, but also very pretty.

But what am I talking about, what really matters is whether these shades are worth their money right? Well they are! These are the most buttery soft shades ever. They blend like a dream and the colors go together so well that you really do not have to think about them while applying. The colors can be build up if need be, but they are also easy to apply light handed to create a more subtle look. Below, there are 3 different looks I created with this eyeshadow palette.

Time for swatches! Are you as impressed as I am? I sure hope so, because these swatches are one swipe on a clean arm. That’s right, no use of primers or second dipping involved. You simply get some of this product on your brush and you get this amount of color onto your lid. You can then work with a blending brush to sheer them out or apply more to build up the color. My favorite shade has to be the highlight color. It is the reason why I switched from The Vintage Vamp to The Dolce Vita. I simply liked this highlight shade better.

Look 1: Following the rules

For this first look I used the shadows as directed. This was my first time using the palette as well. I like wearing a good amount of eye make up so to me this full on look using all the steps is how I would wear it most. It makes for a good brown smokey eye. Combined with a neutral blush and lip, it makes for the perfect work look for me. I put the highlight shade all over my lid, from lashline to brow. Shade 2 is in the crease, shade 3 is in the Outer V and I pressed the last shade onto my lid with my finger, for that extra bit of shine.

Look 2: Darkening it up

This second look may look familiar as I posted this as my New Year’s Eve look. I love it so much thought that I decided to include it again here. Here, I used the eyeshadows in the same way as for the first look, but this time they are layered over one the Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon pencils. I also applied a chocolate brown eyeliner pencil to my upper and lower lash line. To darken it up further I used Shade no. 3 to smoke out the pencil liner on my bottom lash line.

Look 3: Base for crazy eyeliner look

For my third Christmas look, I wanted to do something crazy. I used the eyeshadow palette as a base for my crazy coppery glitter winged eyeliner. I applied Shade one all over the lid and in the inner corner. Then I used a blending brush to softly apply shade 2 in my crease to really define that. I also dabbed the glitter onto the center of my lid. I layered this over my MAC paint pot in Painterly.

I hope my conclusion doesn’t come to you as a shock: I absolutely love this eyeshadow palette. I guess the fact that I have not one but three looks to show you I did with it is enough to convince you of that. If not, then there’s the amazing pigmentation, ease of use, great and unique color selection and luxurious feel to hopefully tip the scales in this palette’s favor.

Were you familiar with Charlotte Tilbury make up already?