Have you heard yet of Menagerie Cosmetics? This US indie brand is a super fun, inspiring brand that puts out some great indie eyeshadow palettes. They are a bit difficult to get as they are only available through their official website and you will often have to wait for restocks before you can get your hands on their products. They just released the Pastel Pup palette which is definitely on my makeup wishlist, but today I would like to focus on one of their older palettes: the Feral eyeshadow palette.
Review: Menagerie Cosmetics Feral eyeshadow palette
Menagerie Cosmetics as a brand is not only inspiring because they put out some great color stories. They are also inspiring because every one of their palettes is inspired by nature and they support animal welfare with the proceeds of their product sales. They are cruelty free and make palettes that have packaging that reflects the shades you get inside, which I think is very clever. Their palettes retail for $36 which is not too expensive, but shipping and handling fees are. These palettes are heavy and when you live outside the US they ship these based on weight. So please be aware of that when you decide to buy from them. The webshop is currenlty closed as they are working on a restock which should go live later this month.
What does the Feral palette have to offer?
The Feral palette is an eyeshadow palette that I would define as mainly warm, earthy tones with a pop of color. You don’t get many neutrals per se, but it is also not a rainbow palette. In short, this is a colorful palette that is much more wearable than you might think at first glance. I definitely found it challenging at first: just by looking at this color story I wasn’t sure what to do with these. But then I decided to base three different looks upon the three different shimmers and that’s how the looks in this blog post came to be. In this 12 pan palette you get 9 mattes and 3 shimmers.
What is the color story like?
This color story is quite out there if you are not used to working with color. You get two brown toned neutrals, but everything else is BOOM color. The main basis of this palette is warm toned. You only get a few cool tones at the top of the palette. There are three stunning shimmers in the palette though that I feel tie the palette together. I would prefer more shimmers, as I like a 50/50 split in my palettes, but this still worked very well. I find this color story very inspiring. Now that I have used all the shades in this palette, I feel super pumped to use this in many different ways. I could see myself doing a look with the teal and the purple combined with that pink shimmer. Or how about those neutral browns and that red? Or the teal and the yellow together with some of the greens? In short, there are so many stunning combinations possible in here.
What do these shades swatch like?
When we talk shadow, we have to do swatches! And can you just take a moment to appreciate these shades? These are impactful, super pigmented shadows. They are also quite powdery and the shimmers are in fact a bit fragile. My Wolfling shade came cracked when I opened it, but with a bit of pressing down with my finger it is now absolutely fine. Perhaps not a palette to travel with but with shades this intense, I don’t think you’d want to whip this out for a casual day look on your next city trip.
Where it is at with this Menagerie palette are the mattes. Yes, the shimmers are gorgeous, but those are a bit flaky and definitely need a finger or foiling for them to go on nicely and not make an absolute mess. The mattes however, are smooth, easy to blend and so great for created a soft diffused edge along your eye look. They blend seamlessly into one another and because they are so intense, they don’t need any building up. They just goes on like a dream.
3 Looks // 1 Palette
I mainly bought this palette because it had those stunning greens. I think that green eyeshadow looks very pretty on my complexion and with my eye color so I love wearing them. And I have to say I was immediately impressed. I used Fenris in the crease and Ivy in the outer V. Huechera is all over the lid and that stunning matte yellow is in the lower lash line, but I also used it to blend out the top of my transition and the lower lash line. I love how smokey yet intense this looks. It is fun, bright and colorful but I would still also wear this to work in a heartbeat.
Moving on to the shades that made me nervous most: pinks, red and purple. In the end I really like how this look came out. I did use a black liner to keep this from making me look ill (that is a tip by the way for wearing bright colors to begin with!). I loved how this looks. I put the matte red Mariposa in my outer V and crease and used the pink Wisteria shade to blend it out. I then used the pink shimmer all over the lid, added Wolfling to my inner corner and finished off the look with some matte purple on the lower lash line. Stunning look, very summery and so I wore it with my fruit print ZARA top and matching headband. Just because.
By this look I knew it would be a success. If this palettes can make pinks and red look cute on me, then it can also make teals and neutrals look great. And what a stunning look this is. This has to be my favorite look I did with this palette so far. The entire top row shade leans more cool toned, which means that those four shades go together perfectly. I like how the teal combines with the pink shimmer of Wolfling and the two neutral browns make for a good basic crease.
My final thoughts
The Menagerie Cosmetics Feral palette took me by surprise. This was one of my first forrays into indie makeup and I wasn’t sure how it would pan out. For how much money this cost to ship it over (I also bought the now discontinued Dragon Child palette at the time), I think it is well worth the price point. This palette is unique in my collection and I am itching to go back to it so I can create more looks with it. With a bright palette, I often feel very limited in what it can bring me, but with this one I just keep coming back for more.
Would I recommend the Menagerie Cosmetics Feral eyeshadow palette?
Not necessarily. As much as I love this, I also realize this is not everyone’s cup of tea. It is expensive to get a hold of if you are not in the US too, so that adds another reason why I cannot full-heartedly recommend it to everyone. However, if you are a makeup/ eyeshadow enthusiast like myself and you want to try a great indie formula and you are willing to splash out the dough, then this palette is one you will not regret.
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[…] as the brand would be going into a different direction. The other palette in my order was the Feral palette and I have since bought every single palette the brand does that appeals to me. Why? Because despite […]