A Budget Palette Of The Month - VIVO Baked Shimmer Palette - Chocolate Box

It time for the first post in my new Palette Of The Month series, and the one I've decided to start with is a real budget friendly option from VIVO Cosmetics. The palette from VIVO that's probably had the most hype is the Unprotected palette, one of the many Naked palette dupes, Thanks to Father Christmas I do now own that palette so it will be featuring in this series at some point, but the one I want to talk about today is an often ignored gem - the VIVO Baked Shimmer Palette.

These palette come in 3 different variant each containing a baked blusher and 4 coordinating baked eyeshadows. The one I have is Chocolate Box. The packaging is nothing exciting just plain glossy black with clear sections so you can see the colours.It contains a small mirror, and a sponge applicator, which as you know I'm not a fan off, so I either bin them or use them for paper crafting.

Okay so the packaging is practical but not earth shattering, the shades inside though in my opinion are with shouting about.

First up you get the most gorgeous baked, blusher which weighs in at 2.5g. In the Chocolate Box palette it is a gorgeous shimmery, peachy pink with a bit of coral in it. There is some bronze veining running through it but that doesn't really effect the colour.

and as requested here's a little face shot so hopefully you can get an idea what it looks like on.

You really don't need much, as it's very soft and very pigmented, It looks a bit scary in the pan but this is a great blush and a great inclusion in the palette. I would actually buy this blush on it own at the price of the whole palette. There is no need because alongside the blush you get four 1g baked eyeshadows.

From the name of the palette Chocolate Box you would expect all the colours in the palette to be brown based well you would be wrong, whilst a lot of the shades contain brown tones or veining in their pretty planet like appearance the finished effects are different and maybe not what you would expect. Shade 1 is a coppery, bronze shade with gold and chocolate veining, Shade 2 is a pewter, silvery grey with white, and dark brown veining, Shade 3 is a brown, cream, and gold mix, and Shade 4 is white, silver grey, and pink.

The swatches above give you an idea of just how pigmented these colours are when their used dry, but one of the best things about baked shadows is that you can use them wet without damaging the shadows. I've swatched them wet so you can see what an amazing almost metallic paint effect that you can achieve. Obviously this does make the shadows more crease prone but the effect is worth it.

Now I've noticed a few calls lately for people who actually want to see make up on your actual face so I've done some eyes pics for you. Obviously you can use the colours altogether to create an eye look (there is a diagram on the back of the palette to get you started) but I thought the best thing to do was to show you individual shades both wet and dry - there are lots of pics here so enjoy x

Shade 1 - Dry

Shade 1 - Wet

Shade 2 - Dry 

Shade 2 -Wet

Shade 3 - Dry 

Shade 3 - Wet

Shade 4 -  Dry

Shade 4 - Wet

I'm sorry for the bad lighting in some of these pictures but I hope you can get an idea of just how gorgeous these shadows actually are. The pigmentation and texture is superb, and the price is a steal. Any criticisms? well if you don't like shimmer this palette isn't for you, and maybe Shades 1 and 3 are just a bit too similar but that doesn't bother me at all in fact I prefer shimmer to matte any day. I used this palette at least 3 times a week for the past month and a half and I have to say I love it and I'm so pleased that I bought it, and its a definite inclusion in my upcoming Products I'm Loving Right Now video. If you fancy trying out this Chocolate Box palette or any of the other options VIVO Baked Shimmer Palettes are currently half price and are only £3 each on the VIVO website I'm not sure if this offer is available in Tesco store's but even at £6 this palette in my opinion is a steal. What do you think of this palette ? and do you have any VIVO recommendations? let me know in the comments x