Review: Kat Von D Beauty Eyeshadow Palette ‘Serpentina’

I think Kat Von D Beauty’s ‘Serpentina’ palette is one of those products that doesn’t really need a wordy review. It really requires a thousand pictures to really grasp the true beauty of a palette that screams intentional design. I mean every inch of the palette has been thoroughly thought through (tongue twister!). The gold border around the base is an amazing touch, and the cover and base of the palette are pure artwork. I almost want to display it on my vanity just so I can admire the construction everyday. But I hesitate for a few reasons.

My main grievances with this palette are the same things I’m praising. There is so much detail all over the palette, which I love, but lots of detail requires a lot of space to add all the details making this palette really large for only 9 shadows. It’s longer than a large Z Palette and made of very thick cardboard that’s, frankly, pretty bulky. Also, with all the detail, I would have expected the cardboard well that the single pigment sits in to have some detail under it, but it’s just an ugly grey cardboard color. Kind of disappointing considering all the lovely design on the outside!

I’ve seen a few complaints on Instagram about the lack of transition shades, but that doesn’t bother me. This palette wasn’t created to be a one-stop-shop palette, it’s Egyptian-themed for goodness sake! It’s supposed to have rich, deep shades reminiscent of the heavy Arabic-inspired makeup we see today.  This is not a travel palette so it’s not like you need to grab it and go. Use this palette when you have time to sit at home and beat your face! That way, you will have access to your whole makeup collection and you can grab all the transition shades your heart desires from other palettes/shadow singles.

I have to say the first thing that drew me to this palette was the shade ‘Bloodmilk’. I have a crazy obsession with rust shadow shades because they work as excellent transition shades for my skintone (especially when I’m tan, which is now) so this shade is an automatic winner in my book. That particular shade is one of only two mattes and I will probably kill that one first.
A few other favorites that I thought were unique to my collection were ‘Hieroglyph’, ‘Nile’, and ‘Scarab’. I love rich metallic shades and these just make me happy! Also the swatches of these just solidified my love and I’m using ‘Nile’ this week in a smokey blue eye I plan to do for an event over the weekend.

‘Prophet’, the sole single shadow, was confusing to me. I love the shade, but the little pot felt random to me. Also had a difficult time opening it up so I had to pop it out of the packaging and that’s how I found out there was ugly grey cardboard underneath. The shade is gorgeous, I swatched it below using a little bit on Inglot Duraline to help it stay in place. Sidenote: I highly recommend Duraline as a mixing medium for EVERYTHING.

As always, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below! Hope my comments helped you guys decide if this was a necessary purchase or not.