I’m so stoked to let you all know that Kokie Cosmetics, an up-and-coming budget brand I discovered last year, is hitting shelves at Rite Aid soon! I’ve used a few of their products in different featured looks, and I was drooling over the Artist Palettes as soon as they announced them on Instagram. 12 pans of what looked like vibrant, bold shades in a pretty rose gold case? Sign me up.
There are three Kokie Cosmetics Artist Palettes currently, which are being sold for $15 on the brand’s website. A little bit high for a drugstore brand, but I’ll admit that they look like prestige palettes. I love the compact which feels sturdy and has a full mirror inside, and the shade selection was pretty unique. Surprisingly, there is not a “neutral” palette in the bunch.
The Utopia palette has shimmers and mattes in sort of “muted” colors, from pinks to blues to purple. They did a pretty good job with this palette in terms of including shades that are clearly highlight, lid and crease shades to add dimension. We have some strong shades in this palette, with mostly great pigmentation. There were a couple duds, however, including Eden (bottom left green shade) and Delight (second shade from the left in top row) which didn’t give me as much pigmentation as I’d hope for. The rest were pretty opaque, especially over primer.
The Treasured Palette has a cool rainbow feel to it, but I’m not really feeling this one. It’s mostly shimmer shades, which has something to do with it. They don’t really blend well together— both the colors and the textures. I really enjoy some of the more unique shades like Garnet (fourth from the left on top row) and Sapphire (bottom right), but for the most part this is sort of a misfit in my collection and it doesn’t jibe well with how I like to do my makeup (with a balance of finishes).
Peachy Queen is definitely the best of the three, in my humble opinion. It is mostly mattes with a few pops of shimmer for the lid and highlight, and leans rosy with warm colors. I found these shades to be the most pigmented, the most blendable and easiest to mix and match into a bunch of different looks.
This is a go-to look I created with Peachy Queen— using Peach Puff as a transition, Regal in my crease, Reign in my outer corner and Peach Dreams on the lid. Bare Peach is in my inner corner and brow bone.
If you were only going to buy one of these, I would no doubt suggest Peachy Queen due to the quality of the shadows. I will say that the mattes are a tad powdery (kickback alert) but are easy to work with. I like Utopia just fine, but because not every shade is a knock out, I think it falls short for $15.
You can find Kokie Cosmetics online at Walmart, though they don’t have these palettes stocked yet. Check your local Rite Aid to see if they have their display up yet!
Have you tried anything from Kokie Cosmetics? What do you think of the Artist Palettes?
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