Stage: Five-Shade Shadow Palette Review


I came across Stage Cosmetics while on holiday last year. It is a makeup brand positioned at around the level of say, MAC (but that's just the aspired brand perception, mind you). They have standalone stores with dark interiors that remind me of those of Make Up Store's but the set-up is more like backstage makeup studios, where one can get made up and/or made over. Stage prefers to call their stores 'retail studios'.

Stage Cosmetics is a Malaysian brand that was launched sometime in 2008. It was created as a premium cosmetics brand by a local company known as Alliance Cosmetics that was then mainly involved in the distributorship of several international (drugstore) personal care brands (Revlon being their biggest score) in several countries in Southeast Asia. It also has an in-house budget-friendly drugstore brand called SilkyGirl. So, you could say that Stage is a huge departure from the norm in Alliance's portfolio.


I bought three items from Stage, one of which was this Five-Shade Shadow Palette. There were altogether four palettes available and I chose the one with the most number of dark-ish shades (as I'm not terribly big on light shades). This one is called Gossip.


The retail price was about the equivalent of €30 but I paid a bit less as it was on promotion. I like the plastic casing only for its scarlet colour and the lovely scrollwork pattern. The accompanying dual-ended brush is, as is usually the case, of not much use.

Ingredients (please click to enlarge)


The five colours according to Stage: Black, Maroon, Dark Green, Cocoa and Beige.

I beg to differ.


The five colours according to Witoxicity: Black, Purple, Grey with silver shimmer, Dark Brown with gold shimmer and White

......and I think you'd be more inclined to believe me (photos are true to colour).

The pigmentation of these eyeshadows is average with the grey and the dark brown scoring the best. I thought the weakest in pigmentation were the black and the purple. Eyeshadow fallout wasn't too bad.

Overall, this is an overpriced palette of average quality. The sales staff did say that Stage products are made in Italy but that's not enough to get me all wide-eyed.

Nevertheless, I like the combination of colours in this palette, so I will be featuring a couple of eye looks with it. This one shown here is coming up soon.


More information:
Stage Cosmetics website

11 comments:

Shivani said...

These colors dont really catch my eye. These aren't something I would wear everyday or even on special occasion ! It is neutral with a pop of purple...hmm... I do like the purple :P Thanks for the review :)

나니 said...

The colors look rather sheer to me - maybe even a bit chalky.. Love the look you did with it tho! The combo of colors is nice : D

Hadia said...

Looks pretty!

Anonymous said...

Love your eye look...will keep on the look out for your eye look posts.

I would have chosen this palette too, the colors are save, subtle and easy to match. Thanks for your review. "KTee"xx

sugar sugar said...

This is a gorgeous palette and the colors are so wearable and pretty. =)

Anonymous said...

Again you are introducing a new brand to me. Wonderful! I like the combo of colors, but it doesn't come cheap. Great review though! Take care Nicole x

Witoxicity said...

@Adorable On Your Vanity
Well, thank goodness for the purple! Colour preference is a personal thing. One man's meat is another man's poison, they say. :D

@나니
Thanks! You're quite right about the chalkiness. As I said, this palette is just of average quality. :)

@Hadia
Thanks! :)

@KTee
You're welcome! Yeah, this is me going back to neutral territory. At least the colours are useful enough. The other palettes had quite a number of light pastel shades, which I don't often go for. :)

@sugar sugar
Thanks! Yup, I'd say these colours are to your taste. :)

@Nicole
Thanks, Nicole! Haha, more brand awareness, more consumerism! That can be a good thing and that can be a bad thing. :P But you're very right. This palette was expensive but when you're on holiday, you'd tend to get carried away. Sigh! :)

Vonvon said...

Seriously, I have seen this brand countless times, they have some really nice palettes (in terms of shades, bright shades for me). But I just am not inclined to purchase anything from it. Some of their mono eyeshadows have very pretty shades, and they do have BOGOF offer from time to time.

I think I have only a mascara from Stage. LOL!

But I think except for the black which looks chalky, the rest of the colors are quite good and pretty too. I'd wear them in combination with brighter colors for sure. :)

Witoxicity said...

@Vonvon
Well, getting those mono shadows during a BOGOF offer would make much better sense then! That black I have there is one sad black. It's just talc with some black. :D I will nevertheless make the best use of this palette now that it's in my possession. :)

Cynthia Z said...

I wish Stage had put together better colors in the one I have too. If not for the red packaging I don't think I would've bought it, but I'm glad I have it :). The colors show up nicely in that look though

♥xx♥

Witoxicity said...

@Cynthia
I believe the one that you got has pastel shades - light and refreshing colours. LOL @ buying because of the red casing: that makes us both suckers for gorgeous packaging. :D