The Dior Golden Savannah palette brings out the animal in you! (with Copper Brown Serum for good effect)

When I showed you the overview of the Dior Golden Jungle collection for Fall 2012 I told you that my favourite piece of the collection was the Golden Savannah (774) palette. I haven’t changed my mind. It has now slipped comfortably into my eyeshadow palette stash as a keeper. One of the palettes I won’t give up. Its a bit surprising considering that at a first glance, the Golden Savannah palette isn’t very golden nor is it terribly exciting.

Golden Savannah palette and Copper Brown Serum Serum de Rouge lipstick

I was in fact prepared to not fall in love with it, because its a palette of browns and bronze shades that really, if truth be told, looks warm and just like any other neutral palette out there. In fact, I will stick my neck out and say that if you already have a ton of neutral colours in your stash, then you don’t need Golden Savannah.

But face it, you want it don’t you? 😉

Here are the swatches of the palette as I showed you before this, all swatched just 1 time. Its very pigmented!

Swatches L-R: (middle) Sparkly pale gold, (top left) satin tan, (top right) shimmer golden brown, (bottom right) shimmer golden cool toned dark brown, (bottom left) shimmer golden khaki

Barring the sparkly gold colour in the middle of the palette, all colours are shot through with golden shimmer that somehow adds to the lustre of the already strong colours. There is a safe mixture of warm and cool shades which make this one quite friendly to most skin tones. You can easily mix and match the colours depending on your skin tone and that is something that I appreciate, as I can’t wear bronze shades very well.

Barring the middle colour also, all colours are soft to the touch and it is incredibly easy to pick up the colours, whether using fingers or using a brush. A brush will give you better control but if you are in a hurry, it is so easy to just swipe 1 shade all over your lid, draw in liner and call it a day. Each colour can stand alone thanks to the golden shimmer evenly spread throughout the pressed powder and the even colour which makes the colour lively and interesting.

I wore it in a sample eye using quite a few colours.

Uh.. I actually used all the 5 colours in the palette! Dark brown and khaki on the outer lid, bronze on the middle of the lid, tan on the inner part of the lid and the gold blended over to tie the colours together and add some shine.

I loved it! There are many ways to wear this palette and you can glitz it up or tone it down as you wish. I think its one of Dior’s best offerings to date. Quality wise, I found the colours very long lasting which reminded me of the Aurora palette. By the end of the day, the colours had barely faded and looked just as intense as before. Do note that I do not use a lid primer as I’m lucky to not have oily lids and few colours fade on me 🙂 If you use a lid primer I can imagine the colour may be even more intense!

Here’s how the overall look was.

I wore Golden Savannah on eyes with Copper Brown Serum Serum de Rouge lipstick from the same Golden Jungle collection, on lips. The colours go beautifully together, being at once sultry and warm yet mind bogglingly simple. Animal print scarf is optional 😉

In a nutshell

Golden Savannah is a limited edition eyeshadow palette from Dior from their Golden Jungle collection for Fall 2012. The colours are safe and neutral looking browns, khakis and bronzes but the texture is very impressive. Each colour is smooth and fine milled and evenly infused with golden shimmer. Each colour can be worn alone with a nice eyeliner or blended together for some serious smokey eye action. Staying power is very impressive for me, staying on from morning till night with hardly any wear or fading. From the Dior palettes I have, I can safely say that this is one of the best in terms of texture and overall quality.

Pros: Longwearing colours, Pigmented colours, Each colour can be worn alone or blended together, Can be dressed up or down, Can be worn by those with warm or cool tones

Cons: Limited Edition, Pricey

Who will like this: Anyone who wants or likes a neutral flexible eyeshadow palette

Before I do a quick eyeshadow palette comparison, here’s some close ups of the Copper Brown Serum (610) Serum de Rouge lipstick. Serum de Rouge is one of my favourite lipsticks from Dior. The lipsticks are highly moisturizing and come in lovely but safe colours. Whenever I have flaky or dry lips, I always reach for the SdR and after a little while, my lips feel moist and lovely and plump again. My mom has nicked 2 of mine so far! Yes she’s a huge huge fan too 😀

Copper Serum looks terribly brown in the tube. In fact I was worried stiff that it’d look weird on me. I don’t wear brown lipsticks well. However, I clearly needn’t have worried because it is a very lovely neutral-red coloured lipstick on my lips! The lipstick has a bit of golden shine but it isn’t chunky or glittery and just barely noticeable. The colour is a browned rose that worn on my pigmented lips, takes on a redder hue. I love this one simply because it was so unexpected 🙂

Golden Savannah dupes?

A reader LSY asked in the overview post if Golden Savannah was anything like the Couture Golds palette. So I rooted around and picked out 2 other Dior palettes that appeared similar but not quite.

Left-Right: Couture Golds, Golden Savannah, Royal Kaki

Like LSY I too thought off hand that they would be similar. However as you can see, the shades are all rather different. I too thought Royal Kaki might bear a little similarity but it wasn’t. Not quite anyway.

However, there are some shades in each palette that are very close to each other as seen below.

From left to right

• Middle shade in Couture Golds vs Middle shade in Golden Savannah – Couture Golds is a little more bling but otherwise the two shades are very close in colour and tone
• Top Right shade in Couture Golds vs Top Right shade in Golden Savannah – On sight, these 2 colours appear close in shade but when swatched you can see that the one from Couture Golds is a paler gold while te one from Golden Savannah is a slightly warmer bronze
• Bottom Left shade in Golden Savannah vs Top Left shade in Royal Kaki – The shade in Golden Savannah is a deep khaki while in Royal Kaki the shade is a lighter golden khaki

I reckon if you were to compare the colours to the infamous Urban Decay Naked or Naked 2 palettes you will also find possible dupes in the shades available. As with a host of other neutral palettes out there. This palette is a neutral palette, make no mistake and you probably don’t need it if you already have a host of other neutral palettes. The difference of course, will be they aren’t a Dior 😉

Does Golden Savannah catch your eye?  Are these colours you will wear?

I just realised that all 3 palettes I showed you above are my favourite Dior 5 Couleur palettes that I use most often. I just realised also that as I get older, I gravitate more and more towards safe colours like these browns, golds and khakis and play less and less with my blues, greens and purples. Oh dear … 😉

Paris B

Golden Savannah (774) 5 Couleur Eyeshadow Palette Price: RM200 Copper Brown Serum (#610) Serum de Rouge Lipstick Price: RM113 Availability: Dior counters nationwide Limited Edition: Yes, Golden Jungle Fall 2012 collection