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Natasha Denona Mini Gold Eyeshadow Palette Review

The Natasha Denona Mini Gold Palette

Ever since I saw the sneak peeks for the Natasha Denona Gold palette, I have been waiting for the mini palette release. I still, to this day, want the full-sized VERY badly. That price tag is the only thing standing in my way.

Anyway, I was so excited to pick up this mini version when it released a few weeks ago. From what I had heard, this was one of Natasha’s best mini palettes to date. I knew (from swatching in-store) that the brand has incredible shimmers but what I was most impressed with in this palette were the two matte shades. They are so well pigmented and the tones bring a lot of depth for two fairly “medium” shades.

The Natasha Denona Mini Gold Palette swatched on-arm

Oh, man. Bia. How pretty is Bia?! It and D’or were the two shades that made me want this palette. Although D’or swatches a bit chunkily it is a strangely wet formula that applies beautifully to the lid. Additionally, Antheia is a beautiful duo-chrome with an incredible pay-off from the get-go and is a more traditional shimmer formula.

Lastly, Lodge is the ideal transition shade for my skin tone. Having it plus three other “winners” (Bia , D’or and Antheia) make this mini palette worth stashing for me. I’m going to utilize this a lot over the coming months to create some classic looks, some smokey as well as some funky– I’m thinking Bia as a structured, winged eyeliner? OH yes.

Here’s a look I did with D’or on the lid, Bia on the outer third with Lodge as the transition. I’ll continue to post looks as I wear ’em!

Even if it has a slightly different color story, it’s hard to pass up this $25 baby palette in place of its $129 counterpart. One day I WILL get that full-sized gold palette, though! What are some of your faves from ND?

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NABLA Cosmetics Secret Palette Review + Swatches

It has been a VERY long time since I have been excited about an eyeshadow palette release AND actually purchased upon debut. The Italian makeup brand NABLA is fairly well-received and once I saw the swatches for this palette I had myself creating a calendar reminder to buy it ASAP. The Secret palette is full of color and allows you to utilize different color stories for endless amounts of looks. This assortment of shades paired with the solid formulas NABLA is known for has made this palette a surefire winner in my book.

Just look at those shades! Each horizontal row complements itself well but I really like the funky combos that the vertical columns make, too.

Let’s get into the most important aspect of this palette— the formula and wearability of each shade.

All shades swatched well on the arm except for Hypersensual and Nablack. To be honest, I’m not sure why Hypersensual performed so lackluster-ly. It’s a seemingly easy shade to make. As for Nablack, I bet we all have better black eyeshadows that we’re loyal to anyway so it’s not a huge deal to me. It still performed just fine on the lashline to create a smokey vibe.

The standout shades in terms of formula were Giulietta, Fantasize and Ghibli. You barely have to even touch these shades to get them to provide pigment and all blend out effortlessly.

As for my sleeper pick, I Promise ended up being REALLY pretty on the lid. It wasn’t a strong swatcher but is a very dimensional shade that works well paired with a crease color blended out as well as on its own across the lid.

Just serving a warning– Rosemary is a stainer. I’m not really that surprised as that has been my experience with pigmented teal shades in the past and it’s not necessarily even a negative thing. But still a thing to mention.

Again, I have not been this excited over a palette release in freaking years. I’m so excited to dive deeper with these shades and get so much more use out of them! If you’re wary of purchasing from an international seller (if you’re from the US, of course) then fret not. NABLA is the real deal and they shipped this palette to me within a week! If you’re as into this as I was then there is absolutely no reason not to pick it up. Enjoy!

If you wanna see some other palettes I have reviewed, check ’em out here.

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PIXI BEAUTY EYE REFLECTIONS PALETTES IN ‘NATURAL BEAUTY’ AND ‘REFLEX LIGHT’

Overview of Pixi Beauty's Eye Reflections eyeshadow palettes in 'Reflex Light' and 'Natural Beauty'

Before we begin, I must state that I received these palettes courtesy of Pixi Beauty. That being said, as always, the below opinions are entirely unbiased and my own!

I’m pretty stoked to write this review because I have truly fallen in love with the Pixi brand in the past couple of years. I swear by their Glow Tonic and the highlights they released with Aspyn Ovard were UNREAL. Soooo smooth! I knew I was in for a treat when I got these palettes in the mail.

They sent me their two newest Eye Reflections eyeshadow palettes in ‘Reflex Light’ and ‘Natural Beauty’. ‘Reflex Light’ is made up entirely of shimmers while ‘Natural Beauty’ has five shimmers and seven mattes. Pixi really knows how to do shimmer powder products and the formula of every shimmer shade here is on point. They blend beautifully, apply well wet and most importantly don’t blend or fall away throughout wear. The matte powders were a new experience for me, though. They are just as good. They blend well and hold pigment through blending and don’t apply patchily. Even the darker shades!

 
Opened-up view of Pixi Beauty's Eye Reflections eyeshadow palette in 'Reflex Light'
The palettes are housed in plastic and one of the shimmers ‘Bronze Gleam’ was slightly damaged when I received it. It has thankfully held up since arriving. I’d say the only downside to these is the packaging!
 
If you’re looking for a palette that you can solely take with you despite the fragile packaging, ‘Natural Beauty’ will be your winner because of the shimmer and matte combo. If you just want to add to your collection and will be applying your makeup at home with other products at hand, having the range of shimmers in ‘Reflex Light’ is a must. They work wonderfully as inner corner highlights and as a pop of light in the center of a halo eye.
 
Below are some on-arm swatches of each palette:
 
On-arm swatches of Pixi Beauty's Eye Reflections eyeshadow palette in 'Reflex Light'

There is one other Eye Reflections palette called ‘Mixed Metals’ that I have yet to try but it leans berry and is mostly shimmers with two or three matte shades. After loving these two palettes, I’m certain I’d like that one as well.

Each Eye Reflections eyeshadow palette is $24 and you can buy Pixi products on their website, www.pixibeauty.com or at Target.

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NYX IN YOUR ELEMENT ‘FIRE’ AND ‘METAL’ PALETTES

Happy Monday! I am here to share some photos and swatches of NYX’s new In Your Element palettes in Fire and Metal. This post will be short and sweet.. here is the outside of the packaging:

and the two palettes side-by-side (SWOON)

Here is Metal post-swatch…

The Metal palette is not good. There are a few shades that are and I was dying over the shade second from the right but overall these guys are glittery, flaky and seal after just one finger pass. No good. This puppy went back to Ulta!

HOWEVER

The Fire palette is sooooooo gooooooooooooooooood. If you’re going to get some of these palettes, the Fire palette needs to be one. The first yellow shimmer (far right) is a bit lacking and the dark shade four from the left isn’t as exciting as I expected it would be but the rest are buttery and beautiful.

I’m also interested in the Earth palette but it seemed too similar to Fire to make sense enough for me to purchase it. I bought these two palettes when Ulta was having a 30% off NYX sale so the price tags weren’t too out of bounds for my wallet!

KYLIE COSMETICS ROYAL PEACH PALETTE + 2 LOOKS

Well, well, well…
Here we go again with another Kylie product. That doesn’t suck. I saw the promo pictures for this product and felt like I could really do some fun things with this palette and it is comprised of shades that I don’t feel like I already own (for the most part…). It was a recipe for success! I managed to snag this last week whilst in the middle of a manicure. It’s okay. My nail technician knows of Kylie and her cosmetic brand and was just as excited as I was that I was able to purchase it.
This is the Royal Peach palette. It was $45 and has 12 shades in it. This palette also comes with a very decent blending brush.
I love the elongated layout of this palette and the mega-mirror. But the best part? The shadows are magnetized loosely in the palette meaning they can easily come out and be put into a Z Palette. My palette isn’t even put together anymore!
There are lots of reddish peach shades in the Royal Peach palette. Thankfully, there are also some solid transition shades. ‘Sorbet’ is a pale orange, very similar to Makeup Geek’s ‘Peach Smoothie’ and ‘Sandy’ is a warm mid-toned tan very similar to Urban Decay’s ‘Beware’. The poppy shades in this palette are ‘Royal’ a matte, bright blue, ‘Mojito’, a metallic yellow-green and ‘North Star’ which is a metallic lilac that is very close to Anastasia Beverly Hill’s ‘Macaroon’. There’s enough excitement in this shade range to create many different looks without getting bored.
Here are two looks that I’ve created with (almost) all of the shades in the Royal Peach Palette.

Sorbet and Sandy thru the crease with Mojito on the inner/lid — Duke and Crush on the lower lash line blended out with Cinnamon

‘Sorbet’ and ‘Crush’ on the crease and outer third, ‘Seashell’ on the center with ‘Queen Bee’ on the inner third — ‘Duchess’ on the lower lashline and winged on the upper lash // had to pair this look with the @makeupforeverofficial Starlit Powder in ’02’ on the inner corner

In all, I am very pleased with this! Kylie’s products are becoming very trustworthy at this point and I can’t wait to see what sector of makeup she journeys into next.

KAT VON D ALCHEMIST PALETTE

I recently purchased the Kat von D Alchemist Holographic Palette from Sephora. What was one released for VIBs only was eventually released to the public and is now sold out on the Sephora website (SORRY!!!)
After reading lots and lots of comments, I decided to take the plunge. The slight drama around this palette was that it was wildly similar to Anastasia’s Moonchild palette (which I do not own) and many people did not feel it necessary to own both. Although Kat has released word that she has been working on the formula for this palette for seven years, many felt it was a direct rip-off of ABH.
The other popular complaint was that the pans were too small. While they are small (average eyeshadow pan size), I will never make my way through a full shade. Anastasia’s pans are so big and unrealistic that I didn’t mind KVD’s being smaller.
As for the actual product, compared to Moonchild, this KVD product is smoother and a better all-around product. That is what ultimately led me to buy it.

The packaging is great. I’m not too big on packaging and I will most likely depot these from the packaging eventually but it is very pretty. The white triangular palette has a slight holo reflect on the front and although it looks like plastic in photos, the body of the palette is paper-based. Think back to the original Naked palette to understand what I mean.

There were more complaints about the pans being round instead of triangular and while triangular pans would be soooooo cool, round pans work for me since again, I will eventually depot these.

The Alchemist palette is a buttery, smooth collection of four shades that are meant to be used as highlighters, eyeshadows, lip toppers and anything else you can think up for them. Without killing the “vs. Moonchild” topic, I think this palette took the four best shades from ABH, perfected them and released them.

I can’t wait to create endless looks with these shades and have already thrown blue saphyre on as a highlight twice since purchasing (check insta— @beautymunson— to see!)

MY (COMPLETED) Z PALETTE

I am so excited to share with you all my very first (completed) Z Palette!!!!
I recently had been getting tired of having so many palettes around and having to choose which was the “most important” when traveling and such. I decided to depot and combine my shadows into my Large Z Palette so I could have everything together.
Unfortunately, I own many Urban Decay shadows. I have learned the hard way that UD shadows aren’t designed for depotting and placing into a separate palette. I had a UD-specific palette but it only held six shadows. Most of them have survived thus far but my ‘Blackout’ lost a chunk out of it the day after I put it in and that was quiiiiiiiite messy.. Urban Decay customer service confirmed that I was not supposed to depot them (oops) but again, so far so good after that incident.
Because I am excessively Type A, I had a photoshop document going as I was filling in the palette to keep track of which shadows are which. You can find it underneath the below photo of the palette:

ABH = Anastasia Beverly Hills
UD = Urban Decay
I organized the shadows in a way that made the most sense to me. Cooler Earth tones on the top, warm sunny shades under that followed by the reds, purples and pinks and lastly the neutrals.
Two of my shadows are Makeup Geek pigments that I put into an eyeshadow pan because I was never, ever, ever, EVER going to use them as a pigment. Pigments are far too messy and difficult to work with but since putting them in my palette, I have used the (now pressed) pigments multiple times.
My favorite shadows in my collection are Makeup Geek ‘Chickadee’, Makeup Geek ‘Magic Act’, Urban Decay ‘Blackout’ and Urban Decay ‘Beware’. Not interestingly, they’re all warm shades. I’ve had to force myself to buy more cool-toned shadows in an effort to broaden my eyeshadow horizons.

In another no-brainer, I am the most pleased with all of my Makeup Geek shadows. They have amazing foiled shades and neutrals that blend beautifully.
Below are on-arm swatches that have no primer underneath or anything. Just my bare arm and my beautiful shadows!!!!

Since this post, I have gotten another Z Palette and am separating my shadows by warm and cool tones. Clearly, my cool toned palette is a bit lacking at the moment. Let me know what your recommendations are!

TARTE AMAZONIAN CLAY BLUSH PALETTE COLOR WHEEL

Hi again!!

I am so excited to share with you Tarte’s new limited edition blush palette wheel. I picked this up from Sephora for only $44!!!!! SO cheap. I decided to start shopping around for a good blush palette this past week because I have been wanting to fill in the gaps in my makeup collection. Blush is one of the few things that I haven’t dove into fully and I wanted a palette with ranging shades and finishes. This palette was IT. Between these 10 shades there are mattes, lustres and two highlighters.

Although pretty, the packaging is not my favorite. I like the double-sided wheel thing but I’m not into the purple front. But I’m not big on packaging anyway so it’s not a huge deal for me.

Do you see how beautifully these swatch? I am just in awe. I was totally telling myself that I was going to return this before I even received it in the mail because I thought that I was wasting my money on something that wouldn’t be very good quality. For the record, I am no longer going to return it.

Here are the shades swatched on my arm with the names alongside. My photo two above shows the shades a little more true, so look there. Then check out the one with the names.

From Tarte’s website, here are the kinds of colors we’re dealing with:

  • Mod is a peach coral
  • Deco is a poppy pink
  • Surreal is a hot pink
  • Culture is a coral shimmer (so pretty. coral with gold is my favorite)
  • Idol is a nude shimmer
  • Icon is a dusty rose
  • Montage is a pink mauve
  • Ironic is a dusty rose
  • Crafty barely shows up on my arm because it’s a very light, pale pink shimmer
  • and Concept is a pink nude

I can’t get over how pigmented these are and I’m really excited to branch out from my MAC ‘Melba’ blush that I pair with every single look that I wear. If you’re in need of a large variety of cheek shades, DEFINITELY pick this palette up.