bailey bee

beauty, home and lifestyle blog

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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My 2019 Sephora VIB Sale Picks pt. 2

My Sephora VIB sale 2019 picks

I did a round-up of my favorite products from Sephora when they had their last sale in May. Although my favorites haven’t much changed, I wanted to shoot this your way with a couple of updates as the fall VIB Sale begins NEXT WEEK (Monday for VIB Rouge, Tuesday for VIB and Beauty Insiders)

My two additions to my round-up are NARS lipsticks and Drunk Elephant’s Virgin Marula Luxury Facial Oil. As for the rest of the products, let me do a bit of quoting from my last post…

I rarely wear foundation but when I do, it is the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Foundation. I wear 120 but really am more likely a match for 110. This is a matte, semi-sheer coverage foundation that dries down quickly and stays put throughout the day. This works wonders for my combination skin and I love that my freckles can still shine through when I’m wearing this.


In the same vein of Fenty, my favorite eyeliner currently is the Fenty Beauty Flyliner. It is a deep, dark black that doesn’t flake off and the pointed tip of the applicator actually stays pointy (unlike my old favorite, the Stila Stay All Day liquid liner). It continues to be super saturated and applies beautifully even with a bit of age.


The YSL Touche Eclat All-Over Brightening pen is a very bougie option, I understand, but it is incredible. This pen provides the right amount of coverage while not making the application area look cakey at ALL. I use this under the eyes to cover darkness, around the nose to cover redness and on blemishes as well. I feel really fancy when I click the bottom of the pen to dispense the product. It’s worth the splurge for that alone..
 heh. But really, you have 15% off, why not?!


I have begun using the Anastasia Beverly Hills clear brow gel for things other than my eyebrows. This stuff is liquid concrete for your brows and lately I have been utilizing it as a hardcore gel for my baby hairs whenever I wear a power pony. It slicks them back and they do. not. move. Love this stuff 4ever.


If you aren’t a gloss person, you’ll enjoy the Bite Beauty French Press lip glosses because they are the perfect formula for us “non-glossers”. The formula is really slick and plush so you won’t feel like your hair is getting stuck all over your lips. The French Press range has a great nude for every skin tone, too. It’s hard to go wrong with a nude gloss.


Next up is my tried and true Tarte Amazonian Clay highlighter in ‘Exposed’. This is the ideal powder highlight because it contains no base pigment and gives a perfectly natural, glossy glow. I use this every single time that I do my makeup and somehow I haven’t hit pan. Talk about a good value!


The mascara that unseated my favorite of MANY years (the Maybelline Colossal) is the Hourglass Caution mascara. This stuff is a rich, dark black and separates the lashes while simultaneously lengthening. It doesn’t flake off during the day but comes off easily with remover at night.

As for the newbies,

NARS recently reformulated their lipsticks and there really is no truer OG lipstick than a NARS lipstick. The formulas are comfortable and the pigment is never lacking. May I suggest Dolce Vita? It’s been my fave for years.

Also, Drunk Elephant’s Virgin Marula Oil has been my skin savior lately. It was briefly touched on in my recent Drunk Elephant post. I got a facial a couple of weeks ago and the esthetician told me my skin was very dehydrated. This was and is shocking to me because I am an avid moisturizer! She told me to try out a facial oil as it would penetrate deeper into the skin and provide more hydration than your typical facial moisturizer. I like to think that adding this heightened level of moisture has allowed my breakout to dissipate.

Let me know below what you’re thinking of picking up during the VIB Sale! I’m focusing on the more expensive things on my wishlist that can only be found at Sephora. Ulta has way, way better coupons on a much more frequent schedule so buying the other, cheaper things I want down the road shouldn’t be a problem. I’m trying to be a responsible shopper!

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Battle of the Purple Eyeshadows

Makeup Geek Curfew and ColourPop Sleeper eyeshadows

Purple is a fun color to wear on the eyes because it can provide depth without deepening a look too dramatically. Purple is also supposed to be the “best” eyeshadow color to pair with my green eyes. It was because of that reason that I, once upon a time, purchased Makeup Geek’s ‘Curfew’ eyeshadow single.

Since that “once upon a time” I have hardly used ‘Curfew’ as it didn’t lend itself enough to my looks that needed that “depth but not deepening” effect. Curfew is fairly light and doesn’t pack much of a punch.

on-arm swatches of Makeup Geek Curfew and ColourPop Sleeper eyeshadows

I didn’t realize what I was missing out on until I decided to purchase ColourPop’s pressed pigment in ‘Sleeper’. Just LOOK at the difference between the two products! Although Sleeper has a leg up on Curfew as it is a pigment and thus, far more pigmented, the two are pressed into the same component and are used the exact same way. It is because of this that I judge them equally as well!

So, in the hunt for the best purple eyeshadow, I found ‘Sleeper’. If you’re looking for a bomb pop of color that isn’t all that scary, I highly recommend this shade of purp. I have a handful of other hues of purple that you can check out in my eyeshadow collection, too.

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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