I pulled out four different palettes to play with during February – I used two palettes a lot through the month – the Colourpop Sonic Bloom and the Natasha Denona Love Palettes – and I only managed to use the others a couple of times, so I’m rolling those over to next month, but as I wasn’t drawn to them – I already suspect they will be heading to the declutter pile.
Natasha Denona Love Palette
As it was the month of Valentine’s Day, how could I not include this one? This was originally listed by ND as a limited edition palette but they since decided to make it permanent. I picked this up on a random Selfridges price drop which saw them come in for about half the price as it is normally. This is another palette I’ve always felt guilty about not reviewing and has been on my list for a long time to post about.
The mattes in this palette for the most part are pretty fantastic, there are a few I find a little more difficult to work with and a good primer goes a really good way to help them blend more evenly – the ones I find a little more difficult are Heart, Soul & Trust, they can be prone to being a little patchy and need a little patience to get an even blend. The Metallics in this palette is what really draws me in when I open this up, with my eyes often locked into the shades Giving and Loving. With the case of all 4 out of 5 of the metallic shades (Blind is fine), they swatch beautifully but as soon as they come in contact with a brush they lose some of their pigmentation, they need to be applied wet and in some cases, layered over a few times to get a similar finish to what they are in the pan, alternatively, they can be used as topper shades over mattes.
If I compare this to ND bronze, it’s not quite as easy to apply, the metallics aren’t quite as special and foily, and I was prepared to be going into this review to say, well, it’s not that good, but in fact, I have adored every look I have created with this palette and have had tonnes of compliments every time I’ve worn it. This isn’t just a pink palette as it maybe is first perceived, and I can go quite monochromatic with Red, Pink and Purple looks too.
Packaging Comments: I love this format of this size of ND palette, they are slimline but slick and the few I have of these all stacked up look really pretty together. They do well with this format to get 15 shades in with a decent-sized pan while keeping it perfectly sized for a mid-sized makeup bag. The pink chrome finish on this is super pretty but doesn’t fingerprint easily and end up looking grubby.
Price Point thoughts: Snagging this at the deal that I did (which if I recall correctly, was about £25) It’s a COMPLETE steal, but at full price (£60) it’s maybe a – smidge – on the expensive side compared to other palettes I’ve tried from ND. I’d also maybe say unless you’re pretty advanced with your eyeshadow skills it’s maybe one that will be a little more difficult to work with.
Keep or Declutter: It’s a keep for me, it’s certainly a palette that I think I will use regularly enough to keep and some of the pink mattes in here are beautiful performers. I do also think if I lost all my palettes it would be in the top ten of ones I’d like to replace, but unless you are a pink shadow lover it’s just not essential.
Colourpop Sonic Bloom Palette
I wanted to include this one for the month, swatches of it stalked me permanently on Facebook ads despite no longer being available and is the first makeup product that I have ever decided to take to eBay to find it at the end of January. This was a palette from CP which seemed to have a very limited run late last year and despite the fact they are still pushing it on ads, it wasn’t available for a long time. I didn’t see this reviewed anywhere, but it’s one of the first palettes that spoke to my soul that I’ve seen in a long time from the colourstory to the packaging – so despite the fact I ended up paying a little over the odds for a CP palette, it was one I couldn’t stop thinking about (and hopelessly kept clicking on the ads to see if it was now available!).
I was interested in taking the Colourpop Sonic Bloom away with me for our five-night trip at the end of February as I felt like it was a good size with a lot of variety from interesting colours to neutrals inside, it felt like a good palette to give me the variety this chameleon seeks. Over the past few years, I’ve been no stranger to buying colourful shadows but tend to buy palettes that are very colour chromatic so the variety in this one has felt like a nice change. And, for a hand-sized palette, I’ve felt like I’ve been able to do a huge variety of looks with it.
The mattes in the Colourpop Sonic Bloom palette work beautifully, the two mattes on the top row are a little too similar for my liking and are a little interchangeable on my skin-tone – but both work lovely. I love the addition of the matte warm brown as it works so well with the warm shades. The darkest matte – is really interesting it seems to pull more plum with the purple shades but more neutral with the greens, bronzes and golds.
The metallic shades are good for the price point, I find they work much better applied wet with a setting spray and/or over a glitter glue to help pack more of a punch. They aren’t comparable to a foily effect shadow from PMG – but they are great performers for their price bracket and some of the nicer ones I’ve had from Colourpop. The shade Verbena swatches terribly and is almost more of a topper, but I’ve found shades of the same ilk to perform almost identically – I’ve been able to build it up and wear it as a standalone shade but it did require several layers of careful placement on a wet brush.
Packaging Comments: Visually the Colourpop Sonic Bloom might be the nicest looking packaging that I’ve seen from Colourpop. The Sonic Bloom palette is just stunning with spot glazed raised details over the florals. I have mixed feelings about cardboard packaging it tends to not wear as well in my drawer although more sustainable. I do like that it doesn’t have a mirror as I never use them.
Price Point thoughts: I paid a little more than average for this palette as it was sold out and an eBay purchase. I believe it was $18 when sold and I paid £25 for a brand new palette (which to be honest would have been around the price I would have paid with customs charges). It’s much better than a palette I bought from Colourpop in Autumn which was one of their larger style palettes. For £25 have I tried better? Yes. But for the variety of shades and looks I’ve got out of it I’ve been happy.
Keep or Declutter: Keep! Out of all the palettes I had out month the Colourpop Sonic Bloom is the one I’ve been most sad to put away and one I used the most. It did end up being the palette I took on my first proper holiday with my partner – and will hold special memories for sure now. I think this will end up being a good palette to take with me when I travel as it has so much I can do with it for it’s size, I can really do a lot with it depending on my mood!
Next month I’m really hoping to finish playing with the two palettes I carried over from last month, as well as playing with ABH Subculture as I pulled that out at the start of the month and it reminded me somewhat of the Sonic Bloom Palette and thought it would be interesting to compare it back to back.
What palettes have you been loving lately?
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr
Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com
