So I bought a Natasha Denona palette and have some thoughts to share!
- Neah Ivanna
- Jul 14, 2020
- 4 min read
Natasha Denona is a well known superstar makeup artist and graced Sephora with her product releases. I know I was beyond excited to see a practicing Makeup artist unveil her product secrets to the world. But then I saw that there were eyeshadows for $239 and a smaller palette price at $129 I thought "why?' I mean don't get me wrong, I'm sure other afecionados didn't have a problem splurging on the palette but compared to her competitors she was ridiculously overpriced. If were talking luxury makeup, Dior's eyeshadows range from $49-62 and Armani 's single shadows were $30 so why would Denona price her products so high?
When asked about her high prices in an interview for The Cut Denona stated,
"We use the best materials in the world, I never touch cheap ingredients. For example, all eye shadows have talc in them. But a high-quality talc is so different than a low-quality one. You can feel it. A high-quality one is much smoother. The pigment moves better. It doesn’t stop or stick to the skin. It spreads better, too."
Her price point and subtle bragging encouraged me to get one. I purchased the Natasha Denona Neutral palette (as seen below) and felt that the only way one can truly test this palette is by doing a high glam look.
Eyeshadow Presentation
I'm normally a color queen so I was skeptical about this palette and not one bit impressed. Then I thought of giving it a second chance because it was so highly recommended. I decided to do a a buildable look with multiple steps to see how long the product would holdup and how it feels on the eye. It is a rather soft palette because of all the shades and has a lot of matte and pearlescent finishes. I was surprised to find two metallics that are the same color but again have a different undertone (one cool and the other warm). There wasn't enough variation like the shades: buff, tone freckle and even prairie have a slight undertone but no true color.differentiation. The color presentation was underwhelming I did expect a balance between amber tones and some greys. I felt that it was a little off but then again I think Denona thought of what would sell or who would wear so much grey.
Shadow blending
To my surprise the product was super smooth and rich. It packed on shadow rather easily. I did wish the shade "pasha" was a true blood red (it looks more red in-person) because it did take a lot more strokes to get the desired color. In the video above, I added a gel liner crease cut first and then layered it with "pasha." That seemed to be the only way to get the desired effect.
The blending happened with a simple flick of the wrist and the colors did play well together. But I did feel like the warm amber tones get easily overpowered and I think it's because she made he shadows so soft so it's easy to move. Unlike other palettes once the colors were blurred out, it was super easy to add the color I was missing. One can easily pack on color even to the smallest brush.
Shadow density
I loved the pigmented colors especially the color "tusk" because bone colors tend to fall flat in palettes. Like you can't pick up the desired amount or the shade isn't true to pan. This was actually impressive so here's where I didn't mind the eyeshadow being super soft. She did create this wonderful formula that's super soft yet buildable, so adding more color isn't a total nuisance.
The colors are long-lasting and hold up well for neutrals. I feel like it's rare to see a functioning neutral palette that can give some glam looks. They're normally super dry and patchy whereas this palette can do a variety of looks.
End result
This was a slick palette. Although I had my critiques it's something new. Her formula is impressive and does cut down on the amount of product you'd normally add. But if you're used to doing bold looks and add ng more than the norm this is a great break from that.
I also still wanted to add glitter to see how it'd pair with different finishes and it held up nicely. The mattes didn't fold or give a weird crumbly eye look which was wonderful. My eyelids didn't feel weighted with the added glitter on top of the other shades and it held up. the color payout didn't nudge the longer I stayed made up. Also,I can also say that adding the shades on the lower lash line DID NOT irritate my eye. This was major because I used cooler tones to smoke it out and I didn't feel the need to scratch the outer corner of my eye.
Here's a video so show some movement and give more of an accurate portrayal. Until next Tuesday Babes and Thank you for reading!
Works cited
Hou, Kathleen. “Why Is This Cult-Favorite Eye-Shadow Palette So Expensive?” The Cut, The Cut, 16 Nov. 2018, www.thecut.com/2018/11/interview-makeup-artist-natasha-denona-on-eye-shadow.html.
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