My Curated Spring Succulent Palette: Overview and Swatches

Hello hello!

If you've ever given the "makeup organization" tag in my blog a gander, you'll see several posts dedicated to curated/themed palettes that I created out of my single collection. I stopped doing this, to my unhappiness, because I just wasn't being inspired. It's not that the color combinations I chose were not inspiring, it's that they were being housed in utilitarian, plain black palettes. After I gave up on that, my z-palettes were organized into three categories: shimmers, neutral mattes, and "fun" mattes. This was working for me for a while, until I got sick of it.

So enter Colourpop. I thought the palette I ordered from them would be larger, which was my one disappointment. Other than that though, I unintentionally was very much inspired by the design of the palette, and decided to see if I could fit some of my singles into it to build a palette around the design.

Here are my results:

I think this looks so pretty! And I like the balance of warm and cool. We'll go into each shade, and- if I feel like it- why I chose it for the palette. Swatches for each shade, in order of the palette, can be found below. 

1. Clionadh, Strawberry Mousse. While this pink is very light and is hard to see on my skin tone, I do think it looks pretty when built up over primer. It is also useful for blending out the edges of pink and purple looks. 

2. Clionadh, Maize. This is a cooler-toned yellow, which I appreciate it. Overall it's just a happy, vibrant, easy to blend yellow. 

3. Colourpop, Howlin'. This is a matte light warm lilac. I find this shadow really easy to work with. 

4. Nabla, Lotus. This is the one shadow that makes me think I do NOT need the Linda Hallberg Spectral palette. This matte is the perfect purple-pink for me and I love it. 

5. Colourpop, Lay Low. I bought this last summer, but this shade is still going strong. The quality of this shadow is excellent, but I didn't get much use out of it so far, which I don't get. 

6. Dose of Colors, Blueberry Swirl. From my old Eyes Cream palette, which feels like eons ago. It doesn't swatch all that great, but it is a useful muted cool-toned mauve to have around. 

7. BH Cosmetics Neon Chartreuse, depotted from the Back to Brazil palette. One of the few shades that stood out to me, quality wise,  from that palette. 

8. Looxi Green Apple, a warm light yellow-green. 

9. Coastal Scents, Tangelo Tint. 

10. Looxi, Pumpkin Spice Life. 

11. Coloured Raine, Princess. One of my favorite neutral pinks. 

12. Clionadh, Toasted. A very warm brown matte. 

13. Dose of Colors, a cool-toned brown from the Eyes Cream Palette. 

14. Colourpop, Team Captain. This shade is very soft. I barely use it, which I am trying to change. 

15. Sydney Grace, Tiara. A stunning metallic taupe. My description barely addresses how complex and multidimensional this shade is- it can be paired with a multitude of mattes. 

16. CP, On a Whimsy. A soft, pigmented, cool-toned true silver. A stunner. 

17. Looxi, Charmed. A duochromatic highlighter/topper. Excellent for layering or inner corner.

18. Nabla, Calypso. I have reviewed this on my blog before, check out my post here. 

19. Sydney Grace, Officer. This blurple-toned dark grey matte is so effortless and easy to work with and pair with a whole host of colors. 

20. Nabla, City Wolf. A warm grey matte. I've used this a lot and like it. 

21. Sydney Grace, Moon Landing. A brown-taupe matte, also very blendable and surprisingly unique.

22. Sydney Grace, a very interesting and frosty champagne duochrome with a lilac base. I love wearing this on easy, one-shadow days. 

23. Sydney Grace Siren. A blue-toned pink shimmer. Also complex, beautiful, gorgeous shade. Can't be more effusive. 

24. Looxi, Bohemian. A warmer rose-gold that is very intense. I put this in for another pink option, just warmer. 

Please click on the pics for a better view!

In many ways, this palette feels like a culmination of all the collecting I've been doing for that last couple of months, and I really feel I have something that is both inspiring and "me." If it were not for the cool packaging of Colourpop's palette, I don't know if this would ever come to fruition.  I look forward to continue using it!

As always, thanks for reading!

My Small Nabla Collection and Swatches

Good evening!

I don't have much in the way of new product reviews, but I do want to talk about some eyeshadows in my collection from the Italian company, Nabla. Though shipping is a bit pricey, packages from Nabla arrive pretty quickly for me, within three days, which is really impressive.

Here is what I have in the way of eyeshadows. Prices differs, but each pan contains 2.5 g of product.

• Lotus: A cool-toned purple-pink, matte. Perfect if you have a hankering for the vibe of the recently released CP It's My Pleasure Palette, but you don't want to get the whole palette. This matte is quite soft, but not wet feeling, and blends very easily. 7.90 euros. 
• City Wolf: A cool-toned matte grey. Not as soft as Lotus, but also easy to work with. 6.50 euros.
• Calypso: This is my personal version of a purple shimmer- not too cool and not too warm.  7.90 euros. 
• Millennium: An iridescent with a super sheer, slightly grey base, and red-pink shift. This is best used as a face power for an iridescent pink shine. It doesn't get too glimmery and it does not show texture. I do not use this as an eyeshadow. 6.50 euros. 

On to the swatches!

From left to right is Millennium, Lotus, City Wolf, and Calypso. 

I also have some swatches without my newest shade, Lotus:

From top to bottom, Millennium, Calypso, and City Wolf.

 I love all of these shadows. The mattes are smooth but not too soft, and build up and blend really nicely. The shimmers aren't chunky, but very pretty.

My last item from Nabla is my newest purchase, and one that I am very happy with. I bought it on the recommendation of one of my favorite beauty bloggers, Killer Colours (aka Viola Holmgren). She had recommended the Glow Trip Highlighter in the shade Divinizer. 

Divinizer contains 6.5 g of product and cost 18 euros, or $23.00. 

Aside from the beautiful design of the product, you may ask what is so special about this powder. Well, it truly has a mirrored effect on the skin, and a cool pink shift. Of course, pictures are hard to capture. And it lasts the whole work day.

But if you are a super makeup nerd, and love the powder Snowflushed from Mac, but wish there were other ways to wear it without so much glitter, look no further. Divinzer is Snowflushed's smoother, cooler-toned sister. 

Nabla on left, Mac on right

I am quite pleased with all my Nabla products and find that I buy from them at such a sporadic pace that the high shipping fee does not really bother me. I do think Nabla's formulas and finishes are basically everything I am looking for when it comes to eye and face powders.

Have you tried anything from Nabla? Let me know!

As always, thanks for reading.