Natasha Denona Safari Palette

​Today we're discussing the Natasha Denona Safari Palette. I am more than excited to talk about it and also equally as excited because Beautylish asked if they could send it to me. I'm beyond flattered, although they did send it they didn't ask me to do a review or post anything. So this isn't sponsored and regardless if it had been sent or not I was planning on buying it for sure anyway. Let's discuss...shall we?

This is an all matte palette. It is the new formula which was debuted in the Tropic and Holiday palettes I believe. So this is going to be a different formula as opposed to her huge palettes that she released in the beginning. This is 15 x 2.5g. It's the same packaging as the Tropic Palette which is my preference. It's paraben free and not tested on animals.


​​Here's my thoughts:

The swatches don't really represent how these or any eye shadow is going to work period. Don't get me wrong I like the swatches just fine but in reality I think we all know now that the real test is how it applies on the eyes. Typically I don't bother with swatches but some people really love them so I did do swatches for this (without primer and just using my fingers). My point for explaining this is if you go swatch it in store and feel like it's not what you thought, I think you should see if an artist or employee can try it with a brush on the eyes. 

I find that the shades that you would like to be a transition do well with building the color up which is my preferred method. In other words, if you weren't a huge fan of the Subculture palette because it was so much pigment and kickback that you had to be more careful, you don't have that issue with this. I also found that the very rich and intense shades acted the same on the eyes. They didn't lose intensity in other words but they also blended very well. I had absolutely no fall out with this. There was some kick back but honestly not a lot I didn't think, I find the kick back a lot of times is due to how soft or dense my brush is. A fluffy brush that is possibly a little scratchy is going to disrupt the powder more. Myself, I don't care about kick back in the pan. It's not a pro or con for me ever, unless the shadows are actually breaking.

I feel like this is the perfect fall palette because you have a comfort zone in there of course, which for most people is warm tones. You also have some olive tones and complimentary shades to that, which seems to be very popular and on trend right now. Still though, you have some very intense shades of red, berry tones, and navy blue and then some cooler tone shades. That is the stamp of approval, the main thing, the "safe bet" that draws me to this palette and has since they announced it. It has a lot of versatility and it's all matte. So for any look I can even think of, this could and probably will be what I go in with as far as matte shades. Like I said I prefer her matte formula bar none. Specifically the new formula, it is better in my opinion to everything that is out. 

As far as the wear time. I had no issues. I have no fall out. There's no transfer or smudging issues. Combined with another formula of shimmer or something, if you don't want to go all matte, then you may have some issues with that but as far as the palette goes, I didn't have any troubles and I tried to use the hardest colors to work with in my opinion, which is grays, navy, olive shades, etc. It built up really well. I do like using denser crease brushes with this formula to cut down on time so that it would build up a little faster but I also used fluffy brushes to make sure it would still blend out and blow out really nicely and it did. I got about 6 hours of wear out of a fairly dark smokey eye. It didn't get patchy but at the 6 hour mark I was starting to see some wear on it. I was ready to touch it up with a blending brush real quick. 

I feel like this is pretty easy to navigate on deciding  if you need it or not. If you already love the new formula and specifically like matte shades I think you'd really like it. If you like mattes, looking for a fall palette that's a little different but you don't want it to be like Subculture with super intense pigment that you have to blend a little longer, I think you'd like this. If you're a freelance or on set MUA and like the new formula like I do then I definitely think you would like it, plus you do get quite a bit of product in the pan. If mattes really aren't you're thing or you don't want an all matte palette maybe this isn't for you. I'm still hardcore in love with the Tropic Palette but she also released the new Sunset Palette and the Camel ( 5 pan) palette. It's all in what you like. If you'd wear it then yes, if you wouldn't then no. 

Of course the price is going to be up there since it is Natasha Denona. I'll go ahead and tell you though that if you choose to buy through Beautylish you can do 3 installment payments on a purchase over $100. Again, I'm not sponsored, they didn't ask me to talk about any of this I'm just letting you know and generally I do buy my Natasha Denona palettes through them. It gets to me in 2 days. I'm going to link it here. It's not an affiliate link. It's just for your convenience.