I’ve never tried any product from Natasha Denona, mainly because they are pricey–especially the eye shadow palettes. But I hear amazing things about her palettes, so I did want to try one. However, I haven’t been into one enough to spend upwards of $130 on it. That is until the Safari Palette launched. I saw this and knew it was going to be my first Natasha Denona purchase. It’s all matte, and the colors are too beautiful to resist.
This launched a few months ago now, but I wanted to make sure I played around with it thoroughly before I reviewed it. Since it’s very pricey, I didn’t want to recommend it if I didn’t love it. I was interested to start playing around with it, because I don’t have shades in my collection already that are quite the same. It’s a unique palette, but I do have cheaper palettes I really enjoy.
Because of the hefty price tag, I do have really high expectations of this palette. And I think my final thoughts are fair. Keep reading for my review and final thoughts on the Natasha Denona Safari palette.
The Basics
There are 15 new colors in this palette — ranging from cool, gray tones to warm, reds to plum mauves. It’s entirely matte, so there are no shimmers, glitters, or metallics in this palette. It sells for $129, and you can find it at Sephora (both in store & online) as well as on Natasha Denona’s website and her flagship store. Each pan is .08 oz.
This palette is labeled cruelty free and formulated without talc, D5, or fragrance.
The Packaging
I really enjoy the packaging. It’s made of a thicker, plastic material. I’m used to my ABH palettes, so it’ll be nice that this is easy to clean. The cover consists of embossed text spelling out “All Matte” in a really cool, abstract way. It also has Natasha Denona spelled out in pretty pink letters as well as the name of the palette. It’s really sleek and aesthetically pleasing.
One thing I freaking love about this is that you get a huge ass mirror. I’ve been taking this back and forth with me when I travel, and it’s nice to have such a large, clear mirror to do the rest of my makeup in.
The Shade Selection
I’m a neutrals girl at heart, and I automatically was drawn to this color scheme.
After fans raving, Natasha decided to design the perfect matte palette, inspired by the safari. It offers warms, cool, and unique medium-neutral shades to complement your current collection. And I totally agree with that. This palette is the perfect complement to any shimmer palette I own. Something that’s really interesting about Natasha Deonona’s shadow palettes is the color arrangement. She designs her palettes so that any three shades in a row can be used to create an entire look. Monochromatic looks can be easily created by using the palette horizontally, and polychromatic looks can be created by using vertically.
The top row features cool muted and gray tones.
Malia – pastel pink
Fata Morgana – dark turquoise
Rhino – dark grey green
Stone – light gray
Savanna – medium dusty army green
The middle row is nothing but warmer tones.
Aya – light nude
Thorn – medium warm brown
Desert Date – light medium dusty peach
Shea – dark brown
Tribe – medium bright terracotta
And the bottom row is rich red tones.
Lotus – dusty rose
Amhara – medium dusty coral
Maasai – medium aubergine
Voodoo – deep aubergine
Tamarind – sand
The Formula + Application
When I first started swatching and playing around with this palette, I won’t lie, I was a bit intimidated. I tend to go pretty light with my eye shadow, but these colors are extremely pigmented. And I found myself easily applying too much shadow than I was used to. Also, I immediately could tell, at first swatch, that some of these shades were softer than others. Some swatched a little chalky, which isn’t a huge deal for me. They were pressed a little differently, but for the most part it’s consistent in texture.
Once I found the best way to work with these, I really like the formula. It’s very soft and smooth going onto the skin, and I love that I don’t have to use a ton of product to get color payoff. The only shade I struggled with color-wise was “Aya,” the warm cream color. It almost doesn’t show up on my skin, but it;s because it’s very close in color to my actual skin color. But I do use that to transition and blend. I was also pleasantly surprised by the color “Stone.” There’s a gray in the Lorac Pro 3 palette, and I could not get that to work. It faded away and was almost undetectable, but this gray was noticeable and really pretty.
There were two shades I didn’t like at first. “Fata Morgana” and “Savanna.” They were the colors I was most excited about, I think. But when I first applied them, I hated them. They apply really patchy when spread across the entire lid. I found them really hard to work with. Eventually I liked the overall look, but it took work and layering to get it there.
All in all, they apply well. Each shade is blendable and plays well with the other shades. I really appreciate that even the similar shades really appear different on the eye. Usually you have similar shades fade into each other, and you can barely tell they’re different. They get a little muddy and messy. But these stand their ground.
The Bottom Line:
OK. So. What do I think?
I really enjoy this palette. I’ve used it almost every day since I’ve gotten it, and I’ve used it as a companion palette to my some of my more shimmery shadows. You can create a ton of different looks in different color stories. Each shade applies well and stands out on the eye. I loooove the color story in this palette — earthy shades are my favorite. And nothing is too similar. Even then shades that look similar in the pan appear totally different on the eyes.
The bottom line is I don’t think it’s worth $129.
I really like this, and I’m glad I have it. A lot of the shades are new to my collection, and I didn’t have anything similar–especially with “Savanna”, “Fata Morgana”, and “Rhino.” And you can create a ton of different looks. However, I don’t find the formula to be any better than some of my other favorite, less expensive palettes.
I think if you love the colors, it fills a void in your collection, and think you’ll use all of the colors, you won’t be disappointed. But if you are on the fence, save your money.
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