Product Details
The ABH Nouveau Palette contains 12 shades of mostly neutral eyeshadows and pressed pigments. They are not all your typical neutral browns, though some are, and could compliment an existing collection of neutral shadows. Three of the matte shades are pressed pigments and aren’t intended to be used near the eyes. Those are Paloma, Wisteria, and Metro. The format has been updated and the shades are now larger and contain roughly double the amount of product previous palettes had (like Soft Glam and Modern Renaissance). They are large enough that I was even able to carefully use a blush brush in one of the pans. The palette itself is the same width as older ones and will store nicely along with them. It retails for $55 (ten dollars more than their older palettes) so, if getting more product is important to you, there is an increased value there.
I have to give them kudos on the outer packaging. The green textured fabric and gold detailing are unique, visually beautiful and give it a memorable tactile element
Swatches
Here is an overview of all the shades swatched. To see more detailed, closer up swatches, see this post.
- Wings is a light golden green shimmer with mostly small particles. There are no large sparkles but the shimmer varies in size and gives off more of a sparkling finish. Hardly any fallout, lots of shine.
- Isle is a very warm peachy gold with no large sparkle. Gives off a solid, even reflect but is more subdued and not as metallic as some of the other shimmers. Minimal fallout.
- Belle is a medium neutral bronze with all fine shimmer. Not much fallout.
- Wisteria (pressed pigment) is a pastel lavender with a nearly matte finish. It has the tiniest bit of fine shimmer that I can barely even see on the eye.
- Lili has a base of warm pink fine shimmer with larger flecks of green, blue, and purple sparkle. This has some more fallout than the other shimmers.
- Hope is an olive green shimmer with mostly fine particles.
- Paloma is a pressed pigment. It is a pale nude with a nearly matte finish. The fine shimmer in this barely shows once it is on the eye. It has amazing color payoff, so I use this a lot to cover inner corner darkness and even out the skin tone on my brow bone.
- Fleur is a medium muted rose. Good, even color payoff, blends easily and smoothly.
- Liberty is a grayish green with a matte finish. This is the driest-feeling matte in the palette and the one that needs the most attention. I wouldn’t say it’s a dud or it’s terrible at all, but I have to spend more time layering and buffing with this than the other mattes. Stays mostly true to color when blended along the edges.
- Peacock has a warm reddish base color with a light blue-green sheen and larger pink sparkles. The blue-green sheen shows up pretty well in the swatch above but is not as obvious on the eye unless used over a sticky primer. Good texture and pigmentation but needs some help.
- Metro is a pressed pigment. This is an earthy orange shade with a matte finish. Color payoff and blending are fantastic. I don’t need to use a transition shade at all with this. It blends fast, with little effort and I can stretch it out pretty far. At the same time, it doesn’t blend away too easily.
- Muse is a deep brown with a satin finish. It is one of the least reflective shimmers. This shade had the most fallout out of all of them, and not just shimmer, but dark pigment as well. I can make this work but I need to be *extra* careful about tapping off my brush.
Formula Overview
I love the way both the mattes and the shimmers feel to the touch and how well they apply. Almost everything in here has really good color payoff. I have the original ABH Norvina Palette and one of the large ABH Pro Pigment Palettes. The formula feels different from either of those, especially the mattes. Compared to ABH Norvina, they feel smoother and less dry… but compared to the ABH Pro Pigment Palette, they are thicker and have better color payoff. On the eye, they adhere well both over primer and bare lids without dusting away too easily during blending. I didn’t have any noticeable fallout from any of them.
The shimmers are all equally nice to the touch, almost melting into the skin and giving off a satisfying level of color and shine. Some are composed of all fine shimmer particles and some also have larger sparkle. Fallout was generally minimal except for shades with larger sparkle (Lili & Peacock) and the deepest shade, Muse, had some dark pigment fallout. It was easy to pick up plenty of color on a brush and transfer to the lid with minimal effort. They look, feel, and swatch about the same as the shimmers in my old Norvina palette. The shimmers in the Pro Pigment palette are thinner, and have a slick, almost oily quality to them.
Wear Time
I have to say I did miserably on testing this for wear time. I wore it many times but most of those times, I was way too active and sweat the makeup off my eyelids LOL. I got two good, “normal” wear tests in and from those, it seems like it had average wear time compared to other eyeshadows I have. Over primer, I was able to get at least 8 hours of solid, crease-free wear and saw some fading/creasing midday without primer.
Looks
Note: Pressed pigments used in my looks are denoted with a * below. I feel fine about using pressed pigments, glitters, etc. near my eyes and usually don’t have any issues with them.
- Paloma* – Inner corner
- Wisteria* – Center of lid
- Lili– Inner lid
- Peacock – Outer lid/crease
- Fleur – Slightly above crease
- Wings – Inner lower lashline
- Liberty – Outer lower lashline
- Isle – Brow bone
- Paloma* – Inner corner, brow bone
- Fleur – Crease, lower lashline
- Liberty – Upper part of lid, almost all the way up to the crease
- Peacock – All over lid, layered over Liberty
- Isle – Inner corner
- Metro* – Crease, lower lashline
- Muse – Outer corner
- Belle – Center of lid
- Wisteria* – Brow bone, inner corner, below Muse
- Liberty – Crease, blended up into transition area, outer lower lashline
- Hope – All over lid
- Belle – Inner lower lashline, inner corner
- Paloma* – Brow bone
- Paloma* – Inner corner, brow bone (covered up later by Wings), also used to clean up outer corner
- Wisteria* – Crease, outer lower lashline
- Peacock – All over lid (over top Too Faced Glitter Glue)
- Wings – Inner corner, brow bone (used with a dampened brush)
- Fleur – All over lid, crease, lower lashline
- Isle – All over lid
- Paloma* – Inner corner, brow bone
- Muse – Lashline
Worth Buying?
I feel like this a pretty “complete” pallete by itself because there is a good range of color, depth, and texture to get balanced looks out of it. However, I still feel the desire to bring in other palettes and singles when I use it. When used alone, the looks I’ve most liked were the ones where I only used 2-4 shades. Even though I feel that way, I’m happy to have this because of the quality of the shades. I have some shades like this already in my collection but I’d reach for these over them because I know they’ll work well for me. Also, there are some less common neutrals in here which I appreciate, like Wings and Isle. Wings and Isle are somewhat unique for neutrals and Peacock is probably one of the better quality shades I have like this.
Comparisons
Above are the three palettes that immediately came to mind to compare to the ABH Nouveau Palette. All of them have some sort of lavender/purple/periwinkle pop in them and contain some warmer pinks/peaches as complements.
The ColourPop So Very Lovely Palette is just as good in terms of quality. The mattes in both have a similar texture and feel to them but the shimmers are definitely more sparkly in the ColourPop palette. The pop of lavender is nearly identical in color but the one in the ColourPop palette is a true matte while I can see a hint of shimmer in the ABH one. The color story is less muted/grungy and “sweeter”. Both of these are fantastic and both have a place in my collection.
The older ABH Norvina Palette that is right below Nouveau is here to show you visually the difference in pan size. These two have pretty different color stories but I also wanted to give you an idea of how the formulas compare. The shimmers feel about the same between the two palettes. They have about the same color payoff and finish and feel equally as buttery-smooth. The mattes feel slightly grittier in the older ABH palette and don’t blend as easily on me as the newer ones do. Both formulas have excellent pigmentation though.
The ABH Norvina Pro Pigment Palette is another one I pulled out for formula comparison. This one has a much wider variety of textures and finishes and a much larger and different selection of shades. In general, though, I find the more matte shades in this palette to have a thinner feel to them and a shorter wear time on my eyes before creasing. But, for being thinner they still pack a punch in terms of color payoff. This one has a mixture of smooth/fine shimmers and ones that are more like washes of sparkle. They are generally sheerer than the ones in the ABH Nouveau Palette. It’s geared more toward someone with a creative/artsy side but can be used as a neutral palette as well.