Product Details
The Natasha Denona Safari Palette contains 15 matte eyeshadows in a fairly wide range of shades and depths. Each shade is 2.5 grams / 0.08 oz. This palette has been around for years and is now on sale on their website for 50% off its original retail price of $129.
The palette is made of plastic and has a matte finish to it that both hides fingerprints and makes it easier to grip. The lid houses a large, high quality mirror, and opens all the way flat or can also be left halfway open without collapsing shut. The pans can be popped out via holes in the back of the palette and rearranged or placed into a different magnetic palette.
The size of the pans in this product is something that Natasha Denona has been moving away from recently. These pans are larger and contain more product. Their newer palettes like the Love and Bronze palettes both have smaller pans with less product but retail for about half as much as this one (at full price). Price per gram is very comparable for this palette and the newer ones.
Formula Overview
After using this palette for about a week, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not the biggest fan of this formula. While the shadows are highly pigmented and swatch nicely, they are hard to work with on the eye. They are somehow both difficult to blend but they also dust away easily. They don’t build on themselves well, so I end up with parts that look “bald”.
Performance isn’t consistent across all shades either. The lightest grey dusts away easily, the deep blue is difficult and time consuming to blend, even the warm yellows and oranges take more time to work with than I’m used to with other brands. I can certainly *make* them work but I don’t enjoy the process.
Shade Selection
Most of the palette is warm toned but there are a few cool toned shades in the top row. None of the shades are too similar to each other. This color story seems to be versatile in theory, but the more I worked with it the less I was able to execute color combos I had in my head. With some formulas I am able to blend cool tones into warm tones with relative ease but the blending process is so hard with these that’s it’s not worth it to me. I found monochromatic looks to be the least frustrating to do.
I’m Gonna Be Brutally Honest…
Don’t buy this palette. It’s not worth the money, even at the discounted price. I decided not to test for wear time because the application process made it not worth it to me. With the vast array of eyeshadows on the market, surely cheaper and easier to use formulas exist in these shades.
I’m not knocking the brand as a whole, just this particular palette. The week I was using this, I was also swatching and playing with the Lila, Bronze, and Love palettes. The formula seems to be different across the palettes. I haven’t fully tested those others yet but I was less frustrated creating looks using them than I was with this one.
Looks
Look #1:
- Rhino – Above crease, applied lightly with a small fluffy brush
- Stone – Used this to blend around the edges of Rhino
- Malia – Brow bone, inner corner, all over lid
- Fata Morgana – Used as eyeliner
- Savanna – Lower lashline
This is a variant of Look #1. I just added the pressed glitter in Light Show from ColourPop all over the lid.
Look #2:
- Thorn – Crease
- Amhara – Transition, lower lashline
- Aya – Blended around edge of Amhara with this, inner part of lid
- Fata Morgana – Outer half of lid
Look #3:
- Fata Morgana – Center of lid
- Thorn – On either side of Fata Morgana
- Amhara – On either side of Thorn
- Desert Date – On either side of Amhara
Same look as above with the addition of Antheia from the Natasha Denona Mini Gold Palette.
The matte shades used in this look are from the Safari palette and the shimmers are from the Love palette.
Look #4:
- Malia (safari) – All over lid to set primer, brow bone, inner corner
- Lotus (safari) – Transition
- Maasai (safari) – Crease
- Voodoo (safari) – Outer corner
- Giving (love) – Center of lid
- Pure Love (love) – Lower lashline
- Transparent (love) – Inner corner
The matte shades used in this look are from the Safari palette and the shimmers are from the Bronze palette.
Look #5:
- Aya (safari) – Transition
- Desert Date (safari) – Crease
- Shea (safari) – Outer lid, outer lower lashline
- Tribe (safari) – Lower lashline
- True Copper (bronze) – Inner lid, inner lower lashline
- High Degree (bronze) – Center of lid