Review: Nabla Soul Blooming Palette

Monday, December 9, 2019

I've had Nabla Soul Blooming for six months and it's about time I reviewed it! During this time, I really put this palette through its paces.

Soul Blooming is housed in a cardboard palette, with slight embossing on the exterior. The palette contains a mirror, not that I ever use it.

I was really eager to get this palette, though I'm all set on warm matte shades, I thought the shimmers were unusual and I would have a fun time coming up with ways to use them. There was one shade that stood out to me above all others, Honey Drop. I couldn't get over how this large flecked golden-copper shade looked in the swatches that I saw online.

Swatched over primer.

Here's another shot in a darker setting, I think this shows Honey Drip to a greater advantage. It doesn't just reflect gold, the sparkle is gleaming orange despite how it looks in photos.

The mattes in this palette are super smooth and fine. They're a joy to apply! The shade Flowery, the cool periwinkle does look darker on the skin and over primer than it does in pan, and I found that the more I blended with it, the dingier it became. The other mattes blend really well, as do the shimmers, aside from Honey Drip. Honey Drip is chunky and a bit compressed in the pan, I find this is pretty typical for large particle eye shadows in a clear base. It's more fussy and definitely requires a sticky base like Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy to adhere well and to show off its gleam.

The duochrome shade Garden Gate (top row, the swatch on the furthest right) is not as nearly as duochrome as it looks in the pan. The flash of teal is very muted, I think if bold duochromes are your cup of tea, you're better off buying a full pan of the Nabla shade Alchemy.

As much as I enjoyed the application of these eye shadows, there was a big drawback for me. These shadows don't last very long on me. Most of the time I don't mention wear time in my reviews because I have no issues hitting the 8-10+ hour mark with primer, but I found that these shadows just faded away into oblivion by hour 4.

Here's quite a few looks I came up with using this palette.

Here on the upper lid I used Flowery and Anemone, Garcon and Caravaggio on the lower lid.

This look was based on one that @lavieencosmetiques did.

This look used a lot of Flowery, plus Middle Karma and Gea in the transition. Topped with Honey Drop.

This look used a lot of Garden Gate on the top lid. It's just more subtle than I would like, but I guess it makes it a better choice for work/school settings.

Here I've done a pastel look by lightly blending Flowery with Bolero, with a little bit of Gea and Chamomile.

Intensely warm glitter look with Caravaggio, Garcon, and Honey Drop on the top lid. The bottom lid features Anemone mixed with Inglot Duraline. Duraline does help the colors stay, but the wetness of it did change the colors a bit. In this case, indigo became a darker purple.

I love the color scheme so much, it's a shame that the shadows just don't last on me. I used this palette over and over again to the same results. I tried different primers to no avail. I'm not ready to destash this palette yet, I love Honey Drip so much that this whole palette is worth having just for that one shade. Luckily it needs glitter adhesive, thanks to a sticky base I'm able to get a much longer wear time out of it compared to the other shadows in this palette. I use it all the time! If I could find a dupe for it though, Soul Blooming would be goners.

It's a shame the shadows in this palette don't last for me. It would have been perfect otherwise.

Nabla Soul Blooming Palette is $45 from BeautyBay, I bought it on sale when it was 36ish.