Juvia’s Place “The Saharan Palette”

Where do I start…

GAAAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! ok, after that GLAMamazon yell, behold this appeared on my doorstep today!

The Saharan. the latest and greatest palette by Juvias Place. This is officially launching 1/30/17 on their website, but there was a small prelaunch last night that sold out within a few hours. Bananas. Its becoming a Juvia Cult up in here and I am loving it. I received this early for review from the brand and I am eternally grateful cause this one is the crème of the crop.

If you are new to the game, Juvia’s place is an indie cosmetics company that hails from the Garden State, its owner Chichi is the sweetest lady on this side of the US, we actually became friends around the time of my pregnancy; she put up with my scared thoughts as a first time mom and counseled and coddled me like only the right person at the right time could, I owe her mental sanity from all those months of conversation – even before this became about makeup it was just a great friendship and she is going to be at IMATS 2017 NYC this year which is 50% of my reasons to go. They sell brushes, the super pigmented palettes that are taking the internets by storm and also single shadows and empty palettes, lashes… the works.

This last palette was previewed a few months ago with the premise that a second one is on its way (March 2017 from what I hear). There will be also an Eyeliner kit dropping 1/30, the same day as the Saharan and a Blush palette dropping sometime in February. All following the theme of the Sahara, which seems to be a very kickass lady in my head already, inspiring all these shades and whatnot.

I am not going to review the eyeliners YET as I have not received a price confirmation, also because I want to play with them before I furnish a review.

The palette retails for $28 but comes out to $25 with our code BEAUTYCULT – it is an affil code which means we get a small commission which helps keep this blog alive, you are free to use our code or other peeps’ – we love you and as long as you keep reading us, we consider our day made anyway. Save money or not, baller! here are my thoughts and swatches anyway

The outside packaging of the palette is a sturdy cardboard casing in a bright coral pink with the image of the Saharan. The inside of the palette is light teal, an almost tiffany blue. the pan size is the same as the Nubian palette but the palette itself is bigger, allowing for more space in between each shade which is appreciated since I hate getting shimmers on my mattes.

Lets get to the juicy part: the shades. All the swatches below are only 2/3 swipes with a shader brush.

SOKOTO is a bright RED with a tinge of orange, its a vermillion, It is BRIGHT and it is a delicacy, not apt for the meek (also as a blush with a very light hand..) its fully matte and layers beautifully. I wanna have its red babies. gross. I’m getting really perverted when talking about makeup and this is not a good look. in terms of similar shades I have nothing like this, maybe Nars blush Exhibit A, but even that isn’t as bright

WODAABE is a tarnished gold shade, it is a metallic and bright. Similar to GOLD 002 by Pat McGrath, and there is also a MUG shade that is in the same style, Colourpop Telepathy.. Angela will eventually post her thoughts and I bet you a “like” that she will pull about 3 shades that are similar, I want my like. These golds however are essential in bright palettes because they pull the brights together and provide a limelight or focus.

BORORO is a dark burgundy rose gold, this is a shade that became very popular last year, I Feel everyone had a rose gold, in this palette this version is very smooth on application as sometimes this shade can be gritty on other brands that I’ve tried. Closest dupe I can think of is Colourpop Muse.

KIA is a black based teal, like almost the shade of oilslick spills… ive seen this with a brown base so to see it with a black base was a novelty, the base is pigmented enough you don’t need to layer it with a black base/liner but you can.

ZOYA is a light peach gold and the one shade I had problems in application, it was hard layering it to appear even and Its more of a satin than a metallic, on my skintone it barely showed some hints of gold gleam. I will try this again under a base and report back.

IMAN is not a white, its an cool toned OFF white with a subtle hint of blue shift, like ICE… how to photograph this? my amateur skills did not measure and IMAN won, took the gold for most hard to photograph. shes like the YETI. omg! maybe this was the inspiration behind it? that’s gotta be it.

JAMILA is the perfect saffron shade, if you are of latin descent you know what sazon Goya is and you must know this is the perfect dupe for it. only less delicious and safer on the eye than Goya.

SENEGAL is a shimmery bronze, another standard shade in the metallic family and a pretty one at that

CHAD is a matte black – not as sheer as usual black shades and surprisingly not as powdery as mattes go, this might be a slight satin. Its very dark black and layerable, not a sign of patchiness here.

KATSINA is a light almond brown transition shade, soft and warm toned.

LULU is a peach shimmery but there was some fallout here, not a big deal since I would usually wear this on top of a base anyway.

FULA is a mid toned pink with a shimmer. I didn’t quite feel this pink as part of this palette, I think its pretty but the other shades were SO BOMB that I guess I wanted something equally bright! maybe a brighter pink! idk and I’m talking out of my ungrateful ass cause the masquerade has a set of pinks there so this was not going be a repeat.. So maybe a blue? idk.. I didn’t feel it but I know itll have its own following, its a pretty shades I am not that into it don’t make meeee!

More swatches and angles

On indirect sunlight:

On direct sunlight

On the ringlight

Overall, its a very well rounded set of shades, you will have several options to play with – not just one or two looks, I can see this breaking your creativity cherry all through the middle. This level pigmentation will be specially appreciated by my melanin rich pretties, as these shades crave a darker canvas, but this doesn’t mean us med toned and pale chics must miss out, blend baby! sheer out and mix in your neutral shades if you are afraid of color.. slowly walk into the pigmented world of Juvia… we got cookies.