Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina Palette ($42)

Available now on the Anastasia Beverly Hills website and online at Ulta. Drops at Ulta in store on August 5. Available at Sephora, Nordstrom’s and Macy’s on August 7 (online) and August 17 (in store). The palette is cruelty free but not vegan and made in the US with the exception of the brush.

The lay out is in keeping with the style of their last four palettes (Soft Glam, Prism, Subculture, Modern Renaissance), fuzzy outer packaging with 14 eyeshadows. I want preffice this review by saying that I’m huge fan of ABH and Norvina. Huge fan as in borderline stalker and they should consider getting restraining orders. I’ve been a fan for years and I have all of their palettes to prove it. I’m mentioning this in the interest of full disclosure because I might be a little biased when it comes to abh.

Oh one more thing before we begin, I’ve heard this palette being compared to a bunch of other palettes and I just so happened to have most of them so here ya go! Upper left is Huda Desert Dusk. Next to it is Norvina. The second row is Ace Beaute Fallen Paradise and Natasha Denona Lila. The bottom row is Nabla Dreamy and Soul Blooming and Lime Crime Venus 3.

I can do a detailed comparison if you guys want but the only dupes or near dupes that I see are some of the neutral mattes. There’s def some shimmers that are in the same color family but none close enough that I’d consider them to be dupes. I’m really anal about dupes tho. If the undertones aren’t exactly the same, then to me they’re completely different and I need both. Imo the stand out shades in Norvina are the pinks and purples and they’re different from these other palettes.
What do you guys think??? Am I trippin or na?

Intro over. Review starts now. I need to work on my transitions… okay so let’s go through shade by shade and I’ll give you my final thoughts at the end!

Dreamer is a metallic peachy champagne. It has a smooth, creamy texture and intense color pay off. I love it as an inner corner highlight but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

Summer is a golden topaz color with a foiled finish. This one has a dense, almost wet feeling texture. The pigmentation is ridiculous! And it applies well with a brush. Again not the most unusual color in the world but its beautiful and the formula is bomb.

Wild Child disappointed me. I loooooooooove pinks like this. Love. Them. But this one doesn’t have the same delicious formula as the other shimmers. You have to either use it wet or layer it to get opaque color off. I still like it and I’ll use it but I’m disappointed with the formula.

Rose Gold has that amazing formula I’ve been blathering on about. I can just barely tap my fingertip on the pan and then do a swatch the length of my forearm. The pigmentation is intense! The color is really interesting too. It’s a light pinky copper with a hint of plum.

Celestial is a medium pinky purple. I found that this one took a bit of building as well. It’s not as bad as Wild Child but not as good as the rest of the shimmers.

Dazzling is cool toned rosey bronze. Again great formula.

Drama had to get a it’s own close up pic because it’s so pretty! It’s deep plum with a foiled finish and rainbow glitter. But if you want the glitter to show up on your eyes, you need to pack the color on and probably use a glitter glue. Nonetheless it’s a gorgeous color and one of my favs in the palette.

Base is a matte eggshell. Not much to say about that…

Soul…. ugh! This is a tough one. Well firstly it’s a satin periwinkle. I think it was a smart move on their part to formulate it with a bit of pearl. Satins are much more forgiving and easy to blend than flat matte but they won’t look shimmery on the eyes. I love this color and find it to be very unique (I’m also working on dupes but I’m having a bitch of a time with this one) but the formula isn’t perfect. It has a lot of kick up/ fall out and you really need to build it up and be very gentle when blending or else it sheers out dramatically

Incense is a mid-toned neutral brown with subtle yellow undertones. It’s nice. I like the color and I have no complaints about the formula. They’re not reinventing the wheel with this one but that’s okay. Most people, myself included, love a good matte neutral

Love… sigh. I’m pretty disappointed with this one too. It’s a mid-toned salmon pink with a satin finish. Same as with Soul, the touch of pearl allows for easier blending without looking shimmery on the eye. I love this color but I had the same issues as with Soul. Tons of fall out and a tendency to sheer out while blending.

I snapped a quick pic last time that I used the palette to show you what I mean. Now keep in mind that I’m not one of those assholes on YouTube swirling my brush around like a 10 year ADHD kid that’s off their ritalin. I handle this palette the way you would a faberge egg or a newborn baby nestled in rose petals, glistening with morning dew. And I still got that much kick up. This wouldn’t bother me if the pigmentation was on point but like I said, both colors have a tendency to disappear on me.

Volatile in a midtoned taupe with subtle plum undertones. No complaints on this one either. Nice pigmentation and I didn’t have any blending issues.

Eccentric is dark burnt orange matte. Typical abh matte… soft, pigmented, blendable.

Passion is a dark, red brown matte. I found the texture to be more dry than the other mattes but that doesn’t bother me. I like this color very much but if you’re heavy handed, it can be a little difficult to blend.

And we’ve reached the end! Okay so here’s my problem with this palette… when I first saw it, I was instantly drawn to Wild Child, Celestial, Soul and Love and those were the four shades that were problematic. I like the neutrals toned mattes and shimmers but they’re not what makes the palette special, imo. I was super excited for this palette because of the pinky purple tones and the only one that I really love is Drama. The other four aren’t bad per say but I don’t think that they’re up to ABH standards.

If you’re only interested in a few shades and don’t want to buy the whole palette… fear not! I got chu, ma! Dupes coming soon…