Friends, if you haven't yet heard about Juvia's Place, and you consider yourself to be a lover of eyeshadow, I am about to blow your mind.
There have been few makeup brands that have impressed me as much as Juvia's Place has. If you want unique, high quality, cruelty-free eye shadows for an insanely reasonable price tag, and to support a female-owned brand designed with Women of Color in mind, you need, yes NEED to check out their products.
While they have certainly garnered popularity after NikkieTutorials started singing their praises last year, Juvia's Place is still relatively unknown by the average person. As a smaller indie brand you won't find their products on the shelves of Ulta, Sephora, or your local drugstore. Instead you'll have to head on over to their website, or get lucky like I did and manage to snag their products from Hautelook when a sale comes around. Yes, there is something to be said for putting your faith in an online purchase without having the opportunity to swatch and play with it in person. But I promise, this eyeshadow palette does not disappoint.
As of when I'm writing this, Juvia's place has six different eyeshadow palettes in their lineup. The Nubian series sport your neutral tones, while Zulu and Magic palettes pack a seriously colorful punch. I personally went for the Saharan Eyeshadow Palette ($30), which sports a healthy mix of both. You get 12 different shades in a mix of matte and metallic finishes to create an endless number of looks. As someone that loves warm tones on the eyes and a pop of shimmer, this palette was seriously speaking to me from the moment I laid eyes on it.
Speaking of color selection, let's dive in a little deeper to what this palette has to offer. The Juvia's Place website states that the inspiration for the Saharan palette is the Fulani culture of West Africa, and its "vivacious and vibrant" spirit. Vibrant is most certainly a word to describe these eyeshadows. They are unapologetically bold, and come together in an unexpected yet harmonious way. To be honest, its this very quality that made me so drawn to the Saharan palette in the first place. Many of these shades struck me as incredibly unique, especially when paired together as a palette. While all of the Juvia's Place Palettes look gorgeous, this was the one I felt like I absolutely couldn't pass up.
While I've been using this palette a fair amount over the past few months, this was the first time I properly sat down and swatched the whole thing. To be honest, it was one of the most enjoyable makeup moments I've had in a long time. I found myself with each and every shade just completely blown away by how pigmented and smooth the formula was. Speaking of which, let me tell you a little bit more about each of these shades and how they perform.
Sokoto: A matte tomato red. This shadow feels like butter to the touch. It's insanely pigmented and smooth. It's very easy to build and blend with a brush.
Wodaabe: A metallic gold. This shade has almost a slight greenish tinge to it, making it very different from the countless yellow or orangey toned golds in my collection. It has an intensely metallic, foiled finish.
Bororo: A metallic cranberry. This shade is SO stunning. The finish is a little less foiled than Wodaabe, but still shimmery and gorgeous.
Kia: A foiled green-brown duochrome. THIS SHADE. Ugh, I can't even with this shade. It screams TURN ME INTO A SMOKEY EYE RIGHT NOW! Again this has a very creamy, foiled finish to it. It appears to have a blueish-blackish-greenish reflect against a purpley-brown base that makes the end result look insanely cool and again, very unique.
Zoya: A metallic rose gold. This is a stunner as an all-over-the-lid shade.
Iman: A frosty white metallic with a blueish lavender shift. This is the one shade in this palette that throws me for a loop. Since so many of the other shades are very warm, and this one is icy cool, I sometimes have a hard time figuring out how to incorporate it into a look. It's a gorgeous shadow though, and the pigmentation is perfect.
Jamila: A matte burnt orange. This is the one shade that swatched on the patchy side for me. It feels a little bit more stiff and dry to the touch than the other matte shades do. That being said, this is one of the colors I've most frequently used on the eyes, and I haven't had any problems with it blending with a brush.
Senegal: A metallic antiqued gold. This is another stunner for all over the lid (especially for fall).
Chad: Your standard matte black. Whether you want to smoke things up or just set down your winged liner, this is a palette staple that's really handy to have.
Katsina: A mid toned, neutral brown. For us fair skinned ladies this is a great crease transition color, and for those with darker complexions this could be used to set down primer or even as a matte highlight (depending on your skintone).
Lulu: A shimmering copper pink. This shade is so unique and girly and looks absolutely stunning on the lid. If you're a lover of rose gold you'll probably be all about this one!
Fula: A metallic frosty cranberry pink shade. This one is SO fun! You could pop this all over the lid for a berry toned eye, or use this to give a pop of color in the outer corner or lower lash line to a neutral look.
I honestly had so much fun creating this super firey eyeshadow look (you can watch my tutorial on how to recreate it yourself here) and was constantly impressed by how intensely pigmented yet easily workable each shade was. The mattes really do blend out like a dream, and the metallics build up to an intense, shiny finish with little effort. And it doesn't stop there. These shadows wear incredibly well without fading for hours on end, so you can go from morning to night without a need for a touch up.
While you can go full-on artistic with a look like this one, the palette does offer you options to create a more subtle or subdued look. For example, you could easily blend Katisna into the crease, apply Zoya all over the lid, throw on some mascara and call it a day. Or, if you were feeling the need to switch it up from the warm tones, you could easily use Kia, Chad, and Iman to create a wicked smokey eye. Honestly, the more I experiment with these colors, the more inspired I become. There are so many ways you can take this palette that it's hard to get sick of using it!
Honestly, for $30 I think this palette is a total steal. You're averaging $2.50 per pan of shadow (each of which is decently sized) and the quality rivals many of the most popular brands at Sephora. No you don't get a mirror, and the packaging isn't incredibly luxe, however these are compromises I'm willing to make to keep the overall cost of the palette down. It's also very compact, which makes it easy to store and to travel with.
All this being said, I am really pleased with my decision to finally invest in a Juvia's Place palette. I am certain it won't be my last! If you also own any of the Juvia's Place palettes I would love to hear which ones and what your favorite has been so far!
Would you try a Juvia's Place palette?
