Natasha Denona "The Love Story" Collection for Valentine's Day <3

Natasha Denona, one of my very favorite brands, came in hot'n'heavy this Valentine's Day with an eye shadow palette and a face palette, both limited edition . These products are too sweet for words and remind me of sugar coated candy goodness, so of course, I was not going to pass them up! Some of these shades quite literally make me crave overly sugared candies. I may as well book a dentist appointment now!

The collection comes with a face palette complete with a cream blush base and three highlighters/blushes, an eye shadow palette and three lip glosses (which I did not purchase as I am at capacity in the lip product department).

I'll start off with the Love Glow Cheek Palette. Have you SEEN the pinks in this?! Those two shades are even more gorgeous in person. But for reals, this 4-pan face palette is a gem. You get 1 cream base shadow (the reddish-pink shade) which is separated from the 3 powder shades by a plastic flap so the powder doesn't make the cream all messy. The powders are meant to add a lovely glow to your cheeks. If you're not a fan of that wet glittery or iridescent look for your highlight, this might not be for you (it def is for me though!).

One of the highlighters is a golden shade and might be a tad too dark for lighter skin tones. The two pinks are my favorite shades: one is a cotton candy glitterbomb that looks wet on the skin, and the other is a coral that packs a punch. It builds up nicely, so go in light on this one.

The cream base is subtle. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of cream bases for face products (except for my trust tinted moisturizers). Not because they aren't good, I just have skin that's more oil-prone than dry in the cheek area. So I apply only a very little amount of this cream blush when using it, and it's safe to say that I use the powder shades much more often.

If you have the Diamond & Blush in Darya, this quad is similar. BUT, I would say if you have that palette and love it, then you will love this one too and get good use out of it.

The eye shadow palette contains 15 shadows of the brands' signature formulas made with high-quality pigments, chroma crystals and mineral pearls (which is really just a fancy way of saying that the shadows are extra shiny). I do love these formulas though, and something about the description of 'chroma crystals' makes me more excited than if described simply as 'glittery'.

The shimmers are lovely. I was pleased to see that the shade Dream is lighter than it looks in the pan. Pure Love and Giving deliver what I expected them to, given that most people will likely be drawn to those shades first. Blind is also another shade that I really enjoy and it's a warm welcome when it would have been easy to toss in another gold shade, which we all have plenty of.

I did find some of the mattes to be on the drier side, which is inconsistent with the mattes in many other Natasha Denona palettes. Of course, the Love Palette is at a much lower price point than other palettes from the brand. Heartbeat, Heart and Trust I had a bit of trouble with. This isn't surprising as reds and purples often tend to be drier mattes than other shades, but palettes like Sunset ($129) and Sunrise ($65) are proof that reds and purples can be made in a less dry formula that is easier to work with. Of course, the variance in price point is quite significant, and you get more product in the Sunset palette, so those are other factors at play outside of just the quality of the shadows.

All in all, it's a fun collection at a digestible price point. My only real negatives are that I wish the blush shade in the Face Glow palette was powder (now cream), but that's a personal preference. And I wish the red and purple matte shades in the eye shadow palette weren't so dry. 10/10 would buy again <3

Natasha Denona is a Cruelty Free brand <3

Thanks for reading!