I’ve remained skeptical of Natasha Denona’s eyeshadows since experiencing major issues with the brand’s Mini Lila Palette. When the Natasha Denona Sunrise Palette released, I knew this was my opportunity to give the brand a second chance. But is this 15-pan palette worth the $65.00 price tag? Read my honest review to find out!
Natasha Denona is an unofficial member of BEAUTY’S BIG THREE, a term I affectionally coined for Pat McGrath Labs, Natasha Denona, and Viseart. Each of these brands creates expensive, coveted products that set trends. Although the brands’ fans love them, many consumers hate these luxury makers due to their highly expensive prices. But, is the hate justified?
Unfortunately for me, I’ve experienced issues with each of these brands. I disliked my first major Viseart Palette, experienced quality issues with the Natasha Denona Mini Lila Palette, and went through hell ordering some hyped Pat McGrath releases.
Can the Sunrise Palette redeem Natasha Denona for me? Please keep reading for my in-depth review to find out!
What is Natasha Denona all about?
Founded by acclaimed Israel-based, Croatian-born makeup artist and former model, Natasha Denona, in 2015, the Natasha Denona brand aims to offer luxury beauty products for the modern consumer.
Designed to empower wearers’ creativity, Natasha Denona combines high-quality formulas and unique textures with editorially curated color stories that set industry trends and raise standards. To read more about Natasha Denona’s brand evolution, click here.
As a professional MUA and beauty educator, Natasha Denona provides potential buyers with tons of online inspiration. The brand posts many step-by-step guides on how to recreate editorial-inspired looks.
Click here if you’re looking to break out of your normal beauty routine or expand your creativity. However, if blog-style tutorials aren’t your thing, click this link for video-based tutorials.
Natasha Denona Sunrise Palette Claims
The Natasha Denona Sunrise palette promises to provide wearers with shadows that emulate the warm glow of a morning sunrise. Each shade in the palette is new to the Natasha Denona family and promises to be created with the highest-quality ingredients.
The shadow textures are meant to have a buttery-soft texture that blends with ease. Furthermore, Natasha Denona promises that the shadows will be ultra-pigmented a long-lasting on the eyes.
The Sunrise Palette includes three Natasha Denona Eyeshadow formulas: Creamy Mattes, Metallics, and Duochromes.
Close up of the Natasha Denona Sunrise Eyeshadow Palette
Packaging & Price
The Sunrise Palette* comes in a sleek, pinkish-red compact. The outer packaging is high-shine with a mirrored effect that smudges easily. Inside, the Sunrise Palette comes with a large mirror. Also, unlike her larger palettes, the shade names are all clearly labeled within the Sunrise palette.
The Sunrise palette retails for $65.00. As such, it is one of Natasha Denona’s most affordable eyeshadow palettes to hit the market. Moreover, this 15-pan palette includes 19.25 grams of eyeshadow. This breaks down to roughly $3.38 per gram or $4.33 per shadow.
To note, Natasha Denona’s full-size 15 pan palettes retail for $129.00. The $65.00 price tag of the Sunrise Palette places Natasha Denona’s palette in the same price range as other prestige brands like Huda Beauty or Urban Decay.
Ingredients & Cruelty-Free Status
Unfortunately, Talc is the number one ingredient for all of the matte shades in this palette.
Thankfully, Natasha Denona is Cruelty-Free, meaning that this palette was not tested on animals. However, this palette is NOT Vegan. A number of shades in the Sunset Palette contain Carmine.
Natasha Denona Sunrise Palette Swatches
Although swatches are not a perfect indicator of quality, they can provide clues to how an eyeshadow may perform in terms of pigmentation and blend-ability. I swatched the Sunrise Palette on a bare forearm with my finger.
Finger Swatches of the Natasha Denona Eyeshadow Palette
If you can’t tell by the above photo, the shadows in the Sunrise Palette swatched like an absolute dream. In fact, the swatches pleasantly surprised me. Initially I though that the light shades in this palette looked like neutral “filler” shades. However, the shadows swatch (and wear) very vibrantly on the eyes.
Creamy Matte Shadows:
- Citrine – warm yellow creamy matte
- Glory – fuchsia creamy matte
- Morgan – pastel coral creamy matte
- Clove – dark maroon creamy matte
- Carnelian – burnt light orange cream matte
- Jasper – bright terra-cotta creamy matte
- Morning – light apricot creamy matte
Duo-Chrome Shadows:
- Awakening – lavender with nude shift duo-chrome
- Aster – violet with mauve shift duo-chrome
- Azalea – pink with copper shift duo-chrome
Metallic Shadows:
- Poppy – crimson bronze metallic
- Phlox – burnt warm crimson metallic
- Laurel – peachy champagne metallic
- Agate – champagne apricot metallic
- Dayspring – nude bronze metallic
Traditionally, yellow and purple shadows are hard to formulate without looking chalky and feeling dry. However, these mattes actually live up to their creamy label.
Application & Wear-Time
The creamy matte shadows blend themselves on the eyes. Overall, the mattes play well together. Each shade is pigmented and buildable.
My go-to crease shades are Morgan and Morning. Whenever I use this palette, I first blend Morgan or Morning in the crease. Then, I work a vibrant shadow onto the eyelid.
The metallic and duo-chrome shadows apply best with a finger. However, these textures apply well with a stiff flat brush. Personally, I prefer to use a flat brush to apply my shadows whenever possible. Brushes are neater and allow for better precision.
Without a doubt, Aster is my favorite shade in the palette. Aster is the truest duo-chrome. In other words, this shade has the most vibrant and noticeable color shift. In comparison, the shift in Awakening and Azalea are subtle.
Y’ALL. These shadows do not fade, crease, or move throughout the day. The shadows last a long time regardless of whether I use a primer. However, wearing a primer provides the longest wear-time. With a primer, these last 12+ hours without fading, creasing or smudging. Nevertheless, I was surprised that the shadows lasted a good 4-5 hours on my lid without a primer.
Where is the Sunrise Palette sold?
In the United States, the Natasha Denona Sunrise Palette can be purchased at Sephora* and via the brand’s online shop. In the UK, Natasha Denona retails at Selfridges and Cult Beauty.*
Final Thoughts on the Natasha Denona Sunrise Palette
With the release of the Sunrise Eyeshadow Palette, Natasha Denona redeemed herself. After a horrible experience with the Mini Lila Palette, the sheer beauty of the Sunrise Palette blew me away.
Also, the quality of the shadows is outstanding. Each shadow provides a warm pop of color to the eyes. The shades apply with ease and last on my oily lids.
Overall, I love that Natasha Denona released a more affordable palette without skimping on quality. Finally, given my positive experience with the Sunrise Palette, I feel more comfortable trying one of the brand’s larger eyeshadow palettes. In fact, read my review of the Natasha Denona Camel Palette here.
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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links (*). If you make a purchase using one of my links, I may make a small commission at no added cost to you. Also unless otherwise stated, all product were purchased by me. Finally, all opinions are my own.
Have you tried anything from Natasha Denona, Pat McGrath, or Viseart before? Do you have a favorite luxury brand? Please let me know in the comments below.