Nabla is a brand that I’ve been very curious about for a long time. They’re a mid-range priced, Italian brand that creates the most beautifully packaged and interesting products. Since they are on the pricier side, I held off on buying anything until I got a gift card for Christmas… and I am glad that I did. The products I bought were so WILDLY disappointing to me, especially the Dreamy 2 Eyeshadow Palette. With that, let’s get into the reviews. 

The Dreamy 2 Eyeshadow Palette is $35.00 and contains twelve shadows in a variety of finishes. Nabla has their own unique descriptions for their eyeshadow formulas so here is a breakdown of what this palette contains; there are: two mattes, two latex mattes, one super matte, two super sparkles and five metal foils. Let’s now talk pros and cons! 

😄Pros:

• The palette has sturdy carboard packaging with a mirror and magnetic closure. It has a nice weight to it and doesn’t feel cheap.
• The color story is beautiful and unique. The theming overall is very inspiring to me. 
• If you like sparkle, this is the palette for you. The super sparkle and metal foil shades are packed full of shimmer. 

😣Cons:

• All of the mattes in this palette are garbage but especially the two latex mattes, Dionysus and Offline. Oh, you want to actually blend your mattes? Not happening with this palette. I will never touch any of these shades again because they were so hard to blend and created a TON of fallout. I also didn’t notice any difference between the matte and super matte formulas. The latex mattes were more moist, for lack of a better word, but they were also the most crumbly. 
• Rem and Libertine are both super sparkle shadows. That name is accurate because both are packed with beautiful shimmer but the fallout was outrageous, especially for Libertine. Libertine also looked very chunky and heavy on my eyelids. Rem is more of a sheer topper so I didn’t have that problem with it. 
• Lucid Dream is a metal foil shadow but it’s definitely more like the super sparkle ones. It’s completely sheer and is just a glittery topper. I don’t really mind that but with its description, I expected more. 
• The metal foil shadows were nothing impressive. They all created massive amounts of fallout and I have just as pretty shades in my very affordable Profusion palettes. 

Swatches & Shade Descriptions:

These eyeshadows do have names and shade descriptions on the website so I will copy that below. I’ll be going from left to right, top row to bottom row. This photo was taken with flash to show off the sparkle. 

• Pantheon- matte ivory 
• Rem- super sparkle indigo purple
• New Past- super matte cherry wood
• Oniric- metal foil antique bronze with gold reflects
• Libertine- super sparkle cool gold
• Lucid Dream- metal foil top coat with gold and lime reflects
• Amarcord- metal foil dusty rosy-peach with pink and bronze sparkles
• Mirabilia- metal foil amethyst with duochrome aqua and magenta reflects
• Dionysus- latex matte mid-tone bordeaux
• Déjà-vu- matte biscuit beige
• Hidden Place- metal foil deep smoke base with trichrome peach, magenta and olive reflects
• Offline- latex matte deep plum

Eyeshadow Looks:

I created three hideous looks using this palette alone. Seriously, these are the worst looks ever. I DO know how to do eyeshadow, check my Instagram for proof, but this palette was impossible to work with. Anyways, I always use an eyeshadow primer and set my primer with a cream or white colored shade, which this palette does contain. Since these eyeshadows do have names, I won’t be describing where they are in the palette or what they look like.

I think this look would have been beautiful if everything would have blended. I love red and purple together but this was just a mess. 

1. I set my primer with Pantheon.
2. I attempted to blend Dionysus into my crease and onto my outer lid. 
3. I applied Mirabilia onto my lid. 
4. I applied Rem on top of Mirabilia and in my inner corner.
5. I applied Lucid Dream in my inner corner and on my browbone. 
6. I smudged Offline on my lower lash line. 

This look was, once again, an unblended mess. I used Libertine on the lid and it looked so chunky and heavy. 

1. I set my primer with Pantheon.
2. I attempted to blend Déjà-vu into the crease.
3. I applied Oniric on my outer lid and smudged on my lower lash line. 
4. I applied Libertine over the majority of my lid. 
5. I applied Lucid Dream in my inner corner and on my browbone. 

I hate this look the most of the three because it is so unblended and dull. It’s crazy because I do looks like this ALL the time and they turn out great. 

1. I set my primer with Pantheon.
2. I applied New Past onto my lid and blended it up into my crease. 
3. I applied Amarcord on my inner lid and in my inner corner. 
4. I applied Rem on top of Amarcord to attempt to make it “pop” a bit more.
5. I applied Lucid Dream in my inner corner and on my browbone. 
6. I smudged Hidden Place on my lower lash line.  

Brushes Used:

• Detail Crease Brush
• Tapered Blending Brush
• Flat Eyeshadow Brush
• Small Angled Brush
• Smudge Brush
• Eye Crease Brush
• Blending Brush, I used this brush to blend out the edges.

If you are curious about any of the other products on my face, you can find these looks in my recent posts on Instagram.

Do I Recommend It? 

I definitely do NOT recommend this palette. I can get similar looks using my Profusion Minimalist combined with the Profusion Nude Bliss. At some point, I would actually like to recreate the looks above using those palettes so you may see that in the future. I’m not saying that I’ll never try Nabla eyeshadows again BUT it would have to be during a fantastic sale. Now, let’s move on to the lip products.

The Dream Creamy Liquid Lipsticks are $16.00 apiece. I have the shades My Rules and Hedonist. My Rules is described as a medium mauvy hazelnut and Hedonist is described as a light-medium beige nude. They are packaged in a very nice and sturdy tube with a doe foot applicator. They do have a slight scent but no taste and they feel slightly cooling on the lips. 

I liked these lipsticks but I wasn’t blown away. They look great on the lips but they’re basically just cream lipsticks in tube form. They are highly pigmented and while they do slightly dry down, they’re not transfer proof. I didn’t find them to be especially long wearing and they are slightly drying on the lips. I recommend them if you can get them on sale but not at full price. 

The Bounce Matte Lipsticks are $16.00 apiece and I have the shade Nolita. Nolita is described as a hot terracotta. It is packaged in a sturdy but light feeling tube.

This lipstick is absolutely beautiful but I’m not crazy about the formula. It’s a dry, stereotypical matte and there’s really nothing special about it. I can deal with a drier formula if it’s transfer proof but this lipstick is not. It’s very basic and I only recommend it if you can get it on sale. 

Final Thoughts:

My first experience with Nabla was completely underwhelming. I don’t understand the hype and I really don’t understand the higher prices. You can get better products from any drugstore brand. With that, let me know what you’ve tried from Nabla and what you think. Thanks for reading and have a great day!