One Week, One Palette: Juvia's Place Nubian 2

For the third week of my one week, one palette project, I decided to go with the newest palette in my collection. I purchased the Nubian 2 palette by Juvia's Place less than two months ago, but since I've started this project, it hadn't gotten much use. 

Juvia's Place owner Chichi Eburu, a woman born in Nigeria, has said about developing her makeup line, "I took a look at the beauty industry, and there was nothing that truly represented black culture. I feel like the market is here, we're [black women] are here, and we're beautiful and no one is listening. To me the idea of a Nubian queen is representative of a beautiful black woman, and that's what I wanted my company to show."

I purchased this palette because I thought it was a beautiful assortment of colors and felt it leaned very neutral overall while still having some beautiful colorful shadows. And I was incredibly inspired by Chichi and what she had to say about the systematic underrepresentation of black women in the makeup industry. The vast majority of the palettes in my collection (as well as those being produced) cater to light skin, and I wanted to add a palette that was specifically designed for dark skin. 

I used every color in this palette this week, which was a first in this project, but did need to use a matte brow bone shadow every day as well as bareMinerals Velvet Pecan to blend in the crease on several days. 

Below are six looks I did this week.

Please note, I used Make Up For Ever Pearl on the inner corner and Kat Von D Laetus under the brow bone every day. 

Look 1:

Cleopatra on the lid, Morocco and Madagascar blended into the crease, and Kenya padded onto the outer corner and blended into the crease. 

Look 2:

Nairobi on the lid, Jezebel blended into the crease, and Leyla lightly blended into the outer corner.

Look 3:

Yaa on the lid, bareMinerals Velvet Pecan blended in the crease, Morocco and Jezebel blended into the crease. 

Look 4:

Egypt on the inner and outer lid, Zuri in the center of the lid, bareMinerals Velvet Pecan blended into the crease, and Kenya lightly blended into the outer corner.

Look 5:

Nefertiti on the lid, bareMinerals Velvet Pecan blended into the crease, and Jezebel padded onto the outer corner and blended into the crease.

Look 6:

Sheba on the lid, bareMinerals Velvet Pecan blended in the crease, Madagascar blended in the outer corer, and Kenya lightly padded onto the outer corner and blended into the crease.

I had an absolute blast using this palette this week, and I have never consistency worn such strong, colorful looks. I loved it. Jezebel was my favorite shadow in the entire palette, but I did enjoy the shimmers on the whole more than the mattes. The mattes were a little dry and stiff compared to what I typically prefer, but they were far from unworkable. I did have to work a little harder with them than my Kat Von D or Viseart Mattes, but they were still fairly easy to work with. There wasn't a typical transition color for my skin color in the palette, so I needed to pull in Velvet Pecan pretty often, but I absolutely love that shadow and was happy to do so. 

I saved Sheba for the last day because I assumed it was going to be my favorite shadow in the palette,  and I thought the look certainly was beautiful, but compared to the rest of the looks I did all week, it seemed a little boring to me. My favorite looks of the week were Look 2, Look 4, and Look 5. I really loved how the yellow and orange golds paired with the magenta in Jezebel. I thought it looked gorgeous on my warm skin and blue-green eyes. I also really loved the blue and orange look, but thought it would have been better suited for a night out instead of a casual Sunday. 

I think this palette would be absolutely stunning on deeper skin tones, but I also love that several skin tones are flattered by the color scheme. This is something that I hope most brands pay attention to. Not only does this palette work for women with skin tones largely glossed over and ignored by other brands, but it is also comprised of really interesting colors that we haven't seen done to death. 

Each day I used this palette was a treat to see how creative I could be while also creating a neutral-enough look for me to feel comfortable. But since the majority of these colors were unique to my collection, I had a blast playing with them. I didn't even set out to use every color in the palette, but the palette is so cohesive and well coordinated that it was natural that several would go together and complement a look. 

I was incredibly pleased with the quality of the palette and felt the shadows outperformed those from Morphe. (There was speculation for some time that Juvia's Place shadows were private labelled same as Morphe, but from my experience using both, they are entirely different formulas.) There wasn't a single shadow in here that I felt performed badly or that I would consider a dud. And considering I used every shadow in the palette, the fact that all of them are great quality is incredibly exciting. 

This is definitely a palette I would recommend for someone who wants to add some color and something interesting to their collection. Juvia's place also sells the Nubian 1, which is a typical neutral palette, and the Masquerade, which is incredibly colorful. The Nubian 2 was the perfect marriage of both for me. Potentially, if you have very light skin with cool undertones, the Nubian 2 might not be the best palette because of all the strong warm undertones, but YouTube reviewer Stephanie Nicole has light, cool skin and mentioned this was also her favorite of all three offerings from Juvia's Place. 

I know I've said this each week, but using this palette all week really curbed any cravings to purchase any of the holiday palettes releasing right now. I definitely did not expect to enjoy using the Nubian 2 as much as I did, and it makes me excited and hopeful that more brands will expand their lines to include all people and skin tones.