An eyeshadow palette you have heard me raving about if you watch any of my Youtube video is Juvia’s Place The Magic eyeshadow palette. It is certainly one of my favorites and one I reach for quite often when I am not trying out something new. If I had to pick one eyeshadow palette that is my ‘perfect one’, it would be this. High time to review, swatch and show you some makeup look with this top favorite palette.
Juvia’s Place The Magic Eyeshadow Palette
Juvia’s Place is a US based indie brand that is available on their official website, in Ulta stores and in Europe via Beauty Bay. The Magic palette is available in two sizes: the full size and the mini. The mini is obviously a bit cheaper than the full size, but Juvia’s Place palette are very affordable. Since this is the biggest size on offer if you buy the full size, you will pay around €35 for the palette depending on where you get it.
The Packaging
I am a fan of the Juvia’s Place packaging. This is a big palette, as I have the full sized palette. However it is still very slim and the cardboard means it is lightweight and easy to clean. I like the design with the different African inspired designs: it is unique, always reflects nicely what comes inside the palette and I love the illustrations and geometric patterns. On the back of the box there is always a little story where the inspiration for the palette. This one is inspired by the Sun and the Moon Goddesses and is part cool toned and part warm toned.
The Eyeshadow Palette
The Magic palette features and equal split between warm and cool toned shadows. There are 16 shades in total and 7 of those are mattes. Everything else has a bit of a shimmer in it. There are a few neutral shades, but they are mainly part of the warmer toned part of the palette. But the matte brown and the matte beige do still work on my skin tone, which means this is also a universally flattering palette.
The pans of this palette are huge! It’s a shame I bought this before the mini version came out because that would have been much easier to store and I know I will never be able to use this up. It comes with a ton of product. It boasts a whopping 57 grams of product. Now if you know that the average Urban Decay palette claims to have around 15 grams and those cost over €50 each, you know this is a good deal as you get a lot of bang for you buck.
The Shades
Let’s have a bit of a closer look at the shades. As you can see 8 of the shades are warm and 8 of them are cool. However, if you look closely than apart from the two shades in the top left row, pretty much any of these shades could work together as blues and peachy pink actually go really nicely together. It really depends sometimes how you pair them whether they pull more warm than cool. My favorite part about this palette are the cool tones (what else is new). You get a few purples, some teals and greens, blues and a stunning silver.
The Swatches
Juvia’s Place is especially known for their shimmer shades and oh boy, are they stunning yet again. The mattes are sometimes a bit tough to work with and especially the two cool toned mattes bottom left and bottom right are a bit thin and take a lot of building up until they show up well enough. Everything blends well but some of the shimmers apply best with a finger as they can be a bit difficult to pick up with a brush. I always have excellent wear time with my Juvia’s Place shadows too, but I do double prime my lids just to make sure everything always stays put.
The Application | 4 Make Up Looks with Juvia’s Place The Magic
Look 1
Lid | Faso
Crease | Nana & Ife
Lower lash line | Vai
Inner corner | Yemoja
Transition | Kesi
Look no. 1 immediately showcases some of my favorite shades in this palette. Faso & Ife make for a stunning purple look with a bit of interest. I used the matte brown to deepen up the purple a bit as it can look a bit sheer. Ife definitely requires a lot of patience as it is a more difficult shade to work with. However with some care and love, you can create some stunning looks. Faso requires a finger to go on fully opaque as well, but it is one of the more unique shades I own.
Look 2
Lid | Nubia
Crease | Zaki & Kogi
Inner Corner | Osun
Lower lash line | Boronu & Zuba
Now I am not a big fan of warm tones and this is a very fiery, warm toned look. That said though, I think this is very beautiful if it suits your skin tone. I am a bit too pale to be able to pull off such an intense gold, but I love the combination with the reddish toned crease. If you blend the gold into Kogi and Zaki you get a really nice orange tone gradient with an intense shimmer running through. This would be a stunning base for a sunrise inspired look.
Look 3
Lid | Buzo
Crease | Aja
Lower lash line | Yejide & Yara
Inner Corner | Osun
I personally love combining greens and blues and this look is a good example of that. Buzo is a stunning grasshopper green shade and the shimmer on this is intense. A bit of a disappointment came in the form of Aja: the shimmer of that shade doesn’t translate well once you blend it out, but the shimmer is also less intense than the other shades which means it still works out in the crease. It is a good shade to deepen up a look though as it is a deep charcoal grey, which is a nice change from the perpetual black that some brands intend on sticking in their palettes.
Look 4
Lid light | Stila Shimmer & Glow Cloud
Lid dark | Ife
Crease | Yejide
Inner corner | Osun
Lower lash line | repetition of lid
For a bonus look I decided to throw in one more: my very first attempt at a cat eye halo eye. I remember throwing this on one random afternoon as I was playing with makeup as I was trying to teach myself how to do a halo eye. Juvia’s Place palettes are perfect for that: they always have an interesting range of shades and therefore they really inspire me to try out new combinations and techniques.
The Conclusion
It’s been a while since I wrote such a hefty review of a makeup product, but the Juvia’s Place The Magic eyeshadow palette is definitely worth it. If you are looking for an affordable eyeshadow palette with an interesting color story that works really well, then this is a palette I would definitely look into picking up.