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(* affiliate link) Hey Guys! Holiday season is around the corner once again! Very excited to try out these new 2021 Holiday mini palettes! These are the Nars Unwrapped mini eyeshadow palettes Laguna and Dolce Vita*!
I like a good mini eyeshadow palette that doesn’t need be very versatile but rather focus on quality and the ease of use for traveling! Like the recent mini palette that I reviewed, the Too Faced Forbidden Fruitcake*! I really love that palette (you’ll find out the many GREAT QUALITIES of that palette in my review here!). So when I saw these Nars Unwrapped mini eyeshadow palettes, I immediately pulled the trigger!
I would say at this point that these are not the most interesting palettes in my collection or I have tried so far. I’ll explain my thoughts along the way, but first of all, I’ll give some info about these mini palettes if you’re interested in getting one them!
This is the first time I ever tried these mini palettes from Nars. When I opened the box package, I was actually shocked in how small these palettes are! They are truly mini.
This is the packaging with a size comparison to a USD 25 cents coin:
Table of Contents
About the NARS Unwrapped mini Eyeshadow Palette Dolce Vita & Laguna
This NARS Unwrapped mini Eyeshadow Palette Dolce Vita and Laguna each retails for $25 USD, which from Nars’* claimed to be a $57 USD value palette each.
There are a total of 3 different color stories/varieties of these Unwrapped mini Eyeshadow Palettes. The third one that I didn’t purchase is Orgasm*, which has the lightest color story in general.
Each of these mini palette contains 6 eyeshadows (2 mattes and 4 shimmers/satins), having a net weight of 0.02 oz or 0.7 g each. These are also limited edition.
The names of the shades are labeled at the back of the palettes:
According to Nars, the shadows in these palettes are ‘high impact colors’, which contains “Pigment Power Suspension technology delivers incredible payoff via pigments suspended in an innovative liquid binding system to create rich, long-wearing, high-impact color in one stroke”. Besides, they also claims to be “Addictive, velvety texture easily blends to create smooth, even color”- we will go over this in the next section!
Ingredients and formulation of the NARS Unwrapped mini Eyeshadow Palette Dolce Vita & Laguna
Standard to Nars eyeshadows, mattes all have talc as the first ingredient, same for both palettes. Talc is also the main ingredients for other shimmer shades in the Laguna mini palette.
There is no detectable fragrance from both mini palettes.
Ok, it’s about the formulation! I have to disagree with what Nars claim these eyeshadows to be ‘high impact’! It may marginally applies to some of the shimmer shades in these mini palettes, but definitely not on any of the mattes IMO.
For about Dolce Vita. I think the shimmers are decent- although some may be on the drier side, but they are pigmented and no problem applying with finger or brush. I wish some of the shades are more foiled. I will regard them as regular shimmer- nothing mind blowing.
However, my issue with especially Dolce Vita is that, the mattes almost don’t have any pigments when I swatched them, or even apply to my lid with a brush! You won’t be able to get the shade or pigment you see in the pans. The mattes are fail to me.
For Laguna, it is a much better palette in terms of quality. It is at least what I expect from Nars.. or a mini palette that costs $25 USD.
The lightest shimmer at the upper left (Morongo) is beautiful and foiled on the lid, same for the shade next to it (Sunstorm). The mattes are pigmented in Laguna. Although the 2 brown matte shades appear quite different in depth, they look too similar on the lid. I wish they could have replaced the middle shade in the bottom row with another lighter matte crease shade.
Overall, I like Laguna is a good mini palette quality-wise, but not Dolce Vita.
Swatches for the NARS Unwrapped mini Eyeshadow Palette Dolce Vita & Laguna
I like the color story in Dolce Vita, but the mattes are just not good quality and very faint in color. I did have to build up the mattes to the intensity shown several times, and yet they still looked very light. You’ll need to use the shimmer deep plum shade to deepen the outer corner, or use an outside shade to do that.
For Laguna, I like the swatches much more. It is also significantly less effort to make the color show.
In addition, as I talked about before, the shimmers in Laguna are more intense and foiled. I like Laguna better.
Eye looks created using the NARS Unwrapped mini Eyeshadow Palette Dolce Vita & Laguna
I was disappointed how this look turned out and how much time/effort I tried to make this look better. Both of the matte shades didn’t show up and I had to use the deep plum to deepen the outer corner. The look was muddy imo.
The look created using Laguna turned out to be okay. There wasn’t much issue in the process. However, I have to say, I (and probably many of you guys too) have these shades many times in my eyeshadow collection. Given the quality is just alright, and that there are many affordable brands making much better eyeshadows nowadays with a fraction of what Nars charge, I think these mini palettes are not up to the standard.
Final Thoughts
Overall, unless you’re a collector and just want to have them in your collection, I will not recommend these NARS Unwrapped mini Eyeshadow Palette Dolce Vita & Laguna. The reason being the poor quality of the Dolce Vita palette and extremely common color story of the Laguna palette.
The price of these mini palettes are too high for what you get. Although I think Laguna may be a decent option if you’re a makeup beginner, and just want something handy and travel-friendly.
I will rate these NARS Unwrapped mini Eyeshadow Palette in Dolce Vita as:
- Texture: 5/10
- Color payoff: 4/10
- Longevity on eye lid: 4/10
- Quality consistency among shades: 2/10
- Color scheme uniqueness: 5/10
- Affordability: 5/10
For Laguna, the ratings are:
- Texture: 7/10
- Color payoff: 8/10
- Longevity on eye lid: 6/10
- Quality consistency among shades: 7/10
- Color scheme uniqueness: 2/10
- Affordability: 5/10
