Nabla Cosmetics is a cruelty free Italian indie brand that produces mostly vegan products (some of their products contain beeswax). Nabla makes a range of products including base makeup, like foundations and concealers, eye products, lip products and cheek products. Today I have a review and swatches of Nabla Gotham (a contour shade), Harper (a blush), and Angel (a highlighter. The three cheek products I’m reviewing in this post are all vegan friendly.
I have known about this brand for a while, as they make a fair-skin-friendly contour shade, called Gotham. I finally decided that it was time to give that product a try, so I purchased Gotham, as well as a blush called Harper, and a highlighter called Angel from Beauty Bay. The contour and highlight are a part of the Nabla Shade & Light range and the blush is a part of the Blossom Blush range. These products are sold as a single magnetised pan that can be put into any magnetic makeup palette that you own. If you don’t have an empty magnetic palette, then you can buy one of the Nabla branded ones for these products to go in. Each pan contains 3.5 grams of product and has a textured Nabla imprint on the product. They are priced at A$17, but Beauty Bay has frequent sales, so I got mine cheaper than that. None of these cheek products contain silicone, mineral oil, parabens, pegs, phthalates or EDTA. They are lightly scented with Vanilla and Lime, but I really don’t notice the scent when using them.
Nabla Harper is described as slightly peachy, light pastel quartz pink blush. Blush is my favourite makeup product, and this colour of blush is what suits me best. I really like that it isn’t overly pigmented, so I was able to build it up on my cheeks without looking like a clown immediately. So many of the new blush products on the market are just way too pigmented which makes application hard, and I don’t like using a product that takes effort, so this blush is one that I will get lots of use out of. It blends nicely on the skin and it doesn’t look powdery. Nabla have 12 shades in the Blossom Blush range, so there is a shade for every skin tone. I would love to try Daisy, Regal Mauve and Beloved in future.
Nabla Angel is described as a light champagne highlight. with a subtle copper and pink iridescence, and a pearly sheen. There are four shades of the illuminators in the Shade & Glow range, with Angel being the lightest. Baby Glow looks a touch darker than Angel in online swatches I have seen. I was worried that Angel might not be light enough on me, as there are lots of highlighters that aren’t, but it is. Angel isn’t a metallic highlighter that you can see from space, but it is visible on the skin, and it can be applied lightly for a barely-there-glow, which I really like to do. Nabla has recently just launched a new highlighting range called ‘Skin Glazing’ which are very metallic shades. I hope this new release doesn’t mean that the Shade & Glow shades will disappear, as I’m not a fan of a bright highlight and the Skin Glazing shades are much too dark for fair skin.
Nabla Gotham is described as a light taupe matte contour shade. This product is the whole reason why I made the order, and I’m really glad I did. Contours for cool toned fair skin are extremely hard to find. Gotham leans warmer than the other contour shades I have, but it is much less pigmented than any of the others, which makes it really easy to use. Contours that are too pigmented can look a bit like a dirt stripe on my face, and the effort involved in making them sheer and evenly distributed isn’t worth it.
I have done a comparison swatch of Nabla Gotham next to Makeup Geek Cosmetics Break Up contour powder, LA Girl Just Blushing Just Because blush, NYX High Definition blush in Taupe and the old NYX blush in Taupe. MUG Break Up is darker and more olive toned, Just Because is cooler and much more pigmented, NYX HD Taupe is slightly more red toned, and the old version of NYX Taupe is a lot more red. I wish Gotham was cooler toned as it would work better for me that way, but the ease of use makes it my favourite contour shade. Gotham is however no longer on the Nabla website, and the brand hasn’t answered my questions about what is happening with the Shade & Glow line. Beauty Bay however, does still have all the shades in stock, including Gotham. I would prefer it if companies were up front about their product plans, as it helps me to plan ahead. I’m really hoping that I don’t have to find a new favourite contour shade.
I love that Nabla is a cruelty free brand who actually have some shades that cater to very fair skin tones. Their newest foundation, concealer and highlighter releases haven’t had fair skin friendly colours, so I’m hoping this isn’t a trend that the brand follows. Nabla Gotham is my new favourite contour shade, and I was surprised to find that I also really like the Angel highlighter and Harper blush too. I have seen very little about those on social media, so the formulas were a surprise for me. I really hope the brand isn’t planning on discontinuing anything from the Shade & Glow range, especially not Gotham, but we will have to wait and see. If you have fair skin and are looking for a bronzer rather than a contour, then check out my Oliver Bronzer post for some light bronzer comparisons. You can purchase Nabla products directly from their website but it tends to be easier for Aussies to buy their products from Beauty Bay, like I did. Nabla also make some really pretty eyeshadow singles and palettes, I just haven’t had a chance to try any of them yet. If you would like to see a review on that, let me know. I’ll have new blog posts up for you soon, so if you want my new blog posts sent to your inbox, then sign up for email updates. You can also follow me on social media to see what I’m up to – Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
If you have tried anything from Nabla, let me know what you thought about the products in the comments below.
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