Norvina Vol. 3

Anastasia Norvina Vol 3 Pro Pigment Palette ($60.00 for 1.575 oz.) is a new, limited edition 25-pan palette that features an array of hues from yellow to plum to emerald green paired with matte and shimmer finishes.

I don't want to spend too much energy rehashing what I said previously in my Vol. 2 review, so I'll merely summarize for convenience here but encourage interested parties to read that review first for a more detailed breakdown of issues I had with the formulas used in these palettes.

I encountered similar issues with the matte formula used in the palette as I did previously: it was drier, often quite powdery and prone to sheering out (or having fallout), and several shades did not layer on top of or blend well with other shades as they would erase or create bald patches where color used to be. A lot of the vibrancy seen in the pan and when initially applied doesn't continue after a few minutes, even over primer (I used Smashbox 24HR to try with many shades after ruling out Anastasia's own primer, which is terrible--very drying and emphasizes my skin texture like crazy before I even put anything on it!).

The shimmers were easier to work with in this palette, but they were still under-performing compared to the brand's shimmers in the past, including their recent 14-pan palettes released within the last few months. Vol. 3 suffers the same issues as Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 where there are more overlapping shades than you'd think would exist, largely because they don't retain their true-to-pan color in practice, so they end up losing the nuances in depth or undertone once applied.

There are some real duds in the palette, but there were eight (of 25) shades that performed at 87%+ (B+ or better), and several of the D/F-rated shades still had decent to good pigmentation and wear times, so those two areas lifted the entire palette's average out of the realm of a real F rating. It's one of those instances where the overall rating doesn't feel like it reflects the emotional rating of the palette (which had me feeling like my dog applied my eyeshadow based on some of the terrifying results I had).

If you're someone who uses a tackier primer, something more opaque, or possibly something hydrating, it might be better. I don't find a lot of luck using richer, pigmented matte shades over those types of primers (you get the pigmentation but blending becomes a challenge!) so it didn't lift the palette out of the depths of despair for me personally.

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