♕ Nabla Cosmetics ~ Freedomination Collection Part 2: Eyeshadows & Liners ♕{Overview, Swatches & Comparisons}

{Disclaimer: this post is an overview about a collection I got for free as press sample. I'd like to thank NABLA Cosmetics for the opportunity, anyway my evaluation policy doesn't change and is always based on real use and in-depth testing of the product(s)}

Last week NABLA Cosmetics, on time like every year, launched their summer collection: Freedomination, which is the biggest collection they ever released so far. 
It consists of 10 eyeshadows, 4 Diva Crime lipsticks (featuring a new, limited edition packaging), 2 Dreamy Matte Liquid Lipsticks (introducing the new metal finish),  2 Dazzle Liners, 2 Blossom Blushes, 2 Shade&Glow (one highlighter and one bronzer) and two limited edition Liberty palettes.

After showing you lipsticks and face products (here), it's time to show you the eye products: all (well, almost all) the new eyeshadows and the eyeliners! 
Ready, set... splash!

The Freedomination Collection includes, as I said, 10 eyeshadows, 2 Dazzle Liners and also two limited edition Liberty palettes with the most beautiful (in my opinion) decoration so far.

I mean, seriously, look at them! *_* The artwork is stunning - watercolour vibes, reminds me of the sea waves and water flowing in general, and the gold detailing is simply precious.
Also, this gold serigraphy looks more resistant than the one of last year's Mermaid palettes (which was fading quite quickly so I put them away and stored my least used shadows in there).
(Background is the mermazing matching Freedomination Box collector's edition - sadly already sold out! - which is so pretty I might turn it into a jewelry box)

How pretty and mesmerizing is this design? I could stare at it four hours - and never get tired of it (yeah, these are my favourite so far!).
Along with the classical Liberty Six (featured in every collection of the past two years), they introduced a new size: the Liberty Four, which can contain 4 eyeshadow pans (or 1 blush pan).
Personally I'd preferred a Liberty 12 instead - having many, many pans the bigger the palette, the better - but I can see how a Liberty 4 could be handy for those who don't own/use many eyeshadows.
Anyway, I'll definitely buy at least one more Liberty Six (and one more Liberty Four for my mom).

This year's eyeshadow range is really well put together, overall. There are two new Celestial shades (can be used alone or as top coat over pencils or other eyeshadows), three Satin, one Bright and four Super-Matte. (No new Super-Brights, sadly)

The theme, inspiration of this collection is freedom - freedom in every way (thoughts, creativity, expression...).

Personally, between the palettes design and the colour range of the shadows, I can't help but think that this collection is subtly connected to last year's - the  Mermaid. Which totally makes sense, since mermaids are a symbol - among other things - of freedom.

Let's see the eyeshadows now! (My very favourite makeup product ♥)

I'm going to show you nine of the ten new shade - all except Alchemy, which was already sold out when I went to the local retailer.

The marked (*) products are the ones I got as press sample. The un-marked ones where purchased by me.

*Virgin Island: "Turquoise with light blue, pink and violet reflects". Celestial

Love at first sight, since it was revealed in MrDaniel's (NABLA's art director) Instagram Stories. In two words: dream eyeshadow. 
It's so bright and pigmented (the most pigmented of all the Celestial, so far) that I mistook it for a Super-Bright at first. 
The shade is beautiful and extremely mermaidy: a bright turquoise/blue filled with millions of pink and violet sparkles. Its name is SO appropriate *_*
I've already tested it in quite some looks, used alone, as top coat and applied over a black base. Either way it's stunning - I highly recommend trying it applied on a black pencil: it gets darker, but the sparkles stand out even more!

Freestyler: "Baby blue-gold duochrome". Satin

This shade wasn't revealed until the press release, but caught my attention right away. It's an interesting shade: baby blue, muted, with a gentle gold duochrome.
Really pretty, nicely pigmented and silky. So glad they added a light blue shade, it was highly needed in the range!
For a second, when I saw the pictures on the press release, I thought it could be a little silver-ish - but it's not. It's a real baby blue!

*Mystic: "Metallic mauve with pink-champagne reflects". Bright

This eyeshadow is a big surprise: in all honesty, I wasn't that excited when I saw it the first time (on NABLA's Stories). I'm not a fan of mauve, first of all, and this shade didn't seem special.
But I was wrong. It's mauve, yes, but it has quite some pink in it - and is so bright and shiny. To the point I almost thought it was a Super-Bright.
Not exactly a groundbreaking shade in NABLA's range (one similar shadow is Entropy, for example, see swatches) but thanks to its texture it manages to stand out. 

*On the Road: "Bronze brown". Satin

This is the only shade that looks a little out of place. Bronze brown, simply as that - buttery, pigmented, bright even though it's a satin (just like Freestyler). Perfectly matches with Goa, they're a great eye/lips combination.
I've yet to do a proper look with it but I do have a some ideas already, I'm getting used to shades that are out of my comfort zone (like this one) and it's fun to try new colour combos :D
I just need to decide which one to do first XD

*Millennium: "Light gold duochrome with coral-pink reflects". Satin

The eyeshadow highlighter of this collection: the description perfectly fits, as it's a really pale shade of gold filled with pink reflects. So filled, that once applied they almost overwhelm the base colour - making it look like a bright pink/coral shade. And that's what happens with Obsexed too - in my skin, at least. They look so similar (in terms of reflects) that once applied I struggle with telling them apart. Guess they'd perform much better on tanned/darker skin tones. 

*Blue Velvet: "Night blue". Super-Matte

Most appropriate name ever: looks like it's made out of velvet.
Finally, finally a matte blue shade! In the last couple of years I understood how necessary matte shades are - especially for blending and transitions. I will be forever a huge fan of shimmering eyeshadows, but know I really appreciate matte shades and I always look for new ones. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw that NABLA was about to release 4 new Super-Matte shades in such fun and bright colours!
Since I use blue a lot, Blue Velvet is more than welcome in my stash. It's dark - but not black - wonderfully pigmented and blendable (like all the other Super-Matte shades). Perfect to add depth, to create smooth blendings/transitions.

*New Heaven: "Aquamarine". Super-Matte

Another mermaidy shade, it's my favourite of this collection and potentially my new favourite NABLA eyeshadow.
Pure and simple - so to speak - aquamarine, another dream eyeshadow came true. This is what I meant when I said (last year when the Mermaid collection launched) "we need a Caribbean blue"! *_*
The pigmentation of this eyeshadows is unreal, so intense and rich. (I'm pretty sure I've already used this same words to describe it but oh well, that's the way it is!)
You don't really need to layer to achieve this bright shade, it's a true-to-pan eyeshadow (just like the others, by the way).

Lotus: "Cool pastel pink". Super-Matte

Another unique shade, more than welcome in my stash!
Such a dreamy and romantic eyeshadow, in my opinion. If Virgin Island and New Heaven are mermaid shades, Lotus is definitely an unicorn colour!

Finding pigmented pinks is really hard, but this one it's very true-to-pan and doesn't need layering. Needless to say, it's so easy to blend! I love to pair it to Eresia (they're made to each other) but it really gets along with both Blue Velvet and New Heaven as well!

Eresia: "Warm purple". Super-Matte

Arm... Warm?
On my skin is quite cool toned XD 

Anyway, great purple shade: intense and rich, not extremely dark, very pigmented. Another highly, highly needed shade in NABLA's range. Yeah, we already have Mimesis, but as you will see in the swatches, it's a completely different shade of purple. 

I am seriously in love with this Super-Matte texture: beyond silky, so easy to blend. It's like they blend all by themself, it's unreal. I think I've already said this in the Sea Goddess post but, since I didn't buy Paprika and Radikal (the first ever Super-Mattes released with the winter collection), those are my first shades in this new texture and thus I was so excited to try them, at last. To me they're BOMB, nothing like the Soft Matte - good eyeshadows, mind you, I use them all the time (Nocturne, Narciso, Fossil & friends)... But the difference in blending is noticeable. I would love to see them turned into Super-Mattes!
Back to this new four shades, they've already become must haves of mine - all of them. 

Alchemy is still missing, sadly. I was very curious, although I wasn't 100% sure it could fit me - mostly because of its base shade ("burnt peach")... The more I look at it in other girls looks, though, the more I get convinced it looks really really pretty with its fuchsia & teals sparkles *-*
But as I said, it was already sold out! Next time, perhaps.

I'll admit it - I squealed with joy when they announced that this collection was going to include two more liquid liners aka Dazzle Liners. You know how much I love Klimt, the Dazzle Liner from the Goldust Collection - no wonder I was so excited XD

*Purity: "Mother-of-pearl duochrome"

As I said in the previous post (Sea Goddess Makeup Look), Purity seems to be made out of pure magic. 

Might look like a simple white eyeliner - but no, oh no. Depending on the light, I change to a pinkish white or a bluish white.

Might not look rich or pigmented, but it is - I recently did a makeup where I used both Purity and KVD Tatto Liner - the latter being just an outline; at some point I noticed I had to thicken Purity's line, so I had to apply it on top of Trooper - and honestly I wasn't sure it could cover it up... But it did, wonderfully and easily. Once I was done, I couldn't tell that, in that point, there was Trooper underneath.

Its texture is slightly thinner and lighter compared to Klimt, but this doesn't affect pigmentation or application at all.

*Crystal: "Light blue duochrome with a gold-silver sheen"

Another favourite piece of this collection! Mermaid eyeliner, anyone? xD

I've never seen such a bright light blue liquid liner. It shines like a gemstone - throw it in to even the simplest look to add a special touch to it.

It's supposed to have both a gold and silver sheen, but on my only the silver one shows up. Anyway, it's stunning - pigmented and long lasting just like Klimt (same goes for Purity).

Apart for the slight texture difference, and the different colour of the cap (that matches the collection) there're no more differences with Klimt. The packaging is the very same, as well as the brush included. Made out of bristle, really fine and precise - a big yes for me!

Needless to say, I'll be getting backups of both Purity and Crystals since they're limited edition. Why NABLA, why? ç_ç

Natural lighting, eyeshadows were applied dry with no primer underneath. Click to enlarge!
My skin tone is NW15

Let's start with a big family portrait of all the eyeshadows (above) and a close up of the two liner (below)!

All the shadows where finger-swatched, they're all silky/buttery and well pigmented. The liners, as I said, have a thinner texture so they might not look rich and full on the arm swatch - but they're on the lids, they really are!

~ Comparisons ~

I love this picture, because those are basically the colours of my mermaid tail XD I need to do a mermaid look using them all!

New Heaven VS Shore Thing by MUG: they're different in both shade and pigmentation: Shore Thing is way lighter, greener and less pigmented compared to New Heaven - which is purely aquamarine and is so intense.

Virgin Island VS Poolside by MUG: completely different shadows, as Poolside is shimmer but nothing like Virgin Island which is literally full of light. Poolside is also quite hard on the pan (it's my only MUG shadow like that luckily), while Virgin Island is beyond buttery.

Eresia VS Mimesis: this is pretty self explanatory! Two completely different shades, a dark eggplant vs a bright purple - and also two different types of matte. 

On the Road VS Unrestricted: another quite different colours, with On the Roady being a bronzed brownish shade with a gentle sheen, and Unrestricted being a deep burgundy with strong golden sparkles. 

Lotus VS Lilac Wonder VS Calypso VS Hopscotch by MUG: Hopscotch has more blue in it than Lotus, much like Lilac Wonder which is a pale violet shade. Lotus looks more related to Calypso - a pink purple shade. (I need to try those two together!)

Blue Velvet VS Baltic VS Boo Berry by MUG: Blue Velvet reminds me a lot of Baltic, as they're both dark and intense. Anyway, Blue Velvet looks a tad 'brighter' - I think it has less black in it than Baltic. Boo Berry is a completely different shade of blue, instead: a medium denim blue that I think could easily get along with Blue Velvet.

Mystics VS Entropy VS Chemical Bond: here you can clearly see what I meant before. Mystic, compared to both Entropy and Chemical Bond has more pink in it. Both Entropy and Mystic are mauve, and they look quite similar, but that pink addiction helps Mystic stand out. Entropy has a golden/taupe base, while Chemical Bond is a bronzed platinum shade.

Monoi VS Obsexed VS Sugar VS Sensuelle: capturing in picture Monoi and Obsexed is a mission impossible, my phone and I almost freaked out. This picture just shows you the base colours of both - peachy for Obsexed, the palest gold for Monoi - but not the strong pinkish sheen they both have (that on my skin looks almost the same). 

Anyway, the look different from both Sensuelle and Sugar, as they have a light pink base and gold sheen/sparkles.

(If you need a specific swatch/comparison let me know in a comment!)

My very first impressions about this collection (regarding eye products) are extremely positive, I'm really really happy with the eyeshadow range - so many new interesting and useful shades - and of course I'm over the moon because of the new Dazzle Liners. This collection definitely is my favourite on a tie with the Mermaid - which is no small thing ;D Kudos, NABLA!

The Freedomination Collection is available at www.nablacosmetics.com (and authorized retailers) and there's a special promo (ends on July 23, 2017):

~ 10% off all eye makeup products

~ 50% off worldwide shipping

~ Up to 20% off the bundles

What are your thoughts about this collection?
What's your favourite eyeshadow/liner? Have you already bought something?

Tell me everything ♥

Mermaid kisses and starfish wishes ♥