Dupe the Mood: Natasha Denona Mini Love Palette

Going over my current collection for similar shades to the new Natasha Denona Mini Love palette

About ‘Dupe The Mood’

I’m starting the Dupe the Mood series to see if I can recreate the vibe or “mood” of a palette with eyeshadow shades I already own. There’s been so many amazing, beautiful makeup releases that I find myself swooning over lately. But it can get overwhelming to keep up!

So I hope this series can also help inspire you to search what it is we have in our current collection first, and see if there’s some similar shades in there before deciding on the purchase.

I love makeup shopping, discovering what’s new on the market, and trying out new makeup- but I’m also trying to be a little bit more mindful about it, and reduce impulse buying. But if after “shopping my stash”, I can’t find anything too similar, still feel it in my bones and am thinking about it a week later— I’ll add it to the cart!

I’d like to have a better edit of pieces in my collection, and look for things that are special, or things that I need or really love vs. always wanting the newest item that just launched.

So if it’s not a hard yes, I hope with these series, I can help to show you how easy it can be sometimes to get the same mood of a palette, and won’t need to purchase every new item that gets released.

Let’s Dupe the Mood of the Natasha Denona Mini Love

The Mini Love palette is described as: “A range of five NEW ultra-pigmented pink & purple toned eyeshadows, perfect for Valentine’s Day. Inspired by the Limited-Edition midi-sized, LOVE Eyeshadow Palette. Made with [Natasha Denona’s] iconic formulas in creamy matte, metallic & duo chrome sparkling finishes to create your desired look – from bold smokey eyes, & glistening glam to dreamy everyday wear.”

I adore ND minis. More than I do the larger palettes. Every one I’ve tried in my collection has worked extremely well. I also really like the carefully curated color stories and ease of use. I guess this year I’m leaning towards smaller palettes in general. Being someone who is naturally leans towards the pinks and purples- of course the Mini Love peaked my interest. I had initially skipped out on the mid sized Love palette because I already had the Sunrise and thought there were similar colors between the two. Also, because I’m pretty sure being a pink and purple eyeshadow lover- I must have some of these colors in other palettes in my collection to pull off an ND inspire Love look.

I felt the same way about the Mini Love- it’s a gorgeous palette from the color story to the packaging- but I looked to see what similar shades I had that can dupe the mood of it.

Read on to know what else the dupe shades I found are! They came from the palettes pictured above and I understand to some it may be tedious to look for similar shades from multiple palettes that would otherwise just be in one convenient 5-pan palette.

However if your collection is as extensive as mine, some palettes hardly get used at all, and during this Dupe the Mood process it’s a nice discovery as well as a great chance to use what I have when it calls for it.

The Similar Shades: Mine vs. Theirs

Here is my version of the shades I chose, inspired by Mini Love Palette.

How I choose the shades is by looking at the official swatch photos from Natasha Denona’s website, and watching live swatch reviews of various content creators on YouTube and IG, and seeing what comes to mind that I have similar in my collection. I’ll grab a couple of palettes that have shades that may match, then I do some swatches of it on my arm and I’ll make a final pick on what shade I feel comes the closest to the one I’m trying to dupe.

Natasha Denona’s official swatches tend to always be deeper and more saturated than what it really is. I went through 3 tries and I still felt something wasn’t quite right. So once the Mini Love was gaining more traction, I turned to another talented fellow beauty content creator @m.weber.m for her always reliable swatches to use as reference. As always, she never disappoints! With her swatches as reference, I was more able to see how the colors truly were and behaved to then pick out better matches in my collecion- that can help guide your choices too!

Do keep in mind that sometimes these swatches do vary and are sometimes deeper/lighter than what is shown. So these may not be exact dupes- but more or less, we’ll be able to capture the vibe.

Shade Descriptions and the Palettes they are from

The ND Mini Love Palette descriptions are:
(from left to right)
YOU - Mauvey Rose Gold – 354DC
ARE - Antique Lilac – 355CM
MY- Aubergine (Deep Eggplant) – 356CM
TRUE - Icy Pastel Pink -357M
LOVE- Warm Medium Pink – 358M

Below are the similar shades I found in my collection, inspired by the ND MIni Love:

Side by Side

Here are all the shades side by side with the official swatch photographs from Natasha Denona, in the skintone closest to mine as well as the one from @m.weber.m. You can see how far off the official swatches are from the actual- so I would go with @m.weber.m’s as a reference to how they really are.

For the center plum shade, I decided to keep it as a more apparent purple, even though the original it seems to be more chocolate leaning- but I felt it fit well with the color story that calls for a deep purple, and can still capture the vibe- and once on the lids it will still translate similarly too. It seems that the Mini Love is a more toned down , purple sister of the OG Love palette.

Like I mentioned before, swatches may vary and are sometimes deeper/lighter than what is shown, and do vary with different skintones, so keep this in mind.

These are mine below:

swatchcomparisonsNDminilove copy copy.jpg

The Look I Created

Here’s the look I created using the similar shades I found in my collection for the Mini Love palette. I took inspiration from many of the looks created by Natasha Denona herself, and used all 5 shades.

You don’t need the exact palettes I have to recreate this look inspired by the Mini Love Palette. If you love pink and purple as much as I do, I’m sure you would be able to pull at least 2-3 shades from your collection that can create a similar vibe for this look.

If however you can’t find any similar shades and are truly in love with the ND Mini Love, and wearing purples and pinks is your style- it is a palette that would be a great addition to your collection.

I hope you are enjoying this Dupe the Mood series! If you have any requests for other palettes you’d like me to dupe the mood to- feel free to leave a comment below, or DM me on my Instagram.

Have a lovely week, my friends!