Cyberpunk Realness with Norvina's Vol. 5 Palette
Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Norvina talks about the NORVINA® Pro Pigment Palette Vol. 5 and her advice for aspiring artists.
With over 1.6 million followers on Instagram, beauty’s very own It girl, Norvina, recently launched the fifth instalment of her ever-popular collection of NORVINA® Pro Pigment Eyeshadow Palettes in Singapore. Since taking over the Anastasia Beverly Hills empire from her mother, Anastasia Soare, Norvina has not only elevated the brand with her creativity and incorporation of funky colours but has made a name for herself as one of the most esteemed young businesswomen in the industry today.
One look at her Instagram page and you can tell that the makeup extraordinaire was meant to stand out from the crowd. Considering her eclectic style, colourful hair, bold makeup looks, and bright personality, it is no wonder Norvina took the beauty world by storm.
In an exclusive Zoom interview, we talked about everything and anything – NORVINA® Pro Pigment Palette Vol. 5, cyberpunk, her motivations and advice for aspiring artists, and her quest to return to Singapore to shop. Though, she could do without the weather: “It was like walking in a sauna. I don’t know how you guys do it,” bemoaned Norvina.
How was designing Vol. 5 any different from the previous palettes?
I really wanted to make a statement with my first two [palettes] and just say, “This is artsy. This is for people who love colour. This is stuff you can’t find, et cetera.” Vol. 1 had purples, but it also had a lot of other colours in there – such as primary tones that had some warmth – and it just gave you a lot. Vol. 2 was very blue-based and Vol. 3 was autumnal – a fall-driven palette. And then I said, “Okay, I want to now start taking colours and do a colour story for someone.” With Vol. 4, it was – if you love pink, this is your vibe.
Vol. 5 is for people who love purples and lilacs. I wanted to give you stuff that you can wear with purple. I wanted to give you accompanying shades all around that you can use to make this a day-to-night palette or a palette that you could wear to work.
I feel like Vol. 1 came in really strong, with the big message being, “This is for the artist.” But then I said, “I think the artist or whomever also needs to go to work or places where they can’t just wear hardcore colours all the time.” I wanted to give you things that you can create – looks that are more wearable, more breathable, and then also very artsy so you have more range if you’re a lover of purples and lilacs.
We got a cyberpunk vibe from Vol. 5. Was that intentional?
Yes! I think it was probably the pandemic – I watched way too much anime and I got so into it. I love the sexy moody lighting! I just think of the alley with the purples and everybody [in anime] looks super cool. I was like, “I want to feel that.” So I made the palette and even made my entire campaign photoshoot all about cyberpunk.
Talk to us about “Norvina’s world”. How did it inspire the lilac palette?
I live in my head a lot. I think that reality is cool, but it’s kind of boring sometimes. The way I break free is to tell stories and I do this by making a makeup product that evokes feelings. If [the product] were a movie, how would you incorporate it into that whole scene? In my ideal world, I would love to live in my cyberpunk world – obviously wearing my palette – and having everybody there with me. But because I can’t, I stretch it so much with the content because that’s when I’m truly living. That’s how I wish everything was.
Tell us about how you created C2 – a shimmer with lilac undertones. How did you go about creating this warm silver and how does it complement all skin tones?
Silver is hard as it’s a very non-complementary colour. The key with silver is that you also don’t want to make it warm where it’s yellow because then it becomes really ugly. It just looks dirty.
When I create any shimmer, I do things in layers. I never go, “I’m going to make orange!” and then just jump straight to orange. I like to create things in tones so that the way you move and the way the light catches you can show different reflections in the colours. I want the colours to be more than just one colour. They have to be unique and they also have to be really hard to copy, which is why I do that.
I used a lot of lilacs and magenta – tones that I like that are very complementary to everyone. I integrated them within the silver to make it softer because silver is very hard.
Personally, what drives you in your work and how does this influence how you manage the Anastasia Beverly Hills empire?
I always want to be better. I’m a person who doesn’t get complacent easily and I’m always uncomfortable. I’m always like, “Yeah, but I haven’t done that” or “I feel like I’ve achieved this, but what am I going to do next year?” I feel like there’s a lot of pressure for me to constantly perform or impress people. I don’t even take too much time to celebrate.
I’m a people pleaser, number one. I don’t want to let people down, but I also don’t ever want people to forget me. I have to constantly push myself to keep standing out. I come from a family full of artists so getting noticed is hard. Everyone’s a performer and good at what they do, so it’s tough to compete.
The makeup industry is the same. It’s very competitive. I think it’s one of the toughest industries, even fashion is more forgiving. It’s one of those things where you do something and people are like, “Yeah, that’s great. But what are you going to do next?” And you’re like, “Oh my God, I literally just did all of that!” So you constantly have to reinvent yourself and give people what they want right now, which is ever-changing.
Many people love how you elevated the Anastasia Beverly Hills brand with your fresh takes. What does that mean to you and what advice would you give to aspiring makeup artists who look up to you and are still honing their craft?
Oh, that’s so cool! That’s a huge compliment. One of the things that I’m driven by and I think that makeup artists should be driven by is, first and foremost, passion. If there’s no passion, it’s going to be hard to sustain because this job is hard and it’s not very rewarding. You have to work a long time before you get a reward. And like I said, when you get the reward, people are like, “Okay, cool. What’s next?” So you have to be driven by certain benchmarks that you set for yourself. And once I meet them, I’m fulfilled and happy that people are excited or if they like the product. But then you have to be ready to move on to the next thing.
I think that a lot of people think that it’s like, “Let me work really hard, that I’m going to get to this place, and then I’m good.” You have to keep going, and I know that’s not the most encouraging advice, but it’s the most real advice I can give. I don’t care how hard you work or if you make it, you have to not get comfortable and stay on it if you want to stay in the game. And if you don’t, that’s fine – if that’s just a personal journey for you.
I think the most important thing is that you have to commit. It takes over your whole life. I am married to what I do. It’s my child, it takes priority. You have to ask yourself, “Are you passionate enough that you want to sacrifice that much?” Because you might realise you don’t care that much – and don’t do it then. It’s not worth it.
You have to find something you love that much if you’re going to be successful at anything. I don’t care what it is, it has to be the love of your life. Otherwise, it’s really hard.
