KITTENMOUSTACHE: Review: LORAC Pro Palette

I'm definitely late to the party here, but better late than never!

This palette contains 16 eyeshadows - the top layer has 8 matte shadows, and the bottom layer has 8 shimmery shadows. So there's a nice balance of each to be able to do a variety of different looks. I really love that because I find palettes usually don't have enough matte shades.

The price was around $45 with tax, which is approximately £27. It also comes with a 5.5g sample of the LORAC Behind The Scenes Primer, which I really appreciate because who doesn't love a free gift? Especially one I know I'll get a lot of use out of.

In case you're wondering how I got my hands on this palette when I'm outside of the US - my dad picked it up for me when he was on a course there. However, I have done some investigating, and the Nordstrom website delivers internationally using the same company as Sephora. Since my order from Sephora was successful I know that it works.

The palette itself is actually a lot smaller than I had imagined when I looked at photos online. It's really slim and compact so it's also great for travelling, and because it has 16 shades you are still able to create different looks. Plus it's so easy to store!

The quality of the eyeshadows is great. As most beauty addicts will assume, the shimmery eyeshadows perform the best where pigmentation is concerned. In terms of texture they are soft and smooth eyeshadows, with little to no fall out when applied to the eyelid. I do find though that when you put your brush onto the eyeshadows in the pans there is a bit of mess. Don't take that as too much of a bad thing though, the eyeshadows are not crumbling or breaking, you just have to make sure you tap your brush so the excess powder comes off and doesn't land on your face.

The range of colours I actually think is great, too. This may seem strange, but when you think about it - how many palettes actually contain both a white and black? I just love that two of the most basic colours are included in this palette, along with a range of inbetween shades in both matte and shimmer! Plus there are also some really interesting shades like Pewter and Garnet so you can add hints of colour as well.

The only shades I have specific comments to make about are Deep Purple and Gold. Deep Purple is darker than I would like, as it comes out as almost black, despite being named purple. It otherwise performs really well and is one of the most highly pigmented shades in the palette. Gold is also well pigmented, as you can see in my swatch photos, but it applies so unevenly onto the lid that I was disappointed. I tried using different brushes and spraying it with Fix+, but it just didn't perform as well as the others.

I have used numerous shades from the palette on my eyelids already, and they have all easily applied and been easy to blend. Like I said above Gold does apply unevenly, but it blends just as well as the others do.

The primer is a light cream colour, and feels like it might contain silicone. It's not thick or heavy, glides really nicely onto the eyelids, and feels soft and smooth. Once applied I find it does give some coverage, and evens out the skintone of the lid. I used the primer with the shadows, and found they stayed on all day with no issue.

For some of the eyeshadows I had to do a two-layer swatch, and for others you could see the colour clearly with a swatch that took only one swipe of my finger. I will list these so you can see which colours are the most pigmented, and which require some layering:
1 layer: Mauve, Sable, Espresso, Black, Gold, Lt. Bronze, Pewter, Garnet, Deep Purple, Slate.
2 layers: White, Cream, Taupe, Lt. Pink, Nude, Champagne.
That basically translates as - the lightest shades take some building, particularly the matte ones. However, the darker shades perform very well, and I am impressed!

So now for swatches and photos of an eye look I did. I used primer to create the eye look, but not for the swatches. Please let me know in the comments if you would like a video tutorial of the look.