This isn't my first palette but oh, how I wish it were. My first eyeshadow palette is the NYX Runway Collection in 01 Jazz Night. I thought it had enough usable shades (grays, browns, lilacs and blues) but as time went on, I almost exclusively kept dipping into the champagne-brown duo.
Nudes are the easiest eye shadow shades for beginners to use as anything skin tone is more forgiving of mistakes. Any imperfection in the application of jewel-tone eye shadow will be immediately obvious. Think about it: if the color is somewhat close to your skin tone, overshading and improper blending isn't as obvious as if it were done with unnatural colors like green, blue or red.
 |
| Lorac PRO Palette and Primer |
I chose Lorac PRO over the NAKEDs because LP has 8 matte shades and 8 shimmer shades while the NAKEDs are the dirty dozen of shimmer. No matter how light, shimmer looks done up and sometimes I don't want to look done up. Sometimes I just want to shade my eyes enough to not look like two slits on a fucking flat slab of dough.
More to like: Lorac PRO has a complete spectrum of pale lid washes, medium crease colors and deep liner colors on BOTH mattes and shimmers. There's also a couple of jewel tones (Garnet and Deep Purple) both on the shimmer side, if you feel like playing around with color a bit. Furthermore, the names are soooo obvious and not gimmicky so the names stick to my mind.
The kit comes with a tube of primer and is housed in cardboard packaging. It feels sturdy enough but is a bit of a dust magnet. On the plus side, it's incredibly compact. It is almost as thick as my Samsung S5 and is 1.3x as long. There's a mirror on the lid which I actually favor using over my magnifying mirror!
Swatches / Review:
THE MATTES (ROW 1)
The mattes are surprisingly buttery... A little less than the shimmers, but still! Mattes are normally difficult for beginners but with this level of quality, you don't need as much skill. With chalky eye shadows, I never know where the color will pat on and where it won't making my shadows look wonk as hell!
My favorites are the crease colors: Taupe, Mauve and Sable.
 |
| Lorac PRO Palette Swatches |
White - Highlight. I use it as a subdued highlight or a highlight for matte looks, best worn around the eyebrow tail and bridge of the nose.
Cream - Lid wash. Close in color to Lt. Pink but Cream is the most skin-tone shade of the bunch for me. I use it for very subdued looks.
Taupe - Crease. Taupe would be the medium crease color out of Mauve and Sable. It's a cloudy brown that's a tad deep on me at times but would be a great go-to crease color for NC 30-35 skin tones.
Lt. Pink - Lid wash. Great skin tone lid wash, but has a little kick of brightness if you want your eyes to pop a bit- as much as mattes can pop.
Mauve - Crease. This is the lightest matte crease color. It's a purple-leaning brown perfect for shading fairer skin tones.
Sable - Crease / Liner. Sable is a medium reddish brown. Depending on the mood, I use it either as a crease color or liner color.
Espresso - Liner. This is a really deep... espresso color. I'm extra careful with it because a microgram of excess product looks way too much on me. I love applying this using a small shader brush on the lower lash line.
Black - Liner. It's not sticky nor messy so it's the ideal smokey eye trainer. Unfortunately, it's too deep on me so I tend to limit the use of Black.
THE SHIMMERS (ROW 2)
The Shimmers are just perfect. The glitter particles are fine enough to look shimmery but not too much that they fall out or look clumsy.
Tonal differences are harder to spot amongst shimmers so I like that there's varying levels of glitter amongst the similar shades, Nude and Champagne. It's no small coincidence that they put the jewel shades here; color looks better in shimmer and the lack of variation gave them more room.
My favorites are the lid washes: Champagne and Lt. Bronze.
 |
| Lorac PRO swatches |
Nude - Highlight. This is the frostiest shade and reserved for the tear duct, water line and the center of the lid.
Champagne - Lid wash. This is my favorite lid wash. I can wear it alone and sometimes, it feels enough. It's a bit rosy and brightens up my eyes just enough without making them frosty.
Gold - Lid wash / Crease. Gold is a yellowy shimmer which I can wear alone or as an accent color. It's the butteriest shade in the palette.
Lt. Bronze - Lid wash. Another favorite. Light bronze is another skin-tone shimmer wash but with a bit more pop of brightness than Champagne.
Pewter - Crease. Pewter is the perfect crease when I'm working with the shimmer shades. Its deep enough to create shadow but has enough shimmer to seamlessly blend with the other shimmer shades.
Garnet - Jewel. Garnet seems innocuous enough but it stands out so starkly against my skin. In some lights it looks really orange, which I find difficult to wear.
Deep Purple - Jewel. More deep than purple, this shade is a good transition to smokey eyes. Oddly, the shimmer on pan doesn't translate a lot.
Slate - Liner. Slate applies waaaay darker than how it appears on pan, and like Deep Purple, I reserve it for transition smokey looks, i.e. not full-on black smoke.
 |
| Lorac PRO Palette |
In sum, I love this palette to death. The colors are easy to work with and the selection is absolutely versatile for the 16 shades provided. I can do anything really light, really dark, one-note or multi-dimensional.
HOWEVER, if I'd known about it then, I'd probably obsess over Lorac Unzipped Gold. It's more compact, less repetitive and the shades they retained look mighty similar to the favorites I mentioned above. Come to think about it, I'd probably still stick to the PRO as I would stubbornly want for a bit more options even though I'd be making more use of the Gold.
 |
| source |
Once lighting permits, I'd love to do a follow-up featuring my favorite, reliable Lorac PRO looks!
