Amateur Approach

I've actually had the LORAC Pro Palette for many months, but apart from a brief mention in the Perfect Palette Tag, I've never been inspired to write about it in any detail. I bought mine from Tarazz, parcel forwarded from Sephora, for around $60. The relative difficulty of tracking down this palette naturally only increased its appeal. The fact you get a generous 16 shades, half matte, half shimmer, made it seem like a worthy investment for eyeshadow novices and experts alike. To be honest, I would say my primary motivation in buying the palette was for the Pewter shade, which I found myself transfixed by. Every swatch I came across of Pewter convinced me I needed the Pro Palette in my life. It's not an inaccurate assessment to say that I basically purchased the whole palette for that one shade.

l-r: White, Cream, Taupe, Lt. Pink, Mauve, Sable, Espresso, Black

l-r: Nude, Champagne, Gold, Lt. Bronze, Pewter, Garnet, Deep Purple, Slate

First off, I have to say I can't fault the pigmentation of these shadows. They generally all have excellent colour payoff. The mattes are some of the best I've encountered, particularly my favourites Taupe, Mauve and Sable, while the shimmery shades are incredibly vibrant, especially the ridiculous Gold and Garnet. The mattes aren't powdery or chalky, though there is a bit of fallout with the darker colours. The metallic shades are the kind that you barely need a brush to apply. You can easily use your fingers to blend out the colours given how smooth, soft and packed with pigment they are.

Despite the high quality of these shadows, my main issue with the palette is the colour selection. It's almost too broad, but at the same time, the vast majority of shades are about as unique as their names. I don't do anything particularly complex or involved with my eyeshadow looks, mostly preferring to stick with a maximum of two colours — one for the lid, one darker which I focus more on the outer corner or blend upwards from the upper lash line. I feel the Pro Palette is oriented more towards those who want to get the most out of their shadows and are comfortable with intricate highlighting, shading and blending.

I've barely touched a lot of these colours because I simply have no use for them or don't know how to use them, e.g. White, Lt. Pink, Deep Purple and Slate. At the same time, there's a lack of those highly sought-after medium, neutral, all-over lid shades (the only two I would classify as such in this palette are Taupe and Mauve). I find the shades are all either too light, too dark, or too colourful and metallic. Even Pewter, the one colour I was most excited about, ended up being nearly as dark as Burberry Midnight Brown, in other words, too heavy to apply as a wash over the lid for the daytime.

All in all, it's a high-performing palette if you know what you're doing with eyeshadow, and you're not afraid of colour with some of the metallic options. When it comes to shade selection, I definitely prefer something like the Urban Decay Naked Palettes or NARS And God Created the Woman. Having said that, there's one shade in the Pro Palette which I love the way I thought I'd love Pewter, and that's Mauve. It's a little cooler, more purplish/grey than Nooner from the Urban Decay Naked3 Palette, but without a doubt one of my most used and favoured matte shadows.