Saturday, March 29, 2014

Lorac Platinum Status Eye Shadow Palette: Review, Swatches, & Dupe

NOTE: This palette is no longer available (boo!), but it does resurface at Ulta from time to time, so I thought I would publish this (old, forgotten) review anyway! (Also, please forgive me for the terrible photo quality.)

A few months ago, I was bopping around on the Ulta website when I stumbled across this $12 Lorac palette. That's right, $12 for five Lorac eyeshadows! (There was also a Solid Gold palette, which was the warmer-toned version of Platinum Status). I've head a lot or raves about this brand, but I'd never actually tried it before. So, I picked up this little gem.


Read on to hear my thoughts about this product, along with plenty of pictures...Oh, and a very similar palette from the drugstore that you may already own!

NOTE: 
The Lorac Platinum Status palette is housed in a black cardboard box. (There was also a sticker on the front proclaiming the low price, but I peeled it off...hence the tiny pieces of sticker on the front.) The palette itself is quite simple, but pretty: It is a creamy white color with a raised, quilted pattern all over the front and back. The casing has a gorgeous cool-toned pearly iridescence to it that's hard to capture on camera. It is cardboard packaging secured with a flat magnetic closure, similar to Urban Decay's original Naked palette. The closure and packaging is sturdy enough that I would feel comfortable traveling with it, but it's not going to survive the apocalypse or anything crazy like that.








As for the actual shadows, they are fairly nice quality. This was my first experience with Lorac shadows, but I had high expectations due to everyone's raves about the Pro palette. The first three shades from the left are the best, in my opinion, in terms of quality. They are very smooth and buttery, but produce a lot of fallout when you tap your brush into them. Be sure to tap off the excess before you apply these anywhere on your eye! I haven't tried this, but they actually might work better with a sponge-tip applicator. Overall, though, these shadows perform just fine, and have great color payoff. The two darker shades on the left, while still smooth, have weaker pigmentation. In a way this is a good thing because you won't overdo it with the black, but it still was a little disappointing. The pigmentation improved dramatically over primer, especially with the dark purple shadow.




Going from left to right, here are my opinions on each shade:

#1- A light, irridescent creamy beige shade that looks great as an inner-corner highlight.
#2- A light, cool-toned pink with slight blue shimmer in it that is also somewhat opalescent. Works well as either a highlight or a lid shade.
#3- A medium-dark mauvey purple shade that is muted enough to wear with a neutral look, with a shimmery finish. My personal favorite shadow, and the best of the bunch. Reminds me a little bit of UD Hustle, although it's more purple.
#4- A dark, cool-toned eggplant purple that has a slight shimmer/glitter to it, but isn't noticeable on the eye. As I said above, this one did a lot better, pigmentation-wise, over primer.
#5- A sheeri-sh matte black base with some sparse light purple glitter, which, again, isn't apparent once on the eye.

As a whole, these shadows were more purple-toned than I expected from looking at the online pictures. However, it is a nice little palette that can give a work- or school-appropriate look without screaming "PURPLE!!" When the shadows are blended out on the eye, they are not as in-your-face intense as other formulas such as Inglot, Urban Decay, and Wet n Wild. This is better for a softer look, although you can certainly make it more smoky with the darker shadows.

Now for some swatches under a variety of light sources. (And keep scrolling for a drugstore dupe palette!) First up, no primer:



Over Prestige Primed & Ready Eye Primer:





You may wonder, "Who needs a dupe for a $12 palette?" Well, for those true bargain hunters out there, the Wet n Wild Petal Pusher 8-pan palette is very similar- and only $4.99. It's not apparent at first sight, because the Lorac palette doesn't seem to be quite so purple, but after swatching them side-by-side, a lot of the shades are near exact dupes!









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