Lorac Pro Palette 3- Part I The Matte Eye Shadows

In which I shop in the middle of the night.

It doesn't make much sense considering I had zero interest in the first two Lorac Pro palettes or in any of the holiday Mega collections. I can't even explain why, other than feeling that I have enough variations on this theme, and the fact that Lorac as a brand has changed dramatically from an indie makeup artist venture to this YouTube/Instagram beast. Twelve years ago I used to be very excited about Lorac, but over the years my interest has waned considerably, even though the quality of the product seems to have held. It still doesn't explain why all of a sudden I needed to have the Pro 3 palette, which after several hours of internal monologue found me in the middle of the night clicking frantically on the pre-sale link Ulta had sent to Premium members.

It's pretty, and I like the summery vibe of the packaging (same cardboard as the other Pro palettes, just beige). The box includes a mini Lorac Behind the Scenes eye primer. I've never had much luck with Lorac primers, so I only use them when swatching stuff on my arms. It's a beauty blogger thing, obviously, having eye primers, face primers, and arm primers. As you can see, the box tells us that the Pro 3 palette was "assembled in the US of US and non-US materials". It can mean just about everything, and is annoyingly vague. I still have some really old Lorac palettes that were manufactured in the US, as well as a newer ones that were made in China (last summer's Heartbreaker palette is a good example). I do prefer my ancient Croc and Snake Charmer palettes, but it has more to do with the combination and the gorgeous blushes they included. But non of this is relevant to Lorac Pro 3, which stands on its own and has won me over completely.

Lorac Pro Palette 3 offers sixteen eye shadows, half matte and half shimmer. The Pro formula can be used wet or dry, which in my opinion is  more significant for the shimmer shadows. The mattes are better and easier to blend when dry, but they do kick a powdery cloud when you get your brush in there. Since pigment intensity is above excellent, a soft semi flat brush works best for me (Hakuhodo Kokutan or S100 series are especially great, and that's what I used for swatching here).  The top row is all matte and that's what we're looking at today. The names are mostly self explanatory, but I'll try to be more specific.

Blanc. A warm parchment, not snow white.
Canvas. Beige. Nearly identical to my skin color, so I'd say it has a dirty yellow undertone.
Cool Taupe. Pretty much.
Pink Nude. Spot on, though my skin skews it towards peach, especially on my lid which is darker.
Clay. A warm mauve taupe. Born for the crease.
Terracotta. More like Siena, or somewhere between Siena and camel.
Dark Brown. On the cool side.
Jet Black. Lorac really does makes great sooty blacks.

Lorac has definitely nailed the mattes. This is an excellent selection of the most usable matte eye shadow colors one could ask for, and grouped together they make a strong statement for the quality of the palette. And don't forget it's only half. Next time I'll show you the shimmer shadows, which we all know are the most exciting part.

Lorac Pro Palette 3 ($44, origin somewhat questionable but assembled in the US) will be available from Ulta online on the 12th of June and in store on the 26th. I bought it during the pre-sale.