Lorac Pro Palette - Review and Swatches

I have to start this post out by sharing this link to megsmakeup.com. It's from forever and a day ago, but this particular page has a short video clip of her talking to Carol Shaw, the founder of Lorac Cosmetics, and they discuss pronouncing Lorac correctly (LU-rock would be my best attempt at spelling it how it sounds). Since I saw this so long ago, it drives me crazy to hear so many people mispronounce Lorac, even though I completely understand why they are mispronouncing it. I just wanted to do my part to help out the beauty community with one of the confusing brand names out there. :-)

 Now that I've got that off my chest, I'm going to go ahead and review the Lorac Pro Palette, which retails for $42 and can be found at Sephora, Ulta, and Lorac's website.

 I love that the palette itself is nice and compact. There's not much excess packaging. One downside that most people point out is that the rubberized texture of the palette is a magnet for dust and fingerprints.

The palette also comes with a mini Behind the Scenes eye primer. Sadly, it doesn't work for me. My shadow creases when I use it. I've read plenty of positive reviews of the primer though, so I'm assuming it works well for most people.

The palette comes with 16 shadows, 8 matte and 8 shimmer shades. It's this feature that really got people talking about it and what originally drew me to this palette. I'm a big fan of matte crease and highlight/blending colors.

White, Cream, Taupe, Light Pink, Mauve, Sable, Espresso, Black

Nude, Champagne, Gold, Light Bronze, Pewter, Garnet, Deep Purple, Slate

 I love that this palette has an interesting mix of really basic colors and some that are a little more unexpected. It has a shimmery nude shade along with matte browns and a matte black, but it also includes the matte mauve shade, which is something I was wanting to add to my collection, and Pewter and Garnet.

One change that I would make is getting rid of the Champagne shade. I just find it too similar to Nude. I would have liked to see a shimmery soft brown shade in the mix instead.

The shadows are soft and creamy to the touch, but I agree with the people who point out that they are also a little powdery. Tapping the excess shadow off your brush is an easy solution to that problem, and it is a good habit to get into anyway. I also haven't had any trouble blending these shadows.

My favorite shade in the palette so far is the Light Bronze shade, which I actually consider a light golden color. Some golds are so in-your-face that I enjoy finding ones that have good pigmentation but are a bit more subtle, and this one fits the bill.

Final Thoughts

Is this palette worth picking up? Definitely. You might pass if you already have one or more of the other neutral palettes that have come out of the past couple years, but the Lorac Pro Palette has such a great combination of basics in one slim palette that it's worth checking out in person.

Have you jumped on the Lorac Pro Palette band wagon? What's your favorite palette of basic, neutral shades?