Laura Mercier Holiday 2013: Artist’s Palette for Eyes

Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette for Eyes is a special limited edition release for Holiday 2013, exclusive to Sephora (although there has been some reports of it being sighted in some of the departmental store boutiques in the US).  The palette was one of the first things to be snapped up during the last Sephora VIB sale, but thankfully on our sunny shores, it is still available!

I am actually not a fan of big palettes, by which I mean anything containing more than 5-6 shades.  The reason is because I like being able to see a distinct color story (and I don’t mean NUDE), and take the guesswork out of pairing shades.  Also, my tiny thieves’ hands cannot hold onto anything bigger than a regular compact… the last time I worked my Shu Uemura x Takashi Murakami 6HP Enchanted Black palette (reviewed here), I smash it into smithereens!  So, I resisted quite a bit with this palette, but finally succumbed after swatching it (and I had a severe case of peer persuasions).

First of all, this is a sleek palette, one that is just the right width to fit comfortable in my hand!  And I loved the faux stingray leather casing with the magnetic foldover closure… no clunky catch to trip over *yay*!

The Artist’s Palette contains 12 eyeshadows in varying shades of peach, brown and plum.  The textures are all incredibly soft to the touch, and very finely-milled.  Perhaps due to my initial reluctance with this palette, I am somewhat unimpressed after weeks of experimenting.  Despite the lovely texture, there were a couple of shades that were rather sheer – i.e. Vanilla Nuts and Kir Royal.  Also, I had alot of difficulty getting the lighter shades to show up on my skin – i.e. Sparkling Dew, Vanilla Nuts, Guava and Primrose.  Many of the shimmer shades lost their shimmers upon application, and I had difficulty getting them to show up even by patting them on with a stiff brush.

These swatches are the top row of Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette.  From left to right:

• Sparkling Dew – pale peach-ivory with a slightly frosted finish.  This is near to impossible to show up on me, I had to swatch 4-5 times for the photo above.
• Guava – light shimmery peach, and tends towards cool-toned on me.  Again, this is a very heavy swatch in order to show.
• African Violet – medium purple with golden frosting, and is warm-toned on me.  The purple base note leans towards red, and there is a distinct gold overlay that is very difficult to photograph.
• Plum Smoke – light-medium purple with a matte finish.  This shade kicked up quite a bit when I dipped into it, and has a slight grayish cast to it.
• Kir Royal – medium-dark eggplant with a satin finish and warm undertones.  This shade is one of the sheerest in the pan, and does not apply as smoothly as the rests.
• Violet Ink – dark purple with a matte finish.  This is one of the most pigmented shades in the palette.

Swatches of the lower row of Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette, from left to right:

• Vanilla Nuts – light ivory with a matte finish.  Just like Sparkling Dew, this is near to impossible to show up on my skin, except with an extremely heavy hand.
• Primrose – light-medium shimmery beige.  This shows up the best out of all the light shades in the pan, but still needs some work.
• Fresco – light brown that has a tinge of peach, with a matte finish
• Bamboo – medium shimmery golden brown.  Somehow, the shimmers disappear when applied on my lids even when patted on.
• Truffle –  medium-dark reddish brown with a matte finish
• Espresso Bean – dark blackened brown with a matte finish

I think my biggest gripe with this palette is there isn’t a single shade here that was a knockout shade for me.  A lot of people raved about African Violet, but I personally felt the gold and purple within the shade didn’t integrate well, there was no duochrome complexity to African Violet which was disappointing to me.  It performed the same way as if I had layered a golden shade over a purple.

Here is another swatch of African Violet which is closer to how it actually looks:

Overall, Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette leaned more towards warm, muted neutrals, which just doesn’t work very well on my NC20-25 cool-toned skin.  I wished there were 1-2 more outstanding colors to make me go “WOW”, perhaps 1 of those gorgeous coppers or golds that Laura Mercier produced for Summer 2013 (briefly reviewed here).  Many of the shades don’t show up very well on me, and the ones that do are so soft there is a tendency to over blend and turn them into a muddy mess.  Regardless, I tried my best to experiment with a few EOTDs, and here they are:

Guava all over lid up until crease, Bamboo layered on top of Guava from lash line up to middle of the lid, and Espresso Bean along outer half of lash line

Primrose on inner half of lid, African Violet on outer half, and Violet Ink in crease. Espresso Bean to line lower lash line.

Vanilla Nuts as base all over lid, Guava on inner half of lid, Bamboo on outer half, Espresso Bean along upper lash line in the outer half

Would love to hear your thoughts on this palette!  xoxo