LORAC Pro Palette Review, Photos and Swatches

I'm terrible at making decisions, and will do almost anything to avoid making one. I've been looking at the Urban Decay Naked palettes, of which there are now three, trying to decide which one to buy. I haven't been able to decide so why not buy a completely different palette instead?

So here's the LORAC Pro Palette! 16 shades of both matte and shimmery eyeshadows, ranging from white to black, soft pink to silver.

I'd never tried LORAC eyeshadows before, or even any of their other products, but I'd heard some very good things about this palette. Such as, it's better than any of the Urban Decay Naked palettes. High praise!

The palette itself is cardboard, very slim and about nine inches long. There's a good sized mirror embedded in the palette which makes this an excellent palette for travel. Each shadow is 0.02 oz.

Let's take a look at some photos and swatches. The top row of the palette are matte (or mostly matte) colours and the bottom row are shimmery colours. They range, on both rows, left to right, from light shades to dark shades.

Click to view larger.

All 16 shadows swatched.

Let's look at them more closely.

These are the lighter shades. You can see the difference in texture between the matte shades in the top row and the shimmery shades in the bottom row. 

First half of the palette.

First half of the palette swatched on NW15 skintone.
Top L-R: White, Cream, Taupe, Lt. Pink
Bottom L-R: Nude, Champagne, Gold, Lt. Bronze

Close-up Top Row swatches on NW15 skintone.
L-R: White, Cream, Taupe, Lt. Pink

The light matte shades are a bit chalkier than the dark matte shades, as you can see particularly with the Lt. Pink shade above. 

Close-up Bottom Row swatches on NW15 skintone.
L-R: Nude, Champagne, Gold, Lt. Bronze

Second half of the palette.

Second half of the palette swatched on NW15 skintone.
Top Row L-R: Mauve, Sable, Espresso, Black
Bottom Row L-R: Pewter, Garnet, Deep Purple, Slate

Close-up of the Top Row swatches on NW15 skintone.
L-R: Mauve, Sable, Espresso, Black

Close-up of the Bottom Row swatches on NW15 skintone.
L-R: Pewter, Garnet, Deep Purple, Slate

I'm very, very impressed with the quality of these shadows. The matte shades are drier and dustier than the shimmery ones, but that's typical for matte eyeshadows. All of them are very creamy and very blendable. They blend so beautifully that they can barely be seen on the skin.

I'm absolutely loving the options that this palette gives me. I love matte neutrals, and if you do too, this is a great palette option for you. I've been wearing a combination of Cream, Taupe, Mauve, Espresso and Black almost every day to work. I've also been playing with Gold, Lt. Bronze and Pewter.

The back of the palette has a QR code and a note that says "Scan for tutorials". When I scanned it, it took me to the Lorac website selection of the Pro Palette. 

The Lorac Pro Palette comes with a mini Behind the Scenes Eye Primer (0.19 oz) which is a great pairing. The eyeshadows look better applied over a primer and you get to try out the Lorac primer at the same time. 

Lorac Mini Behind the Scenes Eye Primer

I've been using the Behind the Scenes Eye Primer and it's up there with my usual primer - the Urban Decay Primer Potion. It goes on smoothly, you need very little, and shadows look truer, and last longer (my eyelids are oily). 

Lorac Mini Behind the Scenes Eye Primer

The Lorac Pro Palette can be tough to find in Canada as Sephora no longer carries Lorac but it's available in Canada at Canada Beauty Supply for $69.99 (plus shipping if you can't visit a store), and Nordstrom.com sells it for $49.23 (plus shipping). You can also order it via the American Amazon website ($42 US).

Grade: A