Today's post is brought to you by a guest who is one of my cult followers @brelki. She has recently acquired the LORAC Eye Candy Full Face Collection and what a collection it is! As Forrest Gump would say, "If makeup were a box of chocolates, it can only be made by LORAC Cosmetics." Okay, I would really say that. Anyway, I know you are waiting to see the goods in this collection, so take it away Brelki. (Applause!)
Let me first start off by saying that I am a fan of LORAC palettes. I own a few already, and they are some of the most buttery shadows I’ve owned. So when I heard about the LORAC Eye Candy Full Face Collection, I had to order it.
The palette retails for $59 at Sephora, and it includes six palettes – four eye shadow palettes, one eyeliner palette, and one lip/cheek palette.
The packaging is unique and honestly, pretty darn adorable. The palettes come in a lovely box that resembles a box of Godiva chocolates. It’s a heavy duty box, and the end of the bow has a magnet so you can clasp the box back together.
When you open the box, the palettes are organized like six candy bars. Yummy delicious pretty candy bars. They are labeled with candy-esque names as well: Ooh La La Vanilla, Caramel Love Affair, Tantalizing Cocoa, and Blackberry Truffle are the eye shadow palettes. The eyeliner palette is named Mesmerizing Dark Chocolate, and the lip/cheek palette is named Berry Kisses.
Let me start with the eye shadow palettes. They are the usual super buttery and soft, yet pigmented LORAC shades I’ve come to love. Some are on the frosty side, as many of my LORAC palette shades are. All four of the shadow palettes include four shades. From what I can assume (and how I’ve been wearing them), they work well as a highlighter, an allover eye color, a crease color, and a liner. However, I wouldn’t just stick to one palette. Switching up the colors is great fun as well.
So, without further ado, here is the VERY pic heavy review (NOTE: All swatches on NC20 skin.)
Ooh La La Vanilla is described as a “Nude Eye Shadow Palette.”
I immediately thought this would be my favorite palette, as I love me some nude palettes. It contains a great vanilla (appropriate, no?) shade as a highlighter, a nude gold, a matte brown, and a dark brown. It’s a really quite nice daily work eye makeup palette.
Caramel Love Affair is described as a “Golden Eye Shadow Palette.”
I want to like this palette, but it contains very red-based golden browns, which makes it difficult for me to pull off. It actually reminds me of the Croc palette a bit. The highlight is a lighter one than the rest of the palettes. I had a hard time getting it to swatch on my arm. The second color is a bronze, and the last two shades are brown, and a brown that’s redder in tone.
Tantalizing Cocoa is described as a “Bronze Eye Shadow Palette.”
This has been my “go to” palette in the bunch. It’s great for a day-to-night palette. I wear the first three (light as a highlight, medium all over lid, and first dark as a crease and outer v shade). Then, when I need to “freshen up” before going out, I’ve been putting the darkest shade over my liner and in my outer v. It contains a vanilla shade highlight, a light gold, a brown, and a dark brown that’s almost black.
Blackberry Truffle Seduction is described as a “Smokey Eye Shadow Palette.”
This palette includes a white highlighter (no vanilla!), a dark plum, a smoke grey, and a black. The black isn’t as black as I would hope, as it’s only a few shades darker than the grey. Overall, I liked this smokey eye palette a lot, but I wish there were two purple/plum shades, rather than one and then a grey and a black.
Here’s a pic of all four palettes. From top to bottom: Blackberry Truffle Seduction, Caramel Love Affair, Ooh La La Vanilla, and Tantalizing Cocoa
Ooh La La Vanilla and Tantalizing Cocoa looked the most similar in the palette; however, there are some slight differences.
As you can see, the vanilla highlighter is very similar between the both. The second color is more nude gold in the Vanilla palette, and in the Cocoa palette, it is more gold. The third color in the Vanilla palette is matte, while the Cocoa palette is shimmery. Lastly, the final color in the Vanilla palette is a dark semi-matte shade, and the Cocoa palette is definitely darker. Overall though, they are incredibly similar to be in the same collection. I wish LORAC would have gone with one of them and then included a completely different set of colors in a palette (any of the following would have been awesome: a set of teals, blues, greens, or burgundies).
The lip/cheek palette, Indulge in Berry Kisses, is described as a “Cheek and Lip Tint Palette.”
This is probably my least favorite palette in the bunch. I would have preferred powder blushes, as I find LORAC’s to be outstanding. I should also mention at this time that I am not a fan of having lip “stuffs” in palettes. I just never reach for them. All four were pretty pigmented, and the last time was average on my cheeks, and less than average on my lips. I also found they dried my lips out.
The last palette is the Mesmerizing Dark Chocolate palette, which LORAC describes as a “Cream Eye Liner Palette.” I’ve never tried LORAC’s cream eye liner before, but HOLY MOLY, I am a believer now!
This palette really surprised me the most out of all of them. I didn’t expect much, to be honest, as I’ve never had great luck with cream liners. These go on smoothly, they are pigmented, and they lasted all day long with no smudging (NOTE: I do wear MAC CCBs or Paint Pots as bases, so that may have helped as well.) I didn’t have as much luck with my waterline, but I rarely do because of allergies and what not. What I didn’t love is that in the palette, the third shade looks greyish brown. But when I swatched it, it looks pretty much black, it’s so dark.
PROS:Thank you, Brelki! xoxo
- The packaging is adorable and so much fun!
- All in all, the eye shadow palettes I’m quite happy with the quality and consistency. Keep in mind, I also wear them with a MAC CCB or Paint Pot base. I haven’t tried it with UDPP or any other “traditional” primer, nor have I tried them bare.
- I also love that these are in separate palettes. It makes traveling easier – you don’t have one massive palette to lug around.
- I love the texture of the cream eyeliner, and it wears like a beast!
CONS:
- Variety. This is my largest complaint. I wish that Ooh La La Vanilla and Tantalizing Cocoa were a tad more different. I would have also loved a blue/navy palette in here – maybe Chocolate Covered Blueberries? Or as I mentioned earlier, a teal/green palette would have worked wonderfully. Burgundy and peachy pinks would have also gone well with this set. I also wish the eyeliners were more varied. A true brown eyeliner would have been great.
- While I enjoy small palettes, it certainly does make it a little more work to combine colors from different palettes.
- The lip and cheek palette isn’t great in my opinion. LORAC would have been better served to do another eye palette or a powder blush palette (with two long blushes, rather than four tiny ones).
- There are a LOT of frosty shades here. Very few matte shades (only 2 really, and one isn’t really a matte – just less frosty than the rest), which I think is a tad unfortunate.
