The obsession with the original Lorac Pro Palette was real, especially by bloggers and beauty fanatics, but for good reason as who could ignore the buttery soft shadows that blend like a dream, not to mention to warm array of shades that had everyone going crazy for it, especially those on the other side of the pond who found it hard to source. Following this, the Lorac Pro 2 launched, but I skipped on this, as its shades were a little cool for my warm complexion, however I could not ignore their latest offering, which is pretty much a neutral lovers dream, welcome the Lorac Pro Palette 3.
Like the original, there are 8 matte shades along the top and 8 shimmery shades along the bottom, all of which are housed in this super slim, nude coloured palette with substantial mirror. I love the packaging of the Lorac palettes, as although made of cardboard which can get a little tatty around the edges with use, they hardly take up any room to store and are nice and slim which makes them easy to travel with.
All the shades are very neutral, so this palette will appeal to a lot of people and it would definitely be a great starter palette if you were just getting into make up. There are quite a few pale shades which don’t show up that well when photographing swatches, they are however more apparent on the eyes. The shades that I really love are clay and terracotta from the matte shades and also amethyst, rose bronze and dk. mocha, from the shimmers. These shades and the darker shades to the right of them definitely have more pigment to them than the lighter shades, which I find to be a bit samey and not at all unique. This is probably because I own too many eyeshadows, but the left hand side of the palette doesn’t really excite me at all, and if you already have a good eyeshadow collection, then you are bound to have dupes for these somewhere. My favorite combination of shadows from this palette is rose bronze all over the lid, with clay in the crease and either dk. mocha or dk. brown in the outer corner. These rose/red toned shadows really compliment my green eyes well, so I have been gravitating to these a lot.
The eyeshadows in this palette definitely have the same Lorac quality as the first, so they are pigmented, easy to work with and blend well. They do however kick of quite a bit of dust, so that is something to be aware off, although it doesn’t affect the quality of them, you just need to tap of the excess before use. The one shadow that did disappoint though was Medallion, which I was so sad about as I absolutely love the bronzy/rose gold tones of this shadow. The fallout from this though was ridiculous and I was left with all the shimmer from it under my eye. It is a very soft eyeshadow and quite difficult to work with, but apart from this one, this is a nice palette that will no doubt get a lot of use.
I think I still prefer the original Lorac Pro Palette as I enjoy the warmer tones of that, but if you love paler, more neutral shadows then look no further! Available from Ulta ($44).