Laura Mercier Holiday 2013 Artist's Palette for Eyes review, photos, swatches

Hello all! Happy Sunday! Did you have a good week? We only had a four day week at school but it felt terribly long. Thankfully we have this next week of school and then a whole week off for Thanksgiving!

Today I bring you something I am so excited about... yes another eye palette (I think I have a problem) and yes it's a holiday one. It is the Laura Mercier Artist's Palette for Eyes!! This palette is sold out online so if you want to buy you may have to hunt one down in stores. I got mine yesterday from the Scottsdale mall. They actually happened to have quite a few. I was so excited to get my hands on one! I saw it online and I wanted it so bad but it said "Out of Stock" and in my head I was crying. When I saw it yesterday I died! The colors are so gorgeous. The textures are the softest I've ever felt. The color payoff is amazing! I just really love it, ahh!

It is a mixture of Laura Mercier's matte eye colors, luster eye colors, and sateen eye colors. There are 12 shades of neutrals, purples, and browns. The purples make it really fun and not just your average eye palette. I have to say, purple is one of my least favorite colors (I had a horrible purple -lilac/lavender- room growing up so I just got sick of it) but purple eye shadows is one of my favorite things! So weird, right??

Anyways, let's get started!

Here is the box it comes in. Nothing special here.

The texture of this palette is sooo cool. It feels kind of like a basketball and looks like it got rained on. There's nothing on the front of it but it's not like you could mistake this palette for a different one. It's a great size for travel. The length of it is from the bottom of my hand and my middle finger extends past the top just a little bit. Unlike other palette's i have that are HUGE. I love how compact this one is.

Here is the palette with flash on...

No flash... You can see the mirror on the inside takes up the whole length of the palette. I love that. It's not as wide as the palette but it's a decent sized mirror that you can actually use if you needed to.

These are the first four colors. Sparkling Dew is a sateen eye color. Guava is a sateen. Vanilla Nuts is a matte. and Primrose is also a sateen. These colors are very light. It was hard to capture them. I'm not sure I did a great job at doing so but they are lovely. They remind me of ballerinas. 

L: Sparkling Dew R: Guava

L: Vanilla Nuts R: Primrose

With no flash, L to R: Sparkling Dew, Guava, Vanilla Nuts, Primrose

Below is same colors, same order, with flash.

The ones I like best of these four are Vanilla Nuts and Primrose. Vanilla Nuts would be a good base, it's very white. I have a lot of these, though. Primrose is very girly! You can't tell but it's actually quite pink. It's frosty and it has some glitter in it.

Honestly, I got this palette for the rest of the eight colors, not necessarily these four but they would be fun to highlight brow bones, use as inner eye corner brighteners, etc.

Oh em gee, I love African Violet.

L to R no flash: African Violet (luster color), Plum Smoke (matte), Fresco (matte), Bamboo (luster color)

Now, with flash.

So like I said, I am obsessed with African Violet. I think the color is more accurate in the one with flash than without. But the other colors are more accurate in the picture without flash. 

Here is a close up of African Violet and Plum Smoke. African Violet is purple with gold shimmer. Plum Smoke is a gray/purple. It reminds me of Tease from Naked 2. I love both of these colors.

Fresco and Bamboo. I love Fresco! It reminds me of Cookie Dough from my Too Faced Joy to the Girls palette (which I use regularly). Bamboo is okay. I think it looks prettier in person than on my arm. It's bronze-y. Nothing incredible special I'm sure we all have one similar to this somewhere. 

Did I mention I love African Violet???

I love it so much I bought a single of it too. Oops!

Okay moving on...

These next four colors are FABULOUS. I mean, so pigmented, the color payoff is incredible. You'll die.

Okay, Espresso Bean looks green but it isn't. All of my pictures of this color kept coming out like this so I don't know what to say. I think the swatch is better, but it is definitely, 100% a dark brown. Not a weird brown/green color like its showing up as here.

L to R no flash: Kir Royal (sateen), Violet Ink (matte), Truffle (matte), and Espresso Bean (matte).

Here's with flash:

Check these out! Amazing right? I can honestly say I have nothing like any of these colors! I am in love with Violet Ink. (see what I mean about my weird obsession with purple shadows?)

Here is a close up of Kir Royal and Violet Ink. Kir Royal is a brown/purple color with tiny brown sparkles in it. Violet Ink looks like a really dark inked purple pen... ha. 

Violet Ink, Truffle, Espresso Bean.

The color of Espresso Bean is better shown here. But I think in real life it's even more brown. It looks like cocoa when it's on my finger.

So that's it! Great colors right? My favorites are African Violet (in case you missed that), Plum Smoke, Fresco, and Violet Ink. I love this palette and I can't wait to mix and match and play around with the endless looks it can produce. My recommendation is if you can find it buy it! It's a limited edition and has already gone so fast. I am so lucky I found one and so happy! There are singles of the colors so if you just like one or two buy those! The price is $48.00 so it's a great deal for twelve, small shadows in great casing.

I hope you enjoyed!

Happy hunting :)

-Marlee