I have put off doing this review for a few months because I was so annoyed with this palette and myself. I went from owning no Lorac eyeshadow palettes to owning four of them within a short period of time last year. They were having fantastic holiday sales and I just knew I would love the formula so I bought a few of them… NEVER buy multiples of something until you know you like the formula. I quickly discovered that I love Lorac mattes and their diamond shine shimmer formula but I loathe their metallics. Since all of the Pro palettes are half metallic, I could only use half of my Pro 1 and Pro 4. I have reviewed the Pro 1, you can see that here, and today I’m finally reviewing the Pro 4. This is a $39.00 palette with sixteen shades; eight metallics and eight mattes. 

Pros:

• I absolutely love this color story and how soft it is while still providing depth. This palette makes sense and it’s easy to create looks using it alone.
• The packaging is sturdy cardboard with a magnetic closure and a mirror.
• The Lorac matte formula has been consistently great across all the palettes that I’ve tried from them and it’s no different with this one. They’re so blendable and easy to work with. I also found them to be more softly pigmented but buildable. I had no issues with fallout as long as I tapped off my brush. 
• While I don’t like Lorac metallics, I found the ones in this palette to be the most workable. I especially liked Begonia and Candlelight. They’re so beautiful that I’m willing to work with them. 

Cons:

• I have a few main issues with the metallic formula. Issue one, this formula burns my eyeballs. It doesn’t burn my eyelids or the skin around my eyes but my actual eyeballs. If any fallout gets in my eyes, it burns like crazy. The irritation does dissipate pretty quickly but I’m sensitive to something in this formula. I checked the ingredients and they contain extracts of lemon peel, cucumber, parsley, etc so I’m assuming that I’m sensitive to one of the natural ingredients. Issue two, these shadows look nowhere near as intense on the eyes as they do in swatches. I tried using my finger, a wet brush, and a dry brush but I just couldn’t get them to be as intense as I wanted. Issue three, quite a few of the metallics were patchy and took a lot of building up. If I used a wet brush, patchiness wasn’t an issue but they would cake up and look awful. I’ve had this same problem with Morphe eyeshadows. They caked up around my inner corner regardless of if I used them wet or dry. Issue four, the metallic shades do not play well together. I love to mix my eyeshadows and create my own duochrome shades but that’s impossible with this formula. They either become a muddy mess OR they’re so opaque that they cancel out whatever shade they’re on top of.

Swatches & Shade Descriptions:

These eyeshadows do have names and shade descriptions on the website. These pictures were taken with flash. I’ll be going from left to right, top row to bottom row.

-Mattes:

• Chantilly– light cream
• Brûlée– medium cream
• Pecan– light gray/brown
• Rose Bud– light pink plum
• Warm Ginger– light butterscotch
• Cognac– cool light brown
• Amaretto– red/orange brown
• Black Currant– deepest plum

-Metallics:

• Soft Pearl– cool pink pearl
• Iced Rose– rose pearl
• Silver Mauve– silver mauve
• Begonia– bright pink pearl
• Candlelight– light yellow gold
• Merlot– deep red pink pearl
• Java– medium brown pearl
• Midnight– glitter blackest black

Eyeshadow Looks:

I created three looks using primarily this palette alone but I did pull in some eyeliners and a glitter. I always use an eyeshadow primer and set my primer with a cream or white colored shade, which this palette does contain. When explaining the looks, I will go in the order of the swatches on my wrist; left to right and top to bottom. You can click on the pictures to see them better. Since these eyeshadows do have names, I won’t be describing where they are in the palette or what they look like.

I really like the way this look turned out despite not being in love with the metallics. 

1. I set my primer with Chantilly. 
2. I blended Rosebud into my crease. I blended it out more on the edges and near my inner corner so that the innermost part of my crease would have more depth.
3. I mixed two metallic shades together all over my lid; Begonia and Iced Rose.
4. I applied Soft Pearl lightly on the center of my lid, on my brow bone and in my inner corner.
5. I lined my upper and lower lash lines with Midnight. I lightly smudged this shade out.
6. Underneath Midnight, I smudged Java.

Much like the first look, this is another look that I like but I think it could’ve been better. I used a highlighter in my inner corner and the L.A. Girl Shockwave Liner in Gotcha in my waterline. 

1. I set my primer with Chantilly. 
2. I blended Brûlée above my natural crease.
3. I blended Warm Ginger into my crease. 
4. I deepened my crease with Cognac and applied it over half of the outermost part of my lid. I also smudged this shade on my lower lash line.
5. I applied Candelight over the innermost half of my lid and lightly in my inner corner. 

This look turned into a hot mess REAL fast. I attempted to use Silver Mauve and Iced Rose on my lid but they did what Lorac metallics do when mixed together, got super muddy and had no shine whatsoever. It was such a disaster that I just covered all of it with the glitter from the Lorac Effortless Glamour Mini Palette. I also used a highlighter in my inner corner and the L.A. Girl Shockwave Liner in Blackout on my waterline. The mattes in this look were perfect. 

1. I set my primer with Chantilly. 
2. I blended Pecan above my natural crease.
3. I blended Amaretto into my crease and over most of my lid. This shade is also smudged on my lower lash line.
4. I mixed Black Currant in with Amaretto on my lower lash line. 

Brushes Used:

• Detail Crease Brush
• Tapered Blending Brush
• Flat Eyeshadow Brush
• Small Angled Brush
• Smudge Brush
• Eye Crease Brush
• Blending Brush, I used this brush to blend out the edges.

If you are curious about any of the other products on my face, you can find these looks in my recent posts on Instagram.

Final Thoughts:

I ONLY recommend Lorac palettes if you can get them on sale. Luckily, they do go on sale for 40% to 50% off multiple times throughout the year. I don’t regret buying the palettes I have because I got each one for around half off but I would never pay more than that. I hope this review was helpful and I’d love to know what you think about Lorac’s formula! Thanks for reading and have a great day!