I was so excited when Lorac released their Fairytale Forest Eyeshadow Palette; a part of their 2021 holiday collection. I also bought the Mystic Oak Eyeshadow Palette from the collection and you can read that review here. I expected to love this palette. It’s packed with beautiful shimmers in the brand’s new formula and plenty of mattes. I’m also a sucker for anything branded as “fairytale.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t as obsessed with this release as I expected to be.

The Fairytale Forest Palette is $39.00. It contains eighteen shades: eight mattes, eight shimmers and two metallics. All of the shadows can be used wet or dry. The packaging is cardboard with a sturdy magnetic closure and a mirror. All of the newer, large Lorac palettes come with a key that allow you to remove and rearrange the shadows. With the basic info out of the way, let’s talk pros and cons!

Pros:

• As I mentioned above, I really like the theme of this palette. I feel that (for the most part) this color story really captures the fairytale forest vibe.
• Lorac doesn’t do color very often and while this palette isn’t colorful, it does provide some interesting pops. Evergreen is a pretty emerald shade while Butterfly is a pink/gold duochrome.
• The Lorac mattes and what they call their diamond shine formula, have always worked perfectly for me but their original metallic formula contained citrus oils that I’m allergic to. Their newer palettes do not contain those oils (that I’m aware of) so I’m able to use them. I am still slightly sensitive to some of the shades, but I’ll talk about that in the cons section.
• The matte formula has been consistently great across all the palettes that I’ve tried from the brand and it’s no different with this one. They’re pigmented but incredibly blendable. I had no issues with fallout as long as I tapped off my brush. There was one exception, but I’ll talk about that in the cons section.
• Lorac shimmers are almost always super sparkly and these are no different.

Cons:

• I am still sensitive to an ingredient in most of the shimmer shades. They did slightly burn my eyes but it was nowhere near as bad as the original metallic formula. The stinging only lasted for a few seconds and I was able to wear the shades with no issues but it’s something to be aware of if you have sensitive eyes.
• The matte shade Fog is horrible. It tends to make any shades paired with it look muddy and it doesn’t blend well.
• The shimmer shade Wind, while beautiful, creates a TON of fallout.
• This palette is just way too repetitive. There are six gold toned shades, bottom two rows in the left corner, that should have been edited down. They all have slightly different finishes and/or undertones but that’s not something you’re really going to notice on the eyes. I would have preferred some mauve shimmers to match the mauve mattes or a deep brown shimmer.
• I was massively disappointed with the shade Evergreen. It’s such a beautiful emerald shade but very hard to work with. It always looked muddy, no matter what shades I paired with it, and as you’ll see below, I tried it in two different looks. It also created a ton of fallout and was just unpleasant to use overall.

Swatches & Shade Descriptions:

These eyeshadows do have names and shade descriptions so I will copy them from the website. I’ll be going from left to right, top row to bottom row. This photo was taken with flash to show off the sparkle.

• Birch- soft tan matte
• Oak- beige cream matte
• Earth- warm brown matte
• Rosewood- soft eggplant matte
• Mushroom- greyish brown matte
• Fog- smoky grey matte
• Northstar- soft baby pink shimmer
• Komorebi- pearl shimmer
• Enchanted- bronze with golden olive shimmer
• Butterfly- golden pink shimmer
• Wind- forest green with golden shimmer
• Redwood- true terracotta matte
• Folklore- champagne shimmer
• Pine- soft copper metallic
• Grove- toasted golden brown metallic
• Wildflower- rich plum with golden shimmer
• Evergreen- emerald shimmer
• Woodland- reddish cocoa matte

Eyeshadow Looks:

I created five looks using this palette. I almost always use an eyeshadow primer and set my primer with a cream or white colored shade, which this palette does contain.

This look ended up being smokier than I expected it to be but I really liked it. I used the L.A. Girl Shockwave Lip Liner in Mauve on my water line.

1. I used Earth to set my primer.
2. I blended Rosewood into my crease.
3. I deepened my crease with Woodland. This shade is also smudged on my lower lash line.
4. I applied Wildflower all over my lid.
5. I applied Northstar in my inner corner and on my brow bone.
6. I also applied Butterfly in my inner corner.

This is by far my least favorite look. The shades just didn’t work well together.

1. I used Earth to set my primer.
2. I blended Mushroom into my crease.
3. I deepened my crease with Fog. I also smudged this shade on my lower lash line.
4. I applied Evergreen over the majority of my lid.
5. I applied Wind on the innermost part of my lid.
6. I used Folklore in my inner corner, on my brow bone and on my water line.

This was my second attempt at using the Evergreen shade. I like this look more than the previous one but it’s not a favorite.

1. I used Earth to set my primer.
2. I blended Fog into my crease and smudged it on my lower lash line.
3. I applied Evergreen on my lid.
4. I applied Wind in my inner corner.
5. I applied Folklore on my brow bone and on my water line.

This look was really simple but really pretty, in my opinion.

1. I used Birch to set my primer.
2. I blended Oak into my crease and applied it on my water line.
3. I applied Enchanted on my lid.
4. I applied Komorebi in my inner corner and on my brow bone.
5. I also applied Folklore in my inner corner.
6. I smudged Woodland on my lower lash line.

This look is a really good example of the repetitiveness in this palette. I used almost totally different shades than the ones in the previous look and yet, I feel like they’re almost identical.

1. I used Birch to set my primer.
2. I blended Redwood into my crease.
3. I applied Pine on my lid.
4. I used Grove in my inner corner.
5. I lightly tapped Komorebi on top of Grove in my inner corner and used it on my brow bone.
6. I smudged Woodland on my lower lash line.

Brushes Used:

• Crease Brush
• Flat Eyeshadow Brush
• Small Angled Brush
• Smudge Brush
• Eye Crease Brush
• Blending Brush, I used this brush to blend out the edges and set my primer.

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:

Is this a bad palette? No. Is it a must have? Also, no. It’s honestly mediocre. To be honest, I think the J.Cat Beauty Noche Eyeshadow Palette has more of a fairytale forest vibe while having some of the best metallics I’ve ever tried… it’s also only $8.00. If you’re really drawn to this palette, wait until Lorac has a sale. As always, let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and have a great day!