LORAC Refined Romance Eye/Cheek Palette

Today I'm thrilled to bring you the first of my #NSale beauty purchases- the LORAC Refined Romance Eye/Cheek Palette ($18, currently exclusive for Nordstrom cardholders only but available 22 July to the public). I'll admit that I was leaning more towards its sister palette, but since I found this in-store it had to come home with me.

Let me borrow from Nordstrom's description of this item.

"Inspired by the romantic floral prints on the runway, the Refined Romance Eye & Cheek Palette features six nude-toned matte and shimmer eyeshadows, two shimmer highlighters and one matte blush so that you have everything you need to create soft, refined, romantic looks.

Palette includes:

- 6 Eyeshadows with shades in Ivory Shimmer, Gold Shimmer, Burgundy/Brown Shimmer, Light Rose/Taupe Matte, Light Purple Shimmer and Burgundy/Brown Matte (0.22 oz. each)

- 2 Shimmer Highlighters with shades in Cream Shimmer and Light Pink Shimmer (0.17 oz. each)

- Matte Blush in Rose Matte (0.09 oz.)"

First Impressions:

Packaging is paper/cardboard, but at $18 I wouldn't have expected anything else. It doesn't feel cheap, nor does it feel like it's going to be easily destroyed. For reference, it's about the length of a Glossybox.

Unlike a lot of less expensive palettes, the pans are all aligned, and appear to be glued in securely.

Color-wise, this is the safer of the two- and a bit warmer. Looking at these colors, I feel like 99% of the population has these shades in their collection already and has seen them. However, I want to see if this is what I was really hoping for- a convenient, well-performing travel palette.

Here's how I numbered them for this review:

Eyeshadow 1 (Cream Shimmer): This one's a bit metallic and very easy to overdo. It's a nice accent, but use a light hand. Trust me.

Eyeshadow 2 (Gold Shimmer): Oh so pigmented. It's a glorious coppery gold that screams fall.

Eyeshadow 3 (Burgundy/Brown Shimmer): It reminds me of MAC Cranberry a bit. I had fun playing with this in the crease quite a bit.

Eyeshadow 4 (Light Rose/Taupe Matte): This light brown matte is lovely. It's totally blendable, and I used it as my base transition shadow in the crease area when building my looks. Although some may find it boring, I am very excited to see this in this palette because it makes it travel-worthy in my opinion.

Eyeshadow 5 (Light Purple Shimmer): I'm not sure if this is lilac or grey. That makes it the type of color that makes my heart flutter. It reminds me a lot of some NARS classics like Lhasa.

Eyeshadow 6: (Burgundy Matte) I used this an eyeliner with a dampened angle brush.

Now, let's move onto the cheek part of the palette. It's equally as warm and yummy.

Highlighter 1 (Cream Shimmer): This is one of the reasons why I was interested in this palette. It's not white. It's a very light baby pink shimmery highlighter!  It imparts a total gleam onto the skin.

Highlighter 2 (Light Pink Shimmer): I would totally wear this as a blush. A totally shimmery blush.  It's a muted mauvey, shimmering highlighter. I used my teardrop Hakuhodo (not the Sephora ones) to gently apply to the high points of my cheeks. On my skin,it blended well into the blush- so I'll play with other shades to try to pull out the mauve on my skin again. This is not a highlighter for the faint of heart, but it gives dat glow.

Blush (Rose Matte): It's darker than I was hoping, so my application is both sheered and with a synthetic brush to make this wearable on my NW15 skin. It's a gorgeous rosy light berry matte shade with awesome pigmentation that will be perfect for fall. I can also see this working on a large range of skintones- if I can sheer it out, most ladies won't have to, and it's deep enough for at least those with medium skin- I'm not sure about WOC but hopefully there are bloggers out there who will be able to swatch it for you. I think it might work though.

Here's how I sheered it, with the darker of the two highlighters:

Here's the main eye look that I tested (ie the only day when the only color on my eyes is from the palette. When I tested shade #2, it was with non-Lorac shades.

Highlight: #1, Transition: #4, Crease: #3, Lid: #5, Liner: #6 with dampened brush

That screams fall, no?


Overall, I found a little bit of fallout with the eyeshadows, but nothing too bad. I don't have the LORAC Pro palettes to compare to, sorry. I found these to last all day with a primer/base, even though it was in the upper 90s with high humidity when I tested. I like the formula.

That said, I'm going to set this palette aside with my other #NSale purchases because it feels really, really fall. Look how well it matches my new throw and Sejour cap-sleeve shirt! I look forward to pulling it out when it's a bit cooler and it's time for fall shades.

I did order the other palette and will be testing immediately upon arrival (possibly today) so that it's hopefully relevant during the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.

Bottom Line: What a fabulous impulse buy! I can't wait to incorporate this with everything I picked up for for fall- it's all following a similar color story!