After the excitement of getting my hands on the special pink chrome mirrored packaging of Divine Rose II, I felt inspired to take a closer look at all the Pat Mcgrath palettes in my collection. I don’t have many, but I’m very happy with the selection I own, as these are color stories that suit me without there being too many repeats or similar shades, as PMG has been known lately to do.

MOTHERSHIP VIII: DIVINE ROSE II

This palette somehow turned me into a pink eyeshadow lover! The shade Rose Seduction is considered safe in the EU, which is often ahead of the US in terms of cosmetic safety, but the FDA hasn’t updated their stance on eye-safe pigments, so this is an “artistry” palette rather than an “eyeshadow” palette. What sold me on trying this out is that Kinkysweat on Youtube suggested that Naked Blush and Rose Seduction could be used for blush, Skinshow Rose Opal as a highlighter, and Astral Pink Moon as a highlight topper. It turns out that both Rose Seduction and Naked Blush work as a blush for me since Naked Blush deepens up when applied to the skin. Rose Seduction also looks like it would be far too bright, but it’s subtle looking on my cheeks with my Chikuhodo blush brushes. I don’t like Astral Pink Moon on the cheeks because of how glittery it is, but Skinshow Rose Opal makes a fun pinkish gold highlight.

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As I mentioned in my Eyeshadow Tag post, despite how nice the quality of these eyeshadows are, I still feel they’re a bit overpriced. However, the multi-purpose shades, the Sextraterrestrial Trichrome, and the limited-edition packaging made this palette worth getting. I am obsessed with the Sextraterrestrial eyeshadow! Clionadh Cosmetics’ Forge multichrome is a close dupe for the shade, though that one packs more of a punch based on the photo comparisons I’ve seen. Ironically, the color never interested me when I placed my Clionadh orders, yet when I actually tried Sextraterrestrial on my eyes, I suddenly saw the beauty and allure of the shade combination. At some angles it looks neutral on me but then the light catches it and suddenly BAM! You’re hit with a gorgeous color shift. It doesn’t pick up the best on camera but it’s so stunning in person. You can even see the shift depending on the lighting within the pan (and how it is reflected in the mirror of the palette).

The only disappointment I have is the addition of both Bronze Rose 005 and Gold Lust 001 because the differences in those two shades aren’t distinct enough on my eyes. Considering how specific this color story already is, and being limited to ten shadows, I would have liked the gold eyeshadow (which she has plenty of across all her palettes) to be replaced with something else. Also, Eleganza and Divine Dusk look similar next to each other on my lids as well. Regardless, I’m still glad I bought this.

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MOTHERSHIP III: Subversive and MTHRSHP Subversive La Vie En Rose

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I’ve discussed the Subversive palette in my Eyeshadow Tag post, so I will just update that I’m still enjoying it very much. This was a new purchase this year, but I bought the smaller palette several years ago. La Vie En Rose is starting to near the end of its usability, as the shadows are starting to get crumbly. It smells fine, but textural changes are indicating it is time to stop using this soon. It was a limited edition product, so I cannot repurchase it. Purple Reign is the only color I would miss, but I do have extremely similar purples from other brands.

Star Wars Galactic Gold and Dark Galaxy

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Aside from swatches when I first bought this, I haven’t done looks with the Star Wars palettes until this post. I originally felt a bit disappointed since the shades didn’t look how I expected in person, and I didn’t know how to pair these colors together. However, when I originally swatched them, it was on bare skin and I have since learned that several of Pat Mcgrath’s best eyeshadows require a sticky/tacky/wet base to show the true impact of the shade. I didn’t realize the shifts in some of these until I started working on this post. Now I am so glad I bought Galactic Gold! The duochromes make it a better purchase than Dark Galaxy because the shades in that palette aren’t the type I reach for that often and aren’t particularly memorable. These palettes were limited edition but anything limited edition with a high demand always comes back from this brand.

Also, I like that these palettes don’t have the flap top that the other 6 pan condensed palettes have because it’s easier to store, open, and keep open.

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As for repeats, there is a shade called Corruption in the MTHRSHP Sublime Bronze Temptation palette and Smoked Amethyst in MTHERSHP Subversive Metalmorphosis palette that both appear in the Star Wars Dark Galaxy palette. The shades Bronze and Gold Standard from Subversive Metalmorphosis are in Star Wars Galactic Gold. Gold Standard is also in the Decadence Palette and Mini Eye Ecstasy.

Mini Eye Ecstasy: Subversive

I bought this tiny palette to try and satisfy my desire for the Decadence palette, which hadn’t restocked at the time and I also couldn’t justify spending so much on a palette without the “special” shades. The color curation is gorgeous, but I’m so glad this mini exists. For me, this was a much better way of getting the shades I wanted most without spending an arm and a leg.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy these shadows for the luxury experience and performance. However, there are brands with a larger range of eyeshadows that don’t have as many duplicates as Pat Mcgrath does. Her collection is comparatively too small to have so many repeat shades. And besides using the actual same shades, there are still those with different names that are similar to each other as well. When you’re spending so much money on palettes, the last thing you want is to essentially purchase the same thing multiple times. So, that’s one of the reasons I’m very selective about which palettes I buy and why I spent so much time discussing comparisons in this post for those who want to avoid this issue as well. Aside from that, the quality of Pat Mcgrath shadows are very nice and in some ways worth the hype.

Thanks for reading!

-Lili ❤