Tag Archives: pat mcgrath

Pat Mcgrath Highlighters and Mascaras

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I posted several reviews of Pat Mcgrath’s eyeshadows, but today I wanted to showcase some of the other makeup items I own from the brand.

Pat Mcgrath Skin Fetish: Sublime Skin Highlighting Trio

I’ve had this trio for about a year, but I forgot to include it in my last PMG brand review. It’s not something I use very often because it includes two iridescent highlighters, which I do not wear outside of the home. Even though it’s not my style, I’m still happy to have it in the event that I want to add a surprise twist to my makeup look.

Iridescent Pink 003 has a strong red shift on my cheek, which looks surprisingly beautiful. I’ve found that when I mix that shade with Bronze Nectar 003, it turns into a peachier shade, which is even more wearable and looks great on my cheekbones.

Bronze Nectar on its own is is a traditional highlighter shade, but that doesn’t make it boring. It’s still a very pretty color. I thought I would like Fine Gold 003 more than Iridescent Pink, but the strong yellow shift doesn’t look as great on my skin as I had hoped. It’s still fairly nice, but just my least favorite of the three.

Pat Mcgrath Skin Fetish: Highlighter + Balm Duo

During PMG’s winter sale, I was able to get this for $29 on Black Friday (with an added promo code). The packaging is beautiful, but please note that if you buy this, it’s possible the highlighter portion may come broken/detached from the base and stuck into the cap.

I’ve had dual ended products before, so I knew to be careful not to twist when opening. This is a product/shipping defect and not user error. When I wrote to PMG about it, they sent me a replacement with the comment that, “Just keep in mind this can happen again, as sometimes with the temperature change this will occur.”
I was still hoping to get one intact, but the replacement duo arrived exactly the same way where it was stuck in the cap. On the bright side, I was able to get both out in a solid piece by gently moving one with the tips of my fingers, and the other by smacking the flat side of the cap. Since I doubt I will use up even one of these, I gave the other to my sister. Pushing it back into the base has held well so far.

There are three shades available. The one I have is just called Bronze and it’s a slightly darker color than the Bronze Nectar shade from the highlighting trio. I like that the shimmer is also smoother because when it comes to highlighters, the finer the particles the better!

Although the Balm side can be worn on its own to give a dewy look, I prefer to use it on bare skin because it can remove foundation or concealer underneath it. Perhaps it only removes matte foundations because I don’t recall it removing my Nars Sheer Glow, but it has with the Nars Soft Matte Foundation and MUFE Matte Velvet Skin. For this reason, if I’m going to use the Balm over foundation, I either use the Bronze side on top of that or a different powder highlighter as an intensifier.

Both the Balm and Shimmer sides require a little heating up in order to glide better across the skin. A second or two of rubbing with the finger is enough for the balm, but the Bronze stick requires more warmth. So, I either rub for 5-10 seconds before applying the stick directly to my cheek or I apply some to the back of my hand and try to warm it up there before applying it to my cheek with my finger.

Pat Mcgrath FetishEyes Mascara Mini

I only opened this mascara a month ago, but I think I had it sitting unused in my drawer for too long. It has a noticeable scent that I cannot tell if it’s perfume or has gone bad. The formula is also on the drier side, but I don’t know if that’s also an age issue. In good faith, I cannot say that my experience with this mascara is accurate to what is normally in a good tube. Two coats of this gives decent length but I think anyone can find better for cheaper. I do like the applicator and how it keeps lashes nice and separated.

Pat Mcgrath Dark Star Mascara Mini

I also opened this mascara a month ago, but I purchased it four months ago, so this analysis should be accurate. It smells like a mascara should. The formula is a bit wet. Two coats gives the same length as the FetishEyes mascara with additional volume, but two coats is where it tends to clump up. I don’t know if this is due to the difference in formula or because the applicator is an hourglass shape instead. I usually have great luck with hourglass mascara wands. Even if this was clump-free, it didn’t impress me enough to think the full size is worth buying without a deep discount.

Mask Majorness 001

I have better protection masks, but when I saw this on the PMG website, I had to buy it! It’s a 50/50 cotton polyester blend mask with that pretty Divine Rose pattern and adjustable ear loops. It pokes out strangely at the sides when I wear it alone, and it doesn’t look any worse when I wear it on top of a disposable mask.

Pat Mcgrath is one of those brands that I’m always interested in, but the prices keep me from trying everything I want. I could bet money that by the time this post is up and ready to go, there will be something else I want from the brand.

That’s all for this week! Thank you for taking the time to read!

Also, on a personal note, I completed the doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine last month. I hope everyone remains safe during this still very dangerous time in our lives. Much love!

-Lili ❤

Pat Mcgrath Mega MTHRSHP Celestial Divinity Palette and More

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Since my previous Pat Mcgrath post, I’ve purchased 3 additional palettes. Sephora’s Holiday sale event is going on, so I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about these in case anyone is considering purchasing either of the palettes for 10-20% off.

Pat Mcgrath Mega MTHRSHP Celestial Divinity Palette

The two left columns are shades from the Star Wars Dark Galaxy MTHRSHP palette. Because I knew I wasn’t getting use out of that palette, I decided to sell it while the going rate was still high (and before it could come back). Had I known that for once limited edition packaging would actually stay limited edition, I might have kept it.

The last two columns are shades from the Star Wars Galactic Gold palette, which I love. I ultimately decided to buy the Celestial Divinity palette because I wanted the 6 new shades in the center columns, I loved the design of the outer packaging, and I wanted an option in case I decide to sell Galactic Gold and still be able to have the eyeshadows I loved from that palette.

Finger swatches on bare skin with no primer.

The quality of the shimmers is the same as one can expect from all of Pat Mcgrath’s palettes. They are beautiful and pigmented, though I find their full potential is revealed when used on top of glitter glue. The three mattes swatched beautifully, but the natural oil from my fingers (despite being clean and dry) created a film over them which impacted my ability to use the shadows properly after. They applied perfectly smooth in one dip of the brush then patchy the next.

The mattes worked better after I lightly removed the top layer. I know that this can happen with matte products, but I hadn’t experienced this before with other Pat Mcgrath mattes. Now that I’m aware of the issue, I will avoid swatching those shades with my finger again. And because I have naturally oily lids, I will set my eyeshadow base with powder before I use these mattes. Venusian Orchid still doesn’t show very well on my eyes. When I pack it on to the pigmentation level I want, it darkens and blends into my skintone anyway.

One of the other popular topics of discussion about this palette is the price and how it is surprisingly low for Pat Mcgrath. This is true based on price per gram. While investigating this point further, I actually realized that among the 3 Pat Mcgrath pan sizes, there are varying weights from palette to palette.

The smallest pans are available in the Mini Eye Ecstasy palettes. They are listed as 1 gram each. The medium pan size is in the Celestial Divinity palette. It’s much larger than the Mini Eye Ecstasy pans yet the amount inside is nearly the same at 1.1 grams each. The largest pans vary greatly in the amount of product. For example, Divine Rose 1 has 1.32 grams each, the initial three Blitz Astral quads have 1.5 grams each, The Celestial Divinity quads are 1.88 grams (Risque Rose) and 1.98 grams (Interstellar Icon), and the Rose Decadence palette has 2 grams each. So, even though the larger pan sizes all look the same, the weights are different.

I’ve seen a lot of concerns as to whether the lower price is indicative of the shadow quality being lower, as is often the case with holiday releases. From my experience with this palette, I don’t believe the quality has suffered. When I compared the ingredient list between Celestial Divinity and the 6 Galactic Gold eyeshadows, Bronze was the only shade with a slight difference in ingredients. There’s no PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) but there’s more Boron Nitride.

Where I think the quality is lower is how the palettes were assembled. The shade name sticker on the back of my palette is slightly off-center and one corner of the sticker was already scrunched/lifted up when I received it. I’ve seen a few other pictures across social media with minor flaws as well. While this may sound like a trivial complaint, if you think about how this is a $78 luxury brand palette with cosmetic flaws when there are $5 Profusion palettes and $20 Colourpop palettes that never have packaging issues, it makes you wonder what the quality control is like at Pat Mcgrath Labs. Flaws like crooked stickers can be used to spot a fake product in the beauty and fashion world, so to receive an item that’s already messed up can make you feel like you’ve been ripped off. Luxury products are exorbitantly marked up because you’re paying for a high-quality product with luxe packaging to create the ultimate customer experience. Even if the eyeshadows are fantastic, if the experience is ruined then you’re already not getting your money’s worth. Also, my order on the PMG website was finalized and completed 2 minutes after the launch. The palette, the only new item released that day, still hasn’t sold out and yet it took 10 days to receive my shipping confirmation. If they were flooded with orders I could understand the delay but this doesn’t seem to be the case. It appears that the efficiency issues the brand had a year ago are still ongoing.

That being said, the actual product quality is there. I recommend Celestial Divinity to anyone who doesn’t already have both Star Wars palettes, especially at a discount.
I did some eye looks using 12 out of 18 shades in my previous Pat Mcgrath post, but I created some new ones which you can find at the end of this review.

Pat Mcgrath MTHRSHP Rose Decadence Palette

Finger swatches from Top to Bottom: Pink Champagne, Peach Dusk, Fuchsia Flame, Hedonistic Rose, Scandalous, and Golden Honey. The primer used is MAC paint pot in Groundwork.

This is another palette that lured me in by the idea of using it for eyeshadow, blush, and to highlight.

I used Pink Champagne, Peach Dusk, Fuchsia Flame, and Hedonistic Rose on the eyes. I also used Peach Dusk as blush. For my highlighter, I used Nabla’s Amnesia with a little bit of Golden Honey.

I couldn’t resist the outer packaging and although the shades are pretty, by this point the gold, pink, and orange shades from Pat Mcgrath feel redundant. The color story is pretty enough, but this palette lacks that wow factor. If you already have Divine Rose 2, I don’t believe you will be missing out on these shades. However, if you skipped getting Divine Rose 2 and are looking for a more curated version and lower-priced alternative, this could be a decent option. I personally would still choose the Celestial Divinity palette over this one because of the greater variety. Here are some shade comparisons between Rose Decadence, Divine Rose 2, and Celestial Divinity.

Finger swatches of the shimmer shades on bare skin. Brush swatches of the matte shades on bare skin.

Pat Mcgrath Blitz Astral Quad in Nocturnal Nirvana

This quad was released last year during the holidays, but I didn’t purchase it until the end of August when it was $25 off. The purple shade felt dried out to the touch and is hard to pick up product with my finger and brushes. I’m not sure if it was meant to be like that or if mine has an issue. It’s so pretty but a pain to use. The others aren’t like that and feel the way I’m used to with Pat’s “special” shades, the last 4 shades in her 10 pan palettes. Despite the discount, this quad wasn’t worth the price for me. VR Emerald is an absolutely stunning shade though and I’m glad to at least have it in my collection. It reminds me of Verte from Clionadh Cosmetics, but without as strong of a shift. If I use this quad again, it will be purely for VR Emerald.

Eye Look Examples

As a makeup collector, I see all these shades so similar they may as well be repeats (plus all the actual repeat shadows), and I can’t help but be disappointed. However, I’ve come to realize that perhaps Pat Mcgrath shouldn’t be one of those brands people try to collect every eyeshadow palette from in their line. Maybe I should look at them like Clionadh shadows. Clionadh has similar looking multichromes with blue, purple, and green together in one pan, but one may have a stronger teal shift, green shift, or purple shift. It’s intended for people to possess the perfect shade they’ve always dreamed of, not to feel compelled to own them all when you’ll probably only use a few. I already had my ideal pink palette in Divine Rose 2, but I didn’t stop there. I should have skipped Rose Decadence, but I learned a valuable lesson and will remember this when future palettes launch.

That concludes the post! Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤