Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Pro Eyeshadow Palette Review & Swatches

Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Pro Eyeshadow Palette ($52) arrives just in time to celebrate the release of the Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales film launching this May! This lovely little eyeshadow palettes brings together 18 Lorac Pro Eyeshadows as well as a Front of the Line Pro Eye Pencil that Lorac collaborated with Disney to create.

Pirates are so my jam so, I was pretty excited about this launch. I mean who doesn’t love Johnny Depp’s legendary portrayal of Captain Jack right?

Let’s take a look at this new eyeshadow palette!

The palette arrives in a black and gold box with a gold skull gracing the cover. The actual palette design is a black galaxy backdrop with a gold compass decorating the front. I kind of wish they had extended the skull design to the palette itself! I think the real beauty is inside the palette though. You’ll find a full-size mirror and a gorgeous night sky background with swirls of black, teal, and dark blue upon opening this up. When I originally posted about the collection someone pointed out that the palette had a little ribbon pull at the side and certain promo images showed that the side portion of the palette pulled down to reveal a drawer of some sort. When I was asked about this I replied that perhaps it held a brush. Turns out the palette has a hollow bottom which, get this, you can slide the Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Cheek Palette into. OMG! As someone who’s always running out of places to store my rather large makeup collection I totally fell in love with this idea. The cheek palette slides right into the bottom of the eyeshadow palette which allows you to safely store both items together, travel with them easily, or makes it a little easier to store the palettes. So freaking cool! And hey, if you don’t buy the cheek palette you can probably store a few brushes in there or eyeliners. It’ll hold some small makeup items quite easily or even some blushes from the Balm since their blush packaging is a flat square box. Although, it isn’t as thin as the original Pro Palette and does have the more chunkier design we’ve seen from palettes like the Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows.

Anyway, package gushing aside….!

This holds 18 shades for a total of 0.36 oz (0.02 oz per a shade) with a price tag of $52. Keep in mind this is considerably smaller than past palettes like the Lorac Mega Pro Palette 3 for example. That palette was 0.45 oz in size, $59, and 32 shades. It’s not a big price jump but this lacks the variety of the original palettes. The back of the box states it was assembled in the US but with non-US materials.

I don’t know if the palette screams pirates to me. The shades seem a little mismatched with very little rhythm or reason. I thought about the shades I would have included and realized how unimaginative I am because I just kept thinking sandy, beachy nudes combined with aquatic blues and teals. What you actually get is a mix of a different of shades. Freshwater blue, cranberry, a variety of greens, combined with smokier blacks, and light taupes. I have to admit I felt a little intimidated by the shades as many didn’t really seem to work together. Sea Haze and Menace are a nice combo as well as Treasure and Tell No Tales, or as I used in my look below Starry Night and Compass. But certain shades like Yo Ho, Silent Mary, and Bones I felt a little clueless about using in a look. If I look at the palette a little differently and get the ocean, beach, and mermaids out of my head, I can probably see a few of these shades creating a smokier look that might be inspired by Jack. I do wish they worked better together though. As for the finish there’s a variety here that include mattes, satins, shimmers, metallics, frosts, and even a duochrome (Black Pearl).

I find myself struggling whether or not to label this a cool or warmer palette. To me, it feels like both as there are warmer shades as well as cooler ones here. Certain shades didn’t completely work out for me and looked a tad chalky on my skin tone like Ghostly a pure white matte and Lost at Sea a light gray. I wouldn’t say this is completely free of dupes as there are a few shades here that might be similiar to past palettes like Treasure, a dark cranberry, was a color that’s popped up before as well as Compass, a sandy gold and of course, many of the highlighting shades like Matte-y, an off white, look like something we’ve seen in a past Mega Pro Palette.

Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Eyeshadow Palette Swatches (Matte-y, Lost at Sea, Pirates Chest, Sea Haze)

Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Eyeshadow Palette Swatches (Black Pearl, Yo Ho, Bones, Silvermist)

Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Eyeshadow Palette Swatches (Ghostly, Starry Night, Compass, Arrgh!)

Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Eyeshadow Palette Swatches (Treasure, Tell No Tales, Shiver Me, Cursed)

Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Eyeshadow Palette Swatches (Menace, Silent Mary, Pro Eyeliner)

You’re either going to love Lorac’s formula or hate it in my experience. I happen to be on Team Love as the formula works great for my drier eyes. They colors are very, very soft with a powdery texture that isn’t dry or dense. They kick up a lot of loose powder when you swipe a brush through them so, they can be a bit messy but I’ve never experience major fall out when applying them thankfully. The texture is very silky but some shades slip off the eye easily so, I recommend a good cream base or primer to allow them to adhere well to your lid. Pigmentation was great on a lot of the shades but there were some sheerer color as well which did build easily enough.

For me, the Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Pro Eyeshadow Palette is more of a collectible piece of makeup versus one that will work easily in everyday looks. I think if you’re an average makeup user you might struggle a little with the shade line up here. This doesn’t quite live up to Lorac’s original Mega Pro Palette range as those palette had considerably more variety. But for fans of Jack, the film franchise, or pirates in general, I’m sure it’ll be a win.

Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean Pro Eyeshadow Palette is available now at loraccosmetics.com and at Ulta.com soon!

Will you be indulging?

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this palette!