Kat Von D's recent release of the Monarch and Chrysalis Eyeshadow Palettes ($46) has women running in hoards to Sephora to pick one up for their complexion, whether warm or cool.
You see, I already knew I wanted the Monarch from a single glance. Not even a single swatch in store. A simple breeze of makeup release gossip later I was in store and swatching furiously. Those golden, super warm, and super rich colors on the left side of the palette called out to me, "We're dupes for Tom Ford's Cognac Sable! Buy us! Save money!"
Kat Von D is morbid and creepy when she names eye shadows "Tiny Death" and "Killing Jar." There are twelve shadows, with nine transformative (dunno what that even means, but alright) shades and three base shades. They are grouped by three to ensure even the beginners can match the colors up. Of course, you can feel free to use group together any colors you want.
Not only does it remind me of Urban Decay's iconic Naked 1 Palette, the color combinations suggest you could do a million a one smokey brown looks and never run out of ideas. Perfect. For $46 bucks you're still saving some chump change getting this set rather than a Naked.
The palette is a little wider and heavier than I'm used to, but it is still travel friendly with a huge mirror and magnetic closure. I found that some eyeshadow dust did manage to find its way onto the mirror right away.
This is my favorite quad out of the three combinations. I love the warm gold and burnt orange, even if the brown and matte bone shades are unoriginal. These colors are supposed to represent the wings of the monarch butterfly and have shimmering iridescence that's stunning.
This middle combination is rather "cool toned" for my liking, but I appreciate a good silver eyeshadow or two. I love accentuating warm smokey eyes with a dab of silver in the inner corner. The matte taupe is a great transition shade for any look you might do with this palette. These colors had the best pigmentation and payoff.
The right side is a workhorse combination of mattes that can complement other palettes and eyeshadows you have. I found them to be the most powdery (not chalky, just powdery) and dry to the touch. Of course, they don't translate that way on the lids. You'll see for yourself below how they swatch with a single pass over zero primer.
This is indoors, natural and artificial lighting.
The cute spaceman in my little brother's room is saying he wants to orbit around my giant arm. This is closer to the window. It was an overcast day.
I love the variety of shimmers, mattes, and satins in the Monarch Eyeshadow Palette and find that they go on so much better than swatched. My arm is around NC30, and the lightest matte colors don't show up very well (if at all.) That's not the fault of the palette.
I tried matching these shadows to my Naked 1 palette and found some overlaps as well as some unique colors in each one. If you already own one, you don't have to get the other unless you're like me and enjoy the very warm toned eyeshadows exclusive to Monarch. They last all day with a simple eyeshadow primer and don't crease or fade at all.
I'm still very much a novice at eyeshadow application, so I struggled for a while with this palette. Now, as beautiful as these colors are, I found the mattes to be on the drier side and the overall palette to be very powdery. Think of Lorac's Pro palette; these shadows are similar with their strong color payoff and soft texture.
Be sure to use the lightest touch possible when picking up color with your brush. I found it especially easy to overblend the darker browns in the palette, so using a smaller blending brush will really help you lay color where you need it most.
Here's a look I did with the left quad of the palette, muting the burnt orange and using only a hint of the warm gold as a highlight. I'm not very interested in purple and blue based eyeshadow looks, so I won't be picking up Monarch's counterpart Chrysalis, but I've read that Monarch has the better quality out of the two.
If you don't mind using a careful hand when applying your shadows as to avoid overblending, this palette is for you. I found it a little too powdery and prone to fall out for an everyday palette.
xo Be
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