Kat Von D Monarch Palette | In-Depth Review & Swatches!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

I'm very excited to be bringing you a review, first impressions and swatches of my brand new Kat Von D Monarch Palette - I picked this up on a recently back to school shopping trip that I took a few days ago and I knew that I wanted to pick up a new high-end palette to add to my collection and after hunting around Sephora and swatching everything I decided that this would be the best palette for the value because of the quality but also would fit perfectly into my collection and the type of eyeshadow's I like. I am going to be doing full in-depth mini-reviews about each of the shadows below but I did want to touch on the packaging of the product. It comes with the beautiful butterfly design on it, which is also displayed on the back (check out my tumblr for more images) and it also comes in a heavy duty cardboard, I was very skeptical of this because I thought the cardboard would be flimsy and very unmanageable in my collection however it is very strong and extremely sturdy. I also find this type of packaging easy to clean, after doing my makeup with it today I did get some dirty finger prints on it and they wiped off easily with a clean makeup wipe.
Here is what the inside of the palette looks like, the shadows even look buttery and soft and this palette comes with an amazing shade range, it comes with your basic neutral colors towards the right side and then it gives you some pops of color and some warmer tones towards the left of the palette. In order the top three shades are: Entomology, Telepathy & Tiny Death! These shades are meant to be your highlight shades and consist or one matter, one shimmer and one satin finish (in that order). I used the first shadow today as my highlight and really loved the effect it gave, it was subtle but still noticeable! In order the bottom nine shadows are: Wrath, Papilio, Summerfly, Killing Jar, Delaney, Vanish, Disintegration, Shadow Box & Deadhead! These shadows all have super unique and cool name and some I can't even pronounce, I love the script on the packaging as well, it fits very well with the whole Kat Von D line and her style. I have used Wrath, Summerfly, Shadow Box & Deadhead in the look I did to test out this palette today - which I didn't get good pictures so you guys won't see but I will do a recreation in the near future and those images will go up on instagram (so make sure to check out my instagram to see the looks I do with this palette)!
Entomology ~ Matte || Telepathy ~ Metallic/Shimmer || Tiny Death ~ Satin
The matte shade in this row (Entomology) is absolutely stunning I used this as my browbone and inner corner highlight and it gave enough highlight for me, but would also work really well if you were doing a more natural subtle makeup look. I personally like shimmery high lights but this shade is nice to play around with. I personally don't think that Telepathy would work as an overall highlighting shade because of the slight taupe/brown coloring that it has, however it would work well for placing right in the center of the eyelid for a highlight! My favorite shade of the three has to be Tiny Death, it has just the right amount of shimmer to be an everyday highlight while at the same time giving a little bit of a cream/gold color - I find this works great with my skin tone and coloring! And I'm really excited to play around with this shade and all the other highlighting shades to see what I can create!
Wrath ~ Satin || Papilio ~ Satin || Summerfly ~ Shimmer/Metallic
This section of shades includes some very unique colors to my makeup collection and to the palette itself, I love that there is a pop of color in this palette but that its very neutral and earth toned at the same time. The first shade is Wrath and its a burnt orange color with a hint of shimmer, I did use this color and it transfers very well to the eyes however I did find that it blended away in some cases so I did build the product to the intensity I wanted, it was smooth and buttery and easy to work with. The second shade is Papilio and is a warm toned satin finished brown, perfect for creating those deep neutral eyes that I often like to do. And finally we have Summerfly, this shade I also used for a look and I was underwhelemed by this shade, once it was applied to the eyes I found there was little color payoff, I did blend around it and I found that blending really just blended this shadow away and by the end of the day this color had completed faded from my eyes. I'm wanting to test out all of these shadows using a better color base underneath to see if I can get the color to stay longer!
Killing Jar ~ Shimmer/Metallic || Delaney ~ Shimmer/Metallic || Vanish ~ Matte
These three shades are probably the ones I use the least, so far at least, I do however use Vanish as a crease color when I use this palette but the other two colors however aren't really my kind of thing. I have used Killing Jar right in the center of my lid to brighten it up and give it a more orange/coral color but this isn't a favorite for me, I do love the texture and like all the other shades its buttery smooth and highly pigmented. Delaney has been a favorite of mine for creating more true metallic looks and I enjoy using this color all over my lid. My favorite shade out out these three has to be Vanish, simply because its really the only matte crease color in the palette, however as much as I love this color in the pan when transferred onto the eyes it does come off a bit more orange (which you can see towards the edges of the swatch). I am not a fan of the orange warm tons of my cause my skin is better complimented my true taupe colors but I'm going to keep playing with this and see what I can create.
Disintegration ~ Satin || Shadow Box ~ Matte || Deadhead ~ Matte
Last but least are the three darker shades in this palette, which I usually tend to use more of than anything else; Disintegration is a beautiful color in this palette but is again one of those colors that I'm not really fond of but something that is really fun to incorporate into a more dramatic look when I'm really looking to try something different. The second and third shadows in this row, Shadow Box & Deadhead, are some great matte colors and I'm really glad they put them in this palette, Shadow Box is a simply matte taupe brown shade, but appears very dark in the pan, I have used this to deepen up the crease and outer v and it has worked pretty well but requires some more testing to really see how it preforms. And Deadhead is a very matte black shade, I did find this hard to transfers mainly because these shadows are all so pigmented that I don't really want to use a lot, I get a small amount on my brush and build from there but I find that hard to do because I really would sit forever and apply layers and layers of shadows. This entire palette is really going to take some getting used to pigmentation wise!

Overall I am beyond impressed with this palette and now really want to purchase her other one (Crysalis), I love how unique this palette it and how easy it is to use an an everyday eyeshadow palette. I will have a more in-depth final review after using this palette for a couple of months and I will keep you updated on instagram, twitter and tumblr of any looks that I do using this palette along with more pictures! Also don't forget to check out my YouTube Channel to see a more condensed version and first impressions on this palette!

Have you tried this palette? What are your thoughts?
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6 comments :

  1. Oh wow that's such a gorgeous palette - such pretty shades xx

    Gemma // missmakeupmagpie.com

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  2. I have this palette, and have never used it, this needs to be remedied as the colours are beautiful.

    zoea2812.blogspot.com

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  3. Wow this palette looks amazing! Most of the shades are so wearable too. I particularly love Telepathy, it's so shimmery :) xx Sophie/ www.prettyandpolished.co.uk

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  4. This is such a beautiful palette !

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