Ranking My Pat McGrath Eyeshadow Palettes
The time has come…I was originally planning to post this in February but I added a new Pat McGrath palette, Mothership VI Midnight Sun, to my collection and wanted to give myself time to use it and see where it would land in my ranking. The other palettes I had a surprisingly easy time ranking.
12. MTHRSHP Subversive MetalMorphosis
This was one of the three mini palette that Pat McGrath released for Holiday 2018. I originally purchased only two as I was on the fence about wanting the third. I purchased this one and Dark Star. Of all the PMG palettes I own this one is the one I find the least inspiring. It is an all metallic palette which usually - with one exception I will talk about later in this post - I’m not a fan of. So why did I buy it? At the time I thought I would get more use out of it as a companion palette for other palettes I own. But that just never happens.
1. MTHRSHP Subliminal Dark Star
I thought I would get more use out of this palette than I have. I love that the color story is cool toned and so different from most of Pat’s other color stories. The first time I used this palette I wasn’t really happy with the look I came up with, but that honestly I think was more due to my technique ( or lack thereof) and my brush quality. Pat’s palettes really do lend themselves better to natural hair brushes which I didn’t own at the time. I do now and I am interested in revisiting this palette.
10. MTHRSHP Subversive La Vie En Rose
This was one of the first Pat McGrath palettes I ever purchased and I still adore this color story. It features one of my favorite PMG shades ever, Pale Fire, a gorgeous peachy duochrome. The palette is beautiful. And the only reason it’s ranked so low is because it’s a color story I don’t wear all that often.
9. Star Wars Limited Edition Galactic Gold
I am so happy I have this palette in my collection, but the truth is I haven’t touched it since I bought it. It has some repeat shades from other PMG palettes and so the color story isn’t all that unique for the brand. I will eventually bust this baby open but right now it sits nest to it’s sister palette which I have used.
8. Star Wars Limited Edition Dark Galaxy
This color story is so pretty and while I love the colors the looks I created with it were only so-so for me. Again - that could be user error. But for me this color story ranks kind of smack dab in the middle of the palettes that I own. Pretty but not mind-blowing.
7. Ritualistic Rose Astral Quad
For holiday 2019, Pat McGrath released two quads featuring her “special shades”. I was able to resist purchasing those. But Ritualistic Rose got me. It is a stunning little palette. But it is NOT beginner friendly. If you are no used to highly metallic, highly glittery shimmery shades this can be a tough one to work with. I use it mainly as a pairing palette with Divine Rose.
6. MTHRSHP Sublime Bronze Temptation
This was the final of the three 2018 holiday mini palettes that I purchased. I just wasn’t sure that I “needed” it in my collection. Ironically it has become my favorite of the trio. The shades in this palette are more dimensional than they look in the pan. Specifically Corruption. Which in the pan looks like a rich burgundy metallic but swatched or on the eye is a duochrome with a stunning green, gold shift. You can create a simple neutral look or punch it up with the metallics. Which makes it the most versatile and user friendly of all three mini palettes from this collection.
5. MOTHERSHIP VI Midnight Sun
My most recent PMG purchase. This was a palette that when it first came out I was underwhelmed by. I didnt want it. There were two shades that really caught my eye, Wicked Envy and Vermilion Venom but other than that I was pretty meh about it. UNTIL I started seeing the looks created with it on YouTube. And then I thought, “Oh. Okay. So I need it.” But I was good. I told myself I wouldn’t purchase it unless PMG had a sale with a decent discount. Well in February PMG had a sale with a decent discount. I added this to my March makeup box and though I haven’t gotten the chance to use it as much as I had been planning to in March I got a fair amount of use out of it and can safely say that I really really like it.
4. MTHRSHP Subliminal Platinum Bronze
From PMG’s first trio of mini palettes this the cool toned lovers dream. This like Bronze Temptation was the final palette of the first trio of minis that I purchased. I was unsure if I’d get a lot of use out of it. I wasn’t wearing a lot of cool-toned shadows at that point. Now, I love cool toned shadows and that is a reason why this palette ranks so high on my list. It’s a beautiful and relatively easy palette to work with. You have the option of doing a soft wash of color or building it up for a smokier look.
3. MTHRSHP Sublime Bronze Ambition
If someone asked me which Pat McGrath mini would I suggest to someone who had never tried a PMG palette before this is the one I would suggest. The color story is user friendly and the palette is easy to use. It’s not a ground-breaking color story but of all of her palettes -with the exception of one I will be mentioning shortly - it is the most approachable. Of all of her mini palettes this one and Platinum Bronze are the ones I’ve used the most.
2. MOTHERSHIP VII Divine Rose
It took me a long time to pull the trigger on buying one of Pat’s ful size Mothership palettes. $125 is a lot of money to spend on an eyeshadow palette and I wanted to make sure that when I did it would be a palette that I would get a lot of use from and was a color story that I really loved. Enter Divine Rose. Which was oroginally supposed to be a limited edition palette exclusive to Selfridges. But everyone went apeshit for it and Pat decided to release on her site. I was one of the lucky few who got my hands on it during the first launch on her site back in November. If I had to recommend one introductory full sized palette for a Pat McGrath newbie it would be this one. First off - it’s just a gorgeous palette. But it’s also a palette that you can get your money’s worth from. If you work in a field where you can’t wear really bold, colorful eye looks but still want something special this is a fantastic option. Divine Rose features one of my favorite PMG shades, Velouria, which is a gorgeous dusky mauve matte. This shade can be worn sheerly or built up to create a smokey gray-based look. The palette only features three matte shades, which can be limiting but there are shades in the palette that function like satin shadows when applied and buffed out on the eye. I would say this is a palette that lets you be “safely” creative in your eye looks.
MOTHERSHIP IV Decadence Palette
Before Divine Rose, there was only one full-sized PMG palette that I really wanted and that wa Decadence. Alas, I was late to the PMG party and missed out on this limited edition palette when it was originally released. There had been rumors for awhile that she would eventually re-release it but nothing ever came of them. Until the winter of 2019 when Pat McGrath released her collaboration with Star Wars featuring Decadence in limited edition gold Star Wars packaging. I’m not actually a Star Wars fan but the chance to finally get my hands on Decadence and in such beautiful packaging? Yes, please. I missed out on the release of it and was devastated to say the least. But PMG came through and did a small relaunch with limited quantities and I was able to FINALLY purchase Decadence. I love this palette. More than I actually thought I would. Like I stated above, I am not a huge fan of all metallic palettes but this one is special. First off, the metallics are finely milled and some of them almost function like satins. You could in fact wear a single shade from this palette all over the lid and have a fantastic look. I enjoy pairing it with some of my favorite matte shadows from other palettes. I would describe the metallics in this palette as “sophisticated”. The texture, the way they blend and perform make them so special. And the shades are STUNNING. I wore this palette quite a bit during the winter months paired with the Melt Muerte palette.
