I haven't tried very many products from Laura Mercier, so when I got an email saying that I was about to receive the brand's new Editorial Eye Palette Intense Clays through Influenster, I was ecstatic! This palette features a brand new and unique eyeshadow formula that I was really excited to try. Was it a hit or a miss? Let's find out!




The Editorial Eye Palette contains 6 eyeshadows, 3 metallics and 3 mattes, and a setting powder - a what? Yes, a powder to set your eyeshadows, you heard that right! Intrigued yet?

The thing is that the eyeshadows have a very unexpected texture for a palette, that Laura Mercier describes as "a soft, flexible clay-like hybrid". I think the word clay might be a little confusing here, but we're talking about wet clay: a bouncy, malleable consistency that you can shape and carve. Given that the texture feels very creamy and wet, the setting powder makes sense to extend wear.




This shadow texture is definitely new to Laura Mercier, but we've seen it before elsewhere: it is basically the same as ColourPop Super Shock formula. Laura Mercier's clays are a tad bit creamier and wetter than the ColourPop shades I have tried, but they feel very similar.

Unfortunately the shadows in Laura Mercier's palette suffer from some of the same issues I have experienced with ColourPop Super Shock shadows: the colors are not true-to-pan (here the metallic shades on the bottom row are much darker than expected); the shadows are best applied with fingers, and some really don't work well with brushes (Laura Mercier actually promotes a "stamp & set" technique with this palette, where you dab the shadows on the lids with fingertips, then use the setting shadow on top); some shades can be patchy, especially the darker, matte ones.




There are some great shades in this palette, and some not so great ones. The blue-toned duo, Blackened Blue Clay and Metallik Pewter, is particularly problematic - or should I say problematik: the first, a matte and supposedly smoky shade, actually turns out to be an indigo lighter than the second once blended, despite the Metallik's foiled finish. Both are really hard to blend and apply unevenly with a patchy result. Using a primer helped, but did not completely eliminate the issue.




Luckily the other 2 metallic shades are absolutely gorgeous: both Metallik Platinum and Metallik Rust are creamy, rich, incredibly pigmented, shiny, buttery, I kind of want to eat them! They are however, as I mentioned, darker than you would expect from what they look like in their pans, so Metallik Platinum does not really work as a highlighter on my skintone as I thought it would, but it's a stunning lid shade.

The remaining two mattes, Blackened Black Clay and Blackened Brown Clay are not the most blendable smoky shadows out there, but they work well enough to create a beautiful look when paired with the Metalliks. What's surprising is that they're basically dupes... of each other. When you look closely at the swatches, you can see that the Brown has slightly warmer undertones than the Black, but once applied and blended on the lid, I just can't tell the difference. I wish Laura Mercier had included a true brown instead for more variety.

The Air-Light Setting Powder does its job: I've tested one eye with and one without it, and the shadows I set did look more vibrant and fresh at the end of the day. But the issue I have with it is that, being a white, shimmery color, it affects the look of the shades underneath. It definitely lightens and adds sparkles to the dark, matte shadows. The other shadows have pretty good wear time by themselves in my experience anyway, so I have been using the Setting Powder to blend them over the crease.

Wearing Metallik Platinum on the lid, Metallik Rust on the outer corner Blackened Blue Clay in the crease (patchy because it wouldn't blend) and Blackened Brown Clay on the lower lash line

It was interesting to test this palette with a brand new shadow formula, but I have to say that it didn't work that well for me. Only 2 shades in the palette are really beautiful and easy to work with, the others are just too finicky for my taste, which makes the $48 price tag hard to justify. If your shadow blending skills are better than mine, you might be able to make it work!


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