Hey everyone and welcome to my review of the *Lorac Pro Noir eyeshadow palette! This is not sponsored, but the links marked with a * are affiliate links. These enable me to keep my reviews unbiased while still earning a commission to help cover this blog’s operation costs. Using my links costs you nothing extra. If you find this post helpful, please consider shopping through my links. Your support is incredibly appreciated!
Since my all time favorite eyeshadow palette (Lorac Pro 1) was discontinued (can’t even get it on Amazon anymore!), I’ve been searching for a replacement. Then Lorac came out with the Pro Matte palette, but the browns were a tad too warm and dark for me.
Once the Pro Noir palette came out, I was super excited. Here was a palette with a cooler color scheme, some similar shade names to my favorite palette, several matte browns, and a ton of shimmers.
There was also a reformulation done, which I was excited about, considering I didn’t like the Lorac Pro 1 shimmer formula all that much.
Let’s see if the Noir palette delivers on its cool-toned promise.
Color Scheme
- Top Row: Ecru (warm ivory matte), Soft Taupe (soft cool brown matte), Sable (warm deep brown matte), Burgundy (reddish plum matte), Smoke (deep ash brown matte), Ink (jet black matte)
- Middle Row: White Diamond (sheer sparkle), Whisper (soft beige shimmer), Primrose (light copper shimmer), Lust (caramel shimmer), Silver Moon (warm pewter), Rendezvous (brown w/ silver sparkle)
- Bottom Row: Stardust (soft peach w/ silver sparkle), Dahlia (bronze w/ pink shimmer), Whisky (brown w/ golden shimmer), Onyx (smoky grey shimmer), Majestic (gunmetal sparkle), Black Violet (deep aubergine)
Price and Availability
At the time of writing this post, this is priced at $39. However, I’ve noticed that you can count on it being on sale pretty much everywhere at some point.
This palette is unfortunately not widely available. The only sites you can really buy this on are Ulta, Macy’s, and Amazon. The fact that it’s no longer sold on Lorac’s official website makes me concerned that it’s going away soon.
Unfortunately, Lorac seems to discontinue their eyeshadow palettes regularly. They exist for several years and then will no longer be sold anywhere except Amazon for a few more years, before completely disappearing.
What’s weird is that the instructions say to replace the shades when you hit the pan, but Lorac only offers a few eyeshadows as singles (and of course, none of them are my favorite shades).
Packaging
The packaging is nice quality, lightweight, thin, and visually appealing. It does get dirty easily though due to the dark color and almost rubbery cardboard material.
There is a large built-in mirror included. There is also a tool that helps pop the eyeshadows out, which is handy. Unfortunately, there isn’t a good place to store it within the palette. The promotional video shows it sliding in behind the palette somewhere, but I couldn’t replicate it. I tried just sticking it behind the shadow panel anyway and then the palette sat unevenly.
Pigmentation and Texture
I am a BIG fan of the formula change when it comes to the shimmers. Lorac shimmers from the past were usually rather dull, flat, and muddy colored. Now they are foiled looking and vibrant in color, even with a dry brush! They look rich and dimensional, and they meld with my skin. The only shimmers I had a problem with were White Diamond and Rendezvous, as you’ll see in my swatches below.
I am not as much of a fan of the matte reformulation, unfortunately. They actually look and feel the same when swatching, but I remember I used to be able to get what seemed like endless pigment on my eyes out of just 1 dip in the pan of the Lorac Pro 1 palette. I could keep blending it around my eye and more pigment would come off the brush, creating an easy, dimensional smokey eye look as the shadow spread around. Now, I feel the need to continuously dip my brush into the pan as I create my looks.
Fallout/Kickup
There is some fallout with these shadows, even when tapping the brush off. This is always how it’s been with Lorac eyeshadows, so it seems the formula change didn’t help with that.
There isn’t a lot of kickup in the pan with the shimmers, but there is a moderate amount with the mattes.
Wear Time
Unfortunately this palette didn’t wear as well as I hoped. The shadows don’t fade enough that I feel the need to reapply them, but they fade enough that they lose their initial impact. This is despite using a *primer and dark shadows, as well as putting on several heavy layers. That being said, pretty much all eyeshadows do this on my skin, so this palette might last longer on you.
Another downside is that the shadows smudge around a bit over time, making them look less neatly applied.
Surprisingly, the shimmers actually held up a little better than the mattes, retaining their shine fairly well.
Swatches
Below are swatches of each shadow in overcast daylight, applied with a *sponge.
Top Row
Ecru
This is a great base color for my skin tone. The slight yellow undertone both matches my skin closely and effectively subdues the blue and purple tones on my eyelid.
Soft Taupe
This is the shade I was most excited about. I hoped it would be a good replacement for “Taupe” from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, but it leans more peach-undertoned. When blended on my eyelid, it turns more orange than I’d like.
Sable
I was also excited about Sable, hoping it would replace “Sable” from the Lorac Pro 1 Palette. While it’s close, it’s warmer with more red undertones. It’s not the grayish brown with slight cool red like the one from Lorac Pro 1, which flattered my cooler skin tone better.
If anything, Sable is actually closer in color to Taupe from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, except Sable is slightly redder.
Burgundy
I was initially uninterested in this color because I don’t wear red eyeshadow. However, this is a nice neutral red color that doesn’t turn orange. It’s quite wearable and great for a smokey eye.
Smoke
Smoke is a nice cool brown that provides plenty of depth. This is closest to the shade Espresso in the Lorac Pro 1 palette, except Smoke is more of a true brown and Espresso is a slightly desaturated brown.
Ink
This is a classic pure black. It offers lots of depth but can still be blended out easily. Compared to Black from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, Ink is MUCH smoother and darker. It’s also got something to it that makes it less like a flat, ashy, pure black. It’s almost got a very deep cool purple undertone.
Middle Row
White Diamond
This color was unfortunately disappointing. I was looking forward to finally having a pigmented, white foiled shimmer from Lorac, but this just ended up looking like a chunky glitter with barely any white base pigment. Piling it on with a firm wet brush helps, but not as much as I was hoping. In photos, it does look less glittery and more shiny, but in person, it’s very underwhelming. Lorac does describe this as sheer, so I guess I can’t really complain, but I don’t feel compelled to use this at all.
Whisper
This is a really foiled and pigmented metallic shadow that shows off how good Lorac’s new metallic formula is when done right. It’s one of my favorites because of its liquid metal rose gold appearance and neutral undertone. It’s just light enough for me to use as an inner corner highlight too, which is great considering my disappointment in White Diamond.
Whisper is similar to Nude and Champagne from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, except Whisper is more foiled and luxe looking, as well as ever so slightly warmer. I definitely prefer it!
Primrose
This is another great rose gold foiled shadow that resembles liquid metal. It does lean a bit warm, but not to the point where it looks unflattering.
Primrose is a very close match to Lt. Bronze from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, except Primrose is a little deeper and richer.
Lust
This is exactly like Primrose, except slightly more warm bronze colored. Unfortunately, it’s a little too orange for me.
Silver Moon
This is a favorite shadow of mine. It has that nice foiled look, as well as a truly neutral undertone. It’s that perfect cross between gray and bronze. It’s very similar to Pewter from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, which was one of my favorite shades. How Silver Moon differs is that it’s slightly lighter and noticeably more foiled and luxe.
Rendezvous
This is where the quality of the shadow formulation drops off a little. The base pigment in this seems weaker than the other shades. It applied in a streaky, uneven manner. However, when I used my finger, it applied more evenly. In terms of color, it’s a nice neutral brown.
Bottom Row
Stardust
The quality of the formulation goes back up with Stardust. It applies evenly and has plenty of base pigment, although it looks more glittery than foiled. The color is a neutral pink.
Dahlia
This appears to be a metallic shadow that doesn’t have any glitter particles. It looks like it has a warm bronze base with pink shimmer mixed in. It’s a unique and neat color that comes off warm but just wearable enough for my skintone.
Whiskey
This is one of the warmest shades, showing up as a very intense bronze. It’s very similar to Lust, except this is less glittery and slightly darker.
Compared to Gold, from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, Whiskey is much less orange and more bronze.
Onyx
Though described as just gray, this shade becomes a cool-toned, glittery brownish-gray when blended with my skin tone. Compared to Silver Moon, it is darker and more gray. It doesn’t appear orange or too ashy, making it one of my favorite shades for a grungy look.
This shade is also very similar to Pewter from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, but Onyx is a bit darker, more gray, and has glitter particles.
Majestic
The base pigment seems to get a little more sparse again, like with Rendezvous. This is also glittery rather than foiled. That being said, this is a very nice “natural gray” shadow with a touch of brown but not as much as Onyx. This is another great shade for a grungy look.
Compared to Slate from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, Majestic is more glittery and way less blue. On my skin, it’s a much more wearable and flattering gray due to its slight brown undertone.
Black Violet
This looks like it could be a slight shimmer, based on how it looks in the pan, but it comes off more matte. It’s a cool-toned deep brownish purple, and like the other dark shades, this is very blendable.
Compared to Deep Purple from the Lorac Pro 1 palette, Black Violet applies much smoother and looks more brown. I find it to be more flattering on my neutral leaning skin, as Deep Purple looked too ashy.
Eye Looks
- Base: Ecru applied with a fluffy brush
- Crease: Soft Taupe applied with a fluffy brush
- Eyelid: Smoke applied with a fluffy flat brush
- Lower lash line: Sable applied with a dense shader brush
- Inner corner: White Diamond applied with a wet firm brush
- Eyelid: Silver Moon applied with a flat brush (no longer sold)
- Lower lash line: Onyx applied with a dense shader brush
- Inner corner: Whisper applied with a wet firm brush
- Eyelid: Dahlia applied with a flat brush (no longer sold)
- Outer corner: Majestic applied with a dense shader brush
- Lower lash line: Stardust applied with a dense shader brush
- Inner corner: White Diamond applied with a wet firm brush
- Browbone: Whisper applied with a dry flat brush
- Eyelid: Lust applied with a flat brush (no longer sold)
- Outer corner: Black Violet applied with a dense shader brush
- Lower lash line: Burgundy applied with a dense shader brush
- Inner corner: Whisper applied with a wet firm brush
- Crease: Primrose applied with a fluffy flat brush
- Eyelid: Rendezvous applied with my finger
- Outer corner: Ink applied with a dense shader brush
- Lower lash line: Whiskey applied with a dense shader brush
- Inner corner: Whisper applied with a dry flat brush
Would I Repurchase?
Even though I enjoyed using some of the colors in this palette, and I’ve got a soft spot for Lorac, I won’t be repurchasing this. Much like the Natasha Denona My Mini Dream palette that I recently reviewed, this doesn’t quite have the type of cool undertone I was looking for. There are too many shades I won’t use, and the mattes weren’t quite the formulation I was hoping for. While I did really like some of the foiled metallics, I’m not as much of a fan of the glitter shadows.
If you tend to like slightly warm, slightly red-leaning colors, you will probably like this palette more than I did. The quality is good enough overall, especially for the price, that I would recommend it to others. However, the winner for me personally is still the *Natasha Denona Glam palette. This actually provides the perfect alternative for those seeking a truly cool undertoned palette. Review on that coming soon!
Where to Buy
This can be purchased at *Ulta, *Macy’s, and Amazon. I highly suggest checking Amazon to see if you can get this for 50% off like I did! Buying products on Amazon can be more risky because of the chance of getting fakes, but this particular listing is “Premium Brand Sourced” which ensures authenticity. If Amazon is not your preference, Macy’s often has sales too.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope this was helpful!
Leaning Cool 
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