As most of you will probably agree, holiday palettes kind of suck. What used to be the fastest selling collections have evolved into a predictable stream of ho-hum generic looking palettes of inferior quality. But every now and again someone gets it right. Pat McGrath just released her Mega Mthrship: Celestial Divinity Palette and I think we all perked our ears up.
Then the Celestial Divinity was announced. Eighteen (albeit smaller) shadows for $78? By comparison it’s practically a steal (man, these brands are good at marketing) Either way this one I could justify so let’s discuss if it measures up.
- Pat McGrath Celestial Divinity Palette Overview
- Pat McGrath Celestial Divinity Palette Review
- Cruelty-Free and Vegan Status
- Where to Buy the Pat McGrath Celestial Divinity Palette
- Final Thoughts
Pat McGrath Celestial Divinity Palette Overview
The Pat McGrath Mega Mthrship: Celestial Divinity Palette is an eighteen color palette that retails for $78. The shadows look like a standard mac sized shadow (size of a quarter) so they’re quite a bit smaller than the regular Mothership shadows. There’s a total of 0.69 oz of product included in the palette (vs. 0.47 in her standard palettes) so it’s definitely a better value.
The shadows are packaged in a slim cardboard palette that feels pretty heavy for its size. It includes a mirror and has a magnetic closer.
The palette uses ribbons as the mechanism to hold the palette open. I really didn’t like the ribbons, they’re flimsy and don’t work well to keep the palette open. I’m actually considering cutting them because not only are they not doing they’re job, but they’re also preventing the palette from opening flat.
I also don’t love that they chose to print the shade names on the back of the palette but not under the shadows. Makes it very inconvenient when trying to reference specific shadows.
The standard Mothership Palettes are made of weighted plastic packaging and this definitely doesn’t feel very luxe. Which probably explains the lower price on the Celestial Divinity Palette.
Pat McGrath Celestial Divinity Palette Review
This wasn’t so much a case where the color story really called to me as much as it was about the formula. It is however an interesting color story, at first glance I see a lot of warm jewel tones.
Celestial Divinity isn’t what I call a complete palette, both in terms of light to dark, and matte to shimmer shades.
It’s a mostly shimmer palette with only three of the eighteen shades being matte. Of those mattes, two are deeper shades (a maroon and a warm brown) and the other is a mid-tone pink.
For me there aren’t enough transition shades or crease shades. The pale pink isn’t deep enough to work in my crease and I had to pull in a separate matte palette to complete a look. Bear in mind, I have a lot of space between my crease and my brown but even for someone who doesn’t, the pink is really your only option.
Most of the colors are in the medium depth category with a few darker ones. The only two lighter shades are very glittery golds and aren’t what I’d use for a brow highlight. The dark mattes are reasonably deep and there’s also a very deep glittery plum. As for the rest of the palette you’ve got lots of choices for medium lid shades.
I really think of this as more of an accent palette. If you don’t mind pulling in a few mattes it shouldn’t be a problem and I don’t necessarily mind having more shimmery shades instead of duplicates of standard mattes.
Color Story
There’s a few warm golds and coppers, all shimmery or sparkly. Two of the coppers, Bronze Nebula and Bronze look nearly identical to me. Galactic Gold and Lunar Champagne are also fairly similar so I’m not thrilled that there are duplicates.
Then there are two neutral green shades. Megabyte is an olive green and Dragonfly is a cool duochrome sage with a bronze base and gold sparkle.
There are a few reddish shades, two of which are shimmers and the warm matte brown.
The two pinks included are a soft matte pink and a sparkly pink topper.
And finally there’s the purples and there are quite a few of them. Violet Void is a sparkly violet, Odyssey is neutral lavender, and Fuchsia Shock is a vibrant orchid. Electron is a sheer duo-chrome orchid with blue reflects and Smoked Amethyst is a deep shimmery plum with silver glitter.
Formula
The mattes are have strong, even pigmentation and they blend easily. They’re pretty firmly pressed but still smooth to touch. The texture is on the thinner side and apply with minimal fallout.
Within the shimmers there are a few different finishes.
The softest are the standard shimmers like Corruption and Fuchsia Shock. The texture is very smooth but they’re still beautifully pigmented and don’t leave fallout.
Then there are shimmers that are embedded with glitter particles. Usually glitter in eyeshadows looks patchy and is super annoying to work with. Not so here. The glitter is so fine and so evenly dispersed that it gives a diamond like effect as it hits the light. These are the shades Saturnalia, Violet Void, Gold Standard, and Smoked Amethyst.
The metallic shadows are chunkier in texture but they give a very interesting sparkly finish. Shades such as Lunar Champagne, Odyssey, and Megabyte all contain flecks of micro glitter. The fact that a lot of the glitter matches the color of the shadow gives the metallic finish an added dimension. These have some fallout so finger applications can be better here.
Last are the duo-chromes. Electron and Dragonfly each have a unique color shift as the light moves. Dragonfly is similar in concept to iconic shades like Mac’s Club in that it’s a brown-green shift, however it has an added element of gold sparkle that really puts it over the top. Both shades are smooth and have good color payoff.
To sum it up I think all the shadows have great pigmentation and most of them blend easily. The only issues you’ll run into are that some of the shades are chunkier in texture and kick up quite a bit of excess.
Swatches
Cruelty-Free and Vegan Status
The Pat McGrath Labs website states that they do not test their products or ingredients on animals and their products are not sold in China where animal testing is required by law. The brand does not confirm whether or not their raw material suppliers test the ingredients on animals.
Pat McGrath does not list their products as vegan and some shades in the Celestial Divinity Palette contain Carmine.
Where to Buy the Pat McGrath Celestial Divinity Palette – $78
- Sephora – Free shipping on orders over $50 and free returns.
- Pat McGrath – Free shipping and free returns. International shipping available.
Regardless of where you choose to purchase from, make sure to check if Rakuten (ebates) is offering cashback. Sephora offers cashback for anywhere from 2% to 8% so it’s definitely worth looking into. If you haven’t signed up for Rakuten yet, you can do so here, it only takes a minute and then you’ll earn cash back every time you shop through their link. They also have an extension which I recommend installing, that activates cashback on all eligible websites with one click. It also scans for coupons.
Final Thoughts
For me the benefits of Celestial Divinity Palette really comes down to the unique finishes of the shadows. If you’re looking for shadows that are glimmering, sparkly, intensely metallic, there’s a lot of that in this palette. The reflective shadows are really interesting and different than the average eyeshadow formulas.
It’s not a complete palette and it only has three matte shades which I don’t think is a bad thing in this case. For the price I’m glad the palette includes such wide selection of shimmers and I don’t mind pulling in basic neutrals to complete the look.
I’d say this is one to purchase if you want to add a good selection of fun and unique shimmers to your collection. And if you like the color story and you’ve been wanting to try Pat McGrath’s formula this is definitely better value than a full sized Mothership palette.
Pros
- Lots of uniquely reflective finishes
- Shadows have rich and smooth pigmentation
- Glittery shades have evenly dispersed sparkle
Cons
- Chunkier shades kick up fallout
- A few repetitive shades
- Ribbons do not keep palette open properly when in use
Thanks for reading, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Bye now,
