Pat McGrath Labs Subversive MOTHERSHIP III Palette

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

For a long time, I wanted Pat McGrath Subversive but balked at the price. While I have purchased palettes north of the $100 mark, something about paying MSRP feels ever so slightly offensive. I waited for a good discount, even passed by a 20% Sephora sale and my patience was reward with 25% off on the Pat McGrath Labs website.

It's a heavy palette, easily the most sturdy item I now own. It's for this reason that I've been passing up the MTHRSHPs, in comparison the packaging is not nearly as solid or luxurious.

The mattes and shimmers look fine over just primer, but the glittery shades are disappointing like this. It would be an affront to Mother herself to not use these shades to their full potential.

Left to right, starting with the top row:

Skinshow Fever, Night Creature, Deep Shade, Gigabyte, VR Pink
Xtreme Black, Lazarus, Black Metal, Blitz Amethyst, Astral Ghost Orchid

Skinshow Fever is vanilla, in every sense of the word. It makes for a subtle highlight on the cheek or brow bone.

Deep Shade and Xtreme Black are matte. I don't need another matte brown or matte black eye shadow (you probably don't either), but at least these are of a very high caliber. Not only are they milled to the point where they feel like silk slipping between your fingers, but there's no powdery excess.These two mattes also have extremely good pigmentation, and blend very smoothly.

Glittery shades over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. So much better.

Night creature is an magenta base with magenta sparkle.

Blitz Amethyst is a shade that really surprised me. In general I have an aversion to glittery blues, but the dark smokey base and the color change from blue to purple in the sparkle is incredible.

Black Metal is the third from the left. Dark base with silver sparkle.

Gigabyte is a rich gold in a dark base that looks olive. Really phenomenal gold color. Other than the Gold 001 Pigment I have, also from Pat, this is the chunkiest gold I own.

Astral Ghost Orchid is pretty, but clumpy. It actually looks different in the pan too, sort of a compressed lumpy look. It's light pink fleck that is sheer with a pale grey cast.

VR Pink is my favorite out of the whole palette. It's a sheer base packed with duochrome sparkle that reflects dark pink and orange.

Gigabyte and Deep Shade over black smudged eyeliner.

Here I've used Astral Ghost Orchid over Colourpop Lay Low, Meteorite and Take Flight.

Here I used Night Creature with shades from the Viseart Warm Mattes palette.

Here I've used Deep Shade all over the upper and lower lids, applied Blitz Amethyst over the center of the middle of the mobile lid. This look was great in person, because whenever I turned you could see a bit of purple from the duochrome particles in Blitz Amethyst.

VR Pink over Lazarus.

Didn't think I needed/desired another warm shimmery brown either, but I find myself using Lazarus nonstop. I love how it's coppery looking but with a deep base, not unlike Urban Decay Thunderbird, which I had been wanting for quite some time. I was initially dismissive of this color because I thought I had similar ones, but actually the browns in my collection tend to be cooler and though they do have shimmer, they are much more flatter looking. This brown really rocks.

This is just VR Pink by itself on the top lid, with a bit of Deep Shade and Xtreme Black on the lower lid.

I live for Pat McGrath chunky sparkle. It's what fueled my 2018! I won't sugar coat it; without an eye shadow adhesive, the large particles can migrate and look disastrous. I would advise against applying them with just eyeshadow primer, you will not like the resulting errant flecks of sparkle. I like to pat them onto a properly sticky surface - Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy is the one you wanna call for jobs like this. If you use a brush, wet it first. In the photos above, note the golden olive look - see how I have some loose sparkle near the outer corner? That's from trying to apply it with a bigger, dry brush. I blended Gigabyte outwards. Wouldn't recommend it, these are the kind of shadows you spot apply. In fact, fingers work better than most brushes for this application.

Here over PML SmudgeLiner I've applied Deep Shade, Black Metal and topped it off with Astral Ghost Orchid. Astral Ghost Orchid slicks over in a funny way, almost the way powder cosmetics can 'hardpan'. It's not something that I really ever encounter happening before on the eye though.

Overall, I love this palette. For the glittery shades alone I would buy this; VR Pink, Blitz Amethyst, and Gigabyte are swoon worthy, Night Create ain't half bad either. Metal Black is the only one I don't think I'll really use. Astral Ghost Orchid is troublesome, but tolerable if I stick to small areas like tear duct highlight. Though I've owned this palette for three months, I feel like there's still an endless combination of looks that could come out of these shades. I'm nowhere close to exhausting these colors.

Pat McGrath Labs Subversive MOTHERSHIP III is $125 and can be purchased from the PML website or Sephora.

Have you tried any shadows from Pat McGrath Labs yet? There's a new launch happening on 3/28 of single Eyedols shadows that I'm interested in!

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