The Kat Von D Monarch Palette is, unsurprisingly, one of my favourite palettes of all time. It is a great neutral palette, but it has just enough variance that you can still go pretty crazy with it. It’s my go-to, and I want to show you guys exactly why this palette is my favourite. Here’s a little image I did up earlier featuring each individual shade swatched by itself.
The colour payoff in this palette is out of this world. These are swatched on my bare skin with no primer and no NYX Jumbo Milk under it. There are 12 shadows, and I’ve broken them into groups of three. The top three, Entomology, Telepathy, and Tiny Death are all highlights, but also textural bases. So that means that if you put them over any of the colours in this palette, it’ll change how they look.
- Entomology is a yellow-nude matte, it’ll make any eyeshadow put over it look more matte. It doesn’t completely mattify the colour. I’ve used this colour to cover up under eye circles.
- Telepathy is very shimmery, and it makes whatever eyeshadow it’s under look more shimmery. I find this one makes the biggest change under another shadow.
- Tiny Death has a sparkly finish, and adds said sparkle to any eyeshadow thrown on top of it.
The 9 shadows on the bottom vary greatly in texture and colour.
- Wrath is a brick orange pearl colour with incredible payoff. I’ve worn this shade completely on its own with a brow highlight and just loved how it looked alone. It’s perfect. One of my favourites of the palette
- Papilio is a dark brown pearl. While this shade isn’t super unique, I find it rightfully has it’s place in this palette to darken up the crease for a lot of these other stunner shades.
- Summerfly is a very glitter-filled gold. It’s colour payoff is definitely way up there for golds I own. It’s very much a straight, in your face gold.
- Killing Jar is a pinky-nude with a pearl finish. I don’t use this colour a whole lot, however it is quite stunning, and I’m not sure I own another shade quite like it.
- Delaney is a super fun brown-tinted silver glitter. I can’t say enough about how amazingly this colour applies. I got it to swatch as is above with little effort. It is another one of my favourites in here.
- Vanish is a matte taupe. It is one of the easiest eyeshadows to wear for an everyday look. Whenever I do myself up matte, this shade is on me. I’ve also used it as a light bronzer. It is my favourite shadow in here. I use it almost every day.
- Disintegration is a brown pearl. This one seems a little gold to me as well, but more of an antique gold. I think this colour goes fabulously with everything else in the palette.
- Shadow Box is a matte dark brown. It swatches much deeper than it looks in the pot, almost bordering black. I use this as a crease colour all the time and is definitely one of the most used eyeshadows in here for me.
- Deadhead is a matte black, however it swatches very lightly compared to a lot of the other shadows in here. I had to go over my swatch twice as much as any other eyeshadow in here. I think this may have been done on purpose so that it can be used to deepen other shades. If there is anything Kat Von D shadows are known for, it’s their ability to mix.
Here’s a close up of all the swatches so you guys can really see how well they apply. Tiny Death does actually swatch really well, it’s just very similar to my skin tone.
I cannot say enough good things about this palette. The packaging is gorgeous, as are all the shades in here. It has a mirror which is always a bonus, and I feel I can do anyones makeup with it because of how versatile it is! Here are some tutorials I’ve done that include this palette!
- Inspired by Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones Inspired Sigil Tutorials): Targaryen
- Subtle Smokey Eye
- Brick Orange and Silver
- How to Wear Bright Eyeshadow
- Natural & Polished!
I’ll try to remember to backlog and post anything else I use that palette for right here! The Kat Von D Monarch Eyeshadow Palette is $55 CAD at Sephora.
Sirens by the Sea 