Marc Jacobs Beauty Lolita eyeshadow palette: Review, swatches, and comparisons!

Marc Jacobs Beauty just launched at Sephora last week--I picked up the eyeshadow palette in The Lolita.

The packaging is really sleek, and reminds me of a Mont Blanc pen. It seems pretty sturdy, and it snaps shut, so it won't fling open when you're traveling with it. It also comes inside a sleeve, so that shiny enamel case doesn't get scratched.

You get seven eyeshadows and a nice, long mirror. The thing that's notable about this palette is that you get five light colors, one medium shade, and one really dark color--it's a little unbalanced, which means you probably won't have a lot of variety/options with this palette.

Look at how chunky the white color is! :(

The quality of the colors is just okay; the matte colors (first three from the left) are a little difficult to build up and kind of chalky, and the glittery color (middle) is really flaky. The three shimmery colors on the right are fine, but the quality is not as good as Urban Decay eyeshadows. Just looking at the colors, though, it really reminds me of the Too Faced Natural Eye palette.

Swatching the colors side-by-side, you can see that there are a lot of similarities between these two palettes! The only color in the Marc Jacobs palette that seems more unique is the pink color, which has purple iridescent shimmer in it, but if you already have the Too Faced palette, it's really not worth getting the Marc Jacobs just for this one color.

Top row: Shades from the Marc Jacobs palette
Bottom row: Comparable colors from the Too Faced Natural Eye palette

The price is also kind of concerning; it's $59 for seven eyeshadows--I'm sure most of that goes towards the packaging. To put this in perspective, that's $8.43 for each color; the Too Faced palette is $36 for nine colors, so $4.00 each. Each of the colors in the Urban Decay Naked palettes cost $4.17.

The high cost is particularly disappointing when you dump out the sponge-tip applicator at the bottom of the sleeve; for $59, I would expect an "extra" that is much more impressive than this.

Hot or Not: NOT

If you already have neutral palettes, The Lolita palette is really not worth getting; there are just palettes with more variety, higher quality eyeshadows, and more reasonable prices out there. If you're interested in these colors, get the Too Faced Natural Eye palette (find it here); it's cheaper, better quality, and has more colors.

However, this seven-color palette also comes in other colors (there's one with jewel tones, one with purples, and one with a mix of neutrals and colors) which may be worth checking out if you want a really luxurious eyeshadow palette with some unique colors. See the whole Marc Jacobs Beauty collection here.