I recently purchased a new Dior eyeshadow palette from Sephora, the Dior Couture Color Eyeshadow Palette in Mystic Smokys 004 (5 Couleurs Palette Fards a Paupieres Haute Couleur)($58). True to its name, the palette has a very dark and smoky feel.
The palette includes the following colors:
- A nearly-white shimmery highlighter (lower left). This highlighter throws off some fallout. It’s a pleasant enough ivory/eggshell white, but be prepared to work a bit to use it.
- A soft very light shimmery pink (center color). When applied, the center color is almost white. It’s a cooler version of the highlighter, but with a better texture.
- A nearly-matte cool brown (bottom right). It’s a good basic neutral. It reminds me of Dior’s Trendy Taupe.
- A shimmery gunmetal grey (top right). This color is evocative of Dior’s Argentic single. If you have Mystic Smokys, you can cross Argentic off your wish list.
- A deep, multidimensional nearly-black violet (top left). This seems similar to Dior’s Ultra Violet single, and is the star of the palette. It’s an incredibly rich tone.
Swatches, below. You can see that I had trouble getting a clean swatch of the highlighter (this was my third try). The darker shades apply consistently and beautifully. Click to enlarge:
I have only seen this palette at Sephora so far, so I am uncertain whether/when other stores will be getting this.
Although the price is high, if you are considering two or three of the Dior singles then this represents a better option based on price. This is a dramatic palette–the darker shades here are the winners. As an aside, I would have liked to see a mid-tone shade in the palette in the center (a soft grey?). Nonetheless, I’ll be using these deeper shades and loving them.
I never feel compelled to use all five colors in a Dior quint at the same time. In fact, I don’t think that I’ve ever done that. Rather, I tend to use two, or maybe three, colors at most in any one look.
