Laura Mercier Colour Classics palette - review and swatches

Quite a few places are selling this little eye and cheek palette at a discount at the moment, so I thought it might be helpful to provide some swatches and a bit of a review of it. I picked mine up in the Space NK sample sale for around £20. I think the RRP is about £55.

The palette is very compact, at around 20cm x 15cm. It's reasonably deep though (at least 1.5cm) and has quite square corners, which means it is probably a little more bulky than you'd like if you want to take it out for the evening in a clutch bag or something.

It has a snakeskin / crocodile design - you'll either appreciate this or you won't. Personally I would have preferred something more neutral and minimalist, but it's not horrible.

Inside, you'll find 6 neutral / cool eye colours (Rose, Topaz, Coffee Ground, Deep Night, African Violet and Sparkling Dew) and two pink powder blushes (Baby Pink and Plum).

 The dark colours are very pigmented indeed and make excellent liners or dramatic crease colours. However the paler shades are quite sheer - there's little in between in this palette, so if you want a strong lid colour, you'll need to supplement it with another product.

The blushes are excellent - lightly textured and very buildable. They're probably the highlight of the palette. There's also a miniature gloss included in a very pale shimmery pink.

Have you seen this palette on sale, or have you bought one? What did you think?