At long last, Kat Von D has delivered the Alchemist Holographic Palette to us makeup loving fiends who just want a little bit more of an edge of colour in our looks.
One thing to clear up though: this is not holographic by any means, despite the palette claiming to be. These are duochrome pigments which means they look one colour (mostly pale white) but refract another (an actual colour, like green, blue, etc.). Holographic, on the other hand, reflects every single colour of the rainbow (think of the reflect on the backside of a CD). I think they were mostly just trying to get us with the buzz word, but frankly, the term “Alchemist” is far more appealing to me. I like the idea that this palette was created with the idea in mind of creating something from nothing, or turning new things into different things. It all feels very mysterious and crafty!
Gripes of the palette name aside, let’s take a look at it.
The Alchemist Holographic palette is incredible small – seriously, the whole thing fits in the palm of my hand! However, the pan sizes are large enough to get a smaller size powder brush in there (my Real Techniques Contour Brush fits perfectly, as does a MAC 109). Each pan contains 1.53 grams of product, which is about on par with your standard eyeshadow pan.
The product themselves are all eye, lip and face safe – so wherever you want to put them on your face, you can do it and rest assured that they’re not going to give you problems.
The layout of the palette is interesting and intriguing, as is the (actual) holographic pattern on the front of the case (it’s kind of breathtaking to be honest). That being said, it is a bit oddly shaped compared to all my other palettes, so I still haven’t got a clue how I’m going to store it.
Moving on to the powders, I know they look exceptionally boring in the pan, but just take a look at the swatches:
Swatched out, you can see how the shades in the palette really shine! This kind of sheer wash of pastel, bright neon is reminiscent of Naked Cosmetics Ivory Stack (which has been around for absolute ages, but it’s hard to get your hands on) as well as the more recent Anastasia Beverly Hills Moonchild palette. Each colour is very much individually its own colour – it’s the kind of pale shadow you can really use to transform your look.
As encouraged by the brand, you can also mix it with other colours (such as the black above) to really transform the pigment. I’m personally more inclined to use it as a face highlighter or inner corner highlight though because I find it to be a little less fussy that way.
When I mentioned this palette on Snapchat (find me over there: muyourmind), I had a few people asking me about how it compared to the ABH Moonchild palette, so I’ve included the shades that matched the closest in these swatches. In general, I find the green shade to be brighter in the ABH palette, the blue shades are completely different (KVD seems more teal, whereas ABH seems more blue).
The purples are quite different – KVD is more ultra-violet, whereas ABH is far more purple and it has specs of glitter in it. Between the two pinks, I find them near identical, but I do see a bit more brightness in the KVD one in the swatch above.
Kat Von D Alchemist Holographic Palette – Face Swatches
These are full-on, heavy cheek swatches to give you an idea of how this looks when built up. You can definitely wear it more softly if you want less impact.
Kat Von D Alchemist Holographic Palette – Eye Swatches
I do wear this palette as an inner corner eyeshadow highlight, so I wanted to show you a few examples of that as well. My usual technique is to try to create some kind of symbiosis with the inner corner shade in combination with the lid shade.
Final Thoughts
The timing of this palette was a little bizarre – I think I read that Kat Von D spent four years (or was it seven?) formulating the pigments in this product in order to get it perfect. And I kind of feel like Anastasia Beverly Hills scooped them on the release of this palette because the two products are very, very similar. That being said, the Kat Von D Alchemist Holographic palette is the only readily accessible pale ivory duochrome palette like this which makes it hugely appealing to me since more people can get their hands on it. It also has no glitter in it whatsoever, whereas the ABH one does have some shades with embedded glitter.
Release commentary aside: I have no qualms with this palette. I think it’s an absolutely wonderful product. I’ve seen a few people mention the pan size as a deterrent, but I don’t agree – this isn’t the kind of product you’re going to go through quickly, so I don’t think large pans are necessary. I found the pigmentation of the shades to be beautiful – I love, love, LOVE that kind of pale iridescent sheen that I can use to amp up a makeup look. In the last year I’ve become rather obsessed with coloured highlighters and this only helps to fuel that fire.
This is something I think the makeup world needs more of, so if you’re in the market for something new, I’d definitely say you should at least go swatch this palette at Sephora!
The Kat Von D Alchemist Holographic Palette can be purchased at sephora.ca for $43 CAD or on sephora.com for $38 USD.
The product featured in this review was sent to me for consideration.
