The Patrick Ta Major Dimension III Palette is an all matte neutral eyeshadow palette with both warm and cool toned shades ranging from ultra pale to true black. There are also two cream bases in deep shades for added versatility. Neutral palettes very often lack a very pale matte highlight and a matte black. The inclusion of those two simple shades along with a decent selection of midtones in a palette that isn’t too large makes this seem like a handy pairing palette I can keep permanently in my everyday makeup drawer.

Price: $70
Availability: Sephora, Patrick Ta

Swatches

What’s Inside

5 Warm-Toned Powder Mattes

The warmer, peach-toned mattes in the top row are similar in application to the mattes in the Patrick Ta Major Dimension II Palette with easy, smooth blending and even application. All 5 of these shades have a finely milled, velvety texture that is smooth but not dry or slippery. They have excellent color payoff while still being easy to blend once placed on the skin. There is hardly any fallout even from the deepest shades and they are not messy or powdery in the pan. They adhere well to the lid with or without primer and the primer I use (ColourPop Party Proof Eyeshadow Primer) doesn’t seem to make much of a difference in the way they apply or blend.

5 Cooler-Toned Powder Mattes

The shades in the bottom row are cooler in comparison and differ slightly in performance. The three midtones look pretty neutral on me when used as eyeshadow but they do have a subtle red undertone that’s noticeable if I attempt to use them as brow powders. They do not apply quite as evenly and require more effort to blend out than the warmer tones but can still give me a nice result with a little extra patience. 

I would give the lightest shade an 8/10 on color payoff. It shows up well but using a fluffy brush with it requires maybe two or more layers for noticeable brightening. If you want this shade to really pop, I would suggest using more of a dense brush for maximum impact.

The matte black is the most tricky shade to use and feels more firmly pressed in the pan. It applies in thinner layers, requiring me to layer it more times for the same amount of color payoff. The best way I found to apply it was by using a flat shader for nearly all of the packing and blending, gradually working the brush upward as there is less and less color on the bristles. If a flat shader isn’t enough, I will then use a few other brushes like a pencil brush or a small fluffy brush to refine blending around the edges. It adheres strongly wherever I first apply it and I have to spend more time blending to get it to move and sheer out. Using the matte black over the black cream shade gives me a much smoother, deeper, richer look than just using the matte black by itself. The color goes on more evenly and the edges look more smoothly blended.

2 Cream Bases

In the swatches above Non-Negotiable and Impressive are the two cream bases. They swatch with intensity but with actual use on the eye, they apply a bit more sheer and blend out very easily. I wouldn’t personally wear them by themselves on the upper lid because they crease fairly quickly on me (and also shorten wear time when worn underneath the powders) but I enjoy using them smudged out along the lower lashline and applied as eyeliner with an angled brush. They don’t feel too oily or emollient but they still have enough creaminess to move around easily on the skin. Once I apply and blend them out, they set a tiny bit but not completely. Some of the moisture in them absorbs into the skin but they never become so dry that I can no longer adjust or blend the placement.

Pros and Cons

Things I like:

• I like that they included a true matte black and a pale matte highlight that is almost a true white. I feel both of these types of shades should be staples in a neutral palette. 
• Good selection of warms and cools to grab from when using this as a pairing palette.
• Color payoff is great for all the midtone shades (both the black and the white are somewhat sheerer but still buildable).
• The creams are a nice-to-have addition.
• It’s a smaller, paired down palette. It’s less overwhelming than something like the 30-pan palettes from ColourPop but possibly also less useful.
• Decent wear time at about 6-7 hours without primer and 8-ish hours with primer.

Drawbacks to consider

• The price. Considering the number of shades and the overall quality, the price sort of makes sense but it’s still a lot. It is definitely possible to find a selection of shades like these for much less.
• Cream bases reduce wear time.
• If you prefer a light matte highlight that isn’t yellow toned or nearly pure white, such as something more peachy or pinky, then you’re not gonna find that in here.
• If you want a range of undertones in your neutral palette beyond peach/taupe, you’re also not going to find that here. Sometimes it’s nice to have neutrals that lean more yellow, green, orange, grey, and purple.

Do I Recommend It?

If the price is not a deterrent, yes. I think it delivers on quality and usefulness. I wouldn’t say it’s the “perfect” neutral palette but they’ve fit a lot of basic things I want to grab for almost daily into a smaller palette. If you just can’t get behind the price/value, I’d suggest looking into the ColourPop Stone Cold Fox and/or Bare Necessities palettes. You can get both of those for the same price as this one palette with many more shades to choose from.

Looks

Look 1:

• Mandatory – Inner corner / brow bone (mainly to color correct)
• Refined – Inner corner / brow bone (to brighten)
• Staple – Transition / lower lash line
• Essential – Crease
• Fundamental – Outer lid
• Irreplaceable – Smudged into lash line, liner on outer half of lid

For this look I used all the powder shades in the cooler-toned bottom row and the lightest yellowy matte in the top row to create this simple everyday smokey eye. I used the light yellowy matte to help cancel out some discoloration on the inner corner and then applied the white matte on top for extra brightness. Color payoff was good, blending was easy, minimal fallout even from the deeper shades and it didn’t seem to matter too much whether I used I primer or not. The shades applied about the same both ways.

Look 2:

For this one I used all the warm shades in the top row to create the gradient from the brow bone to the crease and then packed the matte powder black all over the lid. I smudged the brown cream base along the lower lashline with a pencil brush and attempted to use that same shade on the waterline with an eyeliner brush. Most of what I used here worked out fine but the matte black was difficult to to get to look even and it ended up fading on the crease somewhat early for me. The liked how easy it was to use the cream base on the lower lashline but it didn’t stick around very long on the waterline. I didn’t clean up fallout so what you see under my eye is all there was.

Look 3:

• Mandatory – Brow bone/inner corner
• Classic – All over lid / crease, lower lashline
• Trademark – Outer part of crease, applied lightly with a fluffy brush
• Non-Negotiable – Liner on upper lid

Look 4:

• Mandatory – Inner corner
• Essential – Outer lid/crease, inner lower lashline
• Irreplaceable – Deepen lid/crease
• Needed – Inner lid/crease, outer lower lashline 
• Trademark – Deepen outer lower lashline
• LA Girl Shade Shifter Duo Chrome Eyeshadow in Sunset (shimmer on center of lid)

Look 5:

• Impressive – Outer crease
• Irreplaceable – Outer crease, over top Impressive
• Essential + Staple – Blended black out on center of lid/crease with these
• Refined – Inner corner, brow bone

The last slide in the carousel is what the cream looks like by itself on the lid.

I used the black a lot in this palette, probably more than anyone really cares to know about but I did that because for the most part the other shades are solid. I don’t have too many issues with them and they are generally easy, straightforward shades to use. I feel like lots of neutral palettes skip out on true matte blacks and also very rarely have a good, very bright matte highlight that doesn’t lean any particular tone (yellow or pink, for example). I wanted to do one last black look where I used the cream base underneath to show the difference it makes when applying the powder over top. The cream base doesn’t set completely but some of the moisture in it seems to either absorb into the skin or evaporate once I apply and blend it out on the lid. I can continue to move it around on the lid indefinitely. It doesn’t help to increase wear time and in fact shortens it for me.

Out of curiosity I used the ColourPop Stone Cold Fox on the other eye to recreate this look with similar shades. I feel like the ColourPop palette works just as well to create this type of look and has some lighter transition shade options.

Comparisons

I have a few different palettes here but the best alternatives I have in my own collection are the ColourPop Bare Necessities and Stone Cold Fox Palettes. These are each $35 retail and have 30 shades in them. For the price of a single Patrick Ta palette, you can get both of these from ColourPop and much larger selection of shades to complete your neutral collection.

Patrick Ta Crème Foundation & Finishing Powder Duo is a two-in-one product containing a medium coverage foundation and a translucent, natural-finish powder. It retails for $52, contains 0.42 oz of foundation (less than half of a standard size liquid foundation), 0.32 oz of powder, and comes in 24 shades.

The outside of the compact is a mirrored reflective surface and on the inside, the creme foundation has its own cover to keep powder out and prevent powder brushes from touching the foundation. The mirror inside is fairly large and I like the longer, vertical shape for being able to see my whole face easily at once. I’m not a fan of reflective packaging but otherwise I think the design is functional and keeps things simple. Even one less product on my desk is a little bit of a mental relief.

I would not have been drawn to this foundation were it not for the cream shadows in their Major Dimension II Palette. The way those sank nearly completely into the skin without looking powdery on texture made me curious to see if the foundation was at all similar.

As I run my finger over the surface, the foundation melts almost immediately and I am able to pick product up without having to warm it up at all. It has a lot of slip and spreads over the skin with hardly any resistance. The entire application process goes by in a snap.

I have mainly applied this with my fingers. I dabbled a bit with a sponge and a brush but went back to using fingers immediately after. The sponge gave me a much sheerer application to the point where I felt I was just wasting the product. Using a brush worked about as well as using fingers but I don’t prefer this method in general for most foundations because it tends to cause foundation to catch more on texture and emphasize it. I didn’t see that happen with this foundation, though. I still felt it was necessary to use a sponge/brush afterward to finish off the blending, especially to get the product out of my pores and looking as natural as possible.

Using the foundation alone, I am left with a noticeably evened out complexion and a glowy, bordering dewy finish. For the photos below, I also used this in place of concealer under the eyes, so you can get a better idea of the coverage. I thought it worked pretty well used that way and didn’t feel like I was missing anything by skipping concealer. There was a small breakout above my lip and it managed to tone down the redness quite a bit.

One thing I didn’t love was how it sat in my pores and on texture. This is something I struggle with, with almost all foundations. Some are more forgiving and easier to blend out almost completely. This one was less forgiving.

For many of the cream foundations I’ve tried in the past, it’s almost like I could see the powders (pigments?) gather in texture more visibly than with liquid formulas. I was hoping that wasn’t going to be the case with this one, but unfortunately, it is.

The powder is sheer and does not add any extra coverage and also doesn’t alter the color of the foundation once applied. It feels lightweight but not particularly finely milled. When first applied, it eliminates most of the glow from the foundation itself, but doesn’t control shine for very long at all. For normal daily use, I think the overall finish of the foundation and the powder together along with how they look over the course of a day, looks just fine. I don’t have any issues with some glow developing over time. But this isn’t one I’d reach for when wanting to keep shine away for long periods of time.

Below are before and after of just the foundation (no powder) so you can see how it evens out the complexion.

Wearing this to work in a “normal” way, just to look a little more evened out, I was happy with how it held up all day. It didn’t slide around, even though it does have a lot of slip, and I didn’t have any areas where it completely rubbed off and left me with zero coverage. It didn’t get so shiny by the end of the day that I felt gross. “Real life” wear: A-okay.

For use on camera, filming tutorials, that’s another story. I don’t like this so much for that purpose. It has too much shine alone (and the powder doesn’t last long enough) in studio lighting. Also, the way it sits on the skin isn’t great for close up photos.

There are things I like about this product, like the speed and ease of application along with simplifying two products into one. I think it wears well in “real life” if you are not needing it to look great up close and in harsh lighting. But, I’m super picky about foundations not looking like makeup sitting on top of my skin and that is enough for me to say you may want to pass on this.