I Am... The Alchemist (palette by Kat Von D)...

The Alchemist palette wasn't released in the UK until a few days ago, but the Debenhams site had a 24 hour pre-sale for it a fortnight before that - which is when I got mine - so I've had enough time to play around with it for a decent review, and share my verdict.

I don't want to ramble on, and want to dive into my reviews and photos; this product has spent eight years in development and has been on sale in other parts of the world for over five months now, so let's finally get round to trying it for ourselves...

Emerald, Saphyre, Amethyst, Opal

Before I get into the review, I wanted to say that the Alchemist palette is £25 - £12 cheaper than the Shade & Light contour palette - so I was expecting something a bit smaller and have no complaints over the size myself. However I want to let people know that yes, it is a small palette [the pans are roughly the same size as 50p coins]. 

When I first opened the palette I was disappointed, as the four shades didn't look wildly dissimilar from one another, but then I tried them on skin as highlighters.... Love at first swipe; a little goes a long way as the powder is highly pigmented, so creamy, no chunky shimmer, long-wearing, and the shades come to life. 

When I look straight-on into a mirror I can't see anything, but when I turn my head the powders catch the light and flash green, blue, violet, or pink. A perfect highlighter - it's not just sitting there as a strip of colour on skin ala Adam Ant, instead managing to be both subtle and eyecatching at the same time.

When I apply my morning I'll usually use a setting spray [a NYX one at the minute], and I'll find that the highlighter will last until I'm ready to remove my makeup in the evening - although it does lose a bit of it's intensity after the first four/five hours.

This shade is more green in real-life - the camera flash bleaches the colour

For those "bitch slapped by a rainbow" days (the individual shades are more clearly defined in real-life)...

I was already fully sold on this palette solely as a highlighter one, but I was surprised at how well it works as an eyeshadow and eyeliner 'transformer'; my favourite way to wear them is the over natural skintone-type shades over the lids for a more subtle flash of colour, on my more 'natural' makeup days. The more saturated the base shadow, the more vivid the powders appear - medium grey shadow appears to make the best base for a more 'pow' look [Graphic Moments], as the highlighters lighten the darker shadows too much to be able to tell much difference between medium and dark.

My eyeshadow swatches come from Kat Von D's Chrysalis palette, which can still be bought on the Debenhams site today. The liquid liner is Kat's Tattoo Liner.

- All swatches on this page are [l-r] Emerald, Saphyre, Amethyst, Opal -

Shade: Glasswing

Shade: Graphic Moments

Shade:Tornay

Liner shade: Trooper

I've only played around with the powders over lipstick - the ombre lip look isn't my cup of tea. However I want to show how even the green and blue shades are very wearable over lipsticks, so you won't look like you've been doing dodgy things with a smurf. And also look at how the powders lighten darker shades; so if you have a vampie shade that you don't feel confident in, a quick dab of one of the powders over it sorts the problem instantly.

 The pink-based nude is an Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Color lipstick in the shade Pucker Pink - I couldn't find the shade on the Debenham's site. The dark red shade is Urban Decay's Vice lipstick,in the shade Rock Steady.

Order The Alchemist palette from Debenhams here for £25.