I've never been type-A—believe me, I wish I were. My bedtime changes nightly, my camera roll is a graveyard of half-finished creative projects, and my unread texts are in the triple digits. But the one thing I am going to see through from start to finish? My soft glam smokey eye. Ask any of my beauty girls at Marie Claire—I'm loyal to a nude crease and a diffused brown wing—every single day. So when Patrick Ta dropped a new six-pan palette filled with essential matte neutrals, I didn't hesitate to test it out.
I'm a big fan of his larger Major Dimension III Palette—it's my weekday ride-or-die—but between all the traveling I do and packing three "just in case" lip liners, I've been craving something sleeker. This new Major Dimension Essential Artistry Edit Palette is the perfect middle ground: a capsule of buttery mattes that feel like they were designed with my makeup bag and busy schedule in mind.
The Formula
Matte shadows can be tricky. They either blend beautifully or look like dust. Ta knows this better than anyone: "I've been testing matte eyeshadows for over a decade," he tells Marie Claire, "so when curating these three edits I knew exactly how I wanted the powders to blend onto the eye."
That tracks. These mattes don't have the dry, talc-like feel I expect from most on the market. They're soft and lush—Ta notes that it's thanks to MVP ingredients like hyaluronic acid and squalane—and they melt into the lid. The finish is matte but has life to it, unlike a typical flat and dull formulation.
The Shades
Ta designed three versions—Light, Medium, and Deep—each meant to flatter across skin tones. The medium edit (my pick) hits that sweet spot between bronzed and defined. Every shade serves a purpose: one to contour the crease, one to buff out the edges, one to smoke out the lash line, and three in-betweens to pull it all together. It's a palette that doesn't require thought, which is exactly why it works for me before work and before I have even had a chance to get coffee into my system.
The Application
The secret behind a perfect smokey eye, in my book, is something I dub "eye contouring." Think of it like sculpting your face, but instead of your cheeks, you're defining your lids. Most quad palettes skip a key step: they jump too quickly from light to dark without a proper transition shade, which makes blending a nightmare. The Patrick Ta palette, though, gets it right. The six shades are designed with that gradient in mind, giving you just enough variety to create a seamless depth.
The Takeaway
The formula of this palette is the true standout. It's finely milled, so it glides on like silk and doesn't crease, even after a long day or night. Whether I'm going for something soft and diffused or a full-on, smoked-out moment, every shadow layer smoothly wanders without patchiness, making it almost impossible to mess up.
After two weeks of using it—from workdays to date nights to half-asleep touch-ups in airplane bathrooms—I can confirm this is the rare palette that actually earns space in my bag. It's minimalism done right, and, true to the entire Patrick Ta line, the stunning packaging doesn't hurt either.
Other Eyeshadows I Love for a Smokey Eye
The O.G. Major Dimension palette is perfect to keep at home or for a special night out, as it features twice the shades in both warm and cool tones, along with two creamy formulas.
Another celebrity makeup artist's favorite of mine, Makeup by Mario's Master Mattes Eyeshadow Palette is a compact 12-shade collection that blends beautifully.
Since clean grunge has been a major trend this fall, this palette features those purple-y, moody shades that perfectly nail it. Instead of over-smudging, to stay in line with the look, make the wing a little cleaner.
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