Review, Swatches | Pat McGrath Mega Mothership Celestial Odyssey Palette (Holiday 2021)

Mother of god, the Mega Mothership palettes are the mother-lode of eyeshadows. It’s a great value for 18 Pat McGrath eyeshadows, and it’s something I’m becoming excited to see every year for holiday season. This year’s palette is currently on sale. It’s no secret I love Celestial Odyssey, since I’ve included it in my 2021 favourites, but read on if you want to see the full review (or just need some more convincing).

The palette is made of 4 mattes shades and 14 shimmer ones. The mattes are all consistent with Pat’s formula and they are intensely pigmented yet super easy to blend – I’ve said it before and it bears repeating, these mattes blend themselves. They are all warm toned versions of pink and brown, so not the most versatile selection of mattes, but they all perform superbly. In the swatches below, the mattes are Saturn Sunset, Nocturne, Sunrose Amber and Electrique.

When it comes to the shimmers, there are a few different textures. The most prominent one is that creamy, dense, metallic formula that delivers intense shine and opaqueness; the shades that have this texture are Rose Venus, Gold Galaxy, Galactic Glow, Lotus Luxe, Lunar Haze, Bronze Eclipse, Nirvana, Corrupt Copper and Palladium. You could use these shades wet but you won’t need too. They pick up well with a dry brush even though they’re not powdery at all. There is no fallout either, despite the fact that some shades have bigger shimmers (like Rose Venus and Nirvana).

Solar Flare feels just as creamy and dense as most of the metallics, but it’s less intensely pigmented. You can still get it to full opacity, but it’s softer and with a much subtler shine than the other shades.

The shades Bronze Nova, Heavenly Body and Citrine Envy are a bit chunkier, even though they smooth out when you swatch or apply them to the lid. They are more shimmery than metallic – you can actually see a lot of shimmer particles on top of the base colour – and yet, I felt there was no fallout with these as well. They are not as intensely opaque as the other metallic shades but you can build them up easily to full colour payoff.

Noir Moon is a bit of different than any of the other shades. It feels like it’s a matte black base with a lot – a lot – of green, pink and blue shimmer, so much so that when it’s packed on it looks like a shimmery dark blue shade. This is the most prone to fallout, or maybe it’s just that it’s more noticeble since the base colour is black, but nothing too dramatic. I would still recommend getting your eye makeup done first because it could be a hassle to clean up, but the fallout is suprinsingly small for a shade like this.

All shades last all day with no creasing or fading when used over a primer. If you have oily lids, the creamier metallics will be more prone to creasing, but you should be fine for the first 8 to 9 hours, even with no primer. There is not a single dud in this palette. My personal favourite shade is probably palladium – it seemed like the most boring of them all, but it’s an intensely shiny light pewter-taupe that ends up being so unique.

A lot of people compared the Celestial Odyssey palette with last year’s holiday release, Celestial Divinity. I feel that previous palette was unjustly not as popular, and judging by this year’s release, Pat McGrath truly listened to the reviews. People wanted more sturdy packaging, this year’s is thicker, larger, and heavier (even though it contains the same amount of shades). People complained there weren’t enough mattes to make a look, she included a crease colour – and even though that’s not that big of a difference, it seem to shut people up. Everyone seems to love Celestial Odyssey. If you ask me, the smaller, slimmer packaging was more practical and comfortable to hold.

Regarding the colour story, there’s not that much to compare, they are different, so it’s a matter of preference, because the quality is solid and equal in both. If you have Celestial Divinity and want to get Celestial Odyssey, do it, because they are not redundant. No shade in one palette is a dupe for the other palette.

It’s currently for sale on Pat McGrath’s website for 59€ and that’s the best deal I’ve seen in a while.