Favourite Eyeshadow Palettes

As the title suggests, this post will focus on some of my favourite eyeshadow palettes that I've been reaching out for these past couple of months :) As you'll be able to tell, I do like to use mostly earthy and neutrals :)


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1. Naked Palette by Urban Decay

I'll start off with a palette I'm sure every girl and their mom on this planet owns and it is the Naked palette by Urban Decay. If you're a fan of neutral, more wearable eye shadows that also double up for a night time, sultry and dramatic eye makeup, this product is a must. Everything good that people say about this product is true. All the eye shadows in this palette are fabulously pigmented, buttery smooth in texture, and all coordinate with each other beautifully. The Naked Palette was actually the first Urban Decay product I had ever purchased (in terms of eye shadow) and after that, I just went a little Urban Decay crazy @_@ 


The packaging of this one looks sleek and chic, has 'Naked' written out in gold foiling over brown felt/velvet. The palette comes with 12 shadows, a mini urban decay primer potion (original) and an eye shadow brush. The eye shadows are 1.3 grams while Urban Decay's regular single shadows are 1.5 grams so they're just a teeny tiny bit smaller than the singles that cost $18.00 a shade (or was it $17?) so compared to that, this palette is a STEAL! Including the primer and the eye shadow brush, you're only paying a little over $3 for each one (I bought it for $48 at Macys)

Click to Enlarge

From cream to tans to gold to greys, Urban Decay has got all of your neutral needs covered. There are 2 matte shades (Naked & Buck) and several pearl and shimmer ones. Without a doubt, Naked and Buck are going to be gone before anything else in the palette. I literally use these two everyday for my crease and as a transition colour. My personal favourites are sidecar (a taupey brown colour with silver micro-glitter), Half baked (a very unique mid-tone gold), Virgin (a beautiful champagne colour that's not overly shimmery - I use this as a highlight) and Gunmetal (even though I dont know how to use that color yet cause my small eyes can be a little tricky to work with when it comes to smokey-ish shades BUT I WILL LEARN!)

I own a ton of neutrals but the texture of these shadows are so creamy, it doesn't compare. Hence the reason why I grab this one often out of the bunch. Overall, its a great palette for anyone and the versatility is great. A+


2. Nude'tude by the Balm

So this palette by the Balm has been compared to the Urban Decay Naked palette a lot, however I wouldn't advise you to go buy this palette expecting a Naked palette dupe because you won't get it. While the concept of neutral eye shadows in a palette form are similar between the two, the shades themselves do not overlap.

The palette has a strong cardboard interior and exterior and a magnet that keeps the palette sealed. It's much slimmer than the Naked palette and more lightweight. Its also comes with a huge mirror. Inside, there is 12 eye shadows and a dual ended eye shadow/eyeliner brush. I haven't used the brush till this day (I've had it since early March of 2012) cause it is pretty tiny. It would work great on the go, though. 

The color payoff of these shadows is great, lots of matte colours in here than there is in the Naked palette. The dark shadows can also double up as an eyeliner so its a great multitasking product. The shades aren't as velvety smooth as Urban Decay shadows, but they blend fairly easily and are highly pigmented. In terms of colour selection, I love that they included a matte black in the palette, I feel like black is necessary in any neutral palette. This palette would also be great for those who love doing smokey eyes as they've got some really nice dark colours. 

Take 1

Take 2

My favourite shades in this palette are 'Stand-offish' - a shimmery pink champagne and 'Sexy' which is a nice burgundy colour. Lately I've been loving the combination of 'Sexy' with a little bit of 'Buck' from the Naked palette in my crease. My least favourite of the 12 shadows has to be 'Snobby' - its a weird yellow and looks kinda stupid against my skin tone. It appears chalky too yuck. 

3. Wet n Wild Color Icon Trio in 'I'm getting Sunburned' 

For only $2.99, you get some GREAT quality eye shadow from the drugstore. I  picked this up after hearing so many people rave about it. I loved it so much I went and picked up like 9 of their other eye shadow quads and palettes and I love them all. As you can probably tell from the picture, I've used it quite a bit which is why you no longer see the dent in the pans labelled as 'Brow bone', 'Crease' and 'Lid'. 

Sorry I know it looks so messy ): I've had this for like ever

Despite them engraving what goes where into the eye shadows, you can use pretty much any colour anywhere you want. I've used the brow bone colour as a lid colour many times and it looks just as beautiful. The trio comes with two brushes: 1 is just a regular sponge tip applicator and the other one is an angled brush for the crease I believe so it'll come in handy for those who don't own make up brushes. I lost mine somewhere which is why they're missing from the picture.

Texture wise, the shadows are very soft and velvety almost. The brow bone colour is a blue-toned frosty baby pink. The crease colour looks like a dark brown but it applies almost like a dark black brown with some bronze shimmer, which is why I'd suggest you tap your brush into it lightly first and then reapply if you feel like you need more. The first time I put it on, I dipped my brush into it like 3-4 times and it was way too dark cause I didn't think it would be this crazy pigmented D: And because the eye shadows are so soft, just by tapping in your brush, you see that it starts to kinda crumble a little bit. 

And then my favourite is the shimmery golden bronze colour at the very bottom. It looks absolutely stunning on the lid. 

Swatched with a light hand

Swatched dry - over no primer

I've done a look with this along with the brown crease colour a couple of times when I'd go out to the mall and the ladies at the Macys make up counter and random stores would always ask me what MAC eye shadow I was wearing cause the quality of this eye shadow trio is comparable to, if not better than, some popular high end brands. I told them it was a drugstore product that retails for less than $5 bucks at Walgreens and they were like, WHAAA @_@ so yeah, RUN TO THE STORE! get it! GET ALL OF THEM! 

4. 88 Tropical Shimmer Eyeshadow Palette by BH Cosmetics

Honestly, these palettes should be a part of everyone's make-up collection. This palette, including many of their other ones, has a range of colours with multiple finishes (Frost, matte, satin, shimmery) that can be combined to create infinite amount of looks. This palette isn't as loud as the other ones. There is a variety of brown neutrals, burnt oranges, jewel toned greens and metallic greys. The colours are vibrant, but cause they are shimmery, it tends to have some fallout. I personally don't mind that, and I don't understand why its such a big deal for others @_@ 

My favourite portion of the palette - photo taken in natural light

TIP: When dealing with shimmery eye shadows that have a tendency to scatter glitter all over your face, I recommend you either do your eye make up FIRST so your foundation doesn't get ruined OR use a tape. So basically after your done doing your eyes, just take a piece of tape and tape it to the back of your hand once so it doesn't tug around the eye area (causing premature wrinkles and all that good stuffs) and then place it over the area that's got the glitter and the glitter will just automatically stick to it and TADAAAAAA :D

Beneath are these eye shadows swatched in order

The shadows are already pigmented but if you want the colour to stand out even more and to last longer, be sure to use a primer underneath and/or a cream eyeshadow base (NYX jumbo pencils, etc) so the shadows have something to stick to. So yeah, the colours are all very pretty, are pigmented and for the price you pay, you get a whole bunch of them :) If you are looking into buying BH cosmetics palettes, I'd suggest you buy it on sale. They go on 40% off or 25% off sale quite often :)

5. Revlon CustomEyes & liner in Naturally Glamorous


Okay so for the past year and a half, I've been eyeing this quad/palette/whatever you wanna call it but never thought of buying it cause I wasn't sure what it'd be like. But then randomly one day as I was strolling through the aisles at Rite Aid, I saw that Revlon was Buy 1, get 1 50% off plus earn $4 Rewards when you spend $10. So yeah, I bought it on an impulse and boy am I glad I did! :) 

how pretty is that <3

Revlon is well-known for its best-selling foundation but I never thought their eye shadows would be just as good.This is my first palette from Revlon and I am so super impressed by it. The texture, colour pay-off, colour selection, is fabulous. And I love how there's a shade for the outer corner, lid, inner corner, brow bone and liner instead of the usual lid, crease and highlight. The palette also comes with a two sided sponge tip applicator which is decent for touch ups on the go.

Directions on what colour goes where: but you can change it up to your taste

The packaging is sleek and compact so its great for travelling. The shadows have a really cute sweater like design. They blend well, stay on long and look great. I just wish they included a mirror somewhere ._. 

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COOL BEANS

okay thats it

Feel free to share your favourite palettes, I'd love to try out other products :)