My Top Five Eyeshadows Palettes

I'm still in a post-honeymoon funk and am trying to get the house in order before I even think about holiday posts and haul sharing. I've filed them away for now but they are coming, that I know for sure. Edging my way back into blogging with a top five post is the way to go about this, I think!

 

I may be a certified blush fiend, but show if I showed you my eyeshadow palette drawer I'll bet it'd also knock your socks off! I never set out to 'collect' eyeshadow palettes but I am someone who wears eyeshadow everyday, so it just sort of happened. I find them easier to store than single shadow pots and I like the value of getting a bunch of shades that generally fit well together rather than a few random pretties that I have to match up myself. I actually found it quite difficult to narrow my list down, but these 5 babies are the ones I'd save if the entire lot was threatened.

MAC 'Bare My Soul' quad (from the Temperature Rising collection 2013) is a serious stunner, and easily one of the best things I've bought from MAC in my time (see a look featuring it here) The two brown shades cop a beating regularly as they are the perfect tone for me, and the addition of 'easy to wear' colour is always a push in the right direction for me. I plan on creating a nice festive green look with this soon...

Dior Fairy Golds, the palette that signals the holiday season for me and brings back all the memories of the Christmas before. Long shifts in retail and hazy mornings resulted in this palette becoming my go-to, hence the nice bit of #panporn that is happening here (check this post for a fresh, pristine pretty) I'll be honest and say that the golden flakey shade doesn't come out often and the sparkly white is but a rare topper for my lids, but my love for the other three shades somehow makes that okay. I think I need another Dior palette in my life, though I probably should have thought about that on my holiday as they are so pricey here!

One of the more recent palettes to slide on into the drawer, Nars And God Created the Woman was a nice little workhorse during my 3 week+ jaunt abroad. I took this and one other palette with me to make do, and I was pretty pleased with how many looks I was able to whip up and blend fast with this set.

I was thinking hard when I chose the Pretty Rebel palette from Too Faced - I adore the Chocolate Bar palette among many others from the brand, but something about this one really makes my heart sing. I don't get as much use as I should from a lot of the colours (Miss Sparkles and Totally Fetch are pretty pristine as you can see!) but my love for the Ringleader and Gangsta shades pulled this bad boy into the top five. I love that they've included a matte blending/highlight colour in Dainty, and the duochrome Girly that reminds me of MAC Club is a really cool addition and makes this palette all the more unique.

Last but in no realm least is the belle of the ball, my beloved Urban Decay Naked palette. Yes it sits alongside it's shiny tinned 'Naked 2 & 3' siblings in the palette drawer, but nothing in my collection gets as much consistent love as this does and I much prefer it to the updated counterparts. I know that posts about it have been done to death in the blogging world but my love is pure and true, and so this is the one that must round out my top five eyeshadow palette round up!

 

I think it's quite obvious that my true love lies with a nice neutral shadow, but trust me when I say that I do often wear colours out of this category! I can't tell you how happy it made me to gush about these beauties - so often with this blog I overthink posts and I need to learn to let myself 'go with the flow' as they say.

 

Have a great weekend all -

Emma

Palette Power

A mix of a few shades of eyeshadow can do wonders, and the ease of palettes is a definite drawcard for me. This is perhaps why my drawers are overflowing with sets of shadows from all different colour families, and why I tend to use shadows in palette form more than free standing shades. I grabbed a few of my favourite palettes to perve on, and thought I would share them with you and see what your favourite palette was!

 

Naturally I had to sneak the Urban Decay Naked palette into a post like this, the wearable shades and top notch quality are much lauded and it remains my #1 palette above the rest. Particular shade favourites are Sin, Darkhorse, Toasted + Virgin to create an amazing neutral eye look.  The Laura Mercier Signature Colour Essentials palette combine 4 of their top shades with a blush, and I love that in theory you could bring this with a base and mascara and be able to create a whole look in one shot.

 

 

Clarins remains one of my favourite makeup brands, as I am constantly impressed with both their packaging and product design in general. The Odyssey palette is my favourite from the two pictured here, though I do have a deep love for the purple within the Enchanted* palette. The Odyssey palette is quite sheer in nature (bar the gold leaf shade) and I find it easy to throw on and not have to think too much about. The Enchanted palette is really only reached for because of the purple shade, which I wear on my lower lash line all the time and absolutely adore.

 

My custom Inglot palette is filled with a mixture of matte and shimmery shades, and though that second to last pan seems quite orange it actually applies as a deep champagne shade on the lids and when swatched. I will admit that I don’t reach for this as often as I would if it were packaged in the old style, when the lid flipped out with a mirror and the pans were round. Though I like the look of the frosted glass top of these, my heart is just loyal to the old school ways!
 
I think I need to watch some Michelle Phan videos to work out how best to use the Lancome Midnight Rose palette*, as I haven’t used it too much and would love to work out how to make the most of all of the unique shades. The same goes for the Illamasqua Complement palette which I bought upon its release, but haven’t been able to create anything other than the look that the Illamasqua make-up artist talked me through. I love the purple shades from this palette and use them as stand-alone shades quite a bit, but getting all 4 to work harmoniously is a new way is next on my to-do list!

Which of these palettes would you snap up first? I’d love to know whether or not you are a fellow palette lover like myself! If you would like to see any of these in a makeup look be sure to let me know in the comments and I will happily oblige!

 

 

 

*Provided for consideration. Honesty, always.