From bright colours to warm neutrals, below we’ve revealed our pick of the best eyeshadow palettes that the beauty world can’t stop raving about. Some are cult classics that have lasted the test of time and continue to top Best Buys lists, others are new entries.
When it comes to eyeshadow, you can never have too many (trust us!) The beauty of buying multiple palettes is that you can mix and match them.
If you prefer a particular purple from one palette or want to combine two colours to create a new hue, then don’t feel restricted. Experimenting with makeup is one of the best ways to learn what looks good on you. There are no rules!
READ NEXT: How to do eyeshadow like a pro
In our list, we’ve tried to find something to suit all eye colours and budgets from the likes of Huda Beauty, Sleek MakeUP, Charlotte Tilbury, Urban Decay and more.
If you need inspiration, we’ve selected our favourite eyeshadow looks for different eye shapes, we recently picked our best pink eyeshadow looks, plus our resident makeup artist, Victoria Howe, recently let us in on her tips on how to apply eyeshadow like a pro.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? Best concealer | Best makeup brush | Best foundation brush | Best eyeshadow palette | Best foundation | Best foundation for dark skin | Best foundation for oily skin | Best foundation for dry skin | Best contour kit | Best lip gloss | Best lip liner | Best mascara| Best primer | Best highlighter | Best brow pomade | Best blusher | Best setting spray| Best makeup sets | Best false eyelashes | Best eyeliner
£56 | Buy now from Cult Beauty
Why we love it: Renowned as the must-have product for creating the perfect day-to-night look, as well as being a popular choice with brides, the New Nude palette from Huda Beauty offers 18 shades of buttery mattes, duo-chromes and glitters in neutral, pink tones. The pigment is incredible and there is minimal fall – when the eyeshadow falls on to your cheek during application.
The downside is that the New Nude palette isn’t cheap, but this really is the perfect palette to create neutral day-time friendly looks for all eye colours, as well as show-stopping creations when you pack on the glitters. In particular, these glitter and shimmery shades reflect the light in ways we haven’t experienced with others in our best eyeshadow palettes list. We often come back to this palette when it comes to applying glitter, even if we’ve used another palette for the rest of our look. For this reason, we believe the New Nude is good value for money.
The big shadow pans, and the lack of fall/high pigment also means this palette will last you a long time. What’s more, the colours can double up as contour and blush powders. This is, hands-down, the best eyeshadow palette we’ve ever used and that’s why it’s our Editor’s Pick.
FURTHER READING: Does Huda Beauty’s Wishful Chin Lift actually get rid of your double chin?
Buy now from Cult Beauty
£8.99 | Buy now from Revolution
SleepMakeUP’s I-Divine palette has been a firm budget buy for months but it has now been usurped by an eyeshadow palette that is just as versatile, with even stronger pigment and contrasting colours.
It’s from the I Heart Revolution range and costs just £8.99, despite being a very worthwhile alternative for the £52 Jeffree Star Blood Sugar palette. Even the names are similar!
This Blood Chocolate palette combines a great mix of cherry reds, plums and browns alongside nudes. You can use it to create a subtle daytime look or up the ante for a night out.
As you’d expect for such an affordable eyeshadow palette, the powder does fall a little more than expensive palettes. This means you need to be a little careful to catch the colours on your cheek, or buy a fan makeup brush.
If the Blood Chocolate colours aren’t quite right, we also recommend the I Heart Revolution Red Velvet palette.
FURTHER READING: Why we can’t get enough of Revolution and its affordable beauty range
Buy now from Revolution
Charlotte Tilbury Why we love it: If you’re in the market for a luxury palette, look no further than celebrity makeup artist extraordinaire Charlotte Tilbury and her curated mini-palettes.
With four colour-coded shades, the Pillow Talk palette – officially known as Luxury Palette of Pops – of is raved about its luxe rosy pink pigments and offers the signature Tilbury glow in its iconic shimmer shades.
It’s a universally flattering palette because its pink hues are suited to almost all eye colours. As you can read in our guide to the best pink eyeshadow looks, pink suits the four main eye colours – as long as you choose the correct kind of pink.
Blue eyes suit peachy eyeshadow looks; green eyes look great with rose gold shades and pastel pinks; people with brown eyes should opt for nude pinks, while hazel eyes suit brown-pinks – all variations that appear in this single palette.
The best thing about the Pillow Talk range – including the Pillow Talk lipsticks, blushes, lip liners and more – is that, not only do the products complement each other perfectly, they’re neutral enough to suit most skin tones and eye colours.
In pictures, the shades in this palette, and the lipsticks, look more pink than they do in real life. We’d say they err more towards a light pinky/brown but don’t let that put you off. That just adds to the versatility.
FURTHER READING: Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow: How to choose a palette and which is best for your eye colour and budget?
Buy now from Charlotte Tilbury
NYX Why we love it: NYX has become a firm high-street beauty hero, and this Ultimate Shadow palette has a cult reputation, known for its fiery tones and budget-friendly price.
This pint-sized palette packs a punch with 16 warm toned shadows in both matte and shimmer finishes, the perfect purchase for those starting out their makeup collection and for people looking for an everyday, versatile palette.
The reason why it’s the best eyeshadow palette for beginners is because none of the colours are so dark, that you can go all that wrong. But there is enough of a contrast for you to start experimenting with different eyeshadow looks.
Buy now from Look Fantastic
£8.99 | Buy now from Sleek Makeup
Sleek Makeup Why we love it: Looking for the best eyeshadow palette without breaking the bank? This 12-shaded beauty is an absolute steal. Known for its super-pigmented shades and available in a variety of colourways, the I-Divine palettes contain pearlescent shadows that suit every eye colour and skin tone, and are guaranteed to illuminate any eye look.
The browns and copper colours suit blue eyes, the blues brighten brown eyes, the greens enhance hazel eyes and the black and silvery blues are great for grey peepers. Check out our What eyeshadow goes with your eye colour? article for more information.
Sleek MakeUP is one of our favourite cheap makeup brands and you can read why – and discover new Sleek products – in our Brand Spotlight. We highly recommend its primer, for example, if you have oily skin.
FURTHER READING: How to apply eyeshadow: Learn how to do eyeshadow like a pro with our expert tutorial
Buy now from Sleek Makeup
£42 | Buy now from Urban Decay
Urban Decay Why we love it: If you’re looking for something to turn up the heat in your makeup looks, what better palette to get than the famed Urban Decay Heat palette.
Filled with fiery amber hues and deep reds, this shade-driven palette looks incredible on all skin tones and for all eye colours. Pro tip: wet your brush when using any of the four foil shades for ultra-blinding pigment.
Buy now from Urban Decay
£46 | Buy now from Cult Beauty
ABH Why we love it: Fans of Ru Paul’s Drag Race will be familiar with the fantastic Anastasia Beverly Hills makeup brand and the most-coveted eyeshadow palette in the range has to be the Modern Renaissance palette.
From its velvet packaging, to its 14 highly pigmented shadows, makeup lovers can rejoice as the warm pink tones will suit all skin tones. The palette also comes with a mirror and dual-ended brush – perfect for packing on the mattes shades and blending them out too.
Buy now from Cult Beauty
£4.55 | Buy now from Beauty Bay
Why we love it: By Beauty Bay sells a myriad of its own-brand eyeshadow palettes and they range from 9 shades, up to 42. Within this range, the Nude Matte 9 Colour Palette is the best everyday eyeshadow palette.
Each of its highly pigmented matte Shades are blendable and long-lasting. We like how this palette can create a soft, subtle, bold and smokey eyeshadow looks too. We especially love the shade Cinnamon, a rose-tinted brown matte. This shade alone on the bare eyelids and paired with your favourite mascara creates an easy, effortless yet impactful look.
Buy now from Beauty Bay
£35 | Buy now from Morphe
Why we love it: What can we say about Morphe? It creates some of the best eyeshadow palettes out there. Born in 2008, Morphe pays attention to which influencers are making an impact and was one of the first beauty brands to leverage this popularity. As a result, Morphe likes to create eyeshadow palettes with social media stars as well as makeup artists.
As a rule, it is a bold brand and this Dare To Create Artistry palette is one our faves. It has 39 shades – it’s where the 39 in its name comes from – and these are a mix of cherries and plums, cobalt blues, turquoises and forest greens.
There is a mix of shimmer and matte formulas and this palette is sure to make a statement.
Buy now from Morphe
Revolution Beauty
Why we love it: We love that Revolution Beauty and the collaborations they work with and we especially like F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Who doesn’t? The F.R.I.E.N.D.S collection was a sell-out as soon as it hit the market. There was so much choice but we opted for these three beautiful palettes that had all the colour ranges that we loved. The Thanks Giving’s Eyeshadow Palette Set gives you a total of 27 shades and what we love about these three is that they are compact size, so easy to carry around depending on which shades you fancy wearing that day.
‘Happy Turkey Day’ is all gold, champagne and pinks. Believe us when we say this palette gives shimmer a run for their money. We love ‘Parade’ , a muted gold shimmer that really makes any eye colour pop.
‘Here come the meat sweats’ are nudes, blues and silvers. This palette has a lovely soft subtle tone to it. Don’t be fooled by the light tones, they’re highly pigmented and the shimmers in this palette are just great! This palette is great to build your base on and we love ‘Gellers’ It has a metal blue tone to this shade that is great for cutting creases.
‘What’s not to like? Custard Good, Meat Good, Jam Gooooooood’ are reds, nudes and golds. What a class Joey line right? This palette is one of our favourite ones, it brings such lovely warm tones with inviting shimmering golds. This palette is great to use for smokey eye looks, ‘Jam’ is such a lovely warm burgundy and matched with ‘Desert’ is a dream.
The price for £6 is a limited time only and we have a sneaky suspicion that this set has a limited supply left.
Buy now from Revolution Beauty
Victoria is founder and editor-in-chief of mamabella, freelance journalist and Mum. She has a passion for empowering people to feel beautiful whatever their age, size, skin type and budget
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Comments