Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow has become synonymous with catwalks and red carpet events.
She has literally dozens of shades and eyeshadow palettes – plus Charlotte Tilbury cream eyeshadow and eyeshadow pencils – to choose from, some with four pans, others with 12. Some in shimmer. Others in matte. This is fantastic in terms of range and choice but can be overwhelming, not to mention expensive.
You can also read more about these and our other favourite eyeshadow in our guide to the best eyeshadow palettes.
mamabella tip: Two little tips for you on how to get Charlotte Tilbury makeup on the cheap – when you sign up to the newsletter on the official Charlotte Tilbury website you’ll get a 10% discount on your first order, and if you add Charlotte Tilbury as your preferred brand on Feelunique, you’ll get 10% off all Charlotte Tilbury purchases for life. This latter tip applies to all brands featured on Feelunique.
We’ve also found a range of cheap Charlotte Tilbury makeup alternatives, for when you want the look without the price tag!
We’re long-term fans of Charlotte Tilbury at mamabella, which means we’ve used (and own) a LOT of these options so are well placed to be able to tell you which are great, which aren’t so good and which will suit your eye colour.
For the past couple of years, she’s been a champion of shimmer shadows but more recently, she’s got more on board with the rising matte eyeshadow trend. You can read more about this in our Eyes to Mesmerise section below.
mamabella | mamabella The Luxury Palette collection is probably the Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow range you’re most familiar with, or have seen most of in adverts. Each Luxury Palette features four shades designed to create an entire look. You can also mix and match them, but you don’t have to.
Her most famous is the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk eyeshadow palette, but she also sells a range designed to suit different eye colours.
The full range of Luxury Palettes is as follows:
A number of Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palettes have also been discontinued. These include Green Lights, Fire Rose and Super Blue.
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Rather than creating looks and products based around themes or fashion, Charlotte Tilbury has a selection of eyeshadow palettes designed to suit different eye colours specifically.
Called Eye Colour Magic, this range features four palettes in Charlotte’s Luxury Palette collection designed to make your eyes sparkle using colour theory.
As we explain in our colour theory guide, it’s a theory used by artists – both traditional and makeup – to enhance features through the use of complementary colours. It’s also crucial in hair colour theory as well, which you can read more about in our What hair colour suits me? guide.
READ NEXT: Charlotte Tilbury sale
A colour’s complementary colour is found directly opposite it on the colour wheel and when these two colours are placed side-by-side, they create contrast which acts to accentuate certain features. Alternatively, when they’re mixed, they help to cancel each other out or at least they help to neutralise the strength of one of the colours.
With this in mind, the four new Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palettes are aimed at enhancing the four main eye colours – blue, brown, green and hazel. You can find out more about this in our What eyeshadow goes with your eye colour? guide.
Of course, only because these palettes have been developed with these eye colours in mind, it doesn’t mean you’re only allowed to use the one for your particular colour.
READ NEXT: What is colour theory?
Finally, the Luxury palette designed with green eyes in mind is called Mesmerising Maroon and shades of maroon, purple, violet and champagne pink. These complementary opposites make olive tones in green eyes look emerald and are matched by the Eye Colour Magic Liner Duo in Mesmerising Maroon.
For more options, including cheaper eyeshadow palettes for green eyes, check out our What eyeshadow goes with green eyes? guide.
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The Rebel isn’t a brand new palette, it’s been on sale for some time but it’s being almost rebranded as part of the new range. It features khaki, olive and cool gold tones targeted at hazel eyes but because green is in the centre of the colour wheel, it’s universally flattering, making it the perfect shade for all eye colours.
You can additionally buy a duo eyeliner, called Eye Colour Magic Green Lights, which has a matte and metallic khaki-green combination. At the time of writing, the eyeliner itself has sold out but you can sign up to be notified when it’s back in stock.
For more options, including cheaper eyeshadow palettes for hazel eyes, check out our What eyeshadow goes with hazel eyes? guide.
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This new palette consists of four bronze-copper tones including a champagne gold, rose-copper, russet brown and gold shimmer pan designed to make blue eyes sparkle. These colours also suit brown eyes.
This palette can be paired with the new Eye Colour Magic Liner Duo in Copper Charge eyeliner. This is our favourite palette of the four and particularly suits our greeny/blue eyes. Below is a shot from our founder Victoria’s Instagram page showing what the colours look like in real-life.
For more options, including cheaper eyeshadow palettes for blue eyes, check out our What eyeshadow goes with blue eyes? guide.
Buy Copper Charge palette now
This is the most affordable way to get a Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow and because it’s a cream eyeshadow, it’s super easy to apply and blend. The downside is that while £22 is much cheaper than the Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palettes, you do get more versatility for the latter for only £18 more.
If you’re not particularly skilled or confident with eyeshadow, or you just don’t want elaborate looks, though, this Charlotte Tilbury cream eyeshadow range is brilliant.
There are six Eyes to Mesmerise shimmer colours to choose from Champagne, Champagne Pink, Chocolate Bronze, Rose Gold, Bronze Gold, Oyster Gold.
More recently, Charlotte Tilbury launched a range of matte Eyes to Mesmerise cream eyeshadows, too. These are perfect for creating smokey eyeshadows looks as well as makeshift eyeliners and under-eye colours. As a result, they err more on the side of nude colours and these include Nude Cashmere, Flawless Beige, Smokey Taupe, Chocolate Veil and Diffused Black.
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A more recent addition to the Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow collection is the Bejewelled Eyes To Hypnotise eyeshadow palette.
For £60 (yes, we know this is very expensive), you get 12 shades, broken down into the four different looks using three shades for each. Of course, you can mix those colours up, but there is something in this palette for every eye colour.
This palette recently featured in our round-up of the best pink eyeshadow looks.
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Charlotte Tilbury already sells cream eyeshadows as part of her Eyes to Mesmerise range but she recently launched new Jewel Pots that are a slightly different take on the original.
Available in a soft pink Pillow Talk shade, or the deeper, coppery-red Walk of No Shame colouring, you can sweep these shimmery shades across your eyelid to make them pop and make your eyes appear larger and brighter.
They can be used on their own, or you can buy them with the Pillow Talk palette.
The individual pots cost £24 each, and the Jewel Pot and Luxury Palette bundles are £61.
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Next up, is the Super Nudes Easy Eye Palette. It comes with three cool, caramel brown shades, and three warm, bronze shades for nude-toned, smokey eye looks. This palette costs £45.
You can learn more about creating smokey eyes in our eyeshadow looks guide.
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As with all of the Luxury Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palette range, there is a colour for each stage of building your eyeshadow looks.
Top left is your Prime shade – as the name suggests, this is used to prime your eyelid with a light base colour.
The top right shade is the Enhance shade. This shade is applied to the crease and along your eye socket to create lift definition. You can also apply some of the Enhance shade along your bottom lash line.
The bottom right colour is the Smoke colour, and is the darkest of the four. This is put in the outer corner of your eye, up to your crease to create a shadow. This makes your eyes look larger and draws people’s vision across the lid. This can also go along the lower lash line.
The final colour is known as the Pop colour and this is applied to the centre of your eyelid and towards the inner corner.
You can read more about How to apply eyeshadow in our expert tutorial.
We thought we’d give a quick Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow review to let you know if these palettes are worth your money.
mamabella Our founder Victoria wears the Mesmerising Maroon palette
The beauty of having all four colours in one palette means you’ve effectively got everything you need to create a stunning eyeshadow looks without the risk of clashing tones or colours.
This is especially the case with the Eye Colour Magic palettes. Each colour has been designed specifically to complement one another and individual eye colour tones.
The downside to having only four colours is that it does limit the palettes’ versatility somewhat, which at £40 means you’re paying a lot for a single look.
Of course, you can mix things up, but there’s not a huge range of options. When you compare this to Anastasia Beverly Hills eyeshadow palettes, for example, you get 14 shades and a brush for £46.
The pigment on the Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palette range is good, but you really have to build the colours to the levels you’ll see in the marketing shots.
The positive to this, though, is that these palettes are perfect for both day and night and you can be heavy-handed without going too far by accident.
The formulation of the shimmery shades is a little powdery, which creates a small amount of fall – when eyeshadow lands on your cheek as you apply it – but the matte formulations don’t have the same problem.
In summary, we think the Charlotte Tilbury palette range is worth the money and we’re big fans, but they’re not the kind of palettes that you can collect in the way you can with others so you’re best choosing one or two that suit you best, and cover a range of events.
During the coronavirus lockdown, Charlotte Tilbury has also launched a Virtual Try On tool that lets you – you guessed it – virtually try on all of the Luxury eyeshadow palettes in his Eye Colour Magic range, as well as a host of other products via your phone. These include all of the Luxury palette colours, the entire Pillow Talk range, bronzers, eyeliners and more.
Try Charlotte's Virtual Try on
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
