We don’t know what it is about pink eyeshadow looks that make them so stunning, but they seem to suit almost all eye colours and skin tones in way that other eyeshadow looks don’t.
Whether it’s a subtle hint of colour, a mix of dark and light pink shades, or a combination of matte and shimmer, we’ve rounded up our favourite pink eyeshadow looks that can take you from day to night, or are perfect for natural looks right up to full glam.
We’ve also listed the best eyeshadow palettes that we’ve tried and tested when it comes to creating pink eyeshadow looks.
For the looks below, we start off subtle and simple and build it up to more advanced pink eyeshadow looks. Beyond the palettes you use, the most important thing to consider when doing any of these pink eyeshadow looks – or any eyeshadow looks for that matter – is your choice of makeup brushes.
We’ve got a guide to the best makeup brushes, as well as an explainer on what all of the different makeup brushes do.
The key to nailing pink eyeshadow looks is to choose a pink that suits your skin tone and eye colour. You can read more about this in our What eyeshadow goes with your eye colour? guide.
As a guide:
FURTHER READING: How to apply eyeshadow: Learn how to do eyeshadow like a pro with our expert tutorial
The simplest way to create a pink eyeshadow look is to choose either a single matte pink shade, or to opt for an all-over pink shimmer.
This doesn’t require any advanced blending skills or fancy brushes and is super quick, too. Simply brush the single colour all over your eyelid and, using a fluffy eyeshadow brush, soften the edge of the colour. Pink is flattering for most eye colours but it works particularly well with blue eyes.
Using a shimmer shade opens the eye, making it appear brighter, and the particles reflect the light to give the illusion of a more complex eyeshadow look. It’s also more subtle.
Using a matte shade will make you look more sultry and make more an impact, so is perfect when going out.
mamabella tip: If you want to enhance the pigment of the matte shade, wet your eyeshadow brush with setting spray before dipping it into the eyeshadow pan. This not only makes the colour more vibrant, it helps it stay put for longer while hydrating the eyelid.
mamabella recommends: Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk and Walk of No Shame Jewel Pots are perfect for this. However, any pink eyeshadow, of any vibrancy will work.
If you want to elevate your daytime look for a nighttime event, or simply want to make more a statement with your pink eyeshadow, you can increase the vibrancy of the colour you use, and take the colour under your lower lashes, like in the photo above.
mamabella recommends: This pink eyeshadow look was created using the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Instant Eye Palette (£60), using the three Dream shades. However, this palette has a look for all four eye colours, thanks to its mix of peachy shades and warm, brown pinks.
As the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk palette isn’t cheap – in the slightest – Beauty Bay sells a great alternative called the Bright Matte palette. It’s £23 and it comes with 42 colours including a combination of light and bright pinks.
We’ve also scoured YouTube for our favourite pink eyeshadow looks that we’ve successfully tried ourselves and which use a combination of eyeshadow palettes.
We’ve made recommendations of palettes that we think would work particularly well for these, but any combination of your favourite pink eyeshadows will work.
And if you have an eyeshadow palette we haven’t used, let us know in the comments, or on our Facebook and Instagram pages.
YouTuber: Hindash
He lifts the pink eyeshadow and adds definition by combining with shades of purple, while making the eye look bigger with the use of a shimmer shade towards the inner corners of the eye.
mamabella recommends: If the Huda Beauty palettes are too pricey, the 9J Just a Crush (£12) or the 9H Hot for Hue (£12) palettes from Morphe are great alternatives.
YouTuber: Denitslava Makeup
It uses a darker colour on the crease and outer corner to add more definition and depth to the look, drawing your eye from the bright inner corner to the darker edges.
mamabella recommends: The palette used in this tutorial is the Huda Beauty Rose Gold Remastered palette (£56), which we can most certainly vouch for, but it’s not cheap. An extremely worthwhile alternative is the I Heart Revolution Rose Gold palette. It’s almost identical, yet costs just £8.99!
YouTuber: Angela Bright
It sounds simple but the reality can be fiddly. It’s far from impossible to nail, though. Plus to get the most dramatic cut crease, you need to use highly contrasting colours which doesn’t always lend itself to sitting on Zoom calls all day.
As with all makeup looks, your choice of brush really makes a difference here and you can find out more in our makeup brushes 101 guide. You can also buy The Crease Piece, which helps you master this technique. Learn more about The Crease Piece in our guide to the best cheat products.
mamabella recommends: This gorgeous pink eyeshadow look was created using the Jeffree Star Blood Sugar eyeshadow palette (£52). Like with the Huda Beauty alternative, I Heart Revolution makes a cheap Blood Sugar alternative, called Blood Chocolate (£8.99)
YouTuber: An Knook
This includes the smokey eye, the shimmer and the cut crease. There is a lot of blending involved, and layering of colours but the finished result is stunning!
mamabella recommends: This pink eyeshadow look was created using a combination of colours from Anastasia Beverly Hills and Inglot glitter pigments. You can achieve this look with the Huda Beauty Rose Gold Remastered palette (£56), or its cheaper version, the I Heart Revolution Rose Gold palette (£8.99).
