I’m a Beauty Editor, and These Are the Best Eye Shadow Palettes I’ve Ever Used

April 25, 2020 at 05:30PM

If you were to open up my makeup bag(s) and pull out every single eye shadow palette that I own, you’d probably be able to fill a banquet table. In all honesty, the level of my obsession is quite disgusting. The minute a new eye palette comes out, I feel like I’ve got to have it. And the worst part is, that I very rarely actually wear eye shadow. Most days I leave my lids bare and occasionally I’ll dab on my go-to MAC Paint Point in Groundwork, but it is very, very rare that I actually find the time to dust off a palette and make some kind of eye masterpiece.

And, on that note, it’s probably also worth mentioning that I’m no Picasso when it comes to using powder shadows. In fact, I find the whole ordeal a bit (read: a lot) overwhelming. When I’m presented with 12 pans of pigment, I don’t really know where to start, meaning that, more often than not, I only end up using two or three shades in each palette anyway.

However, none of this is to say that I don’t love every single palette in my collection as though I birthed each one myself. I’m ashamed to admit that, once every month, I sit down and clean each one so that they look good as new, even though they haven’t been touched since the last time. It’s a problem, and I need help. Recently though, as I have become increasingly more aware of just how severely my beauty obsession is negatively impacting the planet, I made a resolution to re-home all of the products that I just don’t use. Naturally, my palettes took the brunt of the cull.   

The good news that came from this is that I really took the opportunity to sit back and reflect on what makes a palette really great. As I divvied up the ones that were staying and the ones that were going, I took note of a few common denominators amongst the keepers. For me, it’s not enough for a palette to simply offer a pretty shade selection, it also needs to house buttery, easy-to-blend pigments that don’t require an expert hand. Plus, above all else, the shades have to be truly wearable. And I mean every single one. In fact, throughout my clear out, if I picked out a compact with even one untouched shade, it went in the ‘donate’ pile.

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So, without further ado, I’ve compiled a list of the very best eye shadow palettes of all time, so that you don’t have to endure any messy palette breakups like I did. Keep scrolling for the 16 palettes I just can’t do without.  

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Author Shannon Lawlor | Whowhatwear
Selected by CWC