These are five brown eyeshadows that I really love — as requested by reader Sarah! There are a ton of amazing brown eyeshadows (probably one of the easiest shades to do well, from my experience), and these are just five of many.
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
What about urban decay buck
My favorite browns do vary from time to time (usually when I stumble upon a new one I love) but the browns that reign supreme (as in repurchased as soon as i hit pan) would have to be Mac Espresso, Cork, & Brun- they are all so versatile, and my newest fave is Nars Mekong
My favourite brown right now is MAC’s Centre Stage (a “mega-metal” from the Peacocky collection). Other faves are Brun and Mulch (also both from MAC) and Revlon’s matte “Rich Sable” – what a great inexpensive shadow. A 5th would be MAC’s Cocomotion pigment but I’m not sure it really counts as “brown” – it’s more of a bronzey/coppery shade.
UD Buck
MAC Handwritten
I love urban decay smog 😉
Nars Galapagos
bobbi brown burnt sugar & java.
Mine are MAC burn and cork, NARS coconut grove, bali, and mekong
L’Oreal HIP eyeshadow duo in Darling, the brown half of it is just magnificent.
MAC Texture!
Oh, gosh. There are so many great browns. I really like MAC Wedge, Soft Brown, Centre Stage and Mulled Cider.
My fav’s are mac’s brown down and centre stage
Urban Decay YDK and MAC handwritten
the last one there looks pretty!
MAC central stage and Make up Store´s Choco d´or(beautiful brown packed with gold), i bought MAC´s soft brown because everbody where talking about how amazing blanding color it was but when i tryied it on my skin it looked orange, and i mean really really orange and doesnt suit my skin at all :s
I’m not normally into browns, but Illamasqua’s Ore is lovely. <3
UD Smog/Darkhorse, MAC Mulch/Brun/Patina (though it’s diff on everyone – it shows up pale brown+gold on me).
I love Laura Mercier’s Matte Shadow in Toffee!!!!
My favorite Brown in the brown in the Comfort Zone palette by Wet n Wild. The right one that looks like Mac clubbing.
My 2 favorite are both from MAC – Mulch & Texture. I use Texture almost ALL the time now, and I use Mulch for my everyday smokey eyes 😀
MAC Woodwinked (which comes off like a browny-gold color on me)/Handwritten/Satin Taupe
Stila Eden and Fyrinnae Kurismasu (both pink-beige, which looks better on me:)
I have so many! My tops are NARS Galapagos, NARS Coconut Grove & MAC Satin Taupe 😀
NYX: Golden Amber and Deep Brown
Mac: Espresso, Cork, Texture and Brown Script
Ben Nye’s Cork, Black Plum and Mocha.
Napoleon Perdis Eye Patrol in ‘Private Boudoir’ and Mac Cork.
I love Lola Lola from Nars! I also love Golightly from Stila! Either paired with Kitten from Stila are GORGEOUS!
Urban Decay sidecar and MAC satin taupe
NARS Mekong (dark expresso brown with goldflecks)
NARS Galapagos (golden brown with gold flecks)
As you can see, I’m really partial to NARS browns. 😛
it really is annoying that Soft Brown eyeshadow is not available in England, alot of tutorials ive seen use this popular colour, why does Mac do this to me. Its a bit far to travel to America for an eyeshadow ha ha.
MAC “Saddle” is my HG brown