Archived Post

5 Stunning Shades to Try in the Crease (Browns)

Reader Janisse made a request to see top picks for crease colors, and I couldn’t narrow it down to five across all colors, so I thought I’d start off with five browns!

  1. Urban Decay Secret Service — matte, medium-dark brown with a slight gray tint
  2. MAC Omega — light-medium brown with gray
  3. MAC Charcoal Brown is a dark brown with slight red tones
  4. Inglot #363 — dark brown with red tones
  5. Inglot #337 — medium brown with warm undertones

What’s your favorite brown eyeshadow to use in the crease?

59 Comments

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Mariella Avatar

Charcoal Brown and Omega are 2 of my faves but I also really like Stila Puppy (a fairly recent addition – I think I’ve had it for 2 or 3 months). Too Faced Teddy Bear (not sure it’s discontinued – probably, though) is another great one and for a darker brown crease, I love MAC Brun.

Lauren Avatar

I love purpleish brownish eyeshadows like #4 because I really feel like they make green eyes pop. The two shades like this that I find myself reaching for often are MAC’s Haux and Sable. They’re also really easy to blend out, so I don’t have to spend too long on my eyes when I wear these two. And they pair well with a lot things so they’re quite versatile!

tzwiggy Avatar

I use all the 5 shades you list here A LOT! I have to be very careful not to wear very warm browns or yellow toned browns in my crease, but these 5 are amazing. Secret Service and Charcoal Brown are two of my most used eyeshadows (my go-to browns), I basically always use one of them when I do a brown or no-makeup makeup eye look. Some other favorites are MAC Wedge, MAC Kid, MAC Mystery, MAC Concrete, MAC Handwritten and UD Shakedown. This makes me sound like a total MAC fangirl, but what I love most about MAC is their huge amount of neutrals, I have always struggled trying to find the right shades of brown for my skintone from other brands. If anyone wonders about my coloring I’m NW25 in MAC.

Veronica Avatar

*silently grieves for want of a crease*

Even though I have hooded eyes, I generally do fill in my crease area so that when I look down, it still looks nicely blended. I generally try to fill it in with a cooler brown or even a taupe. I like Hustle and Buck from the UD Naked palette, and Matt Gallagher from theBalm’s Meet Matt(e) palette is great for a subtle eye.

Christine Avatar

Hi LC!

Great question! It’s a lovely shade for the crease, specifically, even if it’s not the best eyeshadow all-around, but for a great neutral crease color that’s not too cool or warm, not too dark or too light, it is fantastic. It also works well over any darker, frosted shades.

Lisa Avatar

Hi Christine,

Great pick of browns for the crease. I also love texture and soba. Can I also ask a question for people in Ireland/Europe, could you please give us dupes for Mac’s Soft Brown, Brown Script and Saddle as these are colours we cannot get our hands on. Thanking you in advance.

Lisa.

Indian princess Avatar

Love using saddle, texture or folie by mac.. I am nc 42 for reference.
Also love using bronzer in my crease (guerlain terracotta #5 or guerlain 4 seasons in brunette: darkest shade).

xamyx Avatar

Oooh… This is like asking a mother to choose her favorite child, LOL. I have waaay too many to list, and yet I can’t seem to have enough!

NARS Bali, Coconut Grove, Blondie, Bengali, and my newest “baby”, Yamal, probably get the most use. I also get alot of use from UD Naked Basics, and KvD Ladybird & Saint palettes. MUFE 139 is probably the most versitile one, though; I sometimes use it as a face contour, as well.

As much as I love the ones I have, there’s always room for more, and I plan to pick up NARS New York & Sophia some time next week.

Aly Avatar

You should really leave actual links directly to the page where you have swatches and reviews of these eyeshadows. It’s way too hard to navigate around your website. I don’t want to have to look up every single thing you have in lists like this.

Christine Avatar

Hi Aly,

Each image above is linked to the specific product, and then there is a list numbered one through five where each product’s name is linked to the product’s page – which has all the photos, reviews, and a large review excerpt with a conveniently located “Read more” right below to continue reading my review if that’s what you’re after – or you can check out any reader reviews. You shouldn’t have to look up anything, as every product mentioned is linked not once but actually twice in the post!

alyharris97@yahoo.com Avatar

I tried the links, and they are always weird pages, saying “image coming soon” where a picture should be with absolutely no information on the product it should be, just a name.

Christine Avatar

Hi Aly,

If you look on the right-hand side, there is a carousel of images – some of these products haven’t been reviewed officially on the blog, only swatched, so there is only one photo–the swatch, especially in the case of permanent MAC eyeshadows, which I merely went through for swatching! Every page I clicked through has more than just the name – it has Availability, Finish, Color, Undertone, and any links to a full review/post if there was one. Could you send us a screen shot at submit[at]temptalia.com? Sounds like you’re not seeing the site properly so we’d love to figure out what’s going on! Thanks!

Sharmon Avatar

Christine,
Not sure if I sent my question to the correct address yesterday. I am purchasing the two brown shadows from Inglot that you recommended. I have about 15 Inglot shadows already. In your opinion what is the very best eye shadow base to use under these to get the best color intensity and long wear?
Thanks,
Sharmon

Olivia Avatar

UD Buck is my favorite. It’s just the perfect medium brown for my skin tone. I can’t decide on which Mac medium brown to buy when I hit pan on it (Saddle, soft brown, or soba!?) as there’s no way I’m going to buy a new naked palette after only hitting pan on one color.I also love Mac Haux, thebalm Shameless Shana, thebalm Allegro, thebalm Sultry, thebalm Blink 1982 (led me to buy Haux, a matte version of the same shade), and Too faced Nightcap. Basically medium browns and mauve are where it’s at for me : )

Ashley Avatar

Hi,

First time posting here. Wonderful reviews. I was wondering if anyone would know a good dupe for MAC Omega by Inglot. In my country we do not have mac and I don’t like to buy cosmetics online so I am trying to find an alternative.

Thanks

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