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What would be your dream eyeshadow palette?


What would be your dream eyeshadow palette? Share!

Something in the 12-15 eyeshadow range with 60% warmer shades, 40% cooler shades, combination of frosts, pearls, satins, and one or two mattes (I prefer satin over fully matte myself).

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Katherine T. Avatar

A Colour Pop eye palette with mix of browns, grays/silvers, blues, greens, purples, golds and a mix of matte, shimmer, and metallic finishes. I find the Colour Pop formula wears well on my oily lids, and the palette won’t cost a fortune either

Nancy T Avatar

15-20 of my “wishlist” MUFE Artist Shadows in .05 or .04 pans! Narrowing down exactly which shades might be a process though, because they have so many wonderful shades! It would lean warm because of my coloring, but still have around 30% cool toned shades. A nice mix of metallic, iridescent, satin and a few matte shades like Pink Brown would definitely have to be in it!

Tova J Avatar

First I’d need the basic shades, like six mattes ranging from light “nude” to warm browns and black. For a couple of neutral creamy shimmers: light gold, rose gold, pure bright gold, copper, a medium brown with glitter, and a taupe. Then lastly, six colourful shades! In a satin finish maybe? I like my bright shades in all finishes. A royal blue, lime green, midtone bright purple, a turqouise mermaid shade you know, minty light blue, and rusty orange. Maybe I should just make a custom palette because right now I feel like I need it…

Ammara Avatar

A palette of MUFE artist shadows with the perfect matte transition shade, warm toned shades ranging from creamy light brown to very dark brown, black, matte and shimmer highlighting shades, metallic all-over lid shade, some mauve-y mattes and shimmering pops of colour (i prefer purple, burgundy)

Flaky Avatar

Travel friendly packaging is #1. I really like the way Too Faced gives you more product with “utility shadows” – transition & brow bone/highlight.
So, my dream palette would have 2 big pans for utility shadows. 6 shimmers: champagne, rose gold, olive green, taupe, bronze & mauve. Plus 2 mattes for lining & smoky looks – black & chocolate brown.
dont waste space on a big compartment for crappy sponge applicators. Just make it sturdy w a good mirror that stands up on its own. And if the shadow names weren’t juvenile, trashy or creepy – that would be great too!

Ray Avatar

A Naked Basics that was truly cool toned. I like the Naked 2 Basics fine, but it bugs me that the cool highlighter shade is in the other one, and two shades in the 2 are too warm for my purposes.

In general I wish more companies took cool palettes seriously. It’s so hard to find a wide range on cool mattes.

Ray Avatar

Hmmm, that’s an interesting assessment. Then again, I’m coming around to the fact that I’m probably more of a neutral than a cool. I do find that people label Naked 2 Basics “cool” mostly because of that one gray shade third from the left. I like that one a lot, plus the darker taupe in slot #5. I’d buy a small palette of just those two, plus a highlighter or base shade. I guess that means that once I finish my Basics 2, I’m creating a custom palette at MUFE.

Jax Avatar

Absolutely, I’ve given up getting pre done pallets for precisely this reason. The can look cool to neutral in photos (because it often pulls the blue tones) but in person they are anything but cool.

There are so many warm pallets out there, if someone did a couple of decent cool toned pallets they would make a killing.

Ray Avatar

I absolutely agree! It baffles my mind that, given that cool skin tones are more common than warm ones (or so I’ve observed), most high-end makeup skews warm. Yes, I understand that wild bright warm tones lend themselves very well to the experimentation of true makeup lovers, but it’s frustrating for those of us who just want to freaking wear some makeup!

For my own fun, I designed an imaginary palette on the MUFE site, and of course all of the colors that seem nice in pictures are very warm in reviewer swatches.

April Avatar

As someone with a darker skin tone, I would say a palette that caters to those of darker skin tones. Meaning, colors that show up well and pigmented on those with darker skin tones where we don’t have to put down a lighter base just so that you can see the color. For me, there is a lot of colors I wish would show up well on my skin like some greens (usually just looks really dull or brownish), blues, sometimes purples and burgundy’s.

MissJae1908 Avatar

A highly pigmented palette with about 20 eyeshadows. All the matte shades would be warm and the satin and shimmery shades would be cool and warm. It would mostly be browns, oranges, plums, maroons, rose gold, gold, and bronze with pops of color like sapphire, teal, purple, and green.

Kat Avatar

12-15 eye shadows, neutral to warm shades, 60% matte and 40% shimmer, all the way from almost-white to very very dark, with even jumps between the shades (i.e. not like most of them are light and then a few dark, like a full spectrum of depth).

Heather Avatar

Probably 16-20 satins, pearls and mattes in neutral (but warm-leaning) shades–a mix of taupes, browns, tans, mauves, olives, etc. I would prefer mostly light and midtone shades, a couple of solid transition colors, and just one or two darker shadows (I don’t often have a chance/desire to do a really dramatic eye). I feel like 99% of the palettes I own skew heavily towards shimmer + glitter + metallic or *only* mattes–I’d like a few nice satins!

Larger pans for the transition shades (a la Too Faced palettes) would be awesome.

Basically, I guess I’d like a less-frosty Viseart Paris Nudes (with a few more light colors/transition shades and a dark shadow for contrast), or the Laura Mercier Artist Palette with a few more olives and taupes. 😉

Norma Avatar

Oh I love this question. I am caramel and about an MAC NC 44/45. I would love the following, because palettes tend to either have colors that are too ash or I can only really use 3 colors out of the palette.

1. A transition color I can actually use similar to MAC Saddle and Brownscrip(or MUG Cocoa Bear)
2. A brow highlight I can actually use
3. Lid colors that vary in texture from satin to incredible pigmented

xamyx Avatar

Am I the only one who finds it amusing how many “dream palettes” are actually neutral, LOL? With all of the grumbles & groans every time a neutral palette comes on the scene, I would have expected to see more replies to include color!

I’ve actually found 3 palettes I never want to be without:

Urban Decay Naked Smoky, although I would replace Thirteen with Venus, and add Black Dog.

Kat von D Shade & Light Eyes; I like the idea of having 3 coordinated “quads”, yet I can mix & match, plus supplement any of my other KvD palettes.

NYX Butt Naked Eyes palette; this is the palette I always reach for when I don’t want to think, or am in a rush. I’m not a big fan of the cheek products included, but they do work in a pinch!

Nancy T Avatar

Like you, I love my Naked Smoky Palette! But I don’t like Password or Thirteen, so Venus or WOS would have been nicer, with a better taupey shade in a satin instead of matte!

Rachel R. Avatar

Even if there is grumbling when new neutral palettes come out, that leaves a lot of people who favor neutrals. So it’s not surprising to me. I think a lot of people probably dream of a neutral palette that suits their skin tone and coloring perfectly.

It seems to me most people here are mentioning they want golds, purples, blues, greens, burgundies, etc. with their neutrals.

Tessa Avatar

Overly detailed Tessa alert! But this is the kind of thing that’s REALLY fun for me to think about — color, in minutiae. 😀

It’d be a 16-pan (4×4) with matte, satin, shimmer, but no actual glitter. Nothing too sheer, no fallout. (For reference, I’m very pale, neutral to warm. I have gray/green eyes.)

Row 1:
matte, neutral off white / shimmer, pearly champagne / satin, muted light marigold / shimmer, antique gold

Row 2:
satin, muted warm-leaning mauve / satin, muted light periwinkle / shimmer, bright coral orange / satin, cranberry wine

Row 3:
satin, neutral taupe / satin, chestnut golden brown / shimmer, true forest green / matte but blendable, navy

Row 4:
slightly shimmery, dove gray / matte but blendable, cool, deep brown / shimmer, kiwi green with golden duochrome / shimmer, coral with turquoise duochrome

Tessa Avatar

Haha, writing it all out makes me want to work on putting something like this together! But IS there even such a thing as a bright coral with turquoise duochrome? If so, I need it!

Aside from the two duochrome shadows, I know I could find the shades I need, just not all from the same company, which does complicate things.

Rachel R. Avatar

This is a really fun question! I’d like a megapalette with two tiers of 25 shades each for 50 colors total. Shades would be non-creasing pressed powders, highly pigmented, buttery and blendable. It would have to have hard-case packaging that stayed closed when traveling, and a large mirror. Hot pink and black packaging; pretty, but sleek and space-efficient. I’d like the palette to be magnetic, and come with a sleek, 6-pan palette in which to pop shades for smaller trips or keep in my purse.

* “Neutrals”: A chocolate brown matte, a medium silvery-lavender taupe in shimmer, the same in satin, a shimmery pinky nude (like BareMinerals eye color in Bare Skin), a matte dusty rose, a warm rust (like ABH Morocco), and a warm caramel color (like Too Faced Salted Caramel). Transition shade: A very light matte nude (like UD Laced).

* Highlight shades: I’d like a bone-color in satin finish, a shimmery white, a shimmery lighter gold (like Mary Lou-Manizer), and an opalescent with lavender predominant.

*Duochromes: Brown with peacock blue (like UD Lounge), lavender to aqua, gold to orange and red, black to emerald green, and dove grey to lavender and pink.

*Other Colors: A selection of high quality, non-patchy colors is a variety of metallic, micro-glitter, shimmery, and satin finishes. A shimmery navy, an intense blurple, a matte cobalt (like UD Chaos), shimmery emerald green, a satin tangerine shade, a metallic yellow gold, a metallic bronze, a chartreuse (like UD Thrash), and a yellow-green (like MAC Savant), and a shimmery golden olive. The rest would be purples/violets, hot pinks, pinks/roses, reds, plums, burgundies and berries. A shade like Notoriously Morbid Autumn Flower is a must.

Cat Avatar

I’m totally going with your first paragraph! I love the idea of having so many shades available and being able to pop them out and into a smaller palette! I also love your description of the shadows and the hot pink and black packaging. =)

However… LOL

A chocolate brown matte, a medium warm matte taupe, a medium warm satin taupe, a shimmery medium pink, a satin light mauve, a medium mauve in a semi-matte, a medium mauve in a shimmer finish, a bone-color in satin finish, a semi-matte light pink, a satin opal, and a shimmery highly pigmented opalescent with pink/light purple/medium blue finely milled glitter (itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny sparkles with no fallout!).

*DUPES:
Urban Decay – Buzz, Laced, Sin, Last Call, Sonic, Aura.
ABH – Intense Gaze, Morocco, Sangria, Azure.
KVD – Atrological, Night Crawler, Ludwin, Succubus, Raw Power.
Too Faced – Kitten, Coquet.
NARS – Desdemona, Phoebe, Ursa Major, Subra.
Fyrinnae – Crimson Ghost, Kurisumasu!, Sakura, Peppermint Vodka, Housework Pearls.
Tarte – Pink Outside The Box, Don’t Stand Black.
Sigma – Versailles.
Estee Lauder – EVERY shadow in the Violet Underground palette.

There are other shades from other palettes (that include some purple shades and various mattes) but I’m not going to list them all.

Laura Avatar

My dream palette would be perfectly made for my skin and eye color by a professional that suits me. I would love creamy mattes that don´t look dry and flatter my wrinkled eye lids. Some satin finishes for a bit of pop and maybe a few of shimmers that don´t look way out there. I keep thinking I should buy a couple of the Viseart pallets to mix, but honestly I can´t tell which ones to purchase. Same goes for MAC, MUG and MUFE. NO clue here.

Evelyn Avatar

I would want a huge palette with a myriad of colours about the size of a small table’s surface, which opens itself up in unfold-able layers for my perusal, and each pan would be removable so that I can insert them into a smaller palette for other occasions.
A quarter of the palette would be mattes, mainly base or transition shades (whites, creams, browns, peaches, ochres, reds/pinks) with a few brights (an intensely pigmented matte yellow, anyone?) and one matte black that every palette seems to need, a quarter would be jewel-tone satins, a quarter would be shimmers in metallics/opals and every colour of the rainbow, and one quarter consisting solely of duochromes. The eyeshadows would preferably have no floating glitter in them, and would all be incredibly pigmented, buttery, and blendable.
I use at least 3 palettes per look, so a palette that provides all the colours I would ever require would vastly improve my life.

Sem Avatar

I have thought about this way too much. My ideal palette would be 8-10 shades with one row of cool-toned matte neutrals: matte cream brow highlight, light cool taupe/gray transition shade, lavender/gray transition shade, a medium gray shade, and a matte pitch black, and one row of purples: matte pastel lavender, shimmery lilac purple, shimmer medium blue-leaning purple, a duo chrome magenta/pomegranate/purple shade (idk if this is even possible), and a matte dark plum shade. I struggle so much trying to find good purple shadows and taupe/gray shadows that aren’t part of a mostly brown palette so this would be a dream come true.

Genevieve Avatar

My favourite kind of eye shadow palette would be one that lent more cool toned than warm.
It would have mostly satin finishes with one or two mattes for transition shades and one or two slightly shimmery shades. No glitter or frosts. 20 eye shadows
The colours would include: a mint, olive, mid green, emerald and dark forest green (5)
The blues: pale arctic colour, mid blue, darker and a really great navy. (3)
The greys: pale and darker shades (3)
Purple: light, medium and dark plum (3)
A pale cream, champagne, pearl white and rose gold colour (4)
A gorgeous taupe and a bronze (2)
No black or rich brown mattes for sure.

Vanessa Avatar

My dream palette would be the ultimate true colorful palette with no neutrals (With the exception of a true gold shade like KVD Thrasher). I want it to be a mix of bright, mid-tone, and deep shades with a few pops of neon. The Case would be black with a colorful top like UD Vice 4, have a full mirror, and a double-ended brush. It would have about 25-30 shadows and mainly be glittery/shimmery/satin/duochrome with a few mattes. The kind of colors I would want in a palette are:

*Teals/Blues/Greens-(Example, UD Junkie, Milani Bella Teal, UD Deep End, CP Coconut, UD Haight, KVD Paranoid, UD Peace, UD Evidence, CP Ibiza, CP Rex, Makeup Geek Fantasy, CP Hammered, UD Mildew, CP Chipper, L’oreal Golden Emerald, Sephora Coll. Planet Earth, UD Kush, KVD Electric Warrior, KVD Iggy, UD Loaded, CP Sour, UD Lounge, UD Zodiac, Makeup Geek Pegasus)
*Purples-(Example, UD Rockstar, KVD Danzig, UD Omen, UD Psychedelic Sister, UD Last Call, UD Gravity, CP Bae)
*Pinks/Oranges-(Example, UD Fireball, UD Woodstock, CP Shark Attack, CP Flipper, CP Sunnies, Nyx Golden Peach)
*Yellow/Gold-(Example, KVD Thrasher, SC Banana Split)
*Grays/Blacks-(Example, UD Blackout, UD Oilslick, UD S&M, Nyx Smoke and Mirrors and a black with rainbow glitter!)

I don’t wear a lot of pink, orange, or yellow so that’s why I only listed a few shades each. I know some of these are dupes for each other and I listed more than 25 shadows; it’s to elaborate on the kind of colors I like and to convey the overall tone of the palette (Btw, I don’t own all of these!). There are more colors from SC, MG, Nyx, CP, UD, KVD and other brands that I like too, but I already listed so many! Small Indie brands have some great duochromes, but most are loose shadows. Even though there are specific brands, I’d want the palette to be from one so it’s all the same consistency and size. I’d also want a smaller travel palette that has about 16 shadows (Not full size pans). 10 would be these colors and rest would be neutrals. It would also have 1 double-ended brush and 2 double-ended eyeliners, one matte black/brown, the other shimmer teal/purple.

Kayle Avatar

I’d like to see something with metallic, shimmer, and duochrome finishes, with some nice warmish neutral shades. Cranberries, browns, golds, rose golds, with a few reddish browns kind of like the LC Venus palette has, but metallic or something. Oh man. If only Colourpop’s shadows worked in palette form, because there are few things I love more than that formula.

carol Avatar

I love ‘Taupe’ shades and now that I’m older I love matte shadows as well. I have very green eyes though so I’d want something to make my eyes pop. Have I said how much I love taupe shadows. I think my all time favorite is ‘Edward Bess: Back to Basics’ palette. It was just gorgeous. I would love for him to do a taupe palette. I would love any brand to do a taupe palette that included a couple of cheek shades. I don’t know if there’s a rule to decide which cheek goes with which eyes but I’d like a couple of cheek colors included with it.

Stacy Avatar

It would be like an expansion of the UD Smoked palette from a few years ago. I’m thinking twice the shadows, and mostly satin and matte finishes (my old eyes don’t take heavy shimmer or glitter well). Along with the same basic shades already in it, I’d add a few warm and cool mid-tone neutrals, then more shadows from the various color families already in Smoked: blue, green, purple, brown, and grey. Not a lot of flash or anything too trendy (No red or orange!); just a lot of versatility.

Quinctia Avatar

I still want UD to do monochrome palettes a la Naked palettes. One for purple, blue, green…as many as they want. I would probably buy all of them. Even if they were smaller, Basics-sized palettes. I think it’d be great.

Otherwise, duochrome palette! I love duochromes.

Linda Avatar

A good range of neutral purples on one side, rose gold on the other with a double-sized matte base color that complements both. So hard to find good purple eyeshadows!

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